Jeremiah 6:3
Context6:3 Kings will come against it with their armies. 1
They will encamp in siege all around it. 2
Each of them will devastate the portion assigned to him. 3
Jeremiah 25:14
Context25:14 For many nations and great kings will make slaves of the king of Babylon and his nation 4 too. I will repay them for all they have done!’” 5
Jeremiah 50:41
Context50:41 “Look! An army is about to come from the north.
A mighty nation and many kings 6 are stirring into action
in faraway parts of the earth.
Jeremiah 52:32-33
Context52:32 He spoke kindly to him and gave him a more prestigious position than 7 the other kings who were with him in Babylon. 52:33 Jehoiachin 8 took off his prison clothes and ate daily in the king’s presence for the rest of his life.
1 tn Heb “Shepherds and their flocks will come against it.” Rulers are often depicted as shepherds; see BDB 945 s.v. רָעָה 1.d(2) (cf. Jer 12:10). The translation of this verse attempts to clarify the point of this extended metaphor.
2 tn Heb “They will thrust [= pitch] tents around it.” The shepherd imagery has a surprisingly ominous tone. The beautiful pasture filled with shepherds grazing their sheep is in reality a city under siege from an attacking enemy.
3 tn Heb “They will graze each one his portion.” For the use of the verb “graze” to mean “strip” or “devastate” see BDB 945 s.v. רָעָה 2.c. For a similar use of the word normally meaning “hand” to mean portion compare 2 Sam 19:43 (19:44 HT).
sn There is a wordplay involving “sound…in Tekoa” mentioned in the study note on “destruction” in v. 1. The Hebrew verb “they will pitch” is from the same root as the word translated “sound” (taqÿ’u [תִּקְעוּ] here and tiq’u [תִּקְעוּ] in v. 1).
4 tn Heb “make slaves of them.” The verb form here indicates that the action is as good as done (the Hebrew prophetic perfect). For the use of the verb rendered “makes slaves” see parallel usage in Lev 25:39, 46 (cf. BDB 713 s.v. עָבַד 3).
5 tn Heb “according to their deeds and according to the work of their hands.” The two phrases are synonymous; it would be hard to represent them both in translation without being redundant. The translation attempts to represent them by the qualifier “all” before the first phrase.
6 sn A mighty nation and many kings is an allusion to the Medo-Persian empire and the vassal kings who provided forces for the Medo-Persian armies.
7 tn Heb “made his throne above the throne of
8 tn The subject is unstated in the Hebrew text, but Jehoiachin is clearly the subject of the following verb.