Discovery BoxJeremiah 5:27 
Context5:27 Like a cage filled with the birds that have been caught, 1
their houses are filled with the gains of their fraud and deceit. 2
That is how they have gotten so rich and powerful. 3
Jeremiah 17:11
Context17:11 The person who gathers wealth by unjust means
is like the partridge that broods over eggs but does not hatch them. 4
Before his life is half over he will lose his ill-gotten gains. 5
At the end of his life it will be clear he was a fool.” 6
1 tn The words, “that have been caught” are not in the text but are implicit in the comparison.
2 tn Heb “are filled with deceit.” The translation assumes a figure of speech of cause for effect (metonymy). Compare the same word in the same figure in Zeph 1:9.
3 tn Heb “therefore they have gotten great and rich.”
4 tn The meaning of this line is somewhat uncertain. The word translated “broods over” occurs only here and Isa 34:15. It is often defined on the basis of an Aramaic cognate which means “to gather” with an extended meaning of “to gather together under her to hatch.” Many commentators go back to a Rabbinic explanation that the partridge steals the eggs of other birds and hatches them out only to see the birds depart when they recognize that she is not the mother. Modern studies question the validity of this zoologically. Moreover, W. L. Holladay contests the validity on the basis of the wording “and she does hatch them” (Heb “bring them to birth”). See W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah (Hermeneia), 1:498, and see also P. C. Craigie, P. H. Kelley, J. F. Drinkard, Jeremiah 1-25 (WBC), 229. The point of the comparison is that the rich gather their wealth but they do not get to see the fruits of it.
5 tn The Hebrew text merely says “it.” But the antecedent might be ambiguous in English so the reference to wealth gained by unjust means is here reiterated for clarity.
6 tn Heb “he will be [= prove to be] a fool.”
