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Jeremiah 10:21-23
New English Translation
Jeremiah 10:21-23
New English Translation
21 For our leaders[a] are stupid.
They have not sought the Lord’s advice.[b]
So they do not act wisely,
and the people they are responsible for[c] have all been scattered.
22 Listen! News is coming even now.[d]
The rumble of a great army is heard approaching[e] from a land in the north.[f]
It is coming to turn the towns of Judah into rubble,
places where only jackals live.
23 Lord, we know that people do not control their own destiny.[g]
It is not in their power to determine what will happen to them.[h]
Footnotes
- Jeremiah 10:21 tn Heb “the shepherds.”
- Jeremiah 10:21 tn Heb “They have not sought the Lord.”sn The idiom translated sought the Lord’s advice quite commonly refers to seeking the Lord’s guidance through a prophet. See for example Exod 18:15; 1 Sam 9:9; 1 Kgs 22:8. It would not exclude consulting the law.
- Jeremiah 10:21 tn Heb “all their flock (or “pasturage”).”sn This verse uses the figure of shepherds for rulers, and that of sheep for the people ruled. It is a common figure in the Bible. See Ezek 34 for an extended development of this metaphor.
- Jeremiah 10:22 tn Heb “The sound of a report, behold, it is coming.”
- Jeremiah 10:22 tn Heb “coming, even a great quaking.”
- Jeremiah 10:22 sn Cf. Jer 6:22.
- Jeremiah 10:23 tn Heb “Not to the man his way.” For the nuance of “fate, destiny, or the way things turn out” for the Hebrew word “way,” see Hag 1:5, Isa 40:27 and probably Ps 49:13 (cf. KBL 218 s.v. דֶּרֶךְ 5). For the idea of “control” or “hold in one’s power” for the preposition “to,” see Ps 3:8 (cf. BDB 513 s.v. לְ 5.b[a]).
- Jeremiah 10:23 tn Heb “Not to a man the walking and the establishing his step.”
New English Translation (NET)
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