Jeremiah 38:23-25

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Jeremiah 38:23 tn Heb “Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for explanation.
2. Jeremiah 38:23 tn Heb “you yourself will not escape from their hand but will be seized by [caught in] the hand of the king of Babylon.” Neither use of “hand” is natural to the English idiom.
3. Jeremiah 38:23 tc This translation follows the reading of the Greek version and a few Hebrew mss. The majority of the Hebrew mss read, “and you will burn down this city.” This reading is accepted by the majority of modern commentaries and English versions. Few of the commentaries, however, bother to explain the fact that the particle אֶת (ʾet), which normally marks the accusative object, is functioning here as the subject. For this point of grammar see BDB 85 s.v. I אֵת 1.b. Or this may be another case where אֵת introduces a new subject (see BDB 85 s.v. אֵת 3.α and see usage in 27:8; 36:22).
4. Jeremiah 38:24 tn Heb “about these words.”
5. Jeremiah 38:24 tn Or “so that you will not die.” Or “or you will die.” See the similar construction in 37:20 and the translator’s note there.sn This is probably not a threat that the king himself will kill Jeremiah, but a premonition that if the pro-Egyptian party that was seeking to kill Jeremiah found out about the conversation, they would go ahead and kill Jeremiah (cf. 38:2-4).
6. Jeremiah 38:25 tn The phrase “and what the king said to you” is actually at the end of the verse, but most commentators see it as also under the governance of “tell us,” and many commentaries and English versions move the clause forward for the sake of English style as has been done here.
7. Jeremiah 38:25 tn Or “lest we kill you”; Heb “and we will not kill you,” which, as stated in the translator’s note on 37:20, introduces a negative purpose (or result) clause. See 37:20 and 38:24 for parallel usage.