Discovery BoxJeremiah 37:10 
Context37:10 For even if you were to defeat all the Babylonian forces 1 fighting against you so badly that only wounded men were left lying in their tents, they would get up and burn this city down.”’” 2
Jeremiah 37:17
Context37:17 Then King Zedekiah had him brought to the palace. There he questioned him privately and asked him, 3 “Is there any message from the Lord?” Jeremiah answered, “Yes, there is.” Then he announced, 4 “You will be handed over to the king of Babylon.” 5
1 tn Heb “all the army of the Chaldeans.” For the rendering “Babylonian” in place of Chaldean see the study note on 21:4.
2 tn The length and complexity of this English sentence violates the more simple style that has been used to conform such sentences to contemporary English style. However, there does not seem to be any alternative that would enable a simpler style and still retain the causal and conditional connections that give this sentence the rhetorical force that it has in the original. The condition is, of course, purely hypothetical and the consequence a poetic exaggeration. The intent is to assure Zedekiah that there is absolutely no hope of the city being spared.
3 tn Heb “Then King Zedekiah sent and brought him and the king asked him privately [or more literally, in secret] and said.”
4 tn Heb “Then he said.”
5 sn Jeremiah’s answer even under duress was the same that he had given Zedekiah earlier. (See Jer 34:3 and see the study note on 34:1 for the relative timing of these two incidents.)
