Deuteronomy 28:49-52

28:49 The Lord will raise up a distant nation against you, one from the other side of the earth ¹  as the eagle flies, ²  a nation whose language you will not understand, 28:50 a nation of stern appearance that will have no regard for the elderly or pity for the young. 28:51 They ³  will devour the offspring of your livestock and the produce of your soil until you are destroyed. They will not leave you with any grain, new wine, olive oil, calves of your herds, ⁴  or lambs of your flocks ⁵  until they have destroyed you. 28:52 They will besiege all of your villages ⁶  until all of your high and fortified walls collapse – those in which you put your confidence throughout the land. They will besiege all your villages throughout the land the Lord your God has given you.

Deuteronomy 28:2

28:2 All these blessings will come to you in abundance ⁷  if you obey the Lord your God:

Deuteronomy 24:2

24:2 When she has left him ⁸  she may go and become someone else’s wife.

Deuteronomy 24:2

24:2 When she has left him ⁹  she may go and become someone else’s wife.

Deuteronomy 1:6

Events at Horeb

1:6 The Lord our God spoke to us at Horeb and said, “You have stayed ¹⁰  in the area of this mountain long enough.

Deuteronomy 1:17

1:17 They ¹¹  must not discriminate in judgment, but hear the lowly ¹²  and the great alike. Nor should they be intimidated by human beings, for judgment belongs to God. If the matter being adjudicated is too difficult for them, they should bring it before me for a hearing.

Isaiah 23:13

23:13 Look at the land of the Chaldeans,

these people who have lost their identity! ¹³ 

The Assyrians have made it a home for wild animals.

They erected their siege towers, ¹⁴ 

demolished ¹⁵  its fortresses,

and turned it into a heap of ruins. ¹⁶ 

Isaiah 39:6-7

39:6 ‘Look, a time is coming when everything in your palace and the things your ancestors ¹⁷  have accumulated to this day will be carried away to Babylon; nothing will be left,’ says the Lord. 39:7 ‘Some of your very own descendants whom you father ¹⁸  will be taken away and will be made eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.’”

Jeremiah 1:15-16

1:15 For I will soon summon all the peoples of the kingdoms of the north,” says the Lord. “They will come and their kings will set up their thrones ¹⁹  near the entrances of the gates of Jerusalem. ²⁰  They will attack all the walls surrounding it, and all the towns in Judah. ²¹  1:16 In this way ²²  I will pass sentence ²³  on the people of Jerusalem and Judah ²⁴  because of all their wickedness. For they rejected me and offered sacrifices to other gods, worshiping what they made with their own hands.” ²⁵ 

Jeremiah 4:6

4:6 Raise a signal flag that tells people to go to Zion. ²⁶ 

Run for safety! Do not delay!

For I am about to bring disaster out of the north.

It will bring great destruction. ²⁷ 

Jeremiah 4:8

4:8 So put on sackcloth!

Mourn and wail, saying,

‘The fierce anger of the Lord

has not turned away from us!’” ²⁸ 

Jeremiah 5:15

5:15 The Lord says, ²⁹  “Listen, ³⁰  nation of Israel! ³¹ 

I am about to bring a nation from far away to attack you.

It will be a nation that was founded long ago

and has lasted for a long time.

It will be a nation whose language you will not know.

Its people will speak words that you will not be able to understand.

Jeremiah 6:22-23

6:22 “This is what the Lord says:

‘Beware! An army ³²  is coming from a land in the north.

A mighty nation is stirring into action in faraway parts of the earth.

6:23 Its soldiers are armed with bows and spears.

They are cruel and show no mercy.

They sound like the roaring sea

as they ride forth on their horses.

Lined up in formation like men going into battle

to attack you, Daughter Zion.’” ³³ 

Jeremiah 21:4

21:4 that the Lord, the God of Israel, says, ³⁴  ‘The forces at your disposal ³⁵  are now outside the walls fighting against King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and the Babylonians ³⁶  who have you under siege. I will gather those forces back inside the city. ³⁷ 

Jeremiah 25:9

25:9 So I, the Lord, affirm that ³⁸  I will send for all the peoples of the north ³⁹  and my servant, ⁴⁰  King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants and all the nations that surround it. I will utterly destroy ⁴¹  this land, its inhabitants, and all the nations that surround it ⁴²  and make them everlasting ruins. ⁴³  I will make them objects of horror and hissing scorn. ⁴⁴ 

[28:49]  ¹ tn Heb “from the end of the earth.”

