Yeremia 10:21-22

10:21 For our leaders ¹  are stupid.

They have not sought the Lord’s advice. ² 

So they do not act wisely,

and the people they are responsible for ³  have all been scattered.

10:22 Listen! News is coming even now. ⁴ 

The rumble of a great army is heard approaching ⁵  from a land in the north. ⁶ 

It is coming to turn the towns of Judah into rubble,

places where only jackals live.

[10:21]  ¹ tn Heb “the shepherds.”

[10:21]  ² tn Heb “They have not sought the Lord.”

[10:21]  sn The idiom translated sought the Lord’s advice quite commonly refers to inquiring for the Lord’s guidance through a prophet. See for example Exod 18:15; 1 Sam 9:9; 1 Kgs 22:8. It would not exclude consulting the law.

[10:21]  ³ tn Heb “all their flock (or “pasturage”).”

[10:21]  sn This verse uses the figure of rulers as shepherds and the people they ruled as sheep. It is a common figure in the Bible. See Ezek 34 for an extended development of this metaphor.

[10:22]  ⁴ tn Heb “The sound of a report, behold, it is coming.”

[10:22]  ⁵ tn Heb “ coming, even a great quaking.”

[10:22]  ⁶ sn Compare Jer 6:22.