44:13 You made us 1 an object of disdain to our neighbors;
those who live on our borders taunt and insult us. 2
44:14 You made us 3 an object of ridicule 4 among the nations;
foreigners treat us with contempt. 5
80:6 You have made our neighbors dislike us, 6
and our enemies insult us.
89:41 All who pass by 7 have robbed him;
he has become an object of disdain to his neighbors.
ס (Samek)
2:15 All who passed by on the road
clapped their hands to mock you. 20
They sneered and shook their heads
at Daughter Jerusalem.
“Ha! Is this the city they called 21
‘The perfection of beauty, 22
the source of joy of the whole earth!’?” 23
פ (Pe)
2:16 All your enemies
gloated over you. 24
They sneered and gnashed their teeth;
they said, “We have destroyed 25 her!
Ha! We have waited a long time for this day.
We have lived to see it!” 26
5:1 27 O Lord, reflect on 28 what has happened to us;
consider 29 and look at 30 our disgrace.
1 tn The prefixed verbal form is a preterite (without vav [ו] consecutive).
2 tn Heb “an [object of] taunting and [of] mockery to those around us.”
3 tn The prefixed verbal form is a preterite (without vav [ו] consecutive).
4 tn Heb “a proverb,” or “[the subject of] a mocking song.”
5 tn Heb “a shaking of the head among the peoples.” Shaking the head was a derisive gesture (see Jer 18:16; Lam 2:15).
6 tn Heb “you have made us an object of contention to our neighbors.”
7 tn Heb “all the passersby on the road.”
8 tn Or “an object of reproach in peoples’ proverbs…an object of ridicule in people’s curses.” The alternate translation treats the two pairs which are introduced without vavs (ו) but are joined by vavs as examples of hendiadys. This is very possible here but the chain does not contain this pairing in 25:18; 29:18.
9 tn Heb “I will make them for a terror for disaster to all the kingdoms of the earth, for a reproach and for a proverb, for a taunt and a curse in all the places which I banish them there.” The complex Hebrew sentence has been broken down into equivalent shorter sentences to conform more with contemporary English style.
10 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
11 tn The words “I made” and “drink it” are not in the text. The text from v. 18 to v. 26 contains a list of the nations that Jeremiah “made drink it.” The words are supplied in the translation here and at the beginning of v. 19 for the sake of clarity. See also the note on v. 26.
12 tn Heb “in order to make them a ruin, an object of…” The sentence is broken up and the antecedents are made specific for the sake of clarity and English style.
13 tn See the study note on 24:9 for explanation.
14 tn Heb “as it is today.” This phrase would obviously be more appropriate after all these things had happened as is the case in 44:6, 23 where the verbs referring to these conditions are past. Some see this phrase as a marginal gloss added after the tragedies of 597
15 tn Or “Indeed.”
16 tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.” See the study note on 2:19 for the translation and significance of this title.
17 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
18 tn See the study note on 24:9 and the usage in 29:22 for the meaning and significance of this last phrase.
19 tn Or “land.” The reference is, of course, to the land of Judah.
20 tn Heb “clap their hands at you.” Clapping hands at someone was an expression of malicious glee, derision and mockery (Num 24:10; Job 27:23; Lam 2:15).
21 tn Heb “of which they said.”
22 tn Heb “perfection of beauty.” The noun יֹפִי (yofi, “beauty”) functions as a genitive of respect in relation to the preceding construct noun: Jerusalem was perfect in respect to its physical beauty.
23 tn Heb “the joy of all the earth.” This is similar to statements found in Pss 48:2 and 50:2.
24 tn Heb “they have opened wide their mouth against you.”
25 tn Heb “We have swallowed!”
26 tn Heb “We have attained, we have seen!” The verbs מָצָאנוּ רָאִינוּ (matsa’nu ra’inu) form a verbal hendiadys in which the first retains its full verbal sense and the second functions as an object complement. It forms a Hebrew idiom that means something like, “We have lived to see it!” The three asyndetic 1st person common plural statements in 2:16 (“We waited, we destroyed, we saw!”) are spoken in an impassioned, staccato style reflecting the delight of the conquerors.
27 sn The speaking voice is now that of a choir singing the community’s lament in the first person plural. The poem is not an alphabetic acrostic like the preceding chapters but has 22 verses, the same as the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet.
28 tn The basic meaning of זָכַר (zakhar) is “to remember, call to mind” (HALOT 270 s.v. I זכר). Although often used of recollection of past events, זָכַר (zakhar, “to remember”) can also describe consideration of present situations: “to consider, think about” something present (BDB 270 s.v. 5), hence “reflect on,” the most appropriate nuance here. Verses 1-6 describe the present plight of Jerusalem. The parallel requests הַבֵּיט וּרְאֵה (habbet urÿ’eh, “Look and see!”) have a present-time orientation as well. See also 2:1; 3:19-20.
29 tn Heb “Look!” Although often used in reference to visual perception, נָבַט (navat, “to look”) can also refer to cognitive consideration and mental attention shown to a situation: “to regard” (e.g., 1 Sam 16:7; 2 Kgs 3:14), “to pay attention to, consider” (e.g., Isa 22:8; Isa 51:1, 2).
30 tn Although normally used in reference to visual sight, רָאָה (ra’ah) is often used in reference to cognitive processes and mental observation. See the note on “Consider” at 2:20.
31 tn Heb “lip of the tongue.”
32 tn Heb “cause you to hear.”
33 tc The MT reads תַכְשִׁלִי (takhshiliy), a metathesis for תַשְׁכִלִי (tashkhiliy) from the root שָׁכַל (shakhal) which is used in each of the previous verses.