Yeremia 27:17

27:17 Do not listen to them. Be subject to the king of Babylon. Then you ¹  will continue to live. Why should this city be made a pile of rubble?’” ² 

Yeremia 38:21

38:21 But if you refuse to surrender, the Lord has shown me a vision of what will happen. Here is what I saw:

Yeremia 41:17

41:17 They set out to go to Egypt to get away from the Babylonians, ³  but stopped at Geruth Kimham ⁴  near Bethlehem. ⁵ 

Yeremia 43:13

43:13 He will demolish the sacred pillars in the temple of the sun ⁶  in Egypt and will burn down the temples of the gods of Egypt.”’”

Yeremia 47:6

47:6 How long will you cry out, ⁷  ‘Oh, sword of the Lord,

how long will it be before you stop killing? ⁸ 

Go back into your sheath!

Stay there and rest!’ ⁹ 

Yeremia 49:38

49:38 I will establish my sovereignty over Elam. ¹⁰ 

I will destroy their king and their leaders,” ¹¹  says the Lord. ¹² 

[27:17]  ¹ tn The imperative with vav (ו) here and in v. 12 after another imperative are a good example of the use of the imperative to introduce a consequence. (See GKC 324-25 §110.f and see Gen 42:18. This is a common verb in this idiom.)

[27:17]  ² tn According to E. W. Bullinger (Figures of Speech, 954) both this question and the one in v. 13 are examples of rhetorical questions of prohibition / “don’t let this city be made a pile of rubble.”

[41:17]  ³ tn Heb “Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for explanation.

[41:17]  ⁴ sn Geruth Kimham is nowhere else mentioned in the Bible and its precise location is unknown. Many commentators relate the second part of the name to the name of the son of David’s benefactor when he fled from Absalom (2 Sam 19:38-39) and see this as a reference to an estate that David assigned this son as reward for his father’s largess. Gibeon was about six miles northwest of Jerusalem and Benjamin is approximately the same distance southwest of it. Hence, the people mentioned here had not traveled all that far.

[41:17]  ⁵ map For location see Map5 B1; Map7 E2; Map8 E2; Map10 B4.

[43:13]  ⁶ sn It is generally agreed that the temple of the sun was located in Heliopolis, which is elsewhere referred to as On (cf. Gen 41:45). It was the center for the worship of Amon-Re, the Egyptian sun god, and was famous for its obelisks (conical shaped pillars) dedicated to that god. It was located about 6 miles (10 km) northeast of modern-day Cairo.

[47:6]  ⁷ tn The words “How long will you cry out” are not in the text but some such introduction seems necessary because the rest of the speech assumes a personal subject.

[47:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “before you are quiet/at rest.”

[47:6]  ⁹ sn The passage is highly figurative. The sword of the Lord, which is itself a figure of the destructive agency of the enemy armies, is here addressed as a person and is encouraged in rhetorical questions (the questions are designed to dissuade) to “be quiet,” “be at rest,” “be silent,” all of which is designed to get the Lord to call off the destruction against the Philistines.

[49:38]  ¹⁰ tn Or “I will sit in judgment over Elam”; Heb “I will set up my throne in Elam.” Commentators are divided over whether this refers to a king sitting in judgment over his captured enemies or whether it refers to formally establishing his rule over the country. Those who argue for the former idea point to the supposed parallels in 1:15 (which the present translation understands not to refer to this but to setting up siege) and 43:8-13. The parallelism in the verse here, however, argues that it refers to the Lord taking over the reins of government by destroying their former leaders.

[49:38]  ¹¹ tn Heb “I will destroy king and leaders from there.”

[49:38]  ¹² tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”