Yeremia 12:17

12:17 But I will completely uproot and destroy any of those nations that will not pay heed,’” ¹  says the Lord.

Yeremia 25:12

25:12 “‘But when the seventy years are over, I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation ²  for their sins. I will make the land of Babylon ³  an everlasting ruin. ⁴  I, the Lord, affirm it! ⁵ 

[12:17]  ¹ tn Heb “But if they will not listen, I will uproot that nation, uprooting and destroying.” IBHS 590-91 §35.3.2d is likely right in seeing the double infinitive construction here as an intensifying infinitive followed by an adverbial infinitive qualifying the goal of the main verb, “uproot it in such a way as to destroy it.” However, to translate that way “literally” would not be very idiomatic in contemporary English. The translation strives for the equivalent. Likewise, to translate using the conditional structure of the original seems to put the emphasis of the passage in its context on the wrong point.

[25:12]  ² tn Heb “that nation.”

[25:12]  ³ tn Heb “the land of the Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for the use of the term “Chaldeans.”

[25:12]  ⁴ tn Heb “I will visit upon the king of Babylon and upon that nation, oracle of the Lord, their iniquity even upon the land of the Chaldeans and I will make it everlasting ruins.” The sentence has been restructured to avoid ambiguity and to conform the style more to contemporary English.

[25:12]  sn Compare Isa 13:19-22 and Jer 50:39-40.

[25:12]  ⁵ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”