Jeremiah 25:38

Footnotes

1. 99 Heb “Like a lion he has left his lair.” The text returns to the metaphor alluded to in v. 30. The bracketing of speeches with repeated words or motifs is a common rhetorical device in ancient literature.
2. 100 This is a way of rendering the Hebrew particle כִּי (ki) which is probably here for emphasis rather than indicating cause (see 473 כִּי 1.e and compare usage in Jer 22:22).
3. 101 Heb “by the sword of the oppressors.” The reading here follows a number of Hebrew and the Greek version. The majority of Hebrew read “the anger of the oppressor.” The reading “the sword of the oppressors” is supported also by the parallel use of this phrase in Jer 46:16; 50:16. The error in the may be explained by confusion with the following line which has the same beginning combination (מִפְּנֵי חֲרוֹן [mippéne kharon] confused for מִפְּנֵי חֶרֶב [mippéne kherev]). This reading is also supported by the , the Aramaic paraphrase of the OT. According to 413 יָנָה Qal the feminine singular participle (הַיּוֹנָה, hayyonah) is functioning as a collective in this idiom (see §122.s for this phenomenon). The connection between “war” (Heb “the sword”) and the wrath or anger of the Lord has already been made in vv. 16, 27 and the sword has been referred to also in vv. 29, 31. The sword is of course a reference to the onslaughts of the Babylonian armies (see later Jer 51:20–23).