Jeremiah 20:4

20:4 For the Lord says, ‘I will make both you and your friends terrified of what will happen to you. 1  You will see all of them die by the swords of their enemies. 2  I will hand all the people of Judah over to the king of Babylon. He will carry some of them away into exile in Babylon and he will kill others of them with the sword.

Jeremiah 46:10

46:10 But that day belongs to the Lord God who rules over all. 3 

It is the day when he will pay back his enemies. 4 

His sword will devour them until its appetite is satisfied!

It will drink their blood until it is full! 5 

For the Lord God who rules over all 6  will offer them up as a sacrifice

in the land of the north by the Euphrates River.

1 tn Heb “I will make you an object of terror to both you and your friends.”

2 tn Heb “And they will fall by the sword of their enemies and [with] your eyes seeing [it].”

3 tn Heb “the Lord Yahweh of armies.” See the study note at 2:19 for the translation and significance of this title for God.

4 sn Most commentators think that this is a reference to the Lord exacting vengeance on Pharaoh Necho for killing Josiah, carrying Jehoahaz off into captivity, and exacting heavy tribute on Judah in 609 b.c. (2 Kgs 23:29, 33-35).

5 tn Or more paraphrastically, “he will kill them/ until he has exacted full vengeance”; Heb “The sword will eat and be sated; it will drink its fill of their blood.”

sn This passage is, of course, highly figurative. The Lord does not have a literal “sword,” but he uses agents of destruction like the Assyrian armies (called his “rod” in Isa 10:5-6) and the Babylonian armies (called his war club in Jer 51:20) to wreak vengeance on his foes. Likewise, swords do not “eat” or “drink.” What is meant here is that God will use this battle against the Egyptians to kill off many Egyptians until his vengeance is fully satisfied.

6 tn Heb “the Lord Yahweh of armies.” See the study note at 2:19 for the translation and significance of this title for God.