Jeremiah 10:22-23

10:22 Listen! News is coming even now. ¹ 

The rumble of a great army is heard approaching ²  from a land in the north. ³ 

It is coming to turn the towns of Judah into rubble,

places where only jackals live.

10:23 Lord, we know that people do not control their own destiny. ⁴ 

It is not in their power to determine what will happen to them. ⁵ 

[10:22]  ¹ tn Heb “The sound of a report, behold, it is coming.”

[10:22]  ² tn Heb “ coming, even a great quaking.”

[10:22]  ³ sn Compare Jer 6:22.

[10:23]  ⁴ tn Heb “Not to the man his way.” For the nuance of “fate, destiny, or the way things turn out” for the Hebrew word “way” see Hag 1:5, Isa 40:27 and probably Ps 49:13 (cf. KBL 218 s.v. דֶּרֶךְ 5). For the idea of “control” or “hold in one’s power” for the preposition “to” see Ps 3:8 (cf. BDB 513 s.v. לְ 5.b[a]).

[10:23]  ⁵ tn Heb “Not to a man the walking and the establishing his step.”