Yeremia 4:20

4:20 I see ¹  one destruction after another taking place,

so that the whole land lies in ruins.

I see our ²  tents suddenly destroyed,

their ³  curtains torn down in a mere instant. ⁴ 

Yeremia 50:24

50:24 I set a trap for you, Babylon;

you were caught before you knew it.

You fought against me.

So you were found and captured. ⁵ 

Yeremia 50:1

Judgment Against Babylon

50:1 The Lord spoke concerning Babylon and the land of Babylonia ⁶  through the prophet Jeremiah. ⁷ 

1 Samuel 4:12-18

Eli Dies

4:12 On that day ⁸  a Benjaminite ran from the battle lines and came to Shiloh. His clothes were torn and dirt was on his head. 4:13 When he arrived in Shiloh, Eli was sitting in his chair watching by the side of ⁹  the road, for he was very worried ¹⁰  about the ark of God. As the man entered the city to give his report, ¹¹  the whole city cried out.

4:14 When Eli heard the outcry, ¹²  he said, “What is this commotion?” ¹³  The man quickly came and told Eli. 4:15 Now Eli was ninety-eight years old and his eyes looked straight ahead; ¹⁴  he was unable to see.

4:16 The man said to Eli, “I am the one who came from the battle lines! Just today I fled from the battle lines!” Eli ¹⁵  asked, “How did things go, my son?” 4:17 The messenger replied, “Israel has fled from ¹⁶  the Philistines! The army has suffered a great defeat! Your two sons, Hophni and Phineas, are dead! The ark of God has been captured!”

4:18 When he mentioned the ark of God, Eli ¹⁷  fell backward from his chair beside the gate. He broke his neck and died, for he ¹⁸  was old and heavy. He had judged Israel for forty years.

1 Samuel 4:2

4:2 The Philistines arranged their forces to fight ¹⁹  Israel. As the battle spread out, ²⁰  Israel was defeated by ²¹  the Philistines, who ²²  killed about four thousand men in the battle line in the field.

1 Samuel 18:19

18:19 When the time came for Merab, Saul’s daughter, to be given to David, she instead was given in marriage to Adriel, who was from Meholah.

1 Samuel 18:2

18:2 Saul retained David ²³  on that day and did not allow him to return to his father’s house.

1 Samuel 30:6

30:6 David was very upset, for the men ²⁴  were thinking of stoning him; ²⁵  each man grieved bitterly ²⁶  over his sons and daughters. But David drew strength from the Lord his God.

Ester 3:13-15

3:13 Letters were sent by the runners to all the king’s provinces stating that ²⁷  they should destroy, kill, and annihilate all the Jews, from youth to elderly, both women and children, ²⁸  on a particular day, namely the thirteenth day ²⁹  of the twelfth month (that is, the month of Adar), and to loot and plunder their possessions. 3:14 A copy of this edict was to be presented as law throughout every province; it was to be made known to all the inhabitants, ³⁰  so that they would be prepared for this day. 3:15 The messengers ³¹  scurried forth ³²  with the king’s order. ³³  The edict was issued in Susa the citadel. While the king and Haman sat down to drink, the city of Susa was in an uproar! ³⁴ 

Ester 8:10

8:10 Mordecai ³⁵  wrote in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed it with the king’s signet ring. He then sent letters by couriers on horses, who rode royal horses that were very swift.

Ester 8:14

8:14 The couriers who were riding the royal horses went forth with the king’s edict without delay. ³⁶  And the law was presented in Susa the citadel as well.

Ayub 9:25

Renewed Complaint

9:25 “My days ³⁷  are swifter than a runner, ³⁸ 

they speed by without seeing happiness.

[4:20]  ¹ tn The words, “I see” are not in the text here or at the beginning of the third line. They are supplied in the translation to show that this is Jeremiah’s vision of what will happen as a result of the invasion announced in 4:5-9, 11-17a.

[4:20]  ² tn Heb “my.” This is probably not a reference to Jeremiah’s own tents since he foresees the destruction of the whole land. Jeremiah so identifies with the plight of his people that he sees the destruction of their tents as though they were his very own. It would probably lead to confusion to translate literally and it is not uncommon in Hebrew laments for the community or its representative to speak of the community as an “I.” See for example the interchange between first singular and first plural pronouns in Ps 44:4-8.

[4:20]  ³ tn Heb “my.”

