Yeremia 3:25

3:25 Let us acknowledge ¹  our shame.

Let us bear the disgrace that we deserve. ² 

For we have sinned against the Lord our God,

both we and our ancestors.

From earliest times to this very day

we have not obeyed the Lord our God.’

Yeremia 9:12

9:12 I said, ³ 

“Who is wise enough to understand why this has happened? ⁴ 

Who has a word from the Lord that can explain it? ⁵ 

Why does the land lie in ruins?

Why is it as scorched as a desert through which no one travels?”

Yeremia 14:16

14:16 The people to whom they are prophesying will die through war and famine. Their bodies will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem ⁶  and there will be no one to bury them. This will happen to the men and their wives, their sons, and their daughters. ⁷  For I will pour out on them the destruction they deserve.” ⁸ 

Yeremia 19:15

19:15 “The Lord God of Israel who rules over all ⁹  says, ‘I will soon bring on this city and all the towns surrounding it ¹⁰  all the disaster I threatened to do to it. I will do so because they have stubbornly refused ¹¹  to pay any attention to what I have said!’”

Yeremia 29:23

29:23 This will happen to them because they have done what is shameful ¹²  in Israel. They have committed adultery with their neighbors’ wives and have spoken lies while claiming my authority. ¹³  They have spoken words that I did not command them to speak. I know what they have done. I have been a witness to it,’ says the Lord.” ¹⁴ 

Yeremia 31:9

31:9 They will come back shedding tears of contrition.

I will bring them back praying prayers of repentance. ¹⁵ 

I will lead them besides streams of water,

along smooth paths where they will never stumble. ¹⁶ 

I will do this because I am Israel’s father;

Ephraim ¹⁷  is my firstborn son.’”

Yeremia 38:4

38:4 So these officials said to the king, “This man must be put to death. For he is demoralizing ¹⁸  the soldiers who are left in the city as well as all the other people there by these things he is saying. ¹⁹  This ²⁰  man is not seeking to help these people but is trying to harm them.” ²¹ 

Yeremia 38:9

38:9 “Your royal Majesty, those men have been very wicked in all that they have done to the prophet Jeremiah. They have thrown him into a cistern and he is sure to die of starvation there because there is no food left in the city. ²² 

Yeremia 40:9

40:9 Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam and grandson of Shaphan, took an oath so as to give them and their troops some assurance of safety. ²³  “Do not be afraid to submit to the Babylonians. ²⁴  Settle down in the land and submit to the king of Babylon. Then things will go well for you.

Yeremia 50:9

50:9 For I will rouse into action and bring against Babylon

a host of mighty nations ²⁵  from the land of the north.

They will set up their battle lines against her.

They will come from the north and capture her. ²⁶ 

Their arrows will be like a skilled soldier ²⁷ 

who does not return from the battle empty-handed. ²⁸ 

[3:25]  ¹ tn Heb “Let us lie down in….”

[3:25]  ² tn Heb “Let us be covered with disgrace.”

[9:12]  ³ tn The words, “I said” are not in the text. It is not clear that a shift in speaker has taken place. However, the words of the verse are very unlikely to be a continuation of the Lord’s threat. It is generally assumed that these are the words of Jeremiah and that a dialogue is going on between him and the Lord in vv. 9-14. That assumption is accepted here.

[9:12]  ⁴ tn Heb “Who is the wise man that he may understand this?”

[9:12]  ⁵ tn Heb “And [who is the man] to whom the mouth of the Lord has spoken that he may explain it?”

[14:16]  ⁶ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[14:16]  ⁷ tn Heb “And the people to whom they are prophesying will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem and there will not be anyone to bury them, they, their wives, and their sons and their daughters.” This sentence has been restructured to break up a long Hebrew sentence and to avoid some awkwardness due to differences in the ancient Hebrew and contemporary English styles.

[14:16]  ⁸ tn Heb “their evil.” Hebrew words often include within them a polarity of cause and effect. Thus the word for “evil” includes both the concept of wickedness and the punishment for it. Other words that function this way are “iniquity” = “guilt [of iniquity]” = “punishment [for iniquity].” Context determines which nuance is proper.

[19:15]  ⁹ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.”

[19:15]  sn See the study notes on 2:19 and 7:3 for explanation of this title.

[19:15]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “all its towns.”

[19:15]  ¹¹ tn Heb “They hardened [or made stiff] their neck so as not to.”

