Yeremia 47:7

47:7 But how can it rest ¹ 

when I, the Lord, have ²  given it orders?

I have ordered it to attack

the people of Ashkelon and the seacoast. ³ 

Yeremia 51:13

51:13 “You who live along the rivers of Babylon, ⁴ 

the time of your end has come.

You who are rich in plundered treasure,

it is time for your lives to be cut off. ⁵ 

[47:7]  ¹ tn The reading here follows the Greek, Syriac, and Latin versions. The Hebrew text reads “how can you rest” as a continuation of the second person in v. 6.

[47:7]  ² tn Heb “When the Lord has.” The first person is again adopted because the Lord has been speaking.

[47:7]  ³ tn Heb “Against Ashkelon and the sea coast, there he has appointed it.” For the switch to the first person see the preceding translator’s note. “There” is poetical and redundant and the idea of “attacking” is implicit in “against.”

[51:13]  ⁴ sn Babylon was situated on the Euphrates River and was surrounded by canals (also called “rivers”).

[51:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “You who live upon [or beside] many waters, rich in treasures, your end has come, the cubit of your cutting off.” The sentence has been restructured and paraphrased to provide clarity for the average reader. The meaning of the last phrase is debated. For a discussion of the two options see W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah (Hermeneia), 2:423. Most modern commentaries and English versions see an allusion to the figure in Isa 38:12 where the reference is to the end of life compared to a tapestry which is suddenly cut off from the loom. Hence, NRSV renders the last line as “the thread of your life is cut” and TEV renders “its thread of life is cut.” That idea is accepted also in HALOT 141 s.v. בצע Qal.1.