Jeremiah 35:15

35:15 I sent all my servants the prophets to warn you over and over again. They said, “Every one of you, stop doing the evil things you have been doing and do what is right. 1  Do not pay allegiance to other gods 2  and worship them. Then you can continue to live in this land that I gave to you and your ancestors.” But you did not pay any attention or listen to me.

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 “Turn, each of you, from his [= your] wicked way and make good your deeds.” Compare 18:11 where the same idiom occurs with the added term of “make good your ways.”

2 tn Heb “Don’t go after/follow other gods.” See the translator’s note on 2:5 for an explanation of the idiom and see 11:10; 13:10; 25:6 for the same idiom.

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.