46:5 What do I see?” 2 says the Lord. 3
“The soldiers 4 are terrified.
They are retreating.
They have been defeated.
They are overcome with terror; 5
they desert quickly
without looking back.
46:9 Go ahead and 6 charge into battle, you horsemen!
Drive furiously, you charioteers!
Let the soldiers march out into battle,
those from Ethiopia and Libya who carry shields,
and those from Lydia 7 who are armed with the bow. 8
49:22 Look! Like an eagle with outspread wings,
a nation will soar up and swoop down on Bozrah.
At that time the soldiers of Edom will be as fearful
as a woman in labor.” 9
50:14 “Take up your battle positions all around Babylon,
all you soldiers who are armed with bows. 10
Shoot 11 all your arrows at her! Do not hold any back! 12
For she has sinned against the Lord.
51:14 The Lord who rules over all 13 has solemnly sworn, 14
‘I will fill your land with enemy soldiers.
They will swarm over it like locusts. 15
They will raise up shouts of victory over it.’
1 tn Heb “the Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4.
2 tn Heb “Why do I see?” The rendering is that of J. A. Thompson (Jeremiah [NICOT], 685, 88) and J. Bright (Jeremiah [AB], 301; TEV; NIV). The question is not asking for information but is expressing surprise or wonder (see E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 951).
sn The passage takes an unexpected turn at v. 5. After ironically summoning the Egyptian army to battle, the
3 tn Heb “oracle of the
4 tn Heb “Their soldiers.” These words are actually at the midpoint of the stanza as the subject of the third of the five verbs. However, as G. L. Keown, P. J. Scalise, and T. G. Smothers (Jeremiah 26-52 [WBC], 291) note, this is the subject of all five verbs “are terrified,” “are retreating,” “have been defeated,” “have run away,” and “have not looked back.” The subject is put at the front to avoid an unidentified “they.”
5 tn Heb “terror is all around.”
6 tn The words “Go ahead and” are not in the text but are intended to suggest the ironical nature of the commands here. The
7 sn The peoples that are referred to here are all known to have been mercenaries in the army of Egypt (see Nah 3:9; Ezek 30:5). The place names in Hebrew are actually Cush, Put, and Lud. “Cush” has already been identified in Jer 13:23 as the region along the Nile south of Egypt most commonly referred to as Ethiopia. The identification of “Put” and “Lud” are both debated though it is generally felt that Put was a part of Libya and Lud is to be identified with Lydia in Asia Minor. For further discussion see M. J. Mellink, “Lud, Ludim” IDB 3:178, and T. O. Lambdin, “Put,” IDB 3:971.
8 tn Heb “who grasp and bend the bow.”
9 sn Compare Jer 48:40-41 for a similar prophecy about Moab. The parallelism here suggests that Bozrah, like Teman in v. 20, is a poetic equivalent for Edom.
10 tn Heb “all you who draw the bow.”
11 tc The verb here should probably be read as a Qal imperative יְרוּ (yÿru) from יָרָה (yarah) with a few Hebrew
12 tn Heb “Shoot at her! Don’t save any arrows!”
13 tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.” For an explanation of this rendering see the study note on 2:19.
14 tn Heb “has sworn by himself.” See the study note on 22:5 for background.
15 tn Heb “I will fill you with men like locusts.” The “you” refers to Babylon (Babylon is both the city and the land it ruled, Babylonia) which has been alluded to in the preceding verses under descriptive titles. The words “your land” have been used because of the way the preceding verse has been rendered, alluding to people rather than to the land or city. The allusion of “men” is, of course, to enemy soldiers and they are here compared to locusts both for their quantity and their destructiveness (see Joel 1:4). For the use of the particles כִּי אִם (ki ’im) to introduce an oath see BDB 475 s.v. כִּי אִם 2.c and compare usage in 2 Kgs 5:20; one would normally expect אִם לֹא (cf. BDB 50 s.v. אִם 1.b[2]).