Yeremia 5:19

5:19 “So then, Jeremiah, ¹  when your people ²  ask, ‘Why has the Lord our God done all this to us?’ tell them, ‘It is because you rejected me and served foreign gods in your own land. So ³  you must serve foreigners ⁴  in a land that does not belong to you.’

Yeremia 13:12-13

13:12 “So tell them, ⁵  ‘The Lord, the God of Israel, says, “Every wine jar is made to be filled with wine.”’ ⁶  And they will probably say to you, ‘Do you not think we know ⁷  that every wine jar is supposed to be filled with wine?’ 13:13 Then ⁸  tell them, ‘The Lord says, “I will soon fill all the people who live in this land with stupor. ⁹  I will also fill the kings from David’s dynasty, ¹⁰  the priests, the prophets, and the citizens of Jerusalem with stupor. ¹¹ 

Yeremia 14:14

14:14 Then the Lord said to me, “Those prophets are prophesying lies while claiming my authority! ¹²  I did not send them. I did not commission them. ¹³  I did not speak to them. They are prophesying to these people false visions, worthless predictions, ¹⁴  and the delusions of their own mind.

Yeremia 14:17

Lament over Present Destruction and Threat of More to Come

14:17 “Tell these people this, Jeremiah: ¹⁵ 

‘My eyes overflow with tears

day and night without ceasing. ¹⁶ 

For my people, my dear children, ¹⁷  have suffered a crushing blow.

They have suffered a serious wound. ¹⁸ 

Yeremia 15:2

15:2 If they ask you, ‘Where should we go?’ tell them the Lord says this:

“Those who are destined to die of disease will go to death by disease.

Those who are destined to die in war will go to death in war.

Those who are destined to die of starvation will go to death by starvation.

Those who are destined to go into exile will go into exile.” ¹⁹ 

Yeremia 15:19

15:19 Because of this, the Lord said, ²⁰ 

“You must repent of such words and thoughts!

If you do, I will restore you to the privilege of serving me. ²¹ 

If you say what is worthwhile instead of what is worthless,

I will again allow you to be my spokesman. ²² 

They must become as you have been.

You must not become like them. ²³ 

Yeremia 16:11

16:11 Then tell them that the Lord says, ²⁴  ‘It is because your ancestors ²⁵  rejected me and paid allegiance to ²⁶  other gods. They have served them and worshiped them. But they have rejected me and not obeyed my law. ²⁷ 

Yeremia 19:11

19:11 Tell them the Lord who rules over all says, ²⁸  ‘I will do just as Jeremiah has done. ²⁹  I will smash this nation and this city as though it were a potter’s vessel which is broken beyond repair. ³⁰  The dead will be buried here in Topheth until there is no more room to bury them.’ ³¹ 

Yeremia 23:33

23:33 The Lord said to me, “Jeremiah, ³²  when one of these people, or a prophet, or a priest asks you, ‘What burdensome message ³³  do you have from the Lord?’ Tell them, ‘You are the burden, ³⁴  and I will cast you away. ³⁵  I, the Lord, affirm it! ³⁶ 

Yeremia 25:15

Judah and the Nations Will Experience God’s Wrath

25:15 So ³⁷  the Lord, the God of Israel, spoke to me in a vision. ³⁸  “Take this cup from my hand. It is filled with the wine of my wrath. ³⁹  Take it and make the nations to whom I send you drink it.

Yeremia 25:27

25:27 Then the Lord said to me, ⁴⁰  “Tell them that the Lord God of Israel who rules over all ⁴¹  says, ⁴²  ‘Drink this cup ⁴³  until you get drunk and vomit. Drink until you fall down and can’t get up. ⁴⁴  For I will send wars sweeping through you.’ ⁴⁵ 

Yeremia 26:2

26:2 The Lord said, “Go stand in the courtyard of the Lord’s temple. ⁴⁶  Speak out to all the people who are coming from the towns of Judah to worship in the Lord’s temple. Tell them everything I command you to tell them. Do not leave out a single word!

