Psalms 44:13-14

44:13 You made us ¹  an object of disdain to our neighbors;

those who live on our borders taunt and insult us. ² 

44:14 You made us ³  an object of ridicule ⁴  among the nations;

foreigners treat us with contempt. ⁵ 

Psalms 80:6

80:6 You have made our neighbors dislike us, ⁶ 

and our enemies insult us.

Psalms 89:41

89:41 All who pass by ⁷  have robbed him;

he has become an object of disdain to his neighbors.

Deuteronomy 28:37

28:37 You will become an occasion of horror, a proverb, and an object of ridicule to all the peoples to whom the Lord will drive you.

Jeremiah 24:9

24:9 I will bring such disaster on them that all the kingdoms of the earth will be horrified. I will make them an object of reproach, a proverbial example of disaster. I will make them an object of ridicule, an example to be used in curses. ⁸  That is how they will be remembered wherever I banish them. ⁹ 

Jeremiah 25:18

25:18 I made Jerusalem ¹⁰  and the cities of Judah, its kings and its officials drink it. ¹¹  I did it so Judah would become a ruin. I did it so Judah, its kings, and its officials would become an object ¹²  of horror and of hissing scorn, an example used in curses. ¹³  Such is already becoming the case! ¹⁴ 

Jeremiah 42:18

42:18 For ¹⁵  the Lord God of Israel who rules over all ¹⁶  says, ‘If you go to Egypt, I will pour out my wrath on you just as I poured out my anger and wrath on the citizens of Jerusalem. ¹⁷  You will become an object of horror and ridicule, an example of those who have been cursed and that people use in pronouncing a curse. ¹⁸  You will never see this place again.’ ¹⁹ 

Lamentations 2:15-16

ס (Samek)

2:15 All who passed by on the road

clapped their hands to mock you. ²⁰ 

They sneered and shook their heads

at Daughter Jerusalem.

“Ha! Is this the city they called ²¹ 

‘The perfection of beauty, ²² 

the source of joy of the whole earth!’?” ²³ 

פ (Pe)

2:16 All your enemies

gloated over you. ²⁴ 

They sneered and gnashed their teeth;

they said, “We have destroyed ²⁵  her!

Ha! We have waited a long time for this day.

We have lived to see it!” ²⁶ 

Lamentations 5:1

The People of Jerusalem Pray:

5:1 ²⁷ O Lord, reflect on ²⁸  what has happened to us;

consider ²⁹  and look at ³⁰  our disgrace.

Ezekiel 35:12

35:12 Then you will know that I, the Lord, have heard all the insults you spoke against the mountains of Israel, saying, “They are desolate, they have been given to us for food.”

Ezekiel 36:3

36:3 So prophesy and say: ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Surely because they have made you desolate and crushed you from all directions, so that you have become the property of the rest of the nations, and have become the subject of gossip ³¹  and slander among the people,

Ezekiel 36:15

36:15 I will no longer subject you to ³²  the nations’ insults; no longer will you bear the shame of the peoples, and no longer will you bereave ³³  your nation, declares the sovereign Lord.’”

[44:13]  ¹ tn The prefixed verbal form is a preterite (without vav [ו] consecutive).

[44:13]  ² tn Heb “an [object of] taunting and [of] mockery to those around us.”

[44:14]  ³ tn The prefixed verbal form is a preterite (without vav [ו] consecutive).

[44:14]  ⁴ tn Heb “a proverb,” or “[the subject of] a mocking song.”

[44:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “a shaking of the head among the peoples.” Shaking the head was a derisive gesture (see Jer 18:16; Lam 2:15).

[80:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “you have made us an object of contention to our neighbors.”

[89:41]  ⁷ tn Heb “all the passersby on the road.”

[24:9]  ⁸ tn Or “an object of reproach in peoples’ proverbs…an object of ridicule in people’s curses.” The alternate translation treats the two pairs which are introduced without vavs (ו) but are joined by vavs as examples of hendiadys. This is very possible here but the chain does not contain this pairing in 25:18; 29:18.

[24:9]  ⁹ tn Heb “I will make them for a terror for disaster to all the kingdoms of the earth, for a reproach and for a proverb, for a taunt and a curse in all the places which I banish them there.” The complex Hebrew sentence has been broken down into equivalent shorter sentences to conform more with contemporary English style.

