Yeremia 9:16

9:16 I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their ancestors ¹  have known anything about. I will send people chasing after them with swords ²  until I have destroyed them.’” ³ 

Yeremia 9:19

9:19 For the sound of wailing is soon to be heard in Zion.

They will wail, ⁴  ‘We are utterly ruined! ⁵  We are completely disgraced!

For our houses have been torn down

and we must leave our land.’” ⁶ 

[9:16]  ¹ tn Heb “fathers.”

[9:16]  ² tn Heb “I will send the sword after them.” The sword here is probably not completely literal but refers to death by violent means, including death by the sword.

[9:16]  ³ sn He will destroy them but not completely. See Jer 5:18; 30:11; 46:28.

[9:19]  ⁴ tn The words “They will wail” are not in the text. They are supplied in the translation to make clear that this is the wailing that will be heard.

[9:19]  sn The destruction is still in the future, but it is presented graphically as though it had already taken place.

[9:19]  ⁵ tn Heb “How we are ruined!”

[9:19]  ⁶ tn The order of these two lines has been reversed for English stylistic reasons. The text reads in Hebrew “because we have left our land because they have thrown down our dwellings.” The two clauses offer parallel reasons for the cries “How ruined we are! [How] we are greatly disgraced!” But the first line must contain a prophetic perfect (because the lament comes from Jerusalem) and the second a perfect referring to a destruction that is itself future. This seems the only way to render the verse that would not be misleading.