Yeremia 8:17

8:17 The Lord says, ¹ 

“Yes indeed, ²  I am sending an enemy against you

that will be like poisonous snakes which cannot be charmed away. ³ 

And they will inflict fatal wounds on you.” ⁴ 

Yeremia 39:10

39:10 But he ⁵  left behind in the land of Judah some of the poor people who owned nothing. He gave them fields and vineyards at that time.

Yeremia 48:7

48:7 “Moab, you trust in the things you do and in your riches.

So you too will be conquered.

Your god Chemosh ⁶  will go into exile ⁷ 

along with his priests and his officials.

Yeremia 50:13

50:13 After I vent my wrath on it Babylon will be uninhabited. ⁸ 

It will be totally desolate.

All who pass by will be filled with horror and will hiss out their scorn

because of all the disasters that have happened to it. ⁹ 

Yeremia 52:11

52:11 He had Zedekiah’s eyes put out and had him bound in chains. ¹⁰  Then the king of Babylon had him led off to Babylon and he was imprisoned there until the day he died.

[8:17]  ¹ tn These words which are at the end of the Hebrew verse are brought forward to show at the outset the shift in speaker.

[8:17]  ² tn Heb “Indeed [or For] behold!” The translation is intended to convey some of the connection that is suggested by the Hebrew particle כִּי (ki) at the beginning of the verse.

[8:17]  ³ tn Heb “I am sending against you snakes, poisonous ones which cannot be charmed.” In the light of the context literal snakes are scarcely meant. So the metaphor is turned into a simile to prevent possible confusion. For a similar metaphorical use of animals for enemies see 5:6.

[8:17]  ⁴ tn Heb “they will bite you.” There does not appear to be any way to avoid the possible confusion that literal snakes are meant here except to paraphrase. Possibly one could say “And they will attack you and ‘bite’ you,” but the enclosing of the word “bite” in quotations might lead to even further confusion.

[39:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard.” However, the subject is clear from the preceding and contemporary English style would normally avoid repeating the proper name and title.

[48:7]  ⁶ sn Chemosh was the national god of Moab (see also Numb 21:29). Child sacrifice appears to have been a part of his worship (2 Kgs 3:27). Solomon built a high place in Jerusalem for him (1 Kgs 11:7), and he appears to have been worshiped in Israel until Josiah tore that high place down (2 Kgs 23:13).

[48:7]  ⁷ sn The practice of carrying off the gods of captive nations has already been mentioned in the study note on 43:12. See also Isa 46:1-2 noted there.

[50:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “From [or Because of] the wrath of the Lord it will be uninhabited.” The causal connection is spelled out more clearly and actively and the first person has been used because the speaker is the Lord. The referent “it” has been spelled out clearly from the later occurrence in the verse, “all who pass by Babylon.”

[50:13]  ⁹ sn Compare Jer 49:17 and the study note there and see also the study notes on 18:16 and 19:8.

[52:11]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “fetters of bronze.” The more generic “chains” is used in the translation because “fetters” is a word unfamiliar to most modern readers.