[25:18]  ¹⁰ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[25:18]  ¹¹ tn The words “I made” and “drink it” are not in the text. The text from v. 18 to v. 26 contains a list of the nations that Jeremiah “made drink it.” The words are supplied in the translation here and at the beginning of v. 19 for the sake of clarity. See also the note on v. 26.

[25:18]  ¹² tn Heb “in order to make them a ruin, an object of…” The sentence is broken up and the antecedents are made specific for the sake of clarity and English style.

[25:18]  ¹³ tn See the study note on 24:9 for explanation.

[25:18]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “as it is today.” This phrase would obviously be more appropriate after all these things had happened as is the case in 44:6, 23 where the verbs referring to these conditions are past. Some see this phrase as a marginal gloss added after the tragedies of 597 b.c. or 586 b.c. However, it may refer here to the beginning stages where Judah has already suffered the loss of Josiah, of its freedom, of some of its temple treasures, and of some of its leaders (Dan 1:1-3. The different date for Jehoiakim there is due to the different method of counting the king’s first year; the third year there is the same as the fourth year in 25:1).

[42:18]  ¹⁵ tn Or “Indeed.”

[42:18]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.” See the study note on 2:19 for the translation and significance of this title.

[42:18]  ¹⁷ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[42:18]  ¹⁸ tn See the study note on 24:9 and the usage in 29:22 for the meaning and significance of this last phrase.

[42:18]  ¹⁹ tn Or “land.” The reference is, of course, to the land of Judah.

[2:15]  ²⁰ tn Heb “clap their hands at you.” Clapping hands at someone was an expression of malicious glee, derision and mockery (Num 24:10; Job 27:23; Lam 2:15).

[2:15]  ²¹ tn Heb “of which they said.”

[2:15]  ²² tn Heb “perfection of beauty.” The noun יֹפִי (yofi, “beauty”) functions as a genitive of respect in relation to the preceding construct noun: Jerusalem was perfect in respect to its physical beauty.

[2:15]  ²³ tn Heb “the joy of all the earth.” This is similar to statements found in Pss 48:2 and 50:2.

[2:16]  ²⁴ tn Heb “they have opened wide their mouth against you.”

[2:16]  ²⁵ tn Heb “We have swallowed!”

[2:16]  ²⁶ tn Heb “We have attained, we have seen!” The verbs מָצָאנוּ רָאִינוּ (matsa’nu ra’inu) form a verbal hendiadys in which the first retains its full verbal sense and the second functions as an object complement. It forms a Hebrew idiom that means something like, “We have lived to see it!” The three asyndetic 1st person common plural statements in 2:16 (“We waited, we destroyed, we saw!”) are spoken in an impassioned, staccato style reflecting the delight of the conquerors.

[5:1]  ²⁷ sn The speaking voice is now that of a choir singing the community’s lament in the first person plural. The poem is not an alphabetic acrostic like the preceding chapters but has 22 verses, the same as the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet.

[5:1]  ²⁸ tn The basic meaning of זָכַר (zakhar) is “to remember, call to mind” (HALOT 270 s.v. I זכר). Although often used of recollection of past events, זָכַר (zakhar, “to remember”) can also describe consideration of present situations: “to consider, think about” something present (BDB 270 s.v. 5), hence “reflect on,” the most appropriate nuance here. Verses 1-6 describe the present plight of Jerusalem. The parallel requests הַבֵּיט וּרְאֵה (habbet urÿ’eh, “Look and see!”) have a present-time orientation as well. See also 2:1; 3:19-20.

[5:1]  ²⁹ tn Heb “Look!” Although often used in reference to visual perception, נָבַט (navat, “to look”) can also refer to cognitive consideration and mental attention shown to a situation: “to regard” (e.g., 1 Sam 16:7; 2 Kgs 3:14), “to pay attention to, consider” (e.g., Isa 22:8; Isa 51:1, 2).

[5:1]  ³⁰ tn Although normally used in reference to visual sight, רָאָה (ra’ah) is often used in reference to cognitive processes and mental observation. See the note on “Consider” at 2:20.

[36:3]  ³¹ tn Heb “lip of the tongue.”

[36:15]  ³² tn Heb “cause you to hear.”

[36:15]  ³³ tc The MT reads תַכְשִׁלִי (takhshiliy), a metathesis for תַשְׁכִלִי (tashkhiliy) from the root שָׁכַל (shakhal) which is used in each of the previous verses.