Yeremia 25:9
Konteks25:9 So I, the Lord, affirm that 1 I will send for all the peoples of the north 2 and my servant, 3 King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants and all the nations that surround it. I will utterly destroy 4 this land, its inhabitants, and all the nations that surround it 5 and make them everlasting ruins. 6 I will make them objects of horror and hissing scorn. 7
Yeremia 50:3
Konteks50:3 For a nation from the north 8 will attack Babylon.
It will lay her land waste.
People and animals will flee out of it.
No one will inhabit it.’
Yeremia 50:9
Konteks50:9 For I will rouse into action and bring against Babylon
a host of mighty nations 9 from the land of the north.
They will set up their battle lines against her.
They will come from the north and capture her. 10
Their arrows will be like a skilled soldier 11
who does not return from the battle empty-handed. 12
[25:9] 1 tn Heb “Oracle of the
[25:9] 2 sn The many allusions to trouble coming from the north are now clarified: it is the armies of Babylon which included within it contingents from many nations. See 1:14, 15; 4:6; 6:1, 22; 10:22; 13:20 for earlier allusions.
[25:9] 3 sn Nebuchadnezzar is called the
[25:9] 4 tn The word used here was used in the early years of Israel’s conquest for the action of killing all the men, women, and children in the cities of Canaan, destroying all their livestock, and burning their cities down. This policy was intended to prevent Israel from being corrupted by paganism (Deut 7:2; 20:17-18; Josh 6:18, 21). It was to be extended to any city that led Israel away from worshiping God (Deut 13:15) and any Israelite who brought an idol into his house (Deut 7:26). Here the policy is being directed against Judah as well as against her neighbors because of her persistent failure to heed God’s warnings through the prophets. For further usage of this term in application to foreign nations in the book of Jeremiah see 50:21, 26; 51:3.
[25:9] 5 tn Heb “will utterly destroy them.” The referent (this land, its inhabitants, and the nations surrounding it) has been specified in the translation for clarity, since the previous “them” referred to Nebuchadnezzar and his armies.
[25:9] sn This is essentially the introduction to the “judgment on the nations” in vv. 15-29 which begins with Jerusalem and Judah (v. 18) and ultimately ends with Babylon itself (“Sheshach” in v. 26; see note there for explanation of the term).
[25:9] 6 sn The Hebrew word translated “everlasting” is the word often translated “eternal.” However, it sometimes has a more limited time reference. For example it refers to the lifetime of a person who became a “lasting slave” to another person (see Exod 21:6; Deut 15:17). It is also used to refer to the long life wished for a king (1 Kgs 1:31; Neh 2:3). The time frame here is to be qualified at least with reference to Judah and Jerusalem as seventy years (see 29:10-14 and compare v. 12).
[25:9] 7 tn Heb “I will make them an object of horror and a hissing and everlasting ruins.” The sentence has been broken up to separate the last object from the first two which are of slightly different connotation, i.e., they denote the reaction to the latter.
[25:9] sn Compare Jer 18:16 and 19:8 and the study note at 18:16.
[50:3] 8 sn A nation from the north refers to Medo-Persia which at the time of the conquest of Babylon in 539
[50:9] 9 sn Some of these are named in Jer 51:27-28.
[50:9] 10 tn Heb “She will be captured from there (i.e., from the north).”
[50:9] 11 tc Read Heb ַָמשְׂכִּיל (moskil) with a number of Hebrew
[50:9] 12 tn Or more freely, “Their arrows will be as successful at hitting their mark // as a skilled soldier always returns from battle with plunder.”
[50:9] sn I.e., none of the arrows misses its mark.