46:11 Go up to Gilead and get medicinal ointment, 1
you dear poor people of Egypt. 2
But it will prove useless no matter how much medicine you use; 3
there will be no healing for you.
51:50 You who have escaped the sword, 4
go, do not delay. 5
Remember the Lord in a faraway land.
Think about Jerusalem. 6
51:53 Even if Babylon climbs high into the sky 7
and fortifies her elevated stronghold, 8
I will send destroyers against her,” 9
says the Lord. 10
1 tn Heb “balm.” See 8:22 and the notes on this phrase there.
2 sn Heb “Virgin Daughter of Egypt.” See the study note on Jer 14:17 for the significance of the use of this figure. The use of the figure here perhaps refers to the fact that Egypt’s geographical isolation allowed her safety and protection that a virgin living at home would enjoy under her father’s protection (so F. B. Huey, Jeremiah, Lamentations [NAC], 379). By her involvement in the politics of Palestine she had forfeited that safety and protection and was now suffering for it.
3 tn Heb “In vain you multiply [= make use of many] medicines.”
4 sn God’s exiled people are told to leave doomed Babylon (see v. 45).
5 tn Heb “don’t stand.”
6 tn Heb “let Jerusalem go up upon your heart.” The “heart” is often viewed as the seat of one’s mental faculties and thought life.
7 tn Or “ascends [into] heaven.” Note the use of the phrase in Deut 30:12; 2 Kgs 2:11; and Amos 9:2.
8 tn Heb “and even if she fortifies her strong elevated place.”
9 tn Heb “from me destroyers will go against her.”
10 tn Heb “Oracle of the