Yeremia 19:7

19:7 In this place I will thwart ¹  the plans of the people of Judah and Jerusalem. I will deliver them over to the power of their enemies who are seeking to kill them. They will die by the sword ²  at the hands of their enemies. ³  I will make their dead bodies food for the birds and wild beasts to eat.

Yeremia 20:4

20:4 For the Lord says, ‘I will make both you and your friends terrified of what will happen to you. ⁴  You will see all of them die by the swords of their enemies. ⁵  I will hand all the people of Judah over to the king of Babylon. He will carry some of them away into exile in Babylon and he will kill others of them with the sword.

Yeremia 44:12

44:12 I will see to it that all the Judean remnant that was determined to go ⁶  and live in the land of Egypt will be destroyed. Here in the land of Egypt they will fall in battle ⁷  or perish from starvation. People of every class ⁸  will die in war or from starvation. They will become an object of horror and ridicule, an example of those who have been cursed and that people use in pronouncing a curse. ⁹ 

[19:7]  ¹ sn There is perhaps a two-fold wordplay in the use of this word. One involves the sound play with the word for “jar,” which has been explained as a water decanter. The word here is בַקֹּתִי (vaqqoti). The word for jar in v. 1 is בַקְבֻּק (vaqbuq). There may also be a play on the literal use of this word to refer to the laying waste or destruction of a land (see Isa 24:3; Nah 2:3). Many modern commentaries think that at this point Jeremiah emptied out the contents of the jar, symbolizing the “emptying” out of their plans.

[19:7]  ² sn This refers to the fact that they will die in battle. The sword would be only one of the weapons that strikes them down. It is one of the trio of “sword,” “starvation,” and “disease” which were the concomitants of war referred to so often in the book of Jeremiah. Starvation is referred to in v. 9.

[19:7]  ³ tn Heb “I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies and in the hand of those who seek their soul [= life].” In this context the two are meant as obvious qualifications of one entity, not two. Some rearrangement of the qualifiers had to be made in the English translation to convey this.

[20:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “I will make you an object of terror to both you and your friends.”

[20:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “And they will fall by the sword of their enemies and [with] your eyes seeing [it].”

[44:12]  ⁶ tn Heb “they set their face to go.” Compare 44:11 and 42:14 and see the translator’s note at 42:15.

[44:12]  ⁷ tn Heb “fall by the sword.”

[44:12]  ⁸ tn Or “All of them without distinction,” or “All of them from the least important to the most important”; Heb “From the least to the greatest.” See the translator’s note on 42:1 for the meaning of this idiom.

[44:12]  ⁹ tn See the study note on 24:9 and the usage in 29:22 for the meaning and significance of this last phrase.

[44:12]  sn See Jer 42:18 for parallel usage.