Jeremiah 6:6

6:6 All of this is because ¹  the Lord who rules over all ²  has said:

‘Cut down the trees around Jerusalem

and build up a siege ramp against its walls. ³ 

This is the city which is to be punished. ⁴ 

Nothing but oppression happens in it. ⁵ 

Jeremiah 32:24

32:24 Even now siege ramps have been built up around the city ⁶  in order to capture it. War, ⁷  starvation, and disease are sure to make the city fall into the hands of the Babylonians ⁸  who are attacking it. ⁹  Lord, ¹⁰  you threatened that this would happen. Now you can see that it is already taking place. ¹¹ 

¹ tn Heb “For.” The translation attempts to make the connection clearer.

² tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.”

³ tn Heb “Cut down its trees and build up a siege ramp against Jerusalem.” The referent has been moved forward from the second line for clarity.

⁴ tn Or “must be punished.” The meaning of this line is uncertain. The LXX reads, “Woe, city of falsehood!” The MT presents two anomalies: a masculine singular verb with a feminine singular subject in a verbal stem (Hophal) that elsewhere does not have the meaning “is to be punished.” Hence many follow the Greek which presupposes הוֹי עִיר הַשֶּׁקֶר (hoy ’ir hasheqer) instead of הִיא הָעִיר הָפְקַד (hi’ ha’ir hofqad). The Greek is the easier reading in light of the parallelism, and it would be hard to explain how the MT arose from it. KBL suggests reading a noun meaning “licentiousness” which occurs elsewhere only in Mishnaic Hebrew, hence “this is the city, the licentious one” (attributive apposition; cf. KBL 775 s.v. פֶּקֶר). Perhaps the Hophal perfect (הָפְקַד, hofÿqad) should be revocalized as a Niphal infinitive absolute (הִפָּקֹד, hippaqod); this would solve both anomalies in the MT since the Niphal is used in this nuance and the infinitive absolute can function in place of a finite verb (cf. GKC 346 §113.ee and ff). This, however, is mere speculation and is supported by no Hebrew ms.

⁵ tn Heb “All of it oppression in its midst.”

⁶ tn Heb “Siege ramps have come up to the city to capture it.”

⁷ tn Heb “sword.”

⁸ tn Heb “The Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for further explanation.

⁹ tn Heb “And the city has been given into the hands of the Chaldeans who are fighting against it because of the sword, starvation, and disease.” The verb “has been given” is one of those perfects that view the action as good as done (the perfect of certainty or prophetic perfect).

¹⁰ tn The word “Lord” is not in the text but is supplied in the translation as a reminder that it is he who is being addressed.

¹¹ tn Heb “And what you said has happened and behold you see it.”