Jeremiah 18:16-17

18:16 So their land will become an object of horror.

People will forever hiss out their scorn over it.

All who pass that way will be filled with horror

and will shake their heads in derision.

18:17 I will scatter them before their enemies

like dust blowing in front of a burning east wind.

I will turn my back on them and not look favorably on them

when disaster strikes them.”


tn There may be a deliberate double meaning involved here. The word translated here “an object of horror” refers both to destruction (cf. 2:15; 4:17) and the horror or dismay that accompanies it (cf. 5:30; 8:21). The fact that there is no conjunction or preposition in front of the noun “hissing” that follows this suggests that the reaction is in view here, not the cause.

tn Heb “an object of lasting hissing. All who pass that way will be appalled and shake their head.”

tc Heb “I will show them [my] back and not [my] face.” This reading follows the suggestion of some of the versions and some of the Masoretes. The MT reads “I will look on their back and not on their faces.”