Yahweh of Armies says: “Behold, I will send on them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them like rotten figs that can’t be eaten, they are so bad. I will pursue after them with the sword, with the famine, and with the pestilence, and will deliver them to be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth, to be an object of horror, an astonishment, a hissing, and a reproach among all the nations where I have driven them, because they have not listened to my words,” says Yahweh, “with which I sent to them my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them; but you would not hear,” says Yahweh.
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Jeremiah 29:17-19 sits inside this longer paragraph.
Because you have said, “Yahweh has raised us up prophets in Babylon;” Yahweh says concerning the king who sits on David’s throne, and concerning all the people who dwell in this city, your brothers who haven’t gone with you into captivity; Yahweh of Armies says: “Behold, I will send on them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them like rotten figs that can’t be eaten, they are so bad. I will pursue after them with the sword, with the famine, and with the pestilence, and will deliver them to be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth, to be an object of horror, an astonishment, a hissing, and a reproach among all the nations where I have driven them, because they have not listened to my words,” says Yahweh, “with which I sent to them my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them; but you would not hear,” says Yahweh.
Parallel Translations
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Yahweh of Armies says: “Behold, I will send on them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them like rotten figs that can’t be eaten, they are so bad.
I will pursue after them with the sword, with the famine, and with the pestilence, and will deliver them to be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth, to be an object of horror, an astonishment, a hissing, and a reproach among all the nations where I have driven them,
because they have not listened to my words,” says Yahweh, “with which I sent to them my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them; but you would not hear,” says Yahweh.
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Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Behold, I will send upon them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them like vile figs, that cannot be eaten, they are so evil.
And I will persecute them with the sword, with the famine, and with the pestilence, and will deliver them to be removed to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse, and an astonishment, and an hissing, and a reproach, among all the nations whither I have driven them:
Because they have not hearkened to my words, saith the LORD, which I sent unto them by my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them; but ye would not hear, saith the LORD.
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thus saith the LORD of hosts: Behold, I will send upon them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them like vile figs, that cannot be eaten, they are so bad.
And I will pursue after them with the sword, with the famine, and with the pestilence, and will make them a horror unto all the kingdoms of the earth, a curse, and an astonishment, and a hissing, and a reproach, among all the nations whither I have driven them;
because they have not hearkened to My words, saith the LORD, wherewith I sent unto them My servants the prophets, sending them betimes and often; but ye would not hear, saith the LORD.
Cross-references (49)
- 2 Chronicles 29:8 (v18) Therefore Yahweh’s wrath was on Judah and Jerusalem, and he has delivered them to be tossed back and forth, to be an astonishment, and a…
- Jeremiah 6:19 (v19) Hear, earth! Behold, I will bring evil on this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not listened to my words; and as…
- Jeremiah 15:4 (v18) I will cause them to be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah,…
- Jeremiah 42:18 (v18) For Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘As my anger and my wrath has been poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so my wrath…
- Jeremiah 34:17 (vv18–19) Therefore Yahweh says: “You have not listened to me, to proclaim liberty, every man to his brother, and every man to his neighbor. Behold,…
Show all 48 cross-references
- Deuteronomy 28:25 (v18) Yahweh will cause you to be struck before your enemies. You will go out one way against them, and will flee seven ways before them. You…
- Jeremiah 24:9 (v18) I will even give them up to be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth for evil; to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt…
- Jeremiah 26:5 (v19) to listen to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I send to you, even rising up early and sending them, but you have not listened;
- Isaiah 65:15 (v18) You will leave your name for a curse to my chosen; and the Lord Yahweh will kill you. He will call his servants by another name,
- Jeremiah 7:13 (v19) Now, because you have done all these works,” says Yahweh, “and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you didn’t hear; and I…
- Jeremiah 7:24-26 (v19) But they didn’t listen or turn their ear, but walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward,…
- Jeremiah 24:8-10 (v17) “ ‘As the bad figs, which can’t be eaten, they are so bad,’ surely Yahweh says, ‘So I will give up Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his…
- Jeremiah 25:3-7 (v19) From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, even to this day, these twenty-three years, Yahweh’s word has come to…
- Jeremiah 25:9 (v18) behold, I will send and take all the families of the north,” says Yahweh, “and I will send to Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my…
- Jeremiah 35:14-16 (v19) “The words of Jonadab the son of Rechab that he commanded his sons, not to drink wine, are performed; and to this day they drink none, for…
- Lamentations 2:15-16 (v18) All that pass by clap their hands at you. They hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, “Is this the city that men…
- Ezekiel 12:15 (v18) “ ‘They will know that I am Yahweh when I disperse them among the nations, and scatter them through the countries.