[4:20]  ⁴ tn It is not altogether clear what Jeremiah intends by the use of this metaphor. In all likelihood he means that the defenses of Israel’s cities and towns have offered no more resistance than nomads’ tents. However, in light of the fact that the word “tent” came to be used generically for a person’s home (cf. 1 Kgs 8:66; 12:16), it is possible that Jeremiah is here referring to the destruction of their homes and the resultant feeling of homelessness and loss of even elementary protection. Given the lack of certainty the present translation is rather literal here.

[50:24]  ⁵ tn Heb “You were found [or found out] and captured because you fought against the Lord.” The same causal connection is maintained by the order of the translation but it puts more emphasis on the cause and connects it also more closely with the first half of the verse. The first person is used because the Lord is speaking of himself first in the first person “I set” and then in the third. The first person has been maintained throughout. Though it would be awkward, perhaps one could retain the reference to the Lord by translating, “I, the Lord.”

[50:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “the land of the Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for explanation.

[50:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “The word which the Lord spoke concerning Babylon, concerning the land of the Chaldeans by the hand of Jeremiah the prophet.”

[4:12]  ⁸ tn Or perhaps, “the same day.” On this use of the demonstrative pronoun see Joüon 2:532 §143.f.

[4:13]  ⁹ tc Read with many medieval Hebrew mss, the Qere, and much versional evidence יַד (yad, “hand”) rather than MT יַךְ (yakh).

[4:13]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “his heart was trembling.”

[4:13]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and the man came to report in the city.”

[4:14]  ¹² tn Heb “the sound of the cry.”

[4:14]  ¹³ tn Heb “the sound of this commotion.”

[4:15]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “were set” or “were fixed,” i.e., without vision.

[4:16]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Eli) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[4:17]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “before.”

[4:18]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Eli) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[4:18]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “the man.”

[4:2]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “to meet.”

[4:2]  ²⁰ tn The MT has וַתִּטֹּשׁ (vattittosh), from the root נטשׁ (ntsh). This verb normally means “to leave,” “to forsake,” or “to permit,” but such an idea does not fit this context very well. Many scholars have suspected that the text originally read either וַתֵּט (vattet, “and it spread out”), from the root נטה (nth), or וַתִּקֶשׁ (vattiqesh, “and it grew fierce”), from the root קשׂה (qsh). The former suggestion is apparently supported by the LXX ἔκλινεν (eklinen, “it inclined”) and is adopted in the translation.

[4:2]  ²¹ tn Heb “before.”

[4:2]  ²² tn Heb “the Philistines, and they killed.” The pronoun “they” has been translated as a relative pronoun (“who”) to make it clear to the English reader that the Philistines were the ones who did the killing.

[18:2]  ²³ tn Heb “him”; the referent (David) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[30:6]  ²⁴ tn Heb “people.”

[30:6]  ²⁵ tn Heb “said to stone him.”

[30:6]  ²⁶ tn Heb “for bitter was the soul of all the people, each one.”

[3:13]  ²⁷ tn The words “stating that” are not in the Hebrew text but have been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[3:13]  ²⁸ tn Heb “children and women.” The translation follows contemporary English idiom, which reverses the order.

[3:13]  ²⁹ tc The LXX does not include the words “on the thirteenth day.”

[3:14]  ³⁰ tn Heb “peoples” (so NASB, NRSV).

[3:15]  ³¹ tn Heb “runners.” So also in 8:10, 14. Cf. NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV “couriers.”

[3:15]  ³² tn Or “went forth in haste” (so ASV).

[3:15]  ³³ tn Heb “with the word of the king.”

[3:15]  ³⁴ sn The city of Susa was in an uproar. This final statement of v. 15 is a sad commentary on the pathetic disregard of despots for the human misery and suffering that they sometimes inflict on those who are helpless to resist their power. Here, while common people braced for the reckless loss of life and property that was about to begin, the perpetrators went about their mundane activities as though nothing of importance was happening.

[8:10]  ³⁵ tn Heb “He”; the referent (Mordecai) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[8:14]  ³⁶ tn Heb “making haste and hurrying”; KJV, ASV “being hastened and pressed.”

[9:25]  ³⁷ tn The text has “and my days” following the thoughts in the previous section.

[9:25]  ³⁸ sn Job returns to the thought of the brevity of his life (7:6). But now the figure is the swift runner instead of the weaver’s shuttle.