Jeremiah 5:31

5:31 The prophets prophesy lies.

The priests exercise power by their own authority. ¹ 

And my people love to have it this way.

But they will not be able to help you when the time of judgment comes! ² 

Jeremiah 50:40

50:40 I will destroy Babylonia just like I did

Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighboring towns.

No one will live there. ³ 

No human being will settle in it,”

says the Lord. ⁴ 

Jeremiah 52:27

52:27 The king of Babylon ordered them to be executed ⁵  at Riblah in the territory of Hamath.

So Judah was taken into exile away from its land.

[5:31]  ¹ tn Heb “they shall rule at their hands.” Since the word “hand” can be used figuratively for authority or mean “side” and the pronoun “them” can refer to the priests themselves or the prophets, the following translations have also been suggested: “the priests rule under their [the prophets’] directions,” or “the priests rule in league with them [the prophets].” From the rest of the book it would appear that the prophets did not exercise authority over the priests nor did they exercise the same authority over the people that the priests did. Hence it probably mean “by their own hand/power/authority.”

[5:31]  ² tn Heb “But what will you do at its end?” The rhetorical question implies a negative answer: “Nothing!”

[50:40]  ³ tn Heb “‘Like [when] God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighboring towns,’ oracle of the Lord, ‘no man will live there.’” The Lord is speaking so the first person has been substituted for “God.” The sentence has again been broken up to better conform with contemporary English style.

[50:40]  ⁴ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[52:27]  ⁵ tn Heb “struck them down and killed them.”