2. Inquire, pray, of the LORD. This is a technical expression for inquiry of an oracle. What Zedekiah and his delegates are of course hoping for is a favorable oracle regarding the fate of the city, under siege by the Babylonians (most likely, in the period from 588 to 586 B.C.E., which would end in the conquest and destruction of Jerusalem).

Nebuchadrezzar. In other biblical books this name often appears as Nebuchadnezzar, though the spelling with two rs used here is more faithful to the Akkadian. Hebrew transliterations of foreign names show a considerable degree of distortion.

4. I am about to turn round the weapons that are in your hands. That is, I am going to render your weapons ineffectual, forcing you to fall back into the city.

the Chaldeans. These are the dominant ethnic group in Babylonia.

I will gather them. The antecedent of “them” is the Chaldeans.

5. an outstretched hand and a strong arm. This is a variation of the phrase used in Deuteronomy 4:34 (where it appears as “a strong hand and an outstretched arm”) to describe God’s intervention against Egypt on behalf of the Israelites. Here, the application is pointedly reversed as God intervenes against Israel.

7. his servants. This noun, when attached to a king, almost invariably refers to his courtiers or attendants.

he shall strike them with the edge of the sword. Zedekiah’s actual fate was perhaps worse than death: first he was forced to watch as his sons were murdered; then he was blinded and led off to captivity.

8. I am about to set before you the way of life and the way of death. This echoes Deuteronomy 30:19, where Israel is urged to “choose life.” The allusion is ironic because in this case the choice is between death and a life of captivity and exile. The phrase in the next verse, “his life shall become booty,” means booty to the Chaldeans.

12. House of David. The address is to the dynastic line, and “house of Judah” in the previous verse has the same meaning.

13. valley dweller. The reference is not certain. Since the entire poem appears to have in view the destruction of Jerusalem, as does the preceding prose prophecy, it is likely that the valley dwellers live in Jerusalem, which does have valleys as well as steep hills. But the next phrase, “rock of the plain,” has not been satisfactorily explained.

14. And I will light a fire in her forest. Lundbom proposes that the reference is to the royal palace, in which there was a hall called the Lebanon Forest House because of its extensive use of Lebanese cedar paneling. It seems more likely that what is to be burned is an actual forest—there were wooded areas in and around Jerusalem—and “it will consume all around her” thus plausibly invokes the destruction that extends beyond the city to the surrounding countryside. Through this entire prophecy, one readily sees why Jeremiah was a scorned or even hated figure in the eyes of his countrymen, here predicting the total destruction of Jerusalem and the kingdom of Judah—a catastrophe that in fact was about to occur—at the very moment the city was under siege.