² tn Heb “He did not return His hand from swallowing.” That is, he persisted until it was destroyed.

⁴ sn For the concept underlying the words translated here “completely destroy,” see the study note on Jer 25:9.

⁴ sn The Greek historian Herodotus reports that Ashdod had been destroyed under the Pharaoh who preceded Necho, Psammetichus.

¹ sn Invading armies lived off the land, using up all the produce and destroying everything they could not consume.

³ sn He will destroy them but not completely. See Jer 5:18; 30:11; 46:28.

³ tn Heb “and his name would not be cut off and would not be destroyed from before me.”

⁴ tn Heb “possessor of destruction.” This idiom means “destroyer” (so ASV); KJV “a great waster”; NRSV “a vandal.”

¹ sn Psalm 129. Israel affirms God’s justice and asks him to destroy the enemies of Zion.

¹ sn Psalm 52. The psalmist confidently confronts his enemy and affirms that God will destroy evildoers and vindicate the godly.

⁴ tn The word is רָע (raʿ, “evil”) in the sense of anything that harms, interrupts, or destroys life.

² sn The temple had been destroyed some fifty years earlier by the Babylonians in 586 b.c.

⁴ tn Heb “destroy.” The translation “devour” carries through the imagery of a locust plague earlier in this verse.

¹ tn Heb “but all the people they struck down with the edge of the sword until they destroyed them.”

² tn Heb “you must not destroy its trees by chopping them with an iron” (i.e., an ax).

¹ tn Heb “however, a tree which you know is not a tree for food you may destroy and cut down.”

¹ tn Heb “you will destroy their name from under heaven” (cf. KJV); NRSV “blot out their name from under heaven.”

² tn Or “be destroyed”; KJV “utterly perish”; NLT “will quickly disappear”; CEV “you won’t have long to live.”

¹ tn The verb is the Hiphil perfect of נָכָה (nakhah), a term that can mean “smite, strike, attack, destroy.”

¹ sn The expression must indicate that they could destroy the enemies as easily as they could eat bread.

² tn See HALOT 3 s.v. I אבד hif. Cf. KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT “destroy”; CEV “wipe out.”