Yeremia 29:19

29:19 For they have not paid attention to what I said to them through my servants the prophets whom I sent to them over and over again,’ ⁴⁷  says the Lord. ⁴⁸  ‘And you exiles ⁴⁹  have not paid any attention to them either,’ says the Lord. ⁵⁰ 

Yeremia 36:31

36:31 I will punish him and his descendants and the officials who serve him for the wicked things they have done. ⁵¹  I will bring on them, the citizens of Jerusalem, ⁵²  and the people of Judah all the disaster that I threatened to do to them. I will punish them because I threatened them but they still paid no heed.”’” ⁵³ 

Yeremia 41:6

41:6 Ishmael son of Nethaniah went out from Mizpah to meet them. He was pretending to cry ⁵⁴  as he walked along. When he met them, he said to them, “Come with me to meet Gedaliah son of Ahikam.” ⁵⁵ 

Yeremia 42:4

42:4 The prophet Jeremiah answered them, “Agreed! ⁵⁶  I will indeed pray to the Lord your God as you have asked. I will tell you everything the Lord replies in response to you. ⁵⁷  I will not keep anything back from you.”

Yeremia 43:1

43:1 Jeremiah finished telling all the people all these things the Lord their God had sent him to tell them. ⁵⁸ 

Yeremia 43:10

43:10 Then tell them, ⁵⁹  ‘The Lord God of Israel who rules over all ⁶⁰  says, “I will bring ⁶¹  my servant ⁶²  King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. I will set his throne over these stones which I ⁶³  have buried. He will pitch his royal tent ⁶⁴  over them.

[5:19]  ¹ tn The word, “Jeremiah,” is not in the text but the second person address in the second half of the verse is obviously to him. The word is supplied in the translation here for clarity.

[5:19]  ² tn The MT reads the second masculine plural; this is probably a case of attraction to the second masculine plural pronoun in the preceding line. An alternative would be to understand a shift from speaking first to the people in the first half of the verse and then speaking to Jeremiah in the second half where the verb is second masculine singular. E.g., “When you [people] say, “Why…?” then you, Jeremiah, tell them…”

[5:19]  ³ tn Heb “As you left me and…, so you will….” The translation was chosen so as to break up a rather long and complex sentence.

[5:19]  ⁴ sn This is probably a case of deliberate ambiguity (double entendre). The adjective “foreigners” is used for both foreign people (so Jer 30:8; 51:51) and foreign gods (so Jer 2:25; 3:13). See also Jer 16:13 for the idea of having to serve other gods in the lands of exile.

[13:12]  ⁵ tn Heb “So you shall say this word [or message] to them.”

[13:12]  ⁶ tn Heb “Every wine jar is supposed to be filled with wine.”

[13:12]  sn Some scholars understand this as a popular proverb like that in Jer 31:29 and Ezek 18:2. Instead this is probably a truism; the function of wine jars is to be filled with wine. This may relate to the preceding where the Lord has set forth his intention for Israel. It forms the basis for a ironic threat of judgment because they have failed to fulfill his purpose.

[13:12]  ⁷ tn This is an attempt to render a construction which involves an infinitive of a verb being added before the same verb in a question which expects a positive answer. There may, by the way, be a pun being passed back and forth here involving the sound play been “fool” (נָבָל, naval) and “wine bottle” (נֶבֶל, nebel).

[13:13]  ⁸ tn The Greek version is likely right in interpreting the construction of two perfects preceded by the conjunction as contingent or consequential here, i.e., “and when they say…then say.” See GKC 494 §159.g. However, to render literally would create a long sentence. Hence, the words “will probably” have been supplied in v. 12 in the translation to set up the contingency/consequential sequence in the English sentences.

[13:13]  ⁹ sn It is probably impossible to convey in a simple translation all the subtle nuances that are wrapped up in the words of this judgment speech. The word translated “stupor” here is literally “drunkenness” but the word has in the context an undoubted intended double reference. It refers first to the drunken like stupor of confusion on the part of leaders and citizens of the land which will cause them to clash with one another. But it also probably refers to the reeling under God’s wrath that results from this (cf. Jer 25:15-29, especially vv. 15-16). Moreover there is still the subtle little play on wine jars. The people are like the wine jars which were supposed to be filled with wine. They were to be a special people to bring glory to God but they had become corrupt. Hence, like wine jars they would be smashed against one another and broken to pieces (v. 14). All of this, both “fill them with the stupor of confusion” and “make them reel under God’s wrath,” cannot be conveyed in one translation.

