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 7:33
Context7:33 Then the dead bodies of these people will be left on the ground for the birds and wild animals to eat. 4 There will not be any survivors to scare them away.
Jeremiah 15:3
Context15:3 “I will punish them in four different ways: I will have war kill them. I will have dogs drag off their dead bodies. I will have birds and wild beasts devour and destroy their corpses. 5
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 Heb “Their dead bodies will be food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth.”
5 tn The translation attempts to render in understandable English some rather unusual uses of terms here. The verb translated “punish” is often used that way (cf. BDB 823 s.v. פָּקַד Qal.A.3 and compare usage in Jer 11:22, 13:21). However, here it is accompanied by a direct object and a preposition meaning “over” which is usually used in the sense of appointing someone over someone (cf. BDB 823 s.v. פָּקַד Qal.B.1 and compare usage in Jer 51:27). Moreover the word translated “different ways” normally refers to “families,” “clans,” or “guilds” (cf. BDB 1046-47 s.v. מִשְׁפָּחָה for usage). Hence the four things mentioned are referred to figuratively as officers or agents into whose power the
