Jeremiah 50:13-14

50:13 After I vent my wrath on it Babylon will be uninhabited. 1 

It will be totally desolate.

All who pass by will be filled with horror and will hiss out their scorn

because of all the disasters that have happened to it. 2 

50:14 “Take up your battle positions all around Babylon,

all you soldiers who are armed with bows. 3 

Shoot 4  all your arrows at her! Do not hold any back! 5 

For she has sinned against the Lord.

1 tn Heb “From [or Because of] the wrath of the Lord it will be uninhabited.” The causal connection is spelled out more clearly and actively and the first person has been used because the speaker is the Lord. The referent “it” has been spelled out clearly from the later occurrence in the verse, “all who pass by Babylon.”

2 sn Compare Jer 49:17 and the study note there and see also the study notes on 18:16 and 19:8.

3 tn Heb “all you who draw the bow.”

4 tc The verb here should probably be read as a Qal imperative יְרוּ (yÿru) from יָרָה (yarah) with a few Hebrew mss rather than a Qal imperative יְדוּ (yidu) from יָדָה (yadah) with the majority of Hebrew mss. The verb יָדָה (yadah) does not otherwise occur in the Qal and only elsewhere in the Piel with a meaning “cast” (cf. KBL 363 s.v. I יָדָה). The verb יָרָה (yarah) is common in both the Qal and the Hiphil with the meaning of shooting arrows (cf. BDB 435 s.v. יָרָה Qal.3 and Hiph.2). The confusion between ד (dalet) and ר (resh) is very common.

5 tn Heb “Shoot at her! Don’t save any arrows!”