Jeremiah 5:29

5:29 I will certainly punish them for doing such things!” says the Lord.

“I will certainly bring retribution on such a nation as this!

Jeremiah 27:12-13

27:12 I told King Zedekiah of Judah the same thing. I said, “Submit to the yoke of servitude to the king of Babylon. Be subject to him and his people. Then you will continue to live. 27:13 There is no reason why you and your people should die in war or from starvation or disease! That’s what the Lord says will happen to any nation that will not be subject to the king of Babylon.

Deuteronomy 28:47-48

The Curse of Military Siege

28:47 “Because you have not served the Lord your God joyfully and wholeheartedly with the abundance of everything you have, 28:48 instead in hunger, thirst, nakedness, and poverty you will serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you. They will place an iron yoke on your neck until they have destroyed you.

Nehemiah 9:28

9:28 “Then, when they were at rest again, they went back to doing evil before you. Then you abandoned them to 10  their enemies, and they gained dominion over them. When they again cried out to you, in your compassion you heard from heaven and rescued them time and again.

Isaiah 14:3

14:3 When the Lord gives you relief from your suffering and anxiety, 11  and from the hard labor which you were made to perform,

tn Heb “Should I not punish…? Should I not bring retribution…?” The rhetorical questions function as emphatic declarations.

tn Heb “I spoke to Zedekiah…according to all these words, saying.”

sn The verbs in this verse are all plural. They are addressed to Zedekiah and his royal advisers (compare 22:2).

tn Heb “put their necks in the yoke of.” See the study note on v. 2 for the figure.

tn Heb “with/by the sword.”

tn Heb “Why should you and your people die…?” The rhetorical question expects the answer made explicit in the translation, “There is no reason!”

tn Heb “…disease according to what the Lord spoke concerning the nation that…”

tn Heb “lack of everything.”

tn Heb “he” (also later in this verse). The pronoun is a collective singular referring to the enemies (cf. CEV, NLT). Many translations understand the singular pronoun to refer to the Lord (cf. NAB, NASB, NIV, NCV, NRSV, TEV).

10 tn Heb “in the hand of” (so KJV, ASV); NAB “to the power of.”

11 tn The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.