Jeremiah 21:7

21:7 Then ¹  I, the Lord, promise that ²  I will hand over King Zedekiah of Judah, his officials, and any of the people who survive the war, starvation, and disease. I will hand them over to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and to their enemies who want to kill them. He will slaughter them with the sword. He will not show them any mercy, compassion, or pity.’

Jeremiah 32:4

32:4 King Zedekiah of Judah will not escape from the Babylonians. ³  He will certainly be handed over to the king of Babylon. He must answer personally to the king of Babylon and confront him face to face. ⁴ 

Jeremiah 34:21

34:21 I will also hand King Zedekiah of Judah and his officials over to their enemies who want to kill them. I will hand them over to the army of the king of Babylon, even though they have temporarily withdrawn from attacking you. ⁵ 

Jeremiah 37:18

37:18 Then Jeremiah asked King Zedekiah, “What crime have I committed against you, or the officials who serve you, or the people of Judah? What have I done to make you people throw me into prison? ⁶ 

Jeremiah 38:23

38:23 “All your wives and your children will be turned over to the Babylonians. ⁷  You yourself will not escape from them but will be captured by the ⁸  king of Babylon. This city will be burned down.” ⁹ 

Jeremiah 39:5

39:5 But the Babylonian ¹⁰  army chased after them. They caught up with Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho ¹¹  and captured him. ¹²  They took him to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon at Riblah ¹³  in the territory of Hamath and Nebuchadnezzar passed sentence on him there.

Isaiah 30:16-17

30:16 You say, ‘No, we will flee on horses,’

so you will indeed flee.

You say, ‘We will ride on fast horses,’

so your pursuers will be fast.

30:17 One thousand will scurry at the battle cry of one enemy soldier; ¹⁴ 

at the battle cry of five enemy soldiers you will all run away, ¹⁵ 

until the remaining few are as isolated ¹⁶ 

as a flagpole on a mountaintop

or a signal flag on a hill.”

Lamentations 4:19-20

ק (Qof)

4:19 Those who pursued us were swifter

than eagles ¹⁷  in the sky. ¹⁸ 

They chased us over the mountains;

they ambushed us in the wilderness.

ר (Resh)

4:20 Our very life breath – the Lord’s anointed king ¹⁹  –

was caught in their traps, ²⁰ 

of whom we thought, ²¹ 

“Under his protection ²²  we will survive among the nations.”

Ezekiel 12:12-14

12:12 “The prince ²³  who is among them will raise his belongings ²⁴  onto his shoulder in darkness, and will go out. He ²⁵  will dig a hole in the wall to leave through. He will cover his face so that he cannot see the land with his eyes. 12:13 But I will throw my net over him, and he will be caught in my snare. I will bring him to Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans ²⁶  (but he will not see it), ²⁷  and there he will die. ²⁸  12:14 All his retinue – his attendants and his troops – I will scatter to every wind; I will unleash a sword behind them.

Ezekiel 17:20-21

17:20 I will throw my net over him and he will be caught in my snare; I will bring him to Babylon and judge him there because of the unfaithfulness he committed against me. 17:21 All the choice men ²⁹  among his troops will die ³⁰  by the sword and the survivors will be scattered to every wind. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken!

Amos 2:14-15

2:14 Fast runners will find no place to hide; ³¹ 

strong men will have no strength left; ³² 

warriors will not be able to save their lives.

2:15 Archers ³³  will not hold their ground; ³⁴ 

fast runners will not save their lives,

nor will those who ride horses. ³⁵ 

Amos 9:1-4

9:1 I saw the sovereign One ³⁶  standing by the altar ³⁷  and he said, “Strike the tops of the support pillars, ³⁸  so the thresholds shake!

Knock them down on the heads of all the people, ³⁹ 

and I will kill the survivors ⁴⁰  with the sword.

No one will be able to run away; ⁴¹ 

no one will be able to escape. ⁴² 

9:2 Even if they could dig down into the netherworld, ⁴³ 

my hand would pull them up from there.

Even if they could climb up to heaven,

I would drag them down from there.

9:3 Even if they were to hide on the top of Mount Carmel,

I would hunt them down and take them from there.

