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11 “People of Babylonia,[a] you plundered my people.[b]
That made you happy and glad.
You frolic about like calves in a pasture.[c]
Your joyous sounds are like the neighs of a stallion.[d]
12 But Babylonia will be put to great shame.
The land where you were born[e] will be disgraced.
Indeed,[f] Babylonia will become the least important of all nations.
It will become a dry and barren desert.[g]
13 After I vent my wrath on it, Babylon will be uninhabited.[h]
It will be totally desolate.
All who pass by will be filled with horror and will hiss out their scorn
because of all the disasters that have happened to it.[i]

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Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 50:11 tn The words “People of Babylonia” are not in the text, but they are implicit in the reference in the next verse to “your mother,” which refers to the city and the land as the mother of its people. These words have been supplied in the translation to identify the referent of “you” and have been added for clarity.
  2. Jeremiah 50:11 tn Or “my land.” The word can refer to either the land (Jer 2:7; 16:8) or the nation/people (Jer 12:7, 8, 9).
  3. Jeremiah 50:11 tc Reading כְּעֶגְלֵי דֶשֶׁא (keʿegle desheʾ) or כְּעֵגֶל בַּדֶּשֶׁא (keʿegel baddesheʾ), as presupposed by the Greek and Latin versions (cf. BHS note d-d), in place of the reading in the Hebrew text, כְּעֶגְלָה דָשָׁה (keʿeglah dashah, “like a heifer treading out the grain”), which does not fit the verb (פּוּשׁ [push] = “spring about” [BDB 807 s.v. I פּוּשׁ] or “paw the ground” [KBL 756 s.v. פּוּשׁ]; compare Mal 3:20 for usage). This variant reading is also accepted by J. Bright, J. A. Thompson, F. B. Huey, and G. L. Keown, P. J. Scalise, T. G. Smothers.
  4. Jeremiah 50:11 tn Heb “Though you rejoice, though you exult, you who have plundered my heritage, though you frolic like calves in a pasture and neigh like stallions, your mother…” The particle כִּי (ki) introduces a concessive protasis according to BDB 473 s.v. כִּי 2.c(a). Many interpret the particle as introducing the grounds for the next verse, i.e., “because…” The translation here will reflect the concessive by beginning the next verse with “But.” The long protasis has been broken up and restructured to better conform with contemporary English style.
  5. Jeremiah 50:12 tn Heb “Your mother will be utterly shamed, the one who gave you birth…” The word “mother” and the parallel term “the one who gave you birth” are used metaphorically for the land of Babylonia. For the figure compare “mother” in Isa 50:1 (Zion) and Hos 2:2, 5 (2:4, 7 HT; Israel) and see BDB 52 s.v. אֵם 2 and 408 s.v. יָלַד Qal.2.c.
  6. Jeremiah 50:12 tn Heb “Behold.” For the use of this particle see the translator’s note on 1:6.
  7. Jeremiah 50:12 tn Heb “a מִדְבָּר (midbar, “wilderness”), a צִיָּה (tsiyyah, “an arid region, desert”), and an עֲרָבָה (ʿaravah, “arid rift valley”). These words overlap in meaning and are compiled together in the translation. See the note on these words in Isa 35:1.
  8. Jeremiah 50:13 tn Heb “From [or Because of] the wrath of the Lord it will be uninhabited.” The causal connection is spelled out more clearly and actively, and the first person has been used because the speaker is the Lord. The referent “it” has been spelled out clearly from the later occurrence in the verse, “all who pass by Babylon.”
  9. Jeremiah 50:13 sn Cf. Jer 49:17 and the study note there; see also the study notes on 18:16 and 19:8.

11 (A)“Though you rejoice, though you exult,
    O plunderers of my heritage,
though you frolic like a heifer in the pasture,
    and neigh like stallions,
12 your mother shall be utterly shamed,
    and she who bore you shall be disgraced.
Behold, she shall be the last of the nations,
    (B)a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.
13 (C)Because of the wrath of the Lord she shall not be inhabited
    but shall be an utter desolation;
(D)everyone who passes by Babylon shall be appalled,
    (E)and hiss because of all her wounds.

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