Jeremiah 6:26-28

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Jeremiah 6:26 tn These words are not in the text but are implicit from the context.
2. Jeremiah 6:26 tn Heb “daughter of my people.” For the translation given here see 4:11 and the translator’s note there.
3. Jeremiah 6:26 tn Heb “suddenly.”
4. Jeremiah 6:26 tn Heb “the destroyer.”
5. Jeremiah 6:27 tn These words are not in the text but are supplied in the translation for clarity. Note “I have made you.” Cf. Jer 1:18.
6. Jeremiah 6:27 tn Heb “I have made you an assayer of my people, a tester [?].” The meaning of the words translated “assayer” (בָּחוֹן, bakhon) and “tester” (מִבְצָר, mivtsar) is uncertain. The word בָּחוֹן (bakhon) can mean “tower” (cf. BDB 103 s.v. בָּחוֹן; cf. Isa 23:13 for the only other use) or “assayer” (cf. BDB 103 s.v. בָּחוֹן). The latter would be the more expected nuance because of the other uses of nouns and verbs from this root. The word מִבְצָר (mivtsar) normally means “fortress” (cf. BDB 131 s.v. מִבְצָר), but most modern commentaries and lexicons deem that nuance inappropriate here. HALOT follows a proposal that the word is to be repointed to מְבַצֵּר (m^evatser) and derived from a root בָּצַר (batsar) meaning “to test” (cf. HALOT 143 s.v. IV בָּצַר). That proposal makes the most sense in the context, but the root appears nowhere else in the OT.
7. Jeremiah 6:27 tn Heb “test their way.”
8. Jeremiah 6:28 tn These words are not in the text but are supplied in the translation for clarity. Some takes these words to be the continuation of the Lord’s commission of Jeremiah to the task of testing them. However, since this is the evaluation, the task appears to be complete. The words are better taken as Jeremiah’s report after he has completed the task.
9. Jeremiah 6:28 tn Or “arch rebels,” or “hardened rebels.” Literally “rebels of rebels.”