Jeremiah 50:36

Destructive forces will come against her false prophets; ¹  they will be shown to be fools! ²  Destructive forces will come against her soldiers; they will be filled with terror! ³ 

A sword against her false prophets! They will become fools. A sword against her warriors! They will be filled with terror.

"A sword against the oracle priests, and they will become fools! A sword against her mighty men, and they will be shattered!

And when it strikes her wise counselors, they will become fools! When it strikes her mightiest warriors, panic will seize them!

War to the death on her boasting pretenders, fools one and all! War to the death on her soldiers, cowards to a man!

A sword is on the men of pride, and they will become foolish: a sword is on her men of war, and they will be broken.

A sword against the diviners, so that they may become fools! A sword against her warriors, so that they may be destroyed!

A sword is against the soothsayers, and they will be fools. A sword is against her mighty men, and they will be dismayed.

Destructive forces will come against her false prophets; ¹  they will be shown to be fools! ²  Destructive forces will come against her soldiers; they will be filled with terror! ³ 

¹ tn The meaning and the derivation of the word translated “false prophets” is uncertain. The same word appears in conjunction with the word for “diviners” in Isa 44:25 and probably also in Hos 11:6 in conjunction with the sword consuming them “because of their counsel.” BDB 95 s.v. III בַּד b sees this as a substitution of “empty talk” for “empty talkers” (the figure of metonymy) and refer to them as false prophets. KBL 108 s.v. II בַּד emends the form in both places to read בָּרִים (barim) in place of בַּדִּים (baddim) and defines the word on the basis of Akkadian to mean “soothsayer” (KBL 146 s.v. V בָּר). HALOT 105 s.v. V בַּד retains the pointing, derives it from an Amorite word found in the Mari letters, and defines it as “oracle priest.” However, G. L. Keown, P. J. Scalise, and T. G. Smothers (Jeremiah 26-52 [WBC], 368) call this identification into question because the word only occurs in one letter from Mari and its meaning is uncertain there. It is hazardous to emend the text in two places, perhaps even three, in light of no textual evidence in any of the passages and to define the word on the basis of an uncertain parallel. Hence the present translation opts here for the derivation and extended definition given in BDB.

² tn This translation follows the suggestion of BDB 383 s.v. I יָאַל Niph.2. Compare the usage in Isa 19:13 and Jer 5:4.

³ tn The verb here (חָתַת, khatat) could also be rendered “be destroyed” (cf. BDB 369 s.v. חָתַת Qal.1 and compare the usage in Jer 48:20, 39). However, the parallelism with “shown to be fools” argues for the more dominant usage of “be dismayed” or “be filled with terror.” The verb is found in parallelism with both בּוֹשׁ (bosh, “be ashamed, dismayed”) and יָרֵא (yare’, “be afraid”) and can refer to either emotion. Here it is more likely that they are filled with terror because of the approaching armies.