Discovery BoxJeremiah 32:3 
Context32:3 For King Zedekiah 1 had confined Jeremiah there after he had reproved him for prophesying as he did. He had asked Jeremiah, “Why do you keep prophesying these things? Why do you keep saying that the Lord says, ‘I will hand this city over to the king of Babylon? I will let him capture it. 2
Jeremiah 32:28-29
Context32:28 Therefore I, the Lord, say: 3 ‘I will indeed hand 4 this city over to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and the Babylonian army. 5 They will capture it. 32:29 The Babylonian soldiers 6 that are attacking this city will break into it and set it on fire. They will burn it down along with the houses where people have made me angry by offering sacrifices to the god Baal and by pouring out drink offerings to other gods on their rooftops. 7
1 tn Heb “Zedekiah king of Judah.”
2 tn The translation represents an attempt to break up a very long Hebrew sentence with several levels of subordination and embedded quotations and also an attempt to capture the rhetorical force of the question “Why…” which is probably an example of what E. W. Bullinger (Figures of Speech, 953-54) calls a rhetorical question of expostulation or remonstrance (cf. the note on 26:9 and compare also the question in 36:29. In all three of these cases NJPS translates “How dare you…” which captures the force nicely). The Hebrew text reads, “For Zedekiah king of Judah had confined him, saying, ‘Why are you prophesying, saying, “Thus says the
3 tn Heb “Thus says the
4 tn Heb “Behold, I will give this city into the hand of…”
5 tn Heb “The Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for further explanation.
6 tn Heb “The Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for further explanation.
