Jeremiah 9:16

THE MESSAGE

"Then I'll scatter them far and wide among godless peoples that neither they nor their parents have ever heard of, and I'll send Death in pursuit until there's nothing left of them."

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
I will scatter them among the nations that they and their fathers have not known. I will send a sword after them until I have finished them off.”

Hebrew Names Version
I will scatter them also among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them.

King James Version
I will scatter them also among the heathen, whom neither they nor their fathers have known: and I will send a sword after them, till I have consumed them.

English Standard Version
I will scatter them among the nations whom neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them."

New American Standard Bible
"I will also scatter them among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send the sword after them until I have put an end to them."

New Century Version
I will scatter them through other nations that they and their ancestors never knew about. I will chase the people of Judah with the sword until they are all killed."

Amplified Bible
"I will [also] scatter them among nations that neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will send the sword after them until I have annihilated them."

World English Bible
I will scatter them also among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them.

Geneva Bible (1587)
I wil scatter them also among the heathen, whom neither they nor their fathers haue knowen, and I will send a sworde after them, til I haue consumed them.

Legacy Standard Bible
I will scatter them among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send the sword after them until I have consumed them."

Berean Standard Bible
I will scatter them among the nations that neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will send a sword after them until I have finished them off."

Contemporary English Version
I'll scatter them in foreign countries that they and their ancestors have never even heard of. Finally, I will send enemy soldiers to kill every last one of them.

Complete Jewish Bible
Thus says Adonai -Tzva'ot: "Mark this, then summon the mourning women, so that they will come; send for those who are best [at mourning], so that they will come:

Darby Translation
and will scatter them among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send the sword after them, till I have consumed them.

Easy-to-Read Version
I will scatter the people of Judah throughout other nations. They will live in strange nations that they and their fathers never knew about. I will send men with swords. They will kill the people of Judah. They will kill them until all the people are gone."

George Lamsa Translation
I will scatter them also among the Gentiles, whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send a sword after them till I have consumed them.

Good News Translation
I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their ancestors have heard about, and I will send armies against them until I have completely destroyed them."

Lexham English Bible
and I will scatter them among the nations that they have not known, they and their ancestors, and I will send the sword after them until I bring them to an end."

Literal Translation
I will also scatter them among the nations which they have not known, nor their fathers. And I will send the sword after them until I have consumed them.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
I will scatre them also amonge the Heithen, whom nether they ner their fathers haue knowne: and I will sende a swearde amonge them, to persecute them, vntill I bringe them to naught.

American Standard Version
I will scatter them also among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send the sword after them, till I have consumed them.

Bible in Basic English
And I will send them wandering among the nations, among people strange to them and to their fathers: and I will send the sword after them till I have put an end to them.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
Thus saith the LORD of hosts: Consider ye, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for the wise women, that they may come;

King James Version (1611)
I will scatter them also among the heathen, whome neither they nor their fathers haue knowen: and I wil send a sword after them, til I haue consumed them.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
I wyll scatter them also among the heathen, whom neither they nor their fathers haue knowen: and I wyll send a sworde among them to persecute them, vntyll I bring them to naught.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
and I will scatter them among the nations, to them whom neither they nor their fathers knew; and I will send a sword upon them, until I have consumed them with it.

English Revised Version
I will scatter them also among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known: and I will send the sword after them, till I have consumed them.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And Y schal scatere hem among hethene men, whiche thei and her fadris knewen not; and Y schal sende swerd aftir hem, til thei ben wastid.

Update Bible Version
I will scatter them also among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them.

Webster's Bible Translation
I will scatter them also among the heathen, whom neither they nor their fathers have known: and I will send a sword after them, till I have consumed them.

New English Translation
I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their ancestors have known anything about. I will send people chasing after them with swords until I have destroyed them.'"

New King James Version
I will scatter them also among the Gentiles, whom neither they nor their fathers have known. And I will send a sword after them until I have consumed them."

New Living Translation
I will scatter them around the world, in places they and their ancestors never heard of, and even there I will chase them with the sword until I have destroyed them completely."

New Life Bible
I will spread them out among the nations whom they and their fathers have not known. And I will go after them with the sword until I have put an end to them."

New Revised Standard
I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their ancestors have known; and I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
And will scatter them among the nations, which neither they nor their fathers, have known, - And will send after them the sword, until I have consumed them.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And I will scatter them among the nations, which they and their fathers have not known: and I will send the sword after them till they be consumed.

Revised Standard Version
I will scatter them among the nations whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them."

Young's Literal Translation
And I have scattered them among nations Which they knew not, they and their fathers, And have sent after them the sword, Till I have consumed them.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"I will scatter them among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send the sword after them until I have annihilated them."

Contextual Overview

¹² I asked, "Is there anyone around bright enough to tell us what's going on here? Anyone who has the inside story from God and can let us in on it? "Why is the country wasted? "Why no travelers in this desert?" ¹³ God 's answer: "Because they abandoned my plain teaching. They wouldn't listen to anything I said, refused to live the way I told them to. Instead they lived any way they wanted and took up with the Baal gods, who they thought would give them what they wanted—following the example of their parents." And this is the consequence. God -of-the-Angel-Armies says so: "I'll feed them with pig slop. "I'll give them poison to drink. ¹⁶ "Then I'll scatter them far and wide among godless peoples that neither they nor their parents have ever heard of, and I'll send Death in pursuit until there's nothing left of them." ¹⁷A Message from God -of-the-Angel-Armies: "Look over the trouble we're in and call for help. Send for some singers who can help us mourn our loss. Tell them to hurry— to help us express our loss and lament, Help us get our tears flowing, make tearful music of our crying. Listen to it! Listen to that torrent of tears out of Zion: ‘We're a ruined people, we're a shamed people! We've been driven from our homes and must leave our land!'" ²⁰Mourning women! Oh, listen to God 's Message! Open your ears. Take in what he says. Teach your daughters songs for the dead and your friends the songs of heartbreak. Death has climbed in through the window, broken into our bedrooms. Children on the playgrounds drop dead, and young men and women collapse at their games. ²² Speak up! " God 's Message: "‘Dead bodies everywhere, scattered at random like sheep and goat dung in the fields, Like wheat cut down by reapers and left to rot where it falls.'"

