Jeremiah 46:11

46:11 Go up to Gilead and get medicinal ointment, ¹ 

you dear poor people of Egypt. ² 

But it will prove useless no matter how much medicine you use; ³ 

there will be no healing for you.

Jeremiah 51:50

51:50 You who have escaped the sword, ⁴ 

go, do not delay. ⁵ 

Remember the Lord in a faraway land.

Think about Jerusalem. ⁶ 

Jeremiah 51:53

51:53 Even if Babylon climbs high into the sky ⁷ 

and fortifies her elevated stronghold, ⁸ 

I will send destroyers against her,” ⁹ 

says the Lord. ¹⁰ 

[46:11]  ¹ tn Heb “balm.” See 8:22 and the notes on this phrase there.

[46:11]  ² sn Heb “Virgin Daughter of Egypt.” See the study note on Jer 14:17 for the significance of the use of this figure. The use of the figure here perhaps refers to the fact that Egypt’s geographical isolation allowed her safety and protection that a virgin living at home would enjoy under her father’s protection (so F. B. Huey, Jeremiah, Lamentations [NAC], 379). By her involvement in the politics of Palestine she had forfeited that safety and protection and was now suffering for it.

[46:11]  ³ tn Heb “In vain you multiply [= make use of many] medicines.”

[51:50]  ⁴ sn God’s exiled people are told to leave doomed Babylon (see v. 45).

[51:50]  ⁵ tn Heb “don’t stand.”

[51:50]  ⁶ tn Heb “let Jerusalem go up upon your heart.” The “heart” is often viewed as the seat of one’s mental faculties and thought life.

[51:53]  ⁷ tn Or “ascends [into] heaven.” Note the use of the phrase in Deut 30:12; 2 Kgs 2:11; and Amos 9:2.

[51:53]  ⁸ tn Heb “and even if she fortifies her strong elevated place.”

[51:53]  ⁹ tn Heb “from me destroyers will go against her.”

[51:53]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”