Jeremiah 44:12

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

I will take the remnant of Judah, that have set their faces to go into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, and they shall all be consumed; in the land of Egypt shall they fall; they shall be consumed by the sword and by the famine; they shall die, from the least even to the greatest, by the sword and by the famine; and they shall be an object of horror, [and] an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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וְלִקְלָלָ֖ה

qᵉlâlâh

H7045

“and · to/for · curse”

Conjunction + Preposition + Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute

Appears 33× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 27:12

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H7043

TWOT: 2028d

curse, vilification, execration

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

31: words
26: distinct lemmas
Prophets: section

Shared distinctive vocabulary

וְלִקְלָלָ֖ה curse H7045 occurs in 33 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

9 verbs
16 nouns
2 adjectives
1 preposition
1 adverb
2 particles

Verb forms

וְלָקַחְתִּ֞י Qal · Sequential Perfect
שָׂ֨מוּ Qal · Perfect
לָב֣וֹא Qal · Infinitive Construct
לָג֣וּר Qal · Infinitive Construct
וְתַ֨מּוּ Qal · Sequential Perfect
יִפֹּ֗לוּ Qal · Imperfect
יִתַּ֔מּוּ Qal · Imperfect
יָמֻ֑תוּ Qal · Imperfect
וְהָיוּ֙ Qal · Sequential Perfect

Repetition

Words recur within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

אֶֽרֶץ land H776 ×2
מִצְרַיִם֮ Egypt H4714 ×2
וְתַ֨מּוּ to be complete H8552 ×2
בַּחֶ֤רֶב sword H2719 ×2
בָּֽרָעָב֙ famine H7458 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In the original languages it is 31 Hebrew tokens and 16 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Jeremiah 44:12 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Jeremiah 42:15–18 now therefore hear you the word of Yahweh, O remnant of Judah: Thus says Yahweh of Hosts, the God of Israel, If you indeed set your faces to enter into Egypt, and go to sojourn there;
Jeremiah 42:22 Now therefore know certainly that you shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, in the place where you desire to go to sojourn there.
Isaiah 65:15 You shall leave your name for a curse to my chosen; and the Lord Yahweh will kill you; and he will call his servants by another name:
Isaiah 1:28 But the destruction of transgressors and sinners shall be together, And those who forsake Yahweh shall be consumed.
Jeremiah 18:16 to make their land an astonishment, and a perpetual hissing; everyone who passes thereby shall be astonished, and shake his head.
Jeremiah 29:18 I will pursue after them with the sword, with the famine, and with the pestilence, and will deliver them to be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth, to be an object of horror, and an astonishment, and a hissing, and a reproach, among all the nations where I have driven them;
Jeremiah 29:22 and of them shall be taken up a curse by all the captives of Judah who are in Babylon, saying, Yahweh make you like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire;
Jeremiah 44:7–8 Therefore now thus says Yahweh, the God of hosts, the God of Israel: Why commit you [this] great evil against your own souls, to cut off from you man and woman, infant and suckling, out of the midst of Judah, to leave you none remaining;

Hosea 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you, That you may be no priest to me. Because you have your God's law, I will also forget your children.

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Jeremiah 44:12 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וְלָקַחְתִּ֞י אֶת שְׁאֵרִ֣ית יְהוּדָ֗ה אֲשֶׁר שָׂ֨מוּ פְנֵיהֶ֜ם לָב֣וֹא אֶֽרֶץ מִצְרַיִם֮ לָג֣וּר שָׁם֒ וְתַ֨מּוּ כֹ֜ל בְּאֶ֧רֶץ מִצְרַ֣יִם יִפֹּ֗לוּ בַּחֶ֤רֶב בָּֽרָעָב֙ יִתַּ֔מּוּ מִקָּטֹן֙ וְעַד גָּד֔וֹל בַּחֶ֥רֶב וּבָרָעָ֖ב יָמֻ֑תוּ וְהָיוּ֙ לְאָלָ֣ה לְשַׁמָּ֔ה וְלִקְלָלָ֖ה וּלְחֶרְפָּֽה

I will take the remnant of Judah, that have set their faces to go into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, and they shall all be consumed; in the land of Egypt shall they fall; they shall be consumed by the sword and by the famine; they shall die, from the least even to the greatest, by the sword and by the famine; and they shall be an object of horror, [and] an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Structure differs

In the Septuagint, Jeremiah is about an eighth shorter than the Hebrew and arranges its material differently — the Oracles Against the Nations (Hebrew chapters 46–51) appear in the middle of the Greek book, after 25:13. Because the chapter and verse boundaries do not line up, a verse-for-verse comparison with the Hebrew is not shown.

A verse-for-verse comparison isn’t shown here because the chapters and verses don’t line up. Switch to the LXX edition with the MT / LXX toggle above to read the Greek directly.

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from a public-domain English Septuagint. How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Jonathan Prophets (Joshua–Malachi)

וְאֶסַב יַת שְׁאָרָא דְבֵית יְהוּדָה דְשַׁוִיאוּ אַפֵּיהוֹן לְמֵיעַל לְאַרְעָא דְמִצְרַיִם לְאִתּוֹתָבָא תַמָן וִיסוּפוּן כּוּלְהוֹן בְּאַרְעָא דְמִצְרַיִם יִתְרְמוּן בְּחַרְבָּא וּבְכַפְנָא יְסוּפוּן מִזְעֵירָא וְעַד רַבָּא בְּחַרְבָּא וּבְכַפְנָא יְמוּתוּן וִיהוֹן לְמוֹמֵי וּלְצָדוּ וְלִלְוָטָא וּלְחִסוּדִין:

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Jonathan — Aramaic: “Mikraot Gedolot” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “London "Chaldee Paraphrase," 1871” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Jeremiah 44:12 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

Jer 44:12 And I will take the remnant of Judah, that have set their faces to go into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, and they shall all be consumed, [and] fall in the land of Egypt; they shall [even] be consumed by the sword [and] by the famine: they shall die, from the least even unto the greatest, by the sword and by the famine: and they shall be an execration, [and] an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach.

Ver. 12. That have set their faces.] I also will set my face against such, {Jer 44:11} and they shall all be consumed and fall. Oh what work hath sin made in the world!

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Tyndale Open Study Notes

Tyndale Open Resources

44:12 Unlike those exiled to Babylon, to whom the Lord had given hope (see 33:7-18; Ezek 34:12-15; 36:24-31), this remnant of Judah had no future.

Geneva Bible (1599)

Geneva Bible translators

Which have fully set their minds, and are gone thither on purpose. Whereby he excepteth the innocents, as Jeremiah and Baruch that were forced: therefore the Lord showeth that he will set his face against them: that is, purposely destroy them.

Read Jer. 26:6 and 41:18.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

John Calvin's Commentaries

And first, indeed, the Prophet briefly shews that all those would perish who had yet falsely imagined that they could not otherwise be safe than by fleeing into Egypt. Then Jeremiah here reproves and condemns their false and vain confidence. And then he explains the manner when he says, I will take away all the remnant of Judah, who have set their face to come to Egypt, etc. By these words and the following, God intimates that the Jews had in vain sought hiding-places in Egypt, because there he would inflict on them the punishment which they had deserved. He names the sword and the famine; the third kind he omits here, but he will mention it presently. Then he says that they were to perish, partly by the sword and partly by famine, and in order to speak more emphatically, he uses different words, They shall be consumed by famine, they shall fall by the sword, they shall all be consumed, and then he says, from the least to the greatest.

At length he adds, And they shall be a curse. We have said elsewhere that the word אלה, ale, sometimes means a curse, though it properly signifies an oath; and the reason is, because men in swearing often introduce a curse, “Let God curse me,” — “Let me perish.” Then he says, that the Jews would become an example of a curse; for in making an oath this would be the common form, “Let God destroy me as he destroyed the Jews.” He afterwards adds, an astonishment, because all would be horrified at the very sight of their calamity. It follows in the last place, a curse and a reproach, of which we have spoken before. Let us now proceed, —

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

12. Cp. Jer_42:18.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

And I will take the remnant of Judah,.... Such as remained of that tribe in the land of Judea after the captivity: and not all of them, but such

that have set their faces to go into the land of Egypt to sojourn there: who were bent upon going thither, notwithstanding all the remonstrances made to them to the contrary; and were gone thither, and were now actually sojourners there: this describes such persons who wilfully, and of their own accord, went thither; and excepts those who were over-persuaded or over-powered to go along with them:

and they shall all be consumed, and fall in the land of Egypt; not by natural death, one after another; but by the judgments of God, as follows:

they shall even be consumed by the sword and by the famine; by the sword of the king of Babylon; and by famine, occasioned by a foreign army and sieges:

they shall die; from the least even unto the greatest, by the sword and by the famine; which is repeated for the confirmation of it, and to express the universality of the destruction; that it should reach to persons of every age, state and condition, rank and degree, young and old, high and low, rich and poor:

and they shall be an execration, and an astonishment, and a curse,

and a reproach; See Gill on Jer 42:18.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

This is no more than the prophet had told these very persons before they went unto Egypt, Jer 42:16,17; here he doubleth his words for the confirmation of the truth of them to them now that they were there.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

Daniel D. Whedon

12. They shall all be consumed — The original is emphatic by repetition. The exact translation is: —

They shall all be consumed,

In the land of Egypt they shall fall,

By sword and famine shall they be consumed;

Small and great, by sword and famine shall they die.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Jeremiah, in the Prophets, opens this verse with 31 words (26 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is qᵉlâlâh (“curse”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

What does “curse” (qᵉlâlâh) contribute to the verse as a whole?
Genesis 27:12 shares the word «curse» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
“land” occurs 2× in this one verse. What is the effect of the repetition?
The translations on this page render this verse differently — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment. What might account for the different wordings?
The verb «וְלָקַחְתִּ֞י» is Qal Sequential Perfect. How does its form color the action?
Reading how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Tyndale Open Study Notes read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

This verse counts 31 Hebrew ↔ 16 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 24 words in this verse.
“land” occurs 2× in this single verse.
26 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 31 words in this verse.