Even if they tried to hide from me ⁴⁴  at the bottom of the sea,

from there ⁴⁵  I would command the Sea Serpent ⁴⁶  to bite them.

9:4 Even when their enemies drive them into captivity, ⁴⁷ 

from there ⁴⁸  I will command the sword to kill them.

I will not let them out of my sight;

they will experience disaster, not prosperity.” ⁴⁹ 

[21:7]  ¹ tn Heb “And afterward.”

[21:7]  ² tn Heb “oracle of the Lord.”

[32:4]  ³ tn Heb “The Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for further explanation.

[32:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “his [Zedekiah’s] mouth will speak with his [Nebuchadnezzar’s] mouth and his eyes will see his eyes.” The verbs here are an obligatory imperfect and its vav consecutive perfect equivalent. (See IBHS 508-9 §31.4g for discussion and examples of the former and IBHS 528 §32.2.1d, n. 16, for the latter.)

[34:21]  ⁵ tn Heb “And Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials I will give into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their lives and into the hands of the army of the king of Babylon which has gone up from against them.” The last two “and into the hand” phrases are each giving further explication of “their enemies” (the conjunction is explicative [cf. BDB 252 s.v. וְ 1.b]). The sentence has been broken down into shorter English sentences in conformity with contemporary English style.

[37:18]  ⁶ tn Heb “What crime have I committed against you, or your servants, or this people that you [masc. pl.] have put me in prison?” Some of the terms have been expanded for clarification and the sentence has been broken in two to better conform with contemporary English style.
The masculine plural is used here because Zedekiah is being addressed as representative of the whole group previously named.

[38:23]  ⁷ tn Heb “Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for explanation.

[38:23]  ⁸ tn Heb “you yourself will not escape from their hand but will be seized by [caught in] the hand of the king of Babylon.” Neither use of “hand” is natural to the English idiom.

[38:23]  ⁹ tc This translation follows the reading of the Greek version and a few Hebrew mss. The majority of the Hebrew mss read “and you will burn down this city.” This reading is accepted by the majority of modern commentaries and English versions. Few of the commentaries, however, bother to explain the fact that the particle אֶת (’et), which normally marks the accusative object, is functioning here as the subject. For this point of grammar see BDB 85 s.v. I אֵת 1.b. Or this may be another case where אֵת introduces a new subject (see BDB 85 s.v. אֵת 3.α and see usage in 27:8; 36:22).

[39:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “The Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for explanation.

[39:5]  ¹¹ map For location see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.

[39:5]  ¹² sn 2 Kgs 25:5 and Jer 52:8 mention that the soldiers all scattered from him. That is why the text focuses on Zedekiah here.

[39:5]  ¹³ sn Riblah was a strategic town on the Orontes River in Syria. It was at a crossing of the major roads between Egypt and Mesopotamia. Pharaoh Necho had earlier received Jehoahaz there and put him in chains (2 Kgs 23:33) prior to taking him captive to Egypt. Nebuchadnezzar had set up his base camp for conducting his campaigns against the Palestinian states there and was now sitting in judgment on prisoners brought to him.

[30:17]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “One thousand from before [or “because of”] one battle cry.” גְּעָרָה (gÿ’arah) is often defined as “threat,” but in war contexts it likely refers to a shout or battle cry. See Ps 76:6.

[30:17]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “from before [or “because of”] the battle cry of five you will flee.

[30:17]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “until you are left” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV).

[4:19]  ¹⁷ tn The bird referred to here could be one of several species of eagles, but more likely is the griffin-vulture (cf. NEB “vultures”). However, because eagles are more commonly associated with swiftness than vultures in contemporary English, “eagles” was used in the translation.

[4:19]  ¹⁸ tn Or “in the heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.

[4:20]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the anointed one of the Lord.” The term “king” is added in the translation to clarify the referent of the phrase “the Lord’s anointed.”

[4:20]  ²⁰ tn Heb “was captured in their pits.”

[4:20]  ²¹ tn Heb “of whom we had said.”