[28:49]  ² tn Some translations understand this to mean “like an eagle swoops down” (e.g., NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT), comparing the swift attack of an eagle to the attack of the Israelites’ enemies.

[28:51]  ³ tn Heb “it” (so NRSV), a collective singular referring to the invading nation (several times in this verse and v. 52).

[28:51]  ⁴ tn Heb “increase of herds.”

[28:51]  ⁵ tn Heb “growth of flocks.”

[28:52]  ⁶ tn Heb “gates,” also in vv. 55, 57.

[28:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “come upon you and overtake you” (so NASB, NRSV); NIV “come upon you and accompany you.”

[24:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “his house.”

[24:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “his house.”

[1:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “lived”; “dwelled.”

[1:17]  ¹¹ tn Heb “you,” and throughout the verse (cf. NASB, NRSV).

[1:17]  ¹² tn Heb “the small,” but referring to social status, not physical stature.

[23:13]  ¹³ tn Heb “this people [that] is not.”

[23:13]  ¹⁴ tn For the meaning of this word, see HALOT 118 s.v. *בַּחוּן.

[23:13]  ¹⁵ tn Or “laid bare.” For the meaning of this word, see HALOT 889 s.v. ערר.

[23:13]  ¹⁶ sn This verse probably refers to the Assyrian destruction of Babylon.

[39:6]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “fathers” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV).

[39:7]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “Some of your sons, who go out from you, whom you father.”

[1:15]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “they will each set up.” The pronoun “they” refers back to the “kingdoms” in the preceding sentence. However, kingdoms do not sit on thrones; their kings do. This is an example of a figure of speech called metonymy where the kingdom is put for its king. For a similar use see 2 Chr 12:8.

[1:15]  ²⁰ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[1:15]  ²¹ tn Or “They will come and set up their thrones in the entrances of the gates of Jerusalem. They will destroy all the walls surrounding it and also destroy all the towns in Judah.” The text of v. 15b reads in Hebrew, “they will each set up his throne [near? in?] the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem and against all its walls…and against all the towns….” Commentators are divided over whether the passage refers to the kings setting up their thrones after victory in preparation for passing judgment on their defeated enemies in the city or whether it refers to setting up siege against it. There is no Hebrew preposition before the word for “the entrance” so that it could be “in” (which would imply victory) or “at/near” (which would imply siege), and the same verb + object (i.e., “they will set up their thrones”) governs all the locative statements. It is most often taken to refer to the aftermath of victory because of the supposed parallel in Jer 43:8-13 and the supposed fulfillment in Jer 39:3. Though this may fit well with the first part of the compound expression, it does not fit well with the latter part which is most naturally taken to refer to hostile attacks against Jerusalem and the other cities of Judah. The translation given in the text is intended to reflect the idea of an army setting up for siege. The alternate translation is intended to reflect the other view.

[1:16]  ²² tn The Hebrew particle (the vav [ו] consecutive), which is often rendered in some English versions as “and” and in others is simply left untranslated, is rendered here epexegetically, reflecting a summary statement.

[1:16]  ²³ sn The Hebrew idiom (literally “I will speak my judgments against”) is found three other times in Jeremiah (4:12; 39:5; 52:9), where it is followed by the carrying out of the sentence. Here the carrying out of the sentence precedes in v. 15.

[1:16]  ²⁴ tn Heb “on them.” The antecedent goes back to Jerusalem and the cities of Judah (i.e., the people in them) in v. 15.

[1:16]  ²⁵ tn I.e., idols.

[4:6]  ²⁶ tn Heb “Raise up a signal toward Zion.”

[4:6]  ²⁷ tn Heb “out of the north, even great destruction.”

[4:8]  ²⁸ tn Or “wail because the fierce anger of the Lord has not turned away from us.” The translation does not need to assume a shift in speaker as the alternate reading does.

[5:15]  ²⁹ tn Heb “oracle of the Lord.”

[5:15]  ³⁰ tn Heb “Behold!”

[5:15]  ³¹ tn Heb “house of Israel.”

[6:22]  ³² tn Heb “people.”

[6:23]  ³³ sn Jerualem is personified as a young maiden helpless before enemy attackers.

