Jeremiah 37:10

37:10 For even if you were to defeat all the Babylonian forces ¹  fighting against you so badly that only wounded men were left lying in their tents, they would get up and burn this city down.”’” ² 

Jeremiah 38:18

38:18 But if you do not surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, this city will be handed over to the Babylonians ³  and they will burn it down. You yourself will not escape from them.’” ⁴ 

Jeremiah 38:23

38:23 “All your wives and your children will be turned over to the Babylonians. ⁵  You yourself will not escape from them but will be captured by the ⁶  king of Babylon. This city will be burned down.” ⁷ 

[37:10]  ¹ tn Heb “all the army of the Chaldeans.” For the rendering “Babylonian” in place of Chaldean see the study note on 21:4.

[37:10]  ² tn The length and complexity of this English sentence violates the more simple style that has been used to conform such sentences to contemporary English style. However, there does not seem to be any alternative that would enable a simpler style and still retain the causal and conditional connections that give this sentence the rhetorical force that it has in the original. The condition is, of course, purely hypothetical and the consequence a poetic exaggeration. The intent is to assure Zedekiah that there is absolutely no hope of the city being spared.

[38:18]  ³ tn Heb “Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for explanation.

[38:18]  ⁴ tn Heb “will not escape from their hand.”

[38:23]  ⁵ tn Heb “Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for explanation.

[38:23]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ 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).