Yeremia 30:13

30:13 There is no one to plead your cause.

There are no remedies for your wounds. ¹ 

There is no healing for you.

Mikha 1:9

1:9 For Samaria’s ²  disease ³  is incurable.

It has infected ⁴  Judah;

it has spread to ⁵  the leadership ⁶  of my people

and has even contaminated Jerusalem! ⁷ 

[30:13]  ¹ tc The translation of these first two lines follows the redivision of the lines suggested in NIV and NRSV rather than that of the Masoretes who read, “There is no one who pleads your cause with reference to [your] wound.”

[30:13]  sn This verse exhibits a mixed metaphor of an advocate pleading someone’s case (cf., Jer 5:28; 22:18) and of a physician applying medicine to wounds and sores resulting from them (see, e.g., Jer 8:18 for the latter metaphor). Zion’s sins are beyond defense and the wounds inflicted upon her beyond healing. However, God, himself, in his own time will forgive her sins (Jer 31:34; 33:8) and heal her wounds (Jer 30:17).

[1:9]  ² tn Heb “her”; the referent (Samaria) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:9]  ³ tc The MT reads the plural “wounds”; the singular is read by the LXX, Syriac, and Vg.

[1:9]  tn Or “wound.”

[1:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “come to.”

[1:9]  ⁵ tn Or “reached.”

[1:9]  ⁶ tn Heb “the gate.” Kings and civic leaders typically conducted important business at the city gate (see 1 Kgs 22:10 for an example), and the term is understood here to refer by metonymy to the leadership who would be present at the gate.

[1:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “to Jerusalem.” The expression “it has contaminated” do not appear in the Hebrew text, but have been supplied to fill out the parallelism with the preceding line.

[1:9]  map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.