Judah's Flight and Jeremiah's Lament
Jeremiah 10:17-22
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Jer.10.17 - Details
Original Text
Morphology
- אספי: VERB,qal,impv,2,f,sg
- מארץ: PREP+NOUN,f,sg,abs
- כנעתך: NOUN,f,sg,abs+2ms
- ישבת: VERB,qal,perf,3,f,sg
- במצור: PREP+NOUN,m,sg,abs
Parallels
- Zephaniah 2:1 (verbal): Imperative call to 'gather yourselves' (אספו) before the coming judgment — same verb and summons to assemble/prepare in face of impending disaster.
- Isaiah 26:20 (thematic): A call to enter rooms and hide 'until the indignation be overpast' — parallels the instruction to remove/relocate for safety during divine wrath or siege.
- Jeremiah 51:45 (thematic): Direct exhortation to 'Escape, save your lives, flee from Babylon' — same motif of leaving a land/city under impending destruction to preserve life.
- Ezekiel 12:3–5 (verbal): Prophetic enactment to 'bring out your baggage' and go into exile 'in their sight' — closely parallels the concrete instruction to gather belongings and depart in the face of siege.
Alternative generated candidates
- Gather up your goods from the land, you who sit under siege.
- Gather up your possessions from the land, you who sit under siege.
Jer.10.18 - Details
Original Text
Morphology
- כי: CONJ
- כה: ADV
- אמר: VERB,qal,perf,3,m,sg
- יהוה: NOUN,prop,m,sg,abs
- הנני: PRT+PRON,1,sg
- קולע: VERB,qal,ptc,3,m,sg
- את: PRT,acc
- יושבי: PTC,qal,ptc,mp,cons
- הארץ: NOUN,f,sg,def
- בפעם: PREP+NOUN,f,sg
- הזאת: DEM,f,sg,def
- והצרותי: CONJ+VERB,qal,perf,1,m,sg
- להם: PREP+PRON,3,m,pl
- למען: PREP
- ימצאו: VERB,qal,impf,3,m,pl
Parallels
- Amos 9:9 (verbal): Uses the same sifting image: God will 'sift' (or sift out) the house of Israel among the nations — a close verbal and judicial parallel to Jeremiah's declaration of sifting the inhabitants of the land.
- Luke 22:31 (verbal): Jesus warns Simon that Satan has asked to 'sift you like wheat' — the same wheat‑sifting metaphor for testing, trial, and divine allowance of hardship found in Jeremiah 10:18.
- Zechariah 13:9 (thematic): Speaks of the remnant being tested, refined, and purged so that they become a people — the refining/sifting motif and purpose (judgment that reveals and purifies) parallels Jeremiah's statement that God will sift the land's inhabitants.
- Malachi 3:2–3 (thematic): Describes the coming Lord as a refiner and purifier of silver, bringing a day of purging and testing — thematically akin to Jeremiah's announcement of distress and sifting to expose and judge the people.
Alternative generated candidates
- For thus says the LORD: Behold, I will punish the inhabitants of the land at this time; I will bring distress upon them so that they may be exposed.
- For thus says the LORD: Behold, I will cast out the inhabitants of the land at this time, and I will bring distress upon them, that they may be searched out.
Jer.10.19 - Details
Original Text
Morphology
- אוי: NOUN,m,sg,abs
- לי: PREP+PRON,1,sg
- על: PREP
- שברי: NOUN,m,pl,construct
- נחלה: NOUN,f,sg,abs
- מכתי: PREP+NOUN,f,sg+PRON,1,sg
- ואני: PRON,1,sg
- אמרתי: VERB,qal,perf,1,com,sg
- אך: PART
- זה: PRON,dem,m,sg
- חלי: NOUN,m,sg,abs
- ואשאנו: VERB,qal,impf,1,sg+PRON,3,ms
Parallels
- Lamentations 3:19-20 (thematic): Personal lament over severe suffering and remembering affliction; both passages voice inward recollection of pain and the burden of enduring it.
- Jeremiah 4:19 (verbal): Immediate prophetic lament with similar bodily imagery and exclamation (“my bowels... I am pained”); shares Jeremiah’s personal anguish and vocal expression of pain.
- Job 10:1 (thematic): An opening of a personal complaint to God about the speaker’s misery; parallels the resigned lament and the recognition of a grievous wound that must be borne.
- Psalm 31:9-10 (thematic): A psalmist’s plea describing deep trouble and a grievous condition of body and soul; echoes the sense of acute hurt and desperate lament for deliverance.
Alternative generated candidates
- Woe is me because of the breach of my heritage! My wound is grievous; yet I said, 'This is but a sickness—I will bear it.'
- Woe is me for my hurt! My wound is grievous. Yet I said, Truly this is sickness; I must bear it.
Jer.10.20 - Details
Original Text
Morphology
- אהלי: NOUN,m,pl,cons
- שדד: VERB,qal,perf,3,m,sg
- וכל: CONJ+PRON,indef
- מיתרי: NOUN,m,pl,pr1
- נתקו: VERB,qal,perf,3,f,pl
- בני: NOUN,m,pl,construct
- יצאני: VERB,qal,perf,3,pl
- ואינם: CONJ+VERB,qal,impf,3,pl
- אין: PART,neg
- נטה: VERB,qal,perf,3,m,sg
- עוד: ADV
- אהלי: NOUN,m,pl,cons
- ומקים: CONJ+VERB,hiphil,part,ms,sg
- יריעותי: NOUN,f,pl,pr1
Parallels
- Deuteronomy 28:32,64 (thematic): Part of the covenant curses: children taken away and the people scattered among the nations, echoing Jeremiah’s lament that his children are gone and there is none to pitch the tent.
- Lamentations 5:3–4 (thematic): A communal exile-lament describing loss, bereavement and the absence of former people and comforts—paralleling the desolation and loss of offspring in Jeremiah’s complaint.
- Psalm 74:3–8 (thematic): Describes enemies breaking down and defiling the sanctuary and its dwelling places—parallel imagery of dwelling-places (tents/pegs) destroyed and ruined by hostile action.
- Isaiah 54:2–3 (structural): Uses tent imagery (enlarge your tent, stretch out the curtains) as a promise of restoration—an intentional contrast to Jeremiah’s image of broken tent-pegs and inability to set up curtains.
- Jeremiah 10:21 (verbal): Immediate literary continuation of 10:20; repeats and develops the tent imagery (the woman who brought forth shall be bereaved) and the theme of loss and abandonment.
Alternative generated candidates
- My tents are plundered, and all my cords are cut; my children have gone forth from me and are not—there is none. No one now stretches out my tent or sets up my curtains.
- My tents are plundered, and all my cords are broken; my children have gone forth from me and are no more. There is none to stretch out my tent or to set up my curtains.
Jer.10.21 - Details
Original Text
Morphology
- כי: CONJ
- נבערו: VERB,qal,perf,3,m,pl
- הרעים: ADJ,m,pl,def
- ואת: CONJ
- יהוה: NOUN,prop,m,sg,abs
- לא: PART_NEG
- דרשו: VERB,qal,imp,2,m,pl
- על: PREP
- כן: ADV
- לא: PART_NEG
- השכילו: VERB,hiphil,imp,2,pl
- וכל: CONJ+PRON,indef
- מרעיתם: NOUN,f,sg,abs+PRON,3,m,pl
- נפוצה: ADJ,f,sg
Parallels
- Ezek.34:2-6 (thematic): Condemns shepherds who feed themselves and scatter the flock—same image of failed shepherds causing the people to be dispersed.
- Jer.23:1-2 (verbal): Within Jeremiah: 'Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep'—directly parallels the charge that leaders did not seek the LORD and the flock was scattered.
- Hosea 4:6 (thematic): Attributes Israel’s ruin to lack of knowledge/seeking God ('My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge'), paralleling 'they did not seek the LORD' as the cause of failure.
- Zech.11:16-17 (verbal): Condemns the 'worthless/faithless shepherd' who deserts the flock—uses the same shepherd/flock motif to blame leaders for the people’s dispersion.
- Matt.9:36 (thematic): Jesus observes people 'harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd,' echoing the consequence of absent or foolish leaders who do not seek the LORD.
Alternative generated candidates
- For the shepherds are senseless and did not seek the LORD; therefore they have no wisdom, and all their flock is scattered.
- For the shepherds have become senseless and have not inquired of the LORD; therefore they have no understanding, and all their flock is scattered.
Jer.10.22 - Details
Original Text
Morphology
- קול: NOUN,m,sg,abs
- שמועה: NOUN,f,sg,abs
- הנה: PART
- באה: VERB,qal,perf,3,f,sg
- ורעש: CONJ+NOUN,m,sg,abs
- גדול: ADJ,m,sg,abs
- מארץ: PREP+NOUN,f,sg,abs
- צפון: NOUN,m,sg,abs
- לשום: VERB,qal,inf
- את: PRT,acc
- ערי: NOUN,f,pl,cons
- יהודה: NOUN,m,sg,prop
- שממה: NOUN,f,sg,abs
- מעון: NOUN,m,sg,abs
- תנים: NOUN,m,pl,abs
Parallels
- Jeremiah 4:6-7 (verbal): Like 10:22, these verses warn of disaster coming 'from the north'—a sudden tumult and approaching destroyer likened to a lion, announcing devastation of Judah.
- Jeremiah 6:1, 6:22 (thematic): Both passages announce evil and great destruction breaking forth from the north against Judah and Jerusalem, echoing the northern invasion imagery of 10:22.
- Isaiah 13:17-22 (esp. vv.21-22) (thematic): Isaiah's oracle against Babylon depicts cities laid waste and inhabited by wild/desert creatures (howling beasts, jackals), paralleling 10:22's 'cities of Judah desolate… a den of jackals.'
- Ezekiel 38:15-16 (allusion): Ezekiel portrays a hostile force advancing 'from the north' against the land—an image of a northern incursion that parallels Jeremiah's motif of a devastating northern commotion.
- Habakkuk 1:6-11 (thematic): God raises a ruthless nation that comes swiftly from afar (portrayed like an eagle) to punish; the oracle’s depiction of a sudden, overwhelming invading power parallels Jeremiah’s announcement of a great noise and destruction from the north.
Alternative generated candidates
- A rumor—'Behold, it comes!'—a great commotion from the land of the north to make the cities of Judah a desolation, a haunt for jackals.
- A rumor—a voice: 'Behold, it comes!' A great tumult from the land of the north to make the cities of Judah a desolation, a haunt for jackals.
Gather up your goods from the land, O you who dwell under siege.
For thus says the LORD: Behold, I will smite the inhabitants of the land at this time; my punishment shall be upon them, that they may be found.
Woe is me because of the breaking of my inheritance! My wound is grievous, and I said, ‘Surely this is my sickness; I must bear it.’
My tents are plundered, and all my cords are cut; my children have gone from me and are not— there is none to stretch out my tent or to set up my curtains.
For the shepherds have grown foolish and have not sought the LORD; therefore they have no understanding, and all their flocks are scattered.
A rumor! Behold, it comes— a great tumult from the land of the north to lay waste the cities of Judah; they shall be a desolation, a haunt for jackals.