Verse 11
Jeremiah instructed his audience to say that these idols would perish, because they were human creations rather than the divine Creator. This is the only Aramaic verse in Jeremiah.
"The Tg [Targum] prefaces Jeremiah 10:11 with these words: ’This is the copy of the letter which the Prophet Jeremiah sent to the leaders of the exile in Babylon: "If the Chaldeans say to you, worship our idols, then answer them as follows."’ This suggests that Jeremiah 10:11 was a shortened version of a letter sent by Jeremiah to Jehoiachin and the other exiles in Babylon [where Aramaic was spoken] between 598 and 587 B.C. (compare Jeremiah 29:1-32)." [Note: Kelley, p. 160. The Targums were interpretive translations of portions of the Hebrew Scriptures into Aramaic, which increasingly replaced the Hebrew language following the Babylonian captivity.]
Another possibility is that this verse represents a well-known saying that someone, perhaps an Aramaic speaker, added to the text under divine inspiration. [Note: Thompson, p. 330.]
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