Imamat 26:31

26:31 I will lay your cities waste ¹  and make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will refuse to smell your soothing aromas.

Yesaya 25:2

25:2 Indeed, ²  you have made the city ³  into a heap of rubble,

the fortified town into a heap of ruins;

the fortress of foreigners ⁴  is no longer a city,

it will never be rebuilt.

Yeremia 4:13

4:13 Look! The enemy is approaching like gathering clouds. ⁵ 

The roar of his chariots is like that of a whirlwind. ⁶ 

His horses move more swiftly than eagles.”

I cry out, ⁷  “We are doomed, ⁸  for we will be destroyed!”

Yeremia 26:9

26:9 How dare you claim the Lord’s authority to prophesy such things! How dare you claim his authority to prophesy that this temple will become like Shiloh and that this city will become an uninhabited ruin!” ⁹  Then all the people crowded around Jeremiah.

[26:31]  ¹ tn Heb “And I will give your cities a waste”; NLT “make your cities desolate.”

[25:2]  ² tn Or “For” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV).

[25:2]  ³ tn The Hebrew text has “you have made from the city.” The prefixed mem (מ) on עִיר (’ir, “city”) was probably originally an enclitic mem suffixed to the preceding verb. See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:456, n. 3.

[25:2]  ⁴ tc Some with support from the LXX emend זָרִים (zarim, “foreigners”) to זֵדִים (zedim, “the insolent”).

[4:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “he is coming up like clouds.” The words “The enemy” are supplied in the translation to identify the referent and the word “gathering” is supplied to try to convey the significance of the simile, i.e., that of quantity and of an approaching storm.

[4:13]  ⁶ tn Heb “his chariots [are] like a whirlwind.” The words “roar” and “sound” are supplied in the translation to clarify the significance of the simile.

[4:13]  ⁷ tn The words “I cry out” are not in the text, but the words that follow are obviously not the Lord’s. They are either those of the people or of Jeremiah. Taking them as Jeremiah’s parallels the interjection of Jeremiah’s response in 4:10 which is formally introduced.

[4:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “Woe to us!” The words “woe to” are common in funeral laments and at the beginning of oracles of judgment. In many contexts they carry the connotation of hopelessness or apprehensiveness of inevitable doom.

[26:9]  ⁹ tn Heb “Why have you prophesied in the Lord’s name, saying, ‘This house will become like Shiloh and this city will become a ruin without inhabitant?’” It is clear from the context here and in 7:1-15 that the emphasis is on “in the Lord’s name” and that the question is rhetorical. The question is not a quest for information but an accusation, a remonstrance. (For this figure see E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 953-54, who calls a question like this a rhetorical question of remonstrance or expostulation. For good examples see Pss 11:1; 50:16.) For the significance of “prophesying in the Lord’s name” see the study note on 14:14. The translation again utilizes the indirect quote to eliminate one level of embedded quotation.

[26:9]  sn They are questioning his right to claim the Lord’s authority for what they see as a false prophecy. They believed that the presence of the Lord in the temple guaranteed their safety (7:4, 10, 14) and that the Lord could not possibly be threatening its destruction. Hence they were ready to put him to death as a false prophet according to the law of Moses (Deut 18:20).