Jeremiah 39:13

39:13 So Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard, Nebushazban, who was a chief officer, Nergal-Sharezer, who was a high official, ¹  and all the other officers of the king of Babylon

Jeremiah 39:2

39:2 It lasted until the ninth day of the fourth month of Zedekiah’s eleventh year. ²  On that day they broke through the city walls.

Jeremiah 17:1

17:1 ³ The sin of Judah is engraved with an iron chisel

on their stone-hard ⁴  hearts.

It is inscribed with a diamond ⁵  point

on the horns of their altars. ⁶ 

¹ tn See the translator’s notes on 39:3, 9 for the names and titles here.

² sn According to modern reckoning that would have been July 18, 586 b.c. The siege thus lasted almost a full eighteen months.

³ tn The chapter division which was not a part of the original text but was added in the middle ages obscures the fact that there is no new speech here. The division may have resulted from the faulty identification of the “them” in the preceding verse. See the translator’s note on that verse.

⁴ tn The adjective “stone-hard” is not in the Hebrew text. It is implicit in the metaphor and is supplied in the translation for clarity. Cf. Ezek 11:19; 36:26; and Job 19:24 for the figure.

⁵ tn Heb “adamant.” The word “diamond” is an accommodation to modern times. There is no evidence that diamond was known in ancient times. This hard stone (perhaps emery) became metaphorical for hardness; see Ezek 3:9 and Zech 7:12. For discussion see W. E. Staples, “Adamant,” IDB 1:45.

⁶ tn This verse has been restructured for the sake of the English poetry: Heb “The sin of Judah is engraved [or written] with an iron pen, inscribed with a point of a diamond [or adamant] upon the tablet of their hearts and on the horns of their altars.”