Jeremiah 4:27

4:27 All this will happen because the Lord said,

“The whole land will be desolate;

however, I will not completely destroy it.

Jeremiah 6:8

6:8 So take warning, Jerusalem,

or I will abandon you in disgust

and make you desolate,

a place where no one can live.”

Jeremiah 25:11

25:11 This whole area will become a desolate wasteland. These nations will be subject to the king of Babylon for seventy years.’


tn Heb “For this is what the Lord said,”

tn This word is not in the text but is supplied in the translation. Jeremiah uses a figure of speech (enallage) where the speaker turns from talking about someone to address him/her directly.

tn Heb “lest my soul [= I] becomes disgusted with you.”

sn The wordplay begun with “sound…in Tekoa” in v. 1 and continued with “they will pitch” in v. 3 is concluded here with “turn away” (וּבִתְקוֹעַ תִּקְעוּ [uvitqoatiqu] in v. 1, תָּקְעוּ [taqu] in v. 3 and תֵּקַע [teqa’] here).

tn Heb “All this land.”

sn It should be noted that the text says that the nations will be subject to the king of Babylon for seventy years, not that they will lie desolate for seventy years. Though several proposals have been made for dating this period, many ignore this fact. This most likely refers to the period beginning with Nebuchadnezzar’s defeat of Pharaoh Necho at Carchemish in 605 b.c. and the beginning of his rule over Babylon. At this time Babylon became the dominant force in the area and continued to be so until the fall of Babylon in 538 b.c. More particularly Judah became a vassal state (cf. Jer 46:2; 2 Kgs 24:1) in 605 b.c. and was allowed to return to her homeland in 538 when Cyrus issued his edict allowing all the nations exiled by Babylon to return to their homelands. (See 2 Chr 36:21 and Ezra 1:2-4; the application there is made to Judah but the decree of Cyrus was broader.)