Discovery BoxJeremiah 20:5 
Context20:5 I will hand over all the wealth of this city to their enemies. I will hand over to them all the fruits of the labor of the people of this city and all their prized possessions, as well as all the treasures of the kings of Judah. Their enemies will seize it all as plunder 1 and carry it off to Babylon.
Jeremiah 49:32
Context49:32 Their camels will be taken as plunder.
Their vast herds will be taken as spoil.
I will scatter to the four winds
those desert peoples who cut their hair short at the temples. 2
I will bring disaster against them
from every direction,” says the Lord. 3
Jeremiah 50:37
Context50:37 Destructive forces will come against her horses and her 4 chariots.
Destructive forces will come against all the foreign troops within her; 5
they will be as frightened as women! 6
Destructive forces will come against her treasures;
they will be taken away as plunder!
1 tn Heb “Take them [the goods, etc.] as plunder and seize them.”
2 tn See the translator’s note at Jer 9:26 and compare the usage in 9:26 and 25:23.
3 tn Heb “Oracle of the
4 tn Hebrew has “his” in both cases here whereas the rest of the possessive pronouns throughout vv. 35-37 are “her.” There is no explanation for this switch unless the third masculine singular refers as a distributive singular to the soldiers mentioned in the preceding verse (cf. GKC 464 §145.l). This is probably the case here, but to refer to “their horses and their chariots” in the midst of all the “her…” might create more confusion than what it is worth to be that pedantic.
5 tn Or “in the country,” or “in her armies”; Heb “in her midst.”
6 tn Heb “A sword against his horses and his chariots and against all the mixed company [or mixed multitude] in her midst and they will become like women.” The sentence had to be split up because it is too long and the continuation of the second half with its consequential statement would not fit together with the first half very well. Hence the subject and verb have been repeated. The Hebrew word translated “foreign troops” (עֶרֶב, ’erev) is the same word that is used in 25:20 to refer to the foreign peoples living in Egypt and in Exod 12:38 for the foreign people that accompanied Israel out of Egypt. Here the word is translated contextually to refer to foreign mercenaries, an identification that most of the commentaries and many of the modern English versions accept (see, e.g., J. Bright, Jeremiah [AB], 355; NRSV; NIV). The significance of the simile “they will become like women” has been spelled out for the sake of clarity.