[4:20]  ²² tn Heb “under his shadow.” The term צֵל (tsel, “shadow”) is used figuratively here to refer the source of protection from military enemies. In the same way that the shade of a tree gives physical relief and protection from the heat of the sun (e.g., Judg 9:15; Job 40:22; Ps 80:11; Song 2:3; Ezek 17:23; 31:6, 12, 17; Hos 4:13; 14:8; Jon 4:5, 6), a faithful and powerful king can provide “shade” (= protection) from enemies and military attack (Num 14:19; Ps 91:1; Isa 30:2, 3; 49:2; 51:16; Jer 48:45; Lam 4:20).

[12:12]  ²³ sn The prince is a reference to Zedekiah.

[12:12]  ²⁴ tn The words “his belongings” are not in the Hebrew text but are implied.

[12:12]  ²⁵ tc The MT reads “they”; the LXX and Syriac read “he.”

[12:13]  ²⁶ tn Or “Babylonians” (NCV, NLT).

[12:13]  ²⁷ sn He will not see it. This prediction was fulfilled in 2 Kgs 25:7 and Jer 52:11, which recount how Zedekiah was blinded before being deported to Babylon.

[12:13]  ²⁸ sn There he will die. This was fulfilled when King Zedekiah died in exile (Jer 52:11).

[17:21]  ²⁹ tc Some manuscripts and versions read “choice men,” while most manuscripts read “fugitives”; the difference arises from the reversal, or metathesis, of two letters, מִבְרָחָיו (mivrakhyv) for מִבְחָריו (mivkharyv).

[17:21]  ³⁰ tn Heb “fall.”

[2:14]  ³¹ tn Heb “and a place of refuge will perish from the swift.”

[2:14]  ³² tn Heb “the strong will not increase his strength.”

[2:15]  ³³ tn Heb “the one who holds the bow.”

[2:15]  ³⁴ tn For the idiom of “holding [or “standing”] one’s ground” in battle, there is a similar phrase in Ezek 13:5; also related is the expression “to hold one’s own against” (or “to withstand”) in Judg 2:14; 2 Kgs 10:4; Dan 8:7 (see S. M. Paul, Amos [Hermeneia], 97). Other options include “will not endure” or “will not survive.”

[2:15]  ³⁵ tn The last two lines read literally, “The one fast in his feet will not rescue [his life], and the rider of the horse will not rescue his life.” The phrase “his life” does double duty in the parallelism and should be understood in both lines.

[9:1]  ³⁶ tn Or “the Lord.” The Hebrew term translated “sovereign One” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[9:1]  ³⁷ sn The altar is perhaps the altar at Bethel.

[9:1]  ³⁸ tn Or “the capitals.” The Hebrew singular form is collective.

[9:1]  ³⁹ tn Heb “cut them off on the head of all of them.” The translation assumes the objective suffix on the verb refers to the tops of the pillars and that the following prepositional phrase refers to the people standing beneath. Another option is to take this phrase as referring to the pillars, in which case one could translate, “Knock all the tops of the pillars off.”

[9:1]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “the remnant of them.” One could possibly translate, “every last one of them” (cf. NEB “to the last man”). This probably refers to those who survive the collapse of the temple, which may symbolize the northern kingdom.

[9:1]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “a fugitive belonging to them will not run away.”

[9:1]  ⁴² tn Heb “a survivor belonging to them will not escape.”

[9:2]  ⁴³ tn Heb “into Sheol” (so ASV, NASB, NRSV), that is, the land of the dead localized in Hebrew thought in the earth’s core or the grave. Cf. KJV “hell”; NCV, NLT “the place of the dead”; NIV “the depths of the grave.”

[9:3]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “from before my eyes.”

[9:3]  ⁴⁵ tn Or perhaps simply, “there,” if the מ (mem) prefixed to the adverb is dittographic (note the preceding word ends in mem).

[9:3]  ⁴⁶ sn If the article indicates a definite serpent, then the mythological Sea Serpent, symbolic of the world’s chaotic forces, is probably in view. See Job 26:13 and Isa 27:1 (where it is also called Leviathan). Elsewhere in the OT this serpent is depicted as opposing the Lord, but this text implies that even this powerful enemy of God is ultimately subject to his sovereign will.

[9:4]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “Even if they go into captivity before their enemies.”

[9:4]  ⁴⁸ tn Or perhaps simply, “there,” if the מ (mem) prefixed to the adverb is dittographic (note the preceding word ends in mem).

[9:4]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “I will set my eye on them for disaster, not good.”