[13:13]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “who sit on David’s throne.”

[13:13]  ¹¹ tn In Hebrew this is all one long sentence with one verb governing compound objects. It is broken up here in conformity with English style.

[14:14]  ¹² tn Heb “Falsehood those prophets are prophesying in my name.” In the OT, the “name” reflected the person’s character (cf. Gen 27:36; 1 Sam 25:25) or his reputation (Gen 11:4; 2 Sam 8:13). To speak in someone’s name was to act as his representative or carry his authority (1 Sam 25:9; 1 Kgs 21:8).

[14:14]  ¹³ tn Heb “I did not command them.” Compare 1 Chr 22:12 for usage.

[14:14]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “divination and worthlessness.” The noun “worthlessness” stands as a qualifying “of” phrase (= to an adjective; an attributive genitive in Hebrew) after a noun in Zech 11:17; Job 13:4. This is an example of hendiadys where two nouns are joined by “and” with one serving as the qualifier of the other.

[14:14]  sn The word translated “predictions” here is really the word “divination.” Divination was prohibited in Israel (cf. Deut 18:10, 14). The practice of divination involved various mechanical means to try to predict the future. The word was used here for its negative connotations in a statement that is rhetorically structured to emphasize the falseness of the promises of the false prophets. It would be unnatural to contemporary English style to try to capture this emphasis in English. In the Hebrew text the last sentence reads: “False vision, divination, and worthlessness and the deceitfulness of their heart they are prophesying to them.” For the emphasis in the preceding sentence see the note there.

[14:17]  ¹⁵ tn The word “Jeremiah” is not in the text but the address is to a second person singular and is a continuation of 14:14 where the quote starts. The word is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[14:17]  ¹⁶ tn Many of the English versions and commentaries render this an indirect or third person imperative, “Let my eyes overflow…” because of the particle אַל (’al) which introduces the phrase translated “without ceasing” (אַל־תִּדְמֶינָה, ’al-tidmenah). However, this is undoubtedly an example where the particle introduces an affirmation that something cannot be done (cf. GKC 322 §109.e). Clear examples of this are found in Pss 41:2 (41:3 HT); 50:3; Job 40:32 (41:8). God here is describing again a lamentable situation and giving his response to it. See 14:1-6 above.

[14:17]  sn Once again it is the Lord lamenting the plight of the people, now directed to them, not the people lamenting their plight to him. See 14:1-6 and the study notes on the introduction to this section and on 14:7.

[14:17]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “virgin daughter, my people.” The last noun here is appositional to the first two (genitive of apposition). Hence it is not ‘literally’ “virgin daughter of my people.”

[14:17]  sn This is a metaphor which occurs several times with regard to Israel, Judah, Zion, and even Sidon and Babylon. It is the poetic personification of the people, the city, or the land. Like other metaphors the quality of the comparison being alluded to must be elicited from the context. This is easy in Isa 23:12 (oppressed) and Isa 47:1 (soft and delicate) but not so easy in other places. From the nature of the context the suspicion here is that the protection the virgin was normally privileged to is being referred to and there is a reminder that the people are forfeiting it by their actions. Hence God laments for them.

[14:17]  ¹⁸ tn This is a poetic personification. To translate with the plural “serious wounds” might mislead some into thinking of literal wounds.

[14:17]  sn Compare Jer 10:19 for a similar use of this metaphor.

[15:2]  ¹⁹ tn It is difficult to render the rhetorical force of this passage in meaningful English. The text answers the question “Where should we go?” with four brief staccato-like expressions with a play on the preposition “to”: Heb “Who to the death, to the death and who to the sword, to the sword and who to the starvation, to the starvation and who to the captivity, to the captivity.” The word “death” here is commonly understood to be a poetic substitute for “plague” because of the standard trio of sword, famine, and plague (see, e.g., 14:12 and the notes there). This is likely here and in 18:21. For further support see W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah (Hermeneia), 1:440. The nuance “starvation” rather than “famine” has been chosen in the translation because the referents here are all things that accompany war.

