LEB-KAMAI

(Leb-kaʹmai) [the heart of those rising up against me].

A note in the margin of the Hebrew Masoretic text holds that this is a cryptographical name for Chaldea or Kas·dimʹ. It appears only at Jeremiah 51:1, in a statement regarding what Jehovah would do to Babylon and the inhabitants of Chaldea. The term is employed there in keeping with a system called athbash, in which the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet (taw) represents the first letter thereof (ʼaʹleph), the second-last letter (shin) represents the second (behth), and so forth. Hence, at Jeremiah 51:1 the real name (Kas·dimʹ) is disguised by forming the Hebrew word Lev qa·mayʹ (Leb-kamai). For “Leb-kamai” the Septuagint Version has “the Chaldeans” and the Targums read “the land of the Chaldeans.”