[6][7] Fragments containing parts of this chapter were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, including 4Q80 (4QXIIe; 75–50 BCE) with extant verses 7–12.

[14] The New King James Version divides this chapter into two parts: This section contains an oracle or prophecy "concerning Israel",[15] focusing on "the final onslaught of all nations on Jerusalem".

[18] This verse contains the heading of the oracle which, to biblical writer Katrina Larkin, "seems to cover the whole of the rest of the book" (chapters 12–14), with a "doxology on creation" bringing ideas about "creation and origins" (the Urzeit) projected forwards onto the "end of time" (the Endzeit).

[20] Theologian Albert Barnes comments that "the image of the 'cup' is mostly of God's displeasure, which is given to His own people, and then, His judgment of chastisement being exceeded, given in turn to those who had been the instruments of giving it".

[21] The mourning in this section is based on the piercing of the LORD, who is the only one speaking in the first person throughout chapters 12 to 14; first compared to the loss of an only (or firstborn) son (verse 10), then to the death of king Josiah in the "plain of Megiddo" (verse 11; cf.

2 Chronicles 35:20–25; 2 Kings 23:29–30; traced to Jeremiah in 2 Chronicles 35:25);[22] and the mourning spreading from Jerusalem to the entire land (verse 12) following by the references to particular subgroups or clans in the community even further according to the gender ("wives" separated from the "husbands"; verses 12–14).