Yeremia 10:22

10:22 Listen! News is coming even now. ¹ 

The rumble of a great army is heard approaching ²  from a land in the north. ³ 

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

places where only jackals live.

Yeremia 46:5

46:5 What do I see?” ⁴  says the Lord. ⁵ 

“The soldiers ⁶  are terrified.

They are retreating.

They have been defeated.

They are overcome with terror; ⁷ 

they desert quickly

without looking back.

Yeremia 49:24

49:24 The people of Damascus will lose heart and turn to flee.

Panic will grip them.

Pain and anguish will seize them

like a woman in labor.

[10:22]  ¹ tn Heb “The sound of a report, behold, it is coming.”

[10:22]  ² tn Heb “ coming, even a great quaking.”

[10:22]  ³ sn Compare Jer 6:22.

[46:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “Why do I see?” The rendering is that of J. A. Thompson (Jeremiah [NICOT], 685, 88) and J. Bright (Jeremiah [AB], 301; TEV; NIV). The question is not asking for information but is expressing surprise or wonder (see E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 951).

[46:5]  sn The passage takes an unexpected turn at v. 5. After ironically summoning the Egyptian army to battle, the Lord rhetorically expresses his surprise that they are so completely routed and defeated.

[46:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “oracle of the Lord.” This phrase, which is part of a messenger formula (i.e., that the words that are spoken are from him), are actually at the end of the verse. They have been put here for better poetic balance and to better identify the “I.”

[46:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “Their soldiers.” These words are actually at the midpoint of the stanza as the subject of the third of the five verbs. However, as G. L. Keown, P. J. Scalise, and T. G. Smothers (Jeremiah 26-52 [WBC], 291) note, this is the subject of all five verbs “are terrified,” “are retreating,” “have been defeated,” “have run away,” and “have not looked back.” The subject is put at the front to avoid an unidentified “they.”

[46:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “terror is all around.”