Jeremiah 13:19

The gates of the towns in southern Judah will be shut tight. ¹  No one will be able to go in or out of them. ²  All Judah will be carried off into exile. They will be completely carried off into exile.’” ³ 

The cities in the Negev will be shut up, and there will be no-one to open them. All Judah will be carried into exile, carried completely away.

The cities of the Negev have been locked up, And there is no one to open them; All Judah has been carried into exile, Wholly carried into exile.

The towns of the Negev will close their gates, and no one will be able to open them. The people of Judah will be taken away as captives. They will all be carried into exile.

The villages in the Negev will be surrounded, everyone trapped, And Judah dragged off to exile, the whole country dragged to oblivion.

The towns of the south are shut up, and there is no one to make them open: Judah is taken away as prisoners; all Judah is taken away as prisoners.

The towns of the Negeb are shut up with no one to open them; all Judah is taken into exile, wholly taken into exile.

The cities of the South shall be shut up, And no one shall open them ; Judah shall be carried away captive, all of it; It shall be wholly carried away captive.

The gates of the towns in southern Judah will be shut tight. ¹  No one will be able to go in or out of them. ²  All Judah will be carried off into exile. They will be completely carried off into exile.’” ³ 

¹ tn Heb “The towns of the Negev will be shut.”

² tn Heb “There is no one to open them.” The translation is based on the parallel in Josh 6:1 where the very expression in the translation is used. Opening the city would have permitted entrance (of relief forces) as well as exit (of fugitives).

³ sn The statements are poetic exaggerations (hyperbole), as most commentaries note. Even in the exile of 587 b.c. not “all” of the people of Jerusalem or of Judah were exiled. Cf. the context of 2 Kgs 24:14-16 again.