Jeremiah 9:21

9:21 ‘Death has climbed in ¹  through our windows.

It has entered into our fortified houses.

It has taken away our children who play in the streets.

It has taken away our young men who gather in the city squares.’

Jeremiah 18:21

18:21 So let their children die of starvation.

Let them be cut down by the sword. ² 

Let their wives lose their husbands and children.

Let the older men die of disease ³ 

and the younger men die by the sword in battle.

Jeremiah 48:15

48:15 Moab will be destroyed. Its towns will be invaded.

Its finest young men will be slaughtered. ⁴ 

I, the King, the Lord who rules over all, ⁵  affirm it! ⁶ 

Jeremiah 49:26

49:26 For her young men will fall in her city squares.

All her soldiers will be destroyed at that time,”

says the Lord who rules over all. ⁷ 

Jeremiah 51:3-4

51:3 Do not give her archers time to string their bows

or to put on their coats of armor. ⁸ 

Do not spare any of her young men.

Completely destroy ⁹  her whole army.

51:4 Let them fall ¹⁰  slain in the land of Babylonia, ¹¹ 

mortally wounded in the streets of her cities. ¹² 

Isaiah 13:15-18

13:15 Everyone who is caught will be stabbed;

everyone who is seized ¹³  will die ¹⁴  by the sword.

13:16 Their children will be smashed to pieces before their very eyes;

their houses will be looted

and their wives raped.

13:17 Look, I am stirring up the Medes to attack them; ¹⁵ 

they are not concerned about silver,

nor are they interested in gold. ¹⁶ 

13:18 Their arrows will cut young men to ribbons; ¹⁷ 

they have no compassion on a person’s offspring, ¹⁸ 

they will not ¹⁹  look with pity on children.

¹ sn Here Death is personified (treated as though it were a person). Some have seen as possible background to this lament an allusion to Mesopotamian mythology where the demon Lamastu climbs in through the windows of houses and over their walls to kill children and babies.

² tn Heb “be poured out to the hand [= power] of the sword.” For this same expression see Ezek 35:5; Ps 63:10 (63:11 HT). Comparison with those two passages show that it involved death by violent means, perhaps death in battle.

³ tn Heb “be slain by death.” The commentaries are generally agreed that this refers to death by disease or plague as in 15:2. Hence, the reference is to the deadly trio of sword, starvation, and disease which were often connected with war. See the notes on 15:2.

⁴ tn Heb “will go down to the slaughter.”

⁵ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.” For an explanation of the translation and meaning of this title see the study note on 2:19.

⁶ tn Heb “Oracle of the King whose name is Yahweh of armies.” The first person form has again been adopted because the Lord is the speaker throughout this oracle/ these oracles (cf. v. 1).

⁷ tn Heb “Oracle of Yahweh of armies.” For this title for God see the study note on 2:19.

⁸ tc The text and consequent meaning of these first two lines are uncertain. Literally the Masoretic reads “against let him string let him string the one who strings his bow and against let him raise himself up in his coat of armor.” This makes absolutely no sense and the ancient versions and Hebrew mss did not agree in reading this same text. Many Hebrew mss and all the versions as well as the Masoretes themselves (the text is left unpointed with a marginal note not to read it) delete the second “let him string.” The LXX (or Greek version) left out the words “against” at the beginning of the first two lines. It reads “Let the archer bend his bow and let the one who has armor put it on.” The Lucianic recension of the LXX and some Targum mss supplied the missing object “it” and thus read “Let the archer ready his bow against it and let him array himself against it in his coat of mail.” This makes good sense but does not answer the question of why the Hebrew text left off the suffix on the preposition twice in a row. Many Hebrew mss and the Syriac, Targum, and Vulgate (the Latin version) change the pointing of “against” (אֶל [’el]) to “not” (אַל [’al]) and thus read “Let the archer not string the bow and let him not array himself in his armor.” However, many commentators feel that this does not fit the context because it would apparently be addressed to the Babylonians, not the enemy, which would create a sudden shift in addressee with the second half of the verse. However, if it is understood in the sense taken here it refers to the enemy not allowing the Babylonian archers to get ready for the battle, i.e., a surprise attack. This sense is suggested as an alternative in J. Bright, Jeremiah (AB), 346, n. u-u, and J. A. Thompson, Jeremiah (NICOT), 747, n. 5, and is the interpretation adopted in TEV and probably also in NIrV.

⁹ sn For the concept underlying this word see the study note on “utterly destroy” in Jer 25:9 and compare the usage in 50:21, 26.

¹⁰ tn The majority of English versions and the commentaries understand the vav (ו) consecutive + perfect as a future here “They will fall.” However, it makes better sense in the light of the commands in the previous verse to understand this as an indirect third person command (= a jussive; see GKC 333 §112.q, r) as REB and NJPS do.

¹¹ tn Heb “the land of the Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for explanation.

¹² tn The words “cities” is not in the text. The text merely says “in her streets” but the antecedent is “land” and must then refer to the streets of the cities in the land.

¹³ tn Heb “carried off,” i.e., grabbed from the fleeing crowd. See HALOT 764 s.v. ספה.

¹⁴ tn Heb “will fall” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV); NLT “will be run through with a sword.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “against them”; NLT “against Babylon.”

¹⁶ sn They cannot be bought off, for they have a lust for bloodshed.

¹⁷ tn Heb “and bows cut to bits young men.” “Bows” stands by metonymy for arrows.

¹⁸ tn Heb “the fruit of the womb.”

¹⁹ tn Heb “their eye does not.” Here “eye” is a metonymy for the whole person.