[15:19]  ²⁰ tn Heb “So the Lord said thus.”

[15:19]  ²¹ tn Heb “If you return [ = repent], I will restore [more literally, ‘cause you to return’] that you may stand before me.” For the idiom of “standing before” in the sense of serving see BDB 764 s.v. עָמַד Qal.1.e and compare the usage in 1 Kgs 10:8; 12:8; 17:1; Deut 10:8.

[15:19]  ²² tn Heb “you shall be as my mouth.”

[15:19]  sn For the classic statement of the prophet as God’s “mouth/mouthpiece,” = “spokesman,” see Exod 4:15-16; 7:1-2.

[15:19]  ²³ tn Heb “They must turn/return to you and you must not turn/return to them.”

[15:19]  sn Once again the root “return” (שׁוּב, shuv) is being played on as in 3:1–4:4. See the threefold call to repentance in 3:12, 14, 22. The verb is used here four times “repent,” “restore,” and “become” twice. He is to serve as a model of repentance, not an imitator of their apostasy. In accusing God of being unreliable he was coming dangerously close to their kind of behavior.

[16:11]  ²⁴ tn These two sentences have been recast in English to break up a long Hebrew sentence and incorporate the oracular formula “says the Lord (Heb ‘oracle of the Lord’)” which occurs after “Your fathers abandoned me.” In Hebrew the two sentences read: “When you tell them these things and they say, ‘…’, then tell them, ‘Because your ancestors abandoned me,’ oracle of the Lord.”

[16:11]  ²⁵ tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 12, 13, 15, 19).

[16:11]  ²⁶ tn Heb “followed after.” See the translator’s note at 2:5 for the explanation of the idiom.

[16:11]  ²⁷ tn Heb “But me they have abandoned and my law they have not kept.” The objects are thrown forward to bring out the contrast which has rhetorical force. However, such a sentence in English would be highly unnatural.

[19:11]  ²⁸ tn Heb “Thus says Yahweh of armies.” For this title see the study note on 2:19. The translation attempts to avoid the confusion of embedding quotes within quotes by reducing this one to an indirect quote.

[19:11]  ²⁹ tn The adverb “Thus” or “Like this” normally points back to something previously mentioned. See, e.g., Exod 29:35; Num 11:15; 15:11; Deut 25:9.

[19:11]  ³⁰ tn Heb “Like this I will break this people and this city, just as one breaks the vessel of a potter which is not able to be repaired.”

[19:11]  ³¹ sn See Jer 7:22-23 for parallels.

[23:33]  ³² tn The words “The Lord said to me, ‘Jeremiah” are not in the text. They are supplied in the translation for clarity to show the shift between the Lord addressing the people (second masculine plural) and the Lord addressing Jeremiah (second masculine singular).

[23:33]  ³³ tn The meaning of vv. 33-40 is debated. The translation given here follows the general direction of NRSV and REB rather than that of NIV and the related direction taken by NCV and God’s Word. The meaning of vv. 33-40 are debated because of (1) the ambiguity involved in the word מָשָּׂא (masa’), which can mean either “burden” (as something carried or weighing heavily on a person; see, e.g., Exod 23:5; Num 4:27; 2 Sam 15:33; Ps 38:4) or “oracle” (of doom; see, e. g., Isa 13:1; Nah 1:1); (the translation is debated due to etymological concerns), (2) the ambiguity of the line in v. 36 which has been rendered “For what is ‘burdensome’ really pertains rather to what a person himself says” (Heb “the burden is to the man his word”), and (3) the text in v. 33 of “you are the burden.” Many commentaries see a wordplay on the two words “burden” and “oracle” which are homonyms. However, from the contrasts that are drawn in the passage, it is doubtful whether the nuance of “oracle” ever is in view. The word is always used in the prophets of an oracle of doom or judgment; it is not merely revelation of God which one of the common people would have been uttering (contra NIV). Jeremiah never uses the word in that sense nor does anyone else in the book of Jeremiah.

