I will cast off the remnant of my heritage: Other passages in 1–2 Kings suggest that the heritage or “inheritance” of the LORD is the people of Israel (1 Kgs 8.51, 53). Compare also Deut 32.9 and Psa 28.9. The word remnant refers to those people surviving after the majority of the group has been exterminated. So the expression the remnant of my heritage means simply “those of my people who remain.” Even their special status of being the people of God cannot change the situation. They too will be abandoned as God punishes Judah.

Give them into the hand of their enemies: Note that the pronoun them refers to the people of Judah and not to the northern kingdom of Israel. Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente makes this explicit by stating “I will deliver the inhabitants of Judah to their enemies.”

As is so often the case, the Hebrew word for hand is a reference to the “power” of the enemies of Judah.

They shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies; that is, the remaining people of Judah will be at the mercy of those who raid and plunder. Their land and everything that they have will be taken from them by the conquerors. The Hebrew words for prey and spoil are used together in a similar way in various other places, including Isa 42.22 and Jer 30.16.

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Kings, Volume 2. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2008. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .