Jeremiah 42:2-4

42:2 They said to him, “Please grant our request 1  and pray to the Lord your God for all those of us who are still left alive here. 2  For, as you yourself can see, there are only a few of us left out of the many there were before. 3  42:3 Pray that the Lord your God will tell us where we should go and what we should do.” 42:4 The prophet Jeremiah answered them, “Agreed! 4  I will indeed pray to the Lord your God as you have asked. I will tell you everything the Lord replies in response to you. 5  I will not keep anything back from you.”

1 tn Heb “please let our petition fall before you.” For the idiom here see 37:20 and the translator’s note there.

2 tn Heb “on behalf of us, [that is] on behalf of all this remnant.”

sn This refers to the small remnant of people who were left of those from Mizpah who had been taken captive by Ishmael after he had killed Gedaliah and who had been rescued from him at Gibeon. There were other Judeans still left in the land of Judah who had not been killed or deported by the Babylonians.

3 tn Heb “For we are left a few from the many as your eyes are seeing us.” The words “used to be” are not in the text but are implicit. These words are supplied in the translation for clarity and smoothness of English style.

4 tn Heb “I have heard” = “I agree.” For this nuance of the verb see BDB 1034 s.v. שָׁמַע Qal.1.j and compare the usage in Gen 37:27 and Judg 11:17 listed there.

5 tn Heb “all the word which the Lord will answer you.