Jeremiah 42:14

42:14 You must not say, ‘No, we will not stay. Instead we will go and live in the land of Egypt where we will not face war, ¹  or hear the enemy’s trumpet calls, ²  or starve for lack of food.’ ³ 

Jeremiah 49:2

49:2 Because you did that,

I, the Lord, affirm that ⁴  a time is coming

when I will make Rabbah, the capital city of Ammon,

hear the sound of the battle cry.

It will become a mound covered with ruins. ⁵ 

Its villages will be burned to the ground. ⁶ 

Then Israel will take back its land

from those who took their land from them.

I, the Lord, affirm it! ⁷ 

¹ tn Heb “see [or experience] war.”

² tn Heb “hear the sound of the trumpet.” The trumpet was used to gather the troops and to sound the alarm for battle.

³ tn Jer 42:13-14 are a long complex condition (protasis) whose consequence (apodosis) does not begin until v. 15. The Hebrew text of vv. 13-14 reads: 42:13 “But if you say [or continue to say (the form is a participle)], ‘We will not stay in this land’ with the result that you do not obey [or “more literally, do not hearken to the voice of] the Lord your God, 42:14 saying, ‘No, but to the land of Egypt we will go where we…and there we will live,’ 42:15 now therefore hear the word of the Lord…” The sentence has been broken up and restructured to better conform with contemporary English style but an attempt has been made to maintain the contingencies and the qualifiers that are in the longer Hebrew original.

⁴ tn Heb “oracle of the Lord.”

⁵ tn Heb “a desolate tel.” For the explanation of what a “tel” is see the study note on 30:18.

⁶ tn Heb “Its daughters will be burned with fire.” For the use of the word “daughters” to refer to the villages surrounding a larger city see BDB 123 s.v. I בַּת 4 and compare the usage in Judg 1:27.

⁷ tn Heb “says the Lord.” The first person is used to maintain the first person address throughout.