² tn Heb “those gathered” for famine.

¹ tn Heb “because of the burning heat of famine.”

³ tn Heb “we will not see the sword and famine.”

² tn Heb “in days of famine they will be satisfied.”

² tn Heb “and to keep them alive in famine.”

¹ tn Heb “and there was a great famine in Samaria.”

¹ tn Heb “the famine [has been] in the midst of.”

¹ tn Heb “before the year of the famine came.”

¹ tn Heb “in addition to the first famine which was.”

¹ tn After the reference to the famine in v. 16, v. 17 flashes back to events that preceded the famine (see Gen 37).

¹ sn Targum Job here sees an allusion to the famine of Egypt and the war with Amalek.

¹ tn Heb “and the land will not be cut off in the famine.”

¹ tn Heb “are.” Another option is to translate, “There will be seven years of famine.”

¹ tn The word “starvation” has been translated “famine” elsewhere in this passage. It is the word that refers to hunger. The “starvation” here may be war induced and not simply that which comes from famine per se. “Starvation” will cover both.

¹ tn Heb “If we say, ‘We will enter the city,’ the famine is in the city and we will die there.”

¹ tn The words “of the famine” do not appear in the original text but are supplied for clarification.

² tc Many Hebrew mss read “starvation/famine,” which is the second member of a common triad, “sword, famine, and plague,” in Jeremiah. This triad occurs thirteen times in the book and undoubtedly influenced a later scribe to read “starvation [= famine]” here. For this triad see the note on 14:14. The words “disaster and plagues” are missing in the LXX.

² sn Judgment by plague, famine, and sword occurs in Jer 21:9; 27:13; Ezek 6:11, 12; 7:15.

¹ sn The judgment of plague and famine comes from the covenant curse (Lev 26:25-26). As in v. 10, the city of Jerusalem is figuratively addressed here.

² sn The rhetoric of the passage is again sustained by an emphatic word order that contrasts what they say will not happen to the land, “war and famine,” with the punishment that the Lord will inflict on them, i.e., “war and starvation [or famine].”