Discovery BoxJeremiah 23:19-22 
Context23:19 But just watch! 1 The wrath of the Lord
will come like a storm! 2
Like a raging storm it will rage down 3
on the heads of those who are wicked.
23:20 The anger of the Lord will not turn back
until he has fully carried out his intended purposes. 4
In days to come 5
you people will come to understand this clearly. 6
23:21 I did not send those prophets.
Yet they were in a hurry to give their message. 7
I did not tell them anything.
Yet they prophesied anyway.
23:22 But if they had stood in my inner circle, 8
they would have proclaimed my message to my people.
They would have caused my people to turn from their wicked ways
and stop doing the evil things they are doing.
1 tn Heb “Behold!”
2 tn The syntax of this line has generally been misunderstood, sometimes to the point that some want to delete the word wrath. Both here and in 30:23 where these same words occur the word “anger” stands not as an accusative of attendant circumstance but an apposition, giving the intended referent to the figure. Comparison should be made with Jer 25:15 where “this wrath” is appositional to “the cup of wine” (cf. GKC 425 §131.k).
3 tn The translation is deliberate, intending to reflect the repetition of the Hebrew root which is “swirl/swirling.”
4 tn Heb “until he has done and until he has carried out the purposes of his heart.”
5 tn Heb “in the latter days.” However, as BDB 31 s.v. אַחֲרִית b suggests, the meaning of this idiom must be determined from the context. Sometimes it has remote, even eschatological, reference and other times it has more immediate reference as it does here and in Jer 30:23 where it refers to the coming days of Babylonian conquest and exile.
6 tn The translation is intended to reflect a Hebrew construction where a noun functions as the object of a verb from the same root word (the Hebrew cognate accusative).
7 tn Heb “Yet they ran.”
sn The image is that of a messenger bearing news from the king. See 2 Sam 18:19-24; Jer 51:31; Isa 40:9; 52:7; Hab 2:2 (the tablet/scroll bore the message the runner was to read to the intended recipients of his message). Their message has been given in v. 17 (see notes there for cross references).
