Jeremiah 29:18

18 I will pursue them with war, starvation, and disease, and all the nations of the world will be horrified at what they see. Everywhere I scatter them, people will be shocked and terrified at what has happened to them. People will make fun of them and use their name as a curse.

Jeremiah 29:18 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 29:18

And I will persecute them with the sword, with the famine,
and with the pestilence
Or, "follow after F1 them"; such as should make their escape out of the city, and go into Egypt, or other countries, for shelter and safety, should be pursued by the vengeance of God, and should fall by sword, famine, or pestilence, in other places: and will deliver them;
such as should not perish by the above mentioned calamities: to be removed to all the kingdoms of the earth;
where they should be scattered, and live in exile: or "for a shaking to all the kingdoms of the earth" F2; who should shake and tremble at such a dreadful spectacle of vengeance; or rather they should shake and tremble at the wrath of God upon them; or else their enemies, among whom they should be, should shake their heads at them, by way of insult and triumph over them: to be a curse, and an astonishment, and an hissing, and a reproach,
among all the nations whither I have driven them;
where men shall look at them with amazement, and curse theft, and hiss at them, and reproach them, as the offscouring of the world.


FOOTNOTES:

F1 (Mhyrxa ytpdrw) "et persequar post eos", Calvin, Piscator.
F2 (hewzl) "in commotionem", Pagninus, Montanus, Schmidt.

Jeremiah 29:18 In-Context

16 Listen to what the Lord says about the king who rules the kingdom that David ruled and about the people of this city, that is, your relatives who were not taken away as prisoners with you.
17 The Lord Almighty says, "I am bringing war, starvation, and disease on them, and I will make them like figs that are too rotten to be eaten.
18 I will pursue them with war, starvation, and disease, and all the nations of the world will be horrified at what they see. Everywhere I scatter them, people will be shocked and terrified at what has happened to them. People will make fun of them and use their name as a curse.
19 This will happen to them because they did not obey the message that I kept on sending to them through my servants the prophets. They refused to listen.
20 All of you whom I sent into exile in Babylonia, listen to what I, the Lord, say.'
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.