Yeremia 5:15-17
Konteks5:15 The Lord says, 1 “Listen, 2 nation of Israel! 3
I am about to bring a nation from far away to attack you.
It will be a nation that was founded long ago
and has lasted for a long time.
It will be a nation whose language you will not know.
Its people will speak words that you will not be able to understand.
5:16 All of its soldiers are strong and mighty. 4
Their arrows will send you to your grave. 5
5:17 They will eat up your crops and your food.
They will kill off 6 your sons and your daughters.
They will eat up your sheep and your cattle.
They will destroy your vines and your fig trees. 7
Their weapons will batter down 8
the fortified cities you trust in.
Yeremia 16:16-18
Konteks16:16 But for now I, the Lord, say: 9 “I will send many enemies who will catch these people like fishermen. After that I will send others who will hunt them out like hunters from all the mountains, all the hills, and the crevices in the rocks. 10 16:17 For I see everything they do. Their wicked ways are not hidden from me. Their sin is not hidden away where I cannot see it. 11 16:18 Before I restore them 12 I will punish them in full 13 for their sins and the wrongs they have done. For they have polluted my land with the lifeless statues of their disgusting idols. They have filled the land I have claimed as my own 14 with their detestable idols.” 15
[5:15] 1 tn Heb “oracle of the
[5:15] 3 tn Heb “house of Israel.”
[5:16] 4 tn Heb “All of them are mighty warriors.”
[5:16] 5 tn Heb “his quiver [is] an open grave.” The order of the lines has been reversed to make the transition from “nation” to “their arrows” easier.
[5:17] 7 tn Or “eat up your grapes and figs”; Heb “eat up your vines and your fig trees.”
[5:17] sn It was typical for an army in time of war in the ancient Near East not only to eat up the crops but to destroy the means of further production.
[5:17] 8 tn Heb “They will beat down with the sword.” The term “sword” is a figure of speech (synecdoche) for military weapons in general. Siege ramps, not swords, beat down city walls; swords kill people, not city walls.
[16:16] 9 tn Heb “Oracle of the
[16:16] 10 tn Heb “Behold I am about to send for many fishermen and they will catch them. And after that I will send for many hunters and they will hunt them from every mountain and from every hill and from the cracks in the rocks.”
[16:16] sn The picture of rounding up the population for destruction and exile is also seen in Amos 4:2 and Hab 1:14-17.
[16:17] 11 tn Heb “For my eyes are upon all their ways. They are not hidden from before me. And their sin is not hidden away from before my eyes.”
[16:18] 12 tn Heb “First.” Many English versions and commentaries delete this word because it is missing from the Greek version and is considered a gloss added by a postexilic editor who is said to be responsible also for vv. 14-16. This is not the place to resolve issues of authorship and date. It is the task of the translator to translate the “original” which in this case is the MT supported by the other versions. The word here refers to order in rank or order of events. Compare Gen 38:28; 1 Kgs 18:25. Here allusion is made to the restoration previously mentioned. First in order of events is the punishment of destruction and exile, then restoration.
[16:18] 13 tn Heb “double.” However, usage in Deut 15:18 and probably Isa 40:2 argues for “full compensation.” This is supported also by usage in a tablet from Alalakh in Syria. See P. C. Craigie, P. H. Kelley, J. F. Drinkard, Jeremiah 1-25 (WBC), 218, for bibliography.
[16:18] 14 tn Heb “my inheritance.”
[16:18] sn For earlier references to the term used here see Jer 2:7 where it applies as here to the land, Jer 10:16; 12:8-9 where it applies to the people, and Jer 12:7 where it applies to the temple.
[16:18] 15 tn Many of the English versions take “lifeless statues of their detestable idols” with “filled” as a compound object. This follows the Masoretic punctuation but violates usage. The verb “fill” never takes an object preceded by the preposition בְּ (bet).
