Jeremiah 5:25-27

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Jeremiah 5:25 tn Heb “have turned these things away.”
2. Jeremiah 5:25 tn Heb “have withheld the good from you.”
3. Jeremiah 5:26 tn The meaning of the last three words is uncertain. The pointing and meaning of the Hebrew word rendered “hiding in ambush” is debated. BDB relates the form (כְּשַׁךְ, k^eshakh) to a root שָׁכַךְ (shakhakh), which elsewhere means “decrease, abate” (cf. BDB 1013 s.v. שָׁכַךְ). BDB notes that this is usually understood here as “like the crouching of fowlers,” but they say this meaning is dubious. HALOT 1345 s.v. I שׁוֹר questions the validity of the text and offers three proposals; the second appears to create the least textual modification, i.e., reading כְּשַׂךְ (k^esakh, “as in the hiding place of (bird catchers).” For the word שַׂךְ (sakh) see HALOT 1236 s.v. שׂךְ 4 and compare Lam 2:6 for usage. The versions do not help. The Greek does not translate the first two words of the line. The proposal given in HALOT is accepted with some hesitancy.
4. Jeremiah 5:26 tn Heb “a destroying thing.”
5. Jeremiah 5:27 tn The words, “that have been caught” are not in the text but are implicit in the comparison.
6. Jeremiah 5:27 tn Heb “are filled with deceit.” The translation assumes a figure of speech of cause for effect (metonymy). Compare the same word in the same figure in Zeph 1:9.
7. Jeremiah 5:27 tn Heb “therefore they have gotten great and rich.”