Discovery Box| (0.02) | (Lam 3:13) | 3 tn Heb “my kidneys.” In Hebrew anthropology, the kidneys are often portrayed as the most sensitive and vital part of man. Poetic texts sometimes portray a person being fatally wounded by the Lord shooting arrows in his kidneys (Job 16:13; here in Lam 3:13). The equivalent English idiomatic counterpart is the heart, which is employed in the present translation. |
| (0.02) | (Lam 3:8) | 3 tn The verb שָׂתַם (satam) is a hapax legomenon (term that appears in the Hebrew scriptures only once) meaning “stop up” or “shut out.” It functions as an idiom here, meaning “he has shut his ears to my prayer” (BDB 979 s.v.). |
| (0.02) | (Lam 2:11) | 2 tn Heb “because of tears.” The plural noun דִּמְעוֹת (dimʿot, “tears”) is an example of the plural of intensity or repeated behavior: “many tears.” The more common singular form דִּמְעָה (dimʿah) normally functions in a collective sense (“tears”); therefore, the plural form here does not indicate simple plural of number. |
| (0.02) | (Lam 1:10) | 8 tn The noun קָהָל (qahal, “assembly”) does not refer here to the collective group of people assembled to worship the Lord, but to the place of their assembly: the temple. This is an example of a synecdoche of the people contained (= assembly) for the container (= temple). The intent is to make the violation feel more personal than someone walking into a building. |
| (0.02) | (Lam 1:4) | 7 tn Heb “groan” or “sigh.” The verb אָנַח (ʾanakh) is an expression of grief (Prov 29:2; Isa 24:7; Lam 1:4, 8; Ezek 9:4; 21:11). BDB 58 s.v. 1 suggests that it means “sigh,” but HALOT 70-71 s.v. prefers “groan” here. |
| (0.02) | (Lam 1:4) | 1 sn The noun דַּרְכֵי (darkhe, “roads”) is normally masculine in gender, but here it is feminine (e.g., Exod 18:20) (BDB 202 s.v.), as indicated by the following feminine adjective אֲבֵּלּוֹת (ʾavelot, “mourning”). This rare feminine usage is probably due to the personification of Jerusalem as a bereaved woman throughout chap. 1. |
| (0.02) | (Jer 51:52) | 1 tn Heb “that being so, look, days are approaching.” Here לָכֵן (lakhen) introduces the Lord’s response to the people’s lament (v. 51). It has the force of “yes, but” or “that may be true.” See Judg 11:8 and BDB 486-87 s.v. כֵּן 3.d. |
| (0.02) | (Jer 51:56) | 4 tn The infinitive absolute emphasizes the following finite verb. Another option is to translate, “he certainly pays one back.” The translation assumes that the imperfect verbal form here describes the Lord’s characteristic actions. Another option is to take it as referring specifically to his judgment on Babylon, in which case one should translate, “he will pay (Babylon) back in full.” |
| (0.02) | (Jer 51:41) | 1 sn Heb “Sheshach.” The study note on Jer 25:26 explains the use of this name for Babylon; see a similar phenomemon in a note on 51:1. Babylon is here called “the pride of the whole earth” because it was renowned for its size, its fortifications, and its beautiful buildings. |
| (0.02) | (Jer 51:41) | 2 tn Heb “How Sheshach has been captured, and the pride of the whole earth has been seized! How Babylon has become an object of horror among the nations!” For the usage of “How” here, see the translator’s note on 50:23. |
| (0.02) | (Jer 51:30) | 1 tn Heb “Their strength is dry.” This is a figurative nuance of the word “dry” that BDB 677 s.v. נָשַׁת Qal.1 explains as meaning “fails.” The idea of “strength to do battle” is implicit from the context and is supplied in the translation here for clarity. |
| (0.02) | (Jer 51:25) | 4 sn The figure here involves comparing Babylon to a destructive volcano that the Lord makes burned-out, i.e., he will destroy her power to destroy. The figure of personification is also involved because the Lord addresses the mountain and rolls her off the cliffs, an act normally inapplicable to a mountain. |
| (0.02) | (Jer 51:20) | 2 tn This Hebrew word (מַפֵּץ, mappets) only occurs here in the Hebrew Bible, but its meaning is assured from the use of the verbs that follow, which are from the same root (נָפַץ, nafats), and there is a cognate noun מַפָּץ (mappats) that occurs in Ezek 9:2 in the sense of weapon of “smashing.” |
| (0.02) | (Jer 51:15) | 1 tn The Hebrew participle here is intended to be connected with “Lord who rules over all” in the preceding verse. The passage is functioning to underline the Lord’s power to carry out what he has sworn, in contrast to the impotence of their idols, who will be put to shame and be dismayed (50:2). |
| (0.02) | (Jer 51:12) | 5 tn Heb “For the Lord has both planned and done what he said concerning the people living in Babylon,” i.e., “he has carried out what he planned.” Here is an obvious case where the perfects are to be interpreted as prophetic; the commands imply that the attack is still future. |
| (0.02) | (Jer 51:6) | 1 tn The words “you foreign people” are not in the text, and many think the referent is the exiles of Judah. While this is clearly the case in v. 45, the referent seems broader here, where the context speaks of every man going to his own country (v. 9). |
| (0.02) | (Jer 51:7) | 1 sn The figure of the cup of the Lord’s wrath, invoked in Jer 25:15-29, is invoked again here, and Babylon is identified as the agent through which the wrath of the Lord is visited on the other nations. See the study note on 25:15 for explanation and further references. |
| (0.02) | (Jer 51:4) | 1 tn The majority of English versions and the commentaries understand the vav (ו) consecutive + perfect as a future here: “They will fall.” However, it makes better sense, in the light of the commands in the previous verse, to understand this as an indirect third person command (= a jussive; see GKC 333 §112.q, r), as REB and NJPS do. |
| (0.02) | (Jer 50:35) | 1 sn Heb “A sword against the Chaldeans.” The “sword” here is metaphorical for destructive forces in the persons of the armies of the north (vv. 3, 9), which the Lord is marshaling against Babylon and which he has addressed by way of command several times (e.g., vv. 14, 21, 26-27, 29). Cf. 46:14 and the study note there. |
| (0.02) | (Jer 50:31) | 3 tn The particle כִּי (ki) is probably asseverative here (so J. A. Thompson, Jeremiah [NICOT], 739, n. 13, and cf. BDB 472 s.v. כִּי 1.e for other examples). This has been a common use of this particle in the book of Jeremiah. |
