Jeremiah 29:17

17 yes, this is what the LORD Almighty says: “I will send the sword, famine and plague against them and I will make them like figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten.

Jeremiah 29:17 in Other Translations

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.

17 'Thus says the LORD of hosts, behold, I am sending on them sword, famine, and pestilence, and I will make them like vile figs that are so rotten they cannot be eaten.

17 This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says: “I will send war, famine, and disease upon them and make them like bad figs, too rotten to eat.

17 God-of-the-Angel-Armies says, 'Watch this! Catastrophe is on the way: war, hunger, disease! They're a barrel of rotten apples.

17 thus saith Jehovah 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.

17 The LORD of Armies says: I'm going to send them wars, famines, and plagues. These people are like rotten figs to me, figs that are so bad that they can't be eaten.

17 This is what the Lord of Hosts says: "I am about to send against them sword, famine, and plague and will make them like rotten figs that are inedible because they are so bad.

17 The LORD who rules over all says, "I will send war, hunger and plague against them. I will make them like bad figs. They are so bad they can't be eaten.

Jeremiah 29:17 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 29:17

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:''

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, ( Jeremiah 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 ^F26 for "vile" signifies something horrible; and designs such figs so bad, that they even strike the eater of them with horror.

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FOOTNOTES:

F26 (Myrevh Mynatk) "tanquam ficus horrendas", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; so Stockius, p. 1129.

Jeremiah 29:17 In-Context

15 You may say, “The LORD has raised up prophets for us in Babylon,”

16 but this is what the LORD says about the king who sits on David’s throne and all the people who remain in this city, your fellow citizens who did not go with you into exile—

17 yes, this is what the LORD Almighty says: “I will send the sword, famine and plague against them and I will make them like figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten.

18 I will pursue them with the sword, famine and plague and will make them abhorrent to all the kingdoms of the earth, a curse and an object of horror, of scorn and reproach, among all the nations where I drive them.

19 For they have not listened to my words,” declares the LORD, “words that I sent to them again and again by my servants the prophets. And you exiles have not listened either,” declares the LORD.

Cross References

• 1. Jeremiah 27:8
• 2. S Isaiah 5:4; Jeremiah 24:8-10