- Zechariah 1:4-6 (v19) Don’t you be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets proclaimed, saying: Yahweh of Armies says, ‘Return now from your evil ways, and…
- Zechariah 7:11-13 (v19) But they refused to listen, and turned their backs, and stopped their ears, that they might not hear. Yes, they made their hearts as hard…
- Hebrews 12:25 (v19) See that you don’t refuse him who speaks. For if they didn’t escape when they refused him who warned on the earth, how much more will we…
- 1 Kings 9:7-8 (v18) then I will cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them; and I will cast this house, which I have made holy for my name, out of…
- Jeremiah 29:18 (v17) I will pursue after them with the sword, with the famine, and with the pestilence, and will deliver them to be tossed back and forth among…
- Jeremiah 32:33 (v19) They have turned their backs to me, and not their faces. Although I taught them, rising up early and teaching them, yet they have not…
- Jeremiah 44:4-5 (v19) However I sent to you all my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying, “Oh, don’t do this abominable thing that I…
- Luke 21:24 (v18) They will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled down by the Gentiles,…
- Leviticus 26:33 (v18) I will scatter you among the nations, and I will draw out the sword after you. Your land will be a desolation, and your cities shall be a…
- Deuteronomy 28:64 (v18) Yahweh will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth. There you will serve other gods which…
- Deuteronomy 29:21-28 (v18) Yahweh will set him apart for evil out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant written in this book of the…
- 2 Chronicles 7:19-22 (v18) But if you turn away, and forsake my statutes and my commandments which I have set before you, and shall go and serve other gods, and…
- Psalms 44:11 (v18) You have made us like sheep for food, and have scattered us among the nations.
- Jeremiah 15:2-3 (v17) It will happen, when they ask you, ‘Where shall we go out?’ then you shall tell them, ‘Yahweh says: “Such as are for death, to death; such…
- Jeremiah 19:8 (v18) I will make this city an astonishment and a hissing. Everyone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss because of all its plagues.
- Jeremiah 24:1-3 (v17) Yahweh showed me, and behold, two baskets of figs were set before Yahweh’s temple, after Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away…
- Jeremiah 26:6 (v18) then I will make this house like Shiloh, and will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth.” ’ ”
- Jeremiah 27:8 (v17) “ ‘ “ ‘It will happen that I will punish the nation and the kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and that…
- Jeremiah 29:22 (v18) A curse will be taken up about them by all the captives of Judah who are in Babylon, saying, ‘Yahweh make you like Zedekiah and like Ahab,…
- Jeremiah 34:17-22 (v17) Therefore Yahweh says: “You have not listened to me, to proclaim liberty, every man to his brother, and every man to his neighbor. Behold,…
- Jeremiah 43:11 (v17) He will come, and will strike the land of Egypt; such as are for death will be put to death, and such as are for captivity to captivity,…
- Jeremiah 52:6 (v17) In the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the famine was severe in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the…
- Ezekiel 5:12-17 (v17) A third part of you will die with the pestilence, and they will be consumed with famine within you. A third part will fall by the sword…
- Ezekiel 6:8 (v18) “ ‘ “Yet I will leave a remnant, in that you will have some that escape the sword among the nations, when you are scattered through the…
- Ezekiel 14:12-21 (v17) Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, “Son of man, when a land sins against me by committing a trespass, and I stretch out my hand on it, and…
- Ezekiel 22:15 (v18) I will scatter you among the nations, and disperse you through the countries. I will consume your filthiness out of you.
- Ezekiel 36:19 (v18) I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed through the countries. I judged them according to their way and according to…
- Amos 9:9 (v18) “For, behold, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all the nations, as grain is sifted in a sieve, yet not the least…
- Zechariah 7:14 (v18) “but I will scatter them with a whirlwind among all the nations which they have not known. Thus the land was desolate after them, so that…
- Luke 21:11 (v17) There will be great earthquakes, famines, and plagues in various places. There will be terrors and great signs from heaven.
- Luke 21:23 (v17) Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who nurse infants in those days! For there will be great distress in the land, and wrath to this…
48 distinct cross-references across this passage (49 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (12 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv17–19 He says, I will pursue them with the sword,…
He says, I will pursue them with the sword, and famine, and pestilence The surrender of Jeconiah, as we have elsewhere seen, was voluntary; he was therefore more kindly received by the king of Babylon. At length the city was attacked, and as the siege was long, there was more rage felt against the king and the whole people, for the Chaldeans had been wearied by their obstinacy. Hence it was, that they dealt more severely with them. But nothing happened except through the just vengeance of God; for though they exasperated the Chaldeans, there is no doubt but that God blinded their minds so that they procured for themselves a heavier judgment. It was, then, a punishment inflicted on them by God; and hence rightly does Jeremiah testify that God was the author of those calamities, for the Chaldeans, as we have seen elsewhere, were only ministers and executioners of God’s vengeance; Jehovah of hosts then says, Behold, I will pursue you, etc.
