Yeremia 6:25

6:25 Do not go out into the countryside.

Do not travel on the roads.

For the enemy is there with sword in hand. ¹ 

They are spreading terror everywhere.” ² 

Yeremia 49:17

49:17 “Edom will become an object of horror.

All who pass by it will be filled with horror;

they will hiss out their scorn

because of all the disasters that have happened to it. ³ 

Yeremia 50:23

50:23 Babylon hammered the whole world to pieces.

But see how that ‘hammer’ has been broken and shattered! ⁴ 

See what an object of horror

Babylon has become among the nations!

Yeremia 51:37

51:37 Babylon will become a heap of ruins.

Jackals will make their home there. ⁵ 

It will become an object of horror and of hissing scorn,

a place where no one lives. ⁶ 

[6:25]  ¹ tn Heb “For the enemy has a sword.”

[6:25]  ² tn Heb “Terror is all around!”

[49:17]  ³ sn This verse is very similar to Jer 19:8 where the same judgment is pronounced on Jerusalem. For the meaning of some of the terms here (“hiss out their scorn” and “all the disasters that have happened to it”) see the notes on that verse.

[50:23]  ⁴ tn Heb “How broken and shattered is the hammer of all the earth!” The “hammer” is a metaphor for Babylon who was God’s war club to shatter the nations and destroy kingdoms just like Assyria is represented in Isa 10:5 as a rod and a war club. Some readers, however, might not pick up on the metaphor or identify the referent, so the translation has incorporated an identification of the metaphor and the referent within it. “See how” and “See what” are an attempt to capture the nuance of the Hebrew particle אֵיךְ (’ekh) which here expresses an exclamation of satisfaction in a taunt song (cf. BDB 32 s.v. אֵיךְ 2 and compare usage in Isa 14:4, 12; Jer 50:23).

[51:37]  ⁵ tn Heb “a heap of ruins, a haunt for jackals.” Compare 9:11.

[51:37]  ⁶ tn Heb “without an inhabitant.”