Jeremiah 51:35-37

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Jeremiah 51:35 tn Heb “‘The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon,’ says the one living in Zion. ‘My blood be upon those living in Chaldea,’ says Jerusalem.” For the usage of the genitive here in the phrase “violence done to me and my relatives,” see GKC 414 §128.a (a construct governing two objects) and IBHS 303 §16.4d (an objective genitive). For the nuance of “pay” in the sense of retribution, see BDB 756 s.v. עַל 7.a(b) and compare the usage in Judg 9:24. For the use of שְׁאֵר (sh^eʾer) in the sense of “relatives,” see BDB 985 s.v. שְׁאֵר 2 and compare NJPS. For the use of “blood” in this idiom, see BDB 197 s.v. דָּם 2.k and compare the usage in 2 Sam 4:11 and Ezek 3:18, 20. The lines have been reversed for better English style.
2. Jeremiah 51:36 tn Heb “I will avenge your vengeance [= I will take vengeance for you; the phrase involves a verb and a cognate accusative].” The meaning of the phrase has been spelled out in more readily understandable terms.
3. Jeremiah 51:36 tn Heb “I will dry up her [Babylon’s] sea and make her fountain dry.” “Their” has been substituted for “her” because the word “Babylonians” has been inserted in the previous clause and is easier to understand than “her” as a personification of Babylon.sn The referent for their sea is not clear. Most interpreters take it as a figure for the rivers and canals surrounding Babylon. But some apply it to the reservoir that the wife of Nebuchadnezzar, Queen Nictoris, had made.
4. Jeremiah 51:37 tn Heb “a heap of ruins, a haunt for jackals.” Cf. 9:11.
5. Jeremiah 51:37 tn Heb “without an inhabitant.”