He then adds, And I will make them like worthless figs He calls the figs here שערים, sherim, worthless; but in the twenty-fourth chapter he called them bad; still the meaning is the same. There is no doubt but that he refers to the prophecy which we there explained. For the Prophet saw two baskets of figs, in one of which were sweet figs, and in the other bitter. God asked, “What seest thou?” he said, “Good figs, very good, and bad figs, very bad.” God afterwards added, “The good and sweet figs are the captives; for I will at length shew mercy to them, and liberty to return shall be given them. They shall then be good figs, though now a different opinion is formed; for they who still lived at Jerusalem, think themselves more happy than the exiles; but the bad and bitter figs,” he says, “are this people who pride themselves, because they have not been led into captivity; for I will consume them with the pestilence, and the famine, and the sword.” This was the Prophet’s language in that passage. He now again declares that King Zedekiah and all the people would be like bitter and putrid figs, which, being so bad, are not fit to be eaten. He then adds, —
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv17–19 According to the comparison, Jer. 24:1, 2.
According to the comparison, Jer. 24:1, 2.
Whereby he assureth them, that there shall be no hope of returning before the time appointed.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv17–19 Jer 29:17 Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Behold,…
Jer 29:17 Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Behold, I will send upon them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them like vile figs, that cannot be eaten, they are so evil.
Ver. 17. Behold, I will send upon them.] Jer 24:10; Jer 27:8.
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And will make them like vile figs.] See Jer 24:8.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv18–19 These verses contain no more than the threatening which…
These verses contain no more than the threatening which we have had more than once before. He had compared them to vile figs, Jer 24:8,9,10 there threatened them with being made a reproach, a proverb, a taunt, and a curse; and consuming them with the sword, famine, and pestilence: the same thing before delivered by word of mouth to those in Judea, is here repeated in a letter to that part of the Jews in Babylon, to take them off from giving credit to their false prophets, whether in Judea or in Babylon, who deluded them with the promises of a speedy return. Believe it, (saith the prophet,) you shall be so far from returning, whatever your idle prophets tell you, that your brethren that are here shall be brought to you, or destroyed with the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, or scattered into other kingdoms, where they shall be made
a curse, and an astonishment, and an hissing, and a reproach.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv17–19 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, behold, I will…
Thus saith the Lord of hosts, behold, I will send upon them the sword,.... The sword of the Chaldeans, by which many of them should fall, as they did. The Targum is,
"I will send upon them those that kill with the sword:''
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who, though they were prompted to come against the Jews, through a natural and ambitious desire of conquering and plundering, yet were sent of God; nor would they have come, had he not willed and suffered it:
the famine and the pestilence; to destroy others that escaped the sword; both these raged while Jerusalem was besieged by the Chaldeans:
and will make them like vile figs, that cannot be eaten, they are so evil; to which they are compared, Jer 24:8. The sense is, that as they had made themselves wicked and corrupt, like naughty and rotten figs, so the Lord would deal with them as men do with such, cast them away, as good for nothing. The word (z) for "vile" signifies something horrible; and designs such figs so bad, that they even strike the eater of them with horror.
(z) "tanquam ficus horrendas", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; so Stockius, p. 1129.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On v17 Verse 17. Behold, I will send upon them the…
Verse 17. Behold, I will send upon them the sword] Do not envy the state of Zedekiah who sits on the throne of David, nor that of the people who are now in the land whence ye have been carried captive, (Jer 29:16,) for "I will send the sword, the pestilence, and the famine upon them;" and afterwards shall cause them to be carried into a miserable captivity in all nations, (Jer 29:18;) but ye see the worst of your own case, and you have God's promise of enlargement when the proper time is come. The reader will not forget that the prophet is addressing the captives in Babylon.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv17, 19
CHAPTER XXIX.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv17–18 vile figs--Hebrew, "horrible," or nauseous, from a root, "to…
vile figs--Hebrew, "horrible," or nauseous, from a root, "to regard with loathing" (see Jer 24:8, Jer 24:10).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv17–19 17. Vile figs — See Jer_24:2, etc. The adjective…
17. Vile figs — See Jer_24:2, etc. The adjective is very expressive in the original — shuddering — such figs as make one shudder to taste them.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv17–18 17. vile figs] Cp. Jer_24:2-8.
17. vile figs] Cp. Jer_24:2-8.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv17, 19 I will send upon them, etc.; alluding to Jer_24:10.…
I will send upon them, etc.; alluding to Jer_24:10. vile figs; literally, figs exciting a shudder. The figure involves an allusion Jer_24:2, Jer_24:3.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v18 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
Yahweh continues speaking about what will happen to Israel.
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a horror, an object of curses and hissing, and a shameful thing
These words all share similar meanings and describe how the people of other nations will react when they see what Yahweh has done to the people of Judah.
hissing
the sound people make when they disapprove of something
you would not listen
"you would not obey"
this is Yahweh's declaration
Yahweh speaks of himself by name to express the certainty of what he is declaring. See how you translated this in Jeremiah 1:8. AT: "this is what Yahweh has declared" or "this is what I, Yahweh, have declared" (See: First, Second, or Third Person)
translationWords
kingdom
earth
curse
shame
nation
word of God
servant
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.