Discovery BoxJeremiah 5:17 
Context5:17 They will eat up your crops and your food.
They will kill off 1 your sons and your daughters.
They will eat up your sheep and your cattle.
They will destroy your vines and your fig trees. 2
Their weapons will batter down 3
the fortified cities you trust in.
Jeremiah 5:28
Context5:28 That is how 4 they have grown fat and sleek. 5
There is no limit to the evil things they do. 6
They do not plead the cause of the fatherless in such a way as to win it.
They do not defend the rights of the poor.
1 tn Heb “eat up.”
2 tn Or “eat up your grapes and figs”; Heb “eat up your vines and your fig trees.”
sn It was typical for an army in time of war in the ancient Near East not only to eat up the crops but to destroy the means of further production.
3 tn Heb “They will beat down with the sword.” The term “sword” is a figure of speech (synecdoche) for military weapons in general. Siege ramps, not swords, beat down city walls; swords kill people, not city walls.
4 tn These words are not in the text but are supplied in the translation to show that this line is parallel with the preceding.
5 tn The meaning of this word is uncertain. This verb occurs only here. The lexicons generally relate it to the word translated “plate” in Song 5:14 and understand it to mean “smooth, shiny” (so BDB 799 s.v. I עֶשֶׁת) or “fat” (so HALOT 850 s.v. II עֶשֶׁת). The word in Song 5:14 more likely means “smooth” than “plate” (so TEV). So “sleek” is most likely here.
6 tn Heb “they cross over/transgress with respect to matters of evil.”
sn There is a wordplay in the use of this word which has twice been applied in v. 22 to the sea not crossing the boundary set for it by God.