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

scatter: Jeremiah 13:24, Leviticus 26:33, Deuteronomy 4:27, Deuteronomy 28:25, Deuteronomy 28:36, Deuteronomy 28:64, Deuteronomy 32:26, Nehemiah 1:8, Psalms 106:27, Ezekiel 11:17, Ezekiel 12:15, Ezekiel 20:23, Zechariah 7:14, James 1:1

and I: Jeremiah 15:2-4, Jeremiah 24:10, Jeremiah 25:27, Jeremiah 29:17, Jeremiah 44:27, Jeremiah 49:36, Jeremiah 49:37, Ezekiel 5:2, Ezekiel 5:12, Ezekiel 14:17

Reciprocal: Leviticus 26:25 - will bring Isaiah 24:1 - scattereth Jeremiah 14:12 - but Jeremiah 15:4 - cause them to be removed Jeremiah 22:16 - was not Ezekiel 5:10 - the whole

Cross-References

Genesis 9:8
Then God spoke to Noah and his sons: "I'm setting up my covenant with you including your children who will come after you, along with everything alive around you—birds, farm animals, wild animals—that came out of the ship with you. I'm setting up my covenant with you that never again will everything living be destroyed by floodwaters; no, never again will a flood destroy the Earth."

Genesis 17:19
But God said, "That's not what I mean. Your wife, Sarah, will have a baby, a son. Name him Isaac (Laughter). I'll establish my covenant with him and his descendants, a covenant that lasts forever.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

I will scatter them also among the Heathen,.... Besides the bitter judgments of famine and pestilence during the siege, what remained of them should be carried captive out of their own land into foreign countries, than which nothing could be more distressing:

whom neither they or their fathers have known; a circumstance greatly aggravating their captivity:

and I will send a sword after them, till I have consumed them; or men that kill with the sword, as the Targum: it chiefly regards such of them as were scattered among the Moabites and Ammonites, and especially that went into Egypt; see Jeremiah 44:27.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The punishment described in general terms in the preceding three verses is now detailed at great length.

Jeremiah 9:10

The habitations i. e - the temporary encampments of the shepherds (see Jeremiah 6:3).

So that none can ... - Or, “They are parched up, with no man to pass through them; neither do they hear the voice of cattle; from the birds of the heaven even to the beasts they “are fled, they are gone.”

Jeremiah 9:11

Dragons - Rather, jackals.

Jeremiah 9:12

For what the land perisheth ... - This is the question proposed for consideration. The prophet calls upon the wise man to explain his question; that question being, Wherefore did the land perish? He follows it by the assertion of a fact: “It is parched like the wilderness with no man to pass through.”

Jeremiah 9:13

The cause of the chastisement about to fall upon Jerusalem, was their desertion of the divine Law.

Jeremiah 9:14

Imagination - Or, as in the margin.

Which their fathers taught them - It was not the sin of one generation that brought upon them chastisement: it was a sin, which had been handed down from father to son.

Jeremiah 9:15

I will feed them ... - Rather, I am feeding them. The present participle used here, followed by three verbs in the future, shows that the judgment has beam, of which the successive stages are given in the next clause.

Wormwood - See Deuteronomy 29:18, note, and for “water of gall,” Jeremiah 8:14, note.

Jeremiah 9:16

This verse is taken from Leviticus 26:33. The fulfillment of what had been so long before appointed as the penalty for the violation of Yahweh’s covenant is one of the most remarkable proofs that prophecy was something more than human foresight.

Till I have consumed them - See Jeremiah 4:27 note. How is this “consuming” consistent with the promise to the contrary there given? Because it is limited by the terms of Jeremiah 9:7. Previously to Nebuchadnezzars destruction of Jerusalem God removed into safety those in whom the nation should revive.

Jeremiah 9:17

The mourning women - Hired to attend at funerals, and by their skilled wailings aid the real mourners in giving vent to their grief. Hence, they are called “cunning,” literally “wise” women, wisdom being constantly used in Scripture for anything in which people are trained.

Jeremiah 9:18

Take up a wailing for us - i. e., for the nation once God’s chosen people, but long spiritually dead.

Jeremiah 9:19

Forsaken - Or, left: forced to abandon the land.

Because our dwellings ... - Rather, “because they have east down our dwellings.” The whole verse is a description of their sufferings. See 2 Kings 25:1-12.

Jeremiah 9:20

The command is addressed to the women because it was more especially their part to express the general feelings of the nation. See 1 Samuel 18:6; 2 Samuel 1:24. The women utter now the death-wail over the perishing nation. They are to teach their daughters and neighbors the “lamentation, i. e., dirge,” because the harvest of death would be so large that the number of trained women would not suffice.

Jeremiah 9:21

Death is come up ... - i. e., death steals silently like a thief upon his victims, and makes such havoc that there are no children left to go “without,” nor young men to frequent the open spaces in the city.

Jeremiah 9:22

The “handful” means the little bundle of grain which the reaper gathers on his arm with three or four strokes of his sickle, and then lays down. Behind the reaper came one whose business it was to gather several of these bundles, and bind them into a sheaf. Thus, death strews the ground with corpses as thickly as these handfuls lie upon the reaped land, but the corpses lie there unheeded.