[29:23]  ¹² tn It is commonly assumed that this word is explained by the two verbal actions that follow. The word (נְבָלָה, nÿvalah) is rather commonly used of sins of unchastity (cf., e.g., Gen 34:7; Judg 19:23; 2 Sam 13:12) which would fit the reference to adultery. However, the word is singular and not likely to cover both actions that follow. The word is also used of the greedy act of Achan (Josh 7:15) which threatened Israel with destruction and the churlish behavior of Nabal (1 Sam 25:25) which threatened him and his household with destruction. The word is also used of foolish talk in Isa 9:17 (9:16 HT) and Isa 32:6. It is possible that this refers to a separate act, one that would have brought the death penalty from Nebuchadnezzar, i.e., the preaching of rebellion in conformity with the message of the false prophets in Jerusalem and other nations (cf. 27:9, 13). Hence it is possible that the translation should read: “This will happen because of their vile conduct. They have propagated rebellion. They have committed adultery with their neighbors’ wives. They have spoken words that I did not command them to speak. They have spoken lies while claiming my authority.”

[29:23]  ¹³ tn Heb “prophesying lies in my name.” For an explanation of this idiom see the study notes on 14:14 and 23:27.

[29:23]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[31:9]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “They will come with weeping; I will bring them with supplication.” The ideas of contrition and repentance are implicit from the context (cf. vv. 18-19) and are supplied for clarity.

[31:9]  ¹⁶ sn Jer 31:8-9 are reminiscent of the “New Exodus” motif of Isa 40-66 which has already been referred to in Jer 16:14-15; 23:7-8. See especially Isa 35:3-10; 40:3-5, 11; 41:17-20; 42:14-17; 43:16-21; 49:9-13. As there, the New Exodus will so outstrip the old that the old will pale in comparison and be almost forgotten (see Jer 23:7-8).

[31:9]  ¹⁷ sn Ephraim was the second son of Joseph who was elevated to a place of prominence in the family of Jacob by the patriarch’s special blessing. It was the strongest tribe in northern Israel and Samaria lay in its territory. It is often used as a poetic parallel for Israel as here. The poetry is not speaking of two separate entities here; it is a way of repeating an idea for emphasis. Moreover, there is no intent to show special preference for northern Israel over Judah. All Israel is metaphorically God’s son and the object of his special care and concern (Exod 4:22; Deut 32:6).

[38:4]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “weakening the hands of.” For this idiom see BDB 951 s.v. רָפָה Pi. and compare the usage in Isa 13:7; Ezek 21:7 (21:12 HT).

[38:4]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “by saying these things.”

[38:4]  ²⁰ tn The Hebrew particle כִּי (ki) has not been rendered here because it is introducing a parallel causal clause to the preceding one. To render “For” might be misunderstood as a grounds for the preceding statement. To render “And” or “Moreover” sounds a little odd here. If it must be represented, “Moreover” is perhaps the best rendering.

[38:4]  ²¹ tn Or “is not looking out for these people’s best interests but is really trying to do them harm”; Heb “is not seeking the welfare [or “well-being”; Hebrew shalom] of this people but [their] harm [more literally, evil].”

[38:9]  ²² tn Heb “Those men have made evil all they have done to the prophet Jeremiah in that they have thrown him into the cistern and he will die of starvation in the place where he is because there is no more food in the city.” The particle אֵת (’et) before “they have thrown” (אֵת אֲשֶׁר הִשְׁלִיכוּ, ’et ’asher hishlikhu) is explanatory or further definition of “all they have done to” (i.e., the particle is repeated for apposition). The verb form “and he is sure to die” is an unusual use of the vav (ו) consecutive + imperfect that the grammars see as giving a logical consequence without a past nuance (cf. GKC 328 §111.l and IBHS 557-58 §33.3.1f).

[38:9]  sn “Because there isn’t any food left in the city” is rhetorical exaggeration; the food did not run out until just before the city fell. Perhaps the intent is to refer to the fact that there was no food in the city for people so confined (i.e., in solitary confinement).

[40:9]  ²³ tn The words “so as to give them some assurance of safety” are not in the text but are generally understood by all commentators. This would be a case of substitution of cause for effect, the oath, put for the effect, the assurance of safety (NJPS translates directly “reassured them”).

[40:9]  ²⁴ tn Heb “Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for explanation.

[50:9]  ²⁵ sn Some of these are named in Jer 51:27-28.

[50:9]  ²⁶ tn Heb “She will be captured from there (i.e., from the north).”

[50:9]  ²⁷ tc Read Heb ַָמשְׂכִּיל (moskil) with a number of Hebrew mss and some of the versions in place of מַשְׁכִּיל (mashkil, “one who kills children”) with the majority of Hebrew mss and some of the versions. See BHS note d for the details.

[50:9]  ²⁸ tn Or more freely, “Their arrows will be as successful at hitting their mark // as a skilled soldier always returns from battle with plunder.”

[50:9]  sn I.e., none of the arrows misses its mark.