Jeremiah 49:25

How deserted will that once-famous city ¹  be, that city that was once filled with ²  joy! ³ 

Ps 37:35,36; Isa 1:26; Isa 14:4-6; Jer 33:9; Jer 48:2,39; Jer 51:41; Da 4:30; Re 18:10,16-19

¹ tn Heb “city of praise.”

² tn Heb “city of joy.”

³ tc Or “Why has that famous city not been abandoned, that city I once took delight in?” The translation follows the majority of modern commentaries in understanding לֹא (lo’, “not”) before “abandoned” as a misunderstanding of the emphatic ל (lamed; so J. A. Thompson, Jeremiah [NICOT], 723, n. 3, and J. Bright, Jeremiah [AB], 333, n. c; see also IBHS 211-12 §11.2.10i and HALOT 485-86 s.v. II לְ for the phenomenon). The particle is missing from the Vulgate. The translation also follows the versions in omitting the suffix on the word “joy” that is found in the Hebrew text (see BHS note b for a listing of the versions). This gives a better connection with the preceding and the following verse than the alternate translation.