Yeremia 10:21-23

10:21 For our leaders ¹  are stupid.

They have not sought the Lord’s advice. ² 

So they do not act wisely,

and the people they are responsible for ³  have all been scattered.

10:22 Listen! News is coming even now. ⁴ 

The rumble of a great army is heard approaching ⁵  from a land in the north. ⁶ 

It is coming to turn the towns of Judah into rubble,

places where only jackals live.

10:23 Lord, we know that people do not control their own destiny. ⁷ 

It is not in their power to determine what will happen to them. ⁸ 

[10:21]  ¹ tn Heb “the shepherds.”

[10:21]  ² tn Heb “They have not sought the Lord.”

[10:21]  sn The idiom translated sought the Lord’s advice quite commonly refers to inquiring for the Lord’s guidance through a prophet. See for example Exod 18:15; 1 Sam 9:9; 1 Kgs 22:8. It would not exclude consulting the law.

[10:21]  ³ tn Heb “all their flock (or “pasturage”).”

[10:21]  sn This verse uses the figure of rulers as shepherds and the people they ruled as sheep. It is a common figure in the Bible. See Ezek 34 for an extended development of this metaphor.

[10:22]  ⁴ tn Heb “The sound of a report, behold, it is coming.”

[10:22]  ⁵ tn Heb “ coming, even a great quaking.”

[10:22]  ⁶ sn Compare Jer 6:22.

[10:23]  ⁷ tn Heb “Not to the man his way.” For the nuance of “fate, destiny, or the way things turn out” for the Hebrew word “way” see Hag 1:5, Isa 40:27 and probably Ps 49:13 (cf. KBL 218 s.v. דֶּרֶךְ 5). For the idea of “control” or “hold in one’s power” for the preposition “to” see Ps 3:8 (cf. BDB 513 s.v. לְ 5.b[a]).

[10:23]  ⁸ tn Heb “Not to a man the walking and the establishing his step.”