Discovery BoxJeremiah 21:12 
Context21:12 O royal family descended from David. 1
The Lord says:
‘See to it that people each day 2 are judged fairly. 3
Deliver those who have been robbed from those 4 who oppress them.
Otherwise, my wrath will blaze out against you.
It will burn like a fire that cannot be put out
because of the evil that you have done. 5
Jeremiah 40:15
Context40:15 Then Johanan son of Kareah spoke privately to Gedaliah there at Mizpah, “Let me go and kill Ishmael the son of Nethaniah before anyone knows about it. Otherwise he will kill you 6 and all the Judeans who have rallied around you will be scattered. Then what remains of Judah will disappear.”
1 tn Heb “house of David.” This is essentially equivalent to the royal court in v. 11.
2 tn Heb “to the morning” = “morning by morning” or “each morning.” See Isa 33:2 and Amos 4:4 for parallel usage.
3 sn The kings of Israel and Judah were responsible for justice. See Pss 122:5. The king himself was the final court of appeals judging from the incident of David with the wise woman of Tekoa (2 Sam 14), Solomon and the two prostitutes (1 Kgs 3:16-28), and Absalom’s attempts to win the hearts of the people of Israel by interfering with due process (2 Sam 15:2-4). How the system was designed to operate may be seen from 2 Chr 19:4-11.
4 tn Heb “from the hand [or power] of.”
5 tn Heb “Lest my wrath go out like fire and burn with no one to put it out because of the evil of your deeds.”
6 tn Heb “Why should he kill you?” However, this is one of those cases listed in BDB 554 s.v. מָה 4.d(b) where it introduces a question introducing rhetorically the reason why something should not be done. In cases like this BDB notes that it approximates the meaning “lest” and is translated in Greek by μήποτε (mhpote) or μή (mh) as the Greek version does here. Hence it is separated from the preceding and translated “otherwise” for the sake of English style.
