Yeremia 2:18

2:18 What good will it do you ¹  then ²  to go down to Egypt

to seek help from the Egyptians? ³ 

What good will it do you ⁴  to go over to Assyria

to seek help from the Assyrians? ⁵ 

Yeremia 41:13

41:13 When all the people that Ishmael had taken captive saw ⁶  Johanan son of Kareah and all the army officers with him, they were glad.

Yeremia 52:32

52:32 He spoke kindly to him and gave him a more prestigious position than ⁷  the other kings who were with him in Babylon.

[2:18]  ¹ tn Heb “What to you to the way.”

[2:18]  ² tn The introductory particle וְעַתָּה (vÿ’attah, “and now”) carries a logical, not temporal, connotation here (cf. BDB 274 s.v. עַתָּה 2.b).

[2:18]  ³ tn Heb “to drink water from the Shihor [a branch of the Nile].” The reference is to seeking help through political alliance with Egypt as opposed to trusting in God for help. This is an extension of the figure in 2:13.

[2:18]  ⁴ tn Heb “What to you to the way.”

[2:18]  ⁵ tn Heb “to drink water from the River [a common designation in biblical Hebrew for the Euphrates River].” This refers to seeking help through political alliance. See the preceding note.

[41:13]  ⁶ tn Heb “all the people who were with Ishmael.” However, this does not refer to his own troops but to those he had taken with him from Mizpah, i.e., the captives. The phrase is specifically clarified in the next verse, i.e. “the people whom Ishmael had taken captive from Mizpah.” Hence the phrase is translated here according to sense, not according to the literal wording.

[52:32]  ⁷ tn Heb “made his throne above the throne of