[21:4]  ³⁴ tn Heb “Tell Zedekiah, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel.’” Using the indirect quote eliminates one level of embedded quotation and makes it easier for the reader to follow.

[21:4]  ³⁵ tn Heb “the weapons which are in your hand.” Weapons stands here by substitution for the soldiers who wield them.

[21:4]  ³⁶ sn The Babylonians (Heb “the Chaldeans”). The Chaldeans were a group of people in the country south of Babylon from which Nebuchadnezzar came. The Chaldean dynasty his father established became the name by which the Babylonians are regularly referred to in the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah’s contemporary Ezekiel uses both terms.

[21:4]  ³⁷ tn The structure of the Hebrew sentence of this verse is long and complex and has led to a great deal of confusion and misunderstanding. There are two primary points of confusion: 1) the relation of the phrase “outside the walls,” and 2) the antecedent of “them” in the last clause of the verse that reads in Hebrew: “I will gather them back into the midst of the city.” Most take the phrase “outside the walls” with “the Babylonians….” Some take it with “turn back/bring back” to mean “from outside….” However, the preposition “from” is part of the idiom for “outside….” The phrase goes with “fighting” as J. Bright (Jeremiah [AB], 215) notes and as NJPS suggests. The antecedent of “them” has sometimes been taken mistakenly to refer to the Babylonians. It refers rather to “the forces at your disposal” which is literally “the weapons which are in your hands.” This latter phrase is a figure involving substitution (called metonymy) as Bright also correctly notes. The whole sentence reads in Hebrew: “I will bring back the weapons of war which are in your hand with which you are fighting Nebuchadrezzar the King of Babylon and the Chaldeans who are besieging you outside your wall and I will gather them into the midst of the city.” The sentence has been restructured to better reflect the proper relationships and to make the sentence conform more to contemporary English style.

[25:9]  ³⁸ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[25:9]  ³⁹ sn The many allusions to trouble coming from the north are now clarified: it is the armies of Babylon which included within it contingents from many nations. See 1:14, 15; 4:6; 6:1, 22; 10:22; 13:20 for earlier allusions.

[25:9]  ⁴⁰ sn Nebuchadnezzar is called the Lord’s servant also in Jer 27:6; 43:10. He was the Lord’s servant in that he was the agent used by the Lord to punish his disobedient people. Assyria was earlier referred to as the Lord’s “rod” (Isa 10:5-6) and Cyrus is called his “shepherd” and his “anointed” (Isa 44:28; 45:1). P. C. Craigie, P. H. Kelley, and J. F. Drinkard (Jeremiah 1-25 [WBC], 364) make the interesting observation that the terms here are very similar to the terms in v. 4. The people of Judah ignored the servants, the prophets, he sent to turn them away from evil. So he will send other servants whom they cannot ignore.

[25:9]  ⁴¹ tn The word used here was used in the early years of Israel’s conquest for the action of killing all the men, women, and children in the cities of Canaan, destroying all their livestock, and burning their cities down. This policy was intended to prevent Israel from being corrupted by paganism (Deut 7:2; 20:17-18; Josh 6:18, 21). It was to be extended to any city that led Israel away from worshiping God (Deut 13:15) and any Israelite who brought an idol into his house (Deut 7:26). Here the policy is being directed against Judah as well as against her neighbors because of her persistent failure to heed God’s warnings through the prophets. For further usage of this term in application to foreign nations in the book of Jeremiah see 50:21, 26; 51:3.

[25:9]  ⁴² tn Heb “will utterly destroy them.” The referent (this land, its inhabitants, and the nations surrounding it) has been specified in the translation for clarity, since the previous “them” referred to Nebuchadnezzar and his armies.

[25:9]  ⁴³ sn The Hebrew word translated “everlasting” is the word often translated “eternal.” However, it sometimes has a more limited time reference. For example it refers to the lifetime of a person who became a “lasting slave” to another person (see Exod 21:6; Deut 15:17). It is also used to refer to the long life wished for a king (1 Kgs 1:31; Neh 2:3). The time frame here is to be qualified at least with reference to Judah and Jerusalem as seventy years (see 29:10-14 and compare v. 12).

[25:9]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “I will make them an object of horror and a hissing and everlasting ruins.” The sentence has been broken up to separate the last object from the first two which are of slightly different connotation, i.e., they denote the reaction to the latter.