I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water: and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith the LORD of hosts. I will sweep it with the besom of destruction "I will plunge it in the miry gulf of destruction" - I have here very nearly followed the Version of the Septuagint; the reasons for which see in the last note on De Poesi Hebr. Praelect, xxviii.
The besom of destruction, as our Version renders it. במטאטא bematate. This, says Kimchi, is a Chaldee word: and it is worthy of remark that the prophet, writing to the Chaldeans, uses several words peculiar to their own language to point out the nature of the Divine judgments, and the causes of them. See the note on Jeremiah 10:11 (note). Sixteen of Kennicott's MSS., and seventeen of De Rossi's, and one ancient of my own, have the word במטאטי bematatey, in the plural. "I will sweep her with the besoms of destruction."