Jeremiah 49:31

49:31 The Lord says, ¹  “Army of Babylon, ²  go and attack

a nation that lives in peace and security.

They have no gates or walls to protect them. ³ 

They live all alone.

Jeremiah 36:23

36:23 As soon as Jehudi had read three or four columns ⁴  of the scroll, the king ⁵  would cut them off with a penknife ⁶  and throw them on the fire in the firepot. He kept doing so until the whole scroll was burned up in the fire. ⁷ 

[49:31]  ¹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[49:31]  ² tn The words “Army of Babylon” are not in the text but are implicit from the context. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[49:31]  ³ tn Heb “no gates and no bar,” i.e., “that lives securely without gates or bars.” The phrase is used by the figure of species for genus (synecdoche) to refer to the fact that they have no defenses, i.e., no walls, gates, or bars on the gates. The figure has been interpreted in the translation for the benefit of the average reader.

[36:23]  ⁴ tn Heb “doors.” This is the only time the word “door” is used in this way but all the commentaries and lexicons agree that it means “columns.” The meaning is figurative based on the similarity of shape.

[36:23]  ⁵ tn Heb “he.” The majority of commentaries and English versions are agreed that “he” is the king. However, since a penknife (Heb “a scribe’s razor”) is used to cut the columns off, it is possible that Jehudi himself did it. However, even if Jehudi himself did it, he was acting on the king’s orders.

[36:23]  ⁶ sn Heb “a scribe’s razor.” There is some irony involved here since a scribe’s razor was used to trim the sheets to be sewn together, scrape them in preparation for writing, and to erase errors. What was normally used to prepare the scroll was used to destroy it.

[36:23]  ⁷ tn Heb “until the whole scroll was consumed upon the fire which was in the fire pot.”