For Behold see 1.6.

I will turn back the weapons of war which are in your hands: The weapons of war which are in your hands is taken by Good News Translation in the sense of “your army that is fighting.” However, most translations understand it literally to mean weapons. Good News Translation also understands I will turn back the weapons to refer to defeat. Other interpreters suggest that the meaning is “I will turn the weapons you are fighting with around from facing outward [against the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans] to facing inward toward the center of the city.”

Chaldeans is another word for Babylonians; it is used of them more than forty times in the book of Jeremiah.

I will bring them together into the midst of this city: The pronoun them may refer either to the Babylonian soldiers or else to the weapons of war. Some translations are ambiguous, but there seems to be more support for the second interpretation; Good News Translation renders this as “I will pile up your soldiers’ weapons in the center of the city.” Thus one way to render the last part of this verse is:

• Zedekiah, I am going to take the weapons your troops are using to fight the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans who are outside your walls, and I am going to turn those weapons around so they face toward the center of the city, and I will gather them together there.

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Jeremiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2003. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .