Commentary for Jeremiah 10:11

So shall you say to them This is a letter that Jeremiah sent to Jeconiah and those exiled with him in exile, to reply to the Chaldees in Aramaic, a reply if they tell them to worship idols.

"And thus shall you say to them" (Ashuri: כִּדְנָה֙ תֵּאמְר֣וּן לְה֔וֹם) – This is a letter that God sent Jeremiah for the Babylonian exiled people to answer thus to the Chaldæans when they told them to worship their gods, answer them, "The gods who did not make heaven and earth will perish from earth and from below these heavens." And he wrote the letter for them in the Aramaic language so that they could say it to the Chaldæns in their tongue. And why does it say "and thus you shall say to them?" Because it's a warning to Israel. And that's also in Aramaic so as not to split the verse that it's half in Hebrew and half in Aramaic. And it says "to them" לְה֔וֹם with a mem ם because it appears twice as a mem - it's found in Ezra 5:3 "And thus, say to them" וְכֵן֙ אָמְרִ֣ין לְהֹ֔ם, even though it almost always comes with a nun ן.

These (Ashuri: אֵֽלֶּה). In both the Hebrew and Aramaic languages. This is also found in Ezra - "these vessels" (Ashuri: אלה מָֽאנַיָּ֔א - Ezra 5:15) written as אלה, and read as אֵ֚ל – and אל and אלה are one and the same, as in "these lands" (Ashuri: הָֽאֲרָצֹ֣ת הָאֵ֔ל - Genesis 26:3). And it says "these" because they are visible to humans, although they are high.