[23:33]  sn What is in view here is the idea that the people consider Jeremiah’s views of loyalty to God and obedience to the covenant “burdensome.” I.e., what burdensome demands is the Lord asking you to impose on us (See Jer 17:21, 22, 24, 27 where this same word is used regarding Sabbath observance which they chafed at). The Lord answers back that it is not he who is being burdensome to them; they are burdensome to him (See 15:6: “I am weary” and compare Isa 1:14 where the verb rather than the noun is used).

[23:33]  ³⁴ tc The translation follows the Latin and Greek versions. The Hebrew text reads “What burden [i.e., burdensome message]?” The syntax of “what message?” is not in itself objectionable; the interrogative can function as an adjective (cf. BDB 552 s.v. מָה 1.a[a]). What is objectionable to virtually all the commentaries and lexicons is the unparalleled use of the accusative particle in front of the interrogative and the noun (see, e.g., BDB 672 s.v. III מָשָּׂא and GKC 365-66 §117.m, n. 3). The emendation only involves the redivision and revocalization of the same consonants: אֶת־מַה־מַשָּׂא (’et-mah-masa’) becomes אַתֶּם הַמָּשָּׂא (’atem hammasa’). This also makes a much more natural connection for the vav consecutive perfect that follows (cf. GKC 334 §112.x and compare Isa 6:7; Judg 13:3).

[23:33]  ³⁵ tn The meaning “cast you away” is questioned by some because the word is regularly used of “forsaking” or “abandoning” (see, e.g., Jer 7:29; 12:7; 15:6). However, it is clearly use of “casting down” or “throwing away” in Ezek 29:5; 32:4 and that meaning is virtually assured in v. 39 where the verb is combined with the phrase “from my presence” which is elsewhere used in rejection contexts with verbs like “send away,” “throw out,” or “remove” (see BDB 819 s.v. פָּנֶה II.8.a). This is another example of the bracketing effect of a key word and should be rendered the same in the two passages. Moreover, it fits in nicely with the play on “burden” here.

[23:33]  ³⁶ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[25:15]  ³⁷ tn This is an attempt to render the Hebrew particle כִּי (ki) which is probably being used in the sense that BDB 473-74 s.v. כִּי 3.c notes, i.e., the causal connection is somewhat loose, related here to the prophecies against the nations. “So” seems to be the most appropriate way to represent this.

[25:15]  ³⁸ tn Heb “Thus said the Lord, the God of Israel, to me.” It is generally understood that the communication is visionary. God does not have a “hand” and the action of going to the nations and making them drink of the cup are scarcely literal. The words are supplied in the translation to show the figurative nature of this passage.

[25:15]  ³⁹ sn “Drinking from the cup of wrath” is a common figure to represent being punished by God. Isaiah had used it earlier to refer to the punishment which Judah was to suffer and from which God would deliver her (Isa 51:17, 22) and Jeremiah’s contemporary Habakkuk uses it of Babylon “pouring out its wrath” on the nations and in turn being forced to drink the bitter cup herself (Hab 2:15-16). In Jer 51:7 the Lord will identify Babylon as the cup which makes the nations stagger. In v. 16 drinking from the cup will be identified with the sword (i.e., wars) that the Lord will send against the nations. Babylon is also to be identified as the sword (cf. Jer 51:20-23). What is being alluded to here in highly figurative language is the judgment that the Lord will wreak on the nations listed here through the Babylonians. The prophecy given here in symbolical form is thus an expansion of the one in vv. 9-11.

[25:27]  ⁴⁰ tn The words “Then the Lord said to me” are not in the text. They are supplied in the translation for clarity, to connect this part of the narrative with vv. 15, 17 after the long intervening list of nations who were to drink the cup of God’s wrath in judgment.

[25:27]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.”

[25:27]  sn See the study notes on 2:19 and 7:3 for explanation of this extended title.

[25:27]  ⁴² tn Heb “Tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord….’” The translation is intended to eliminate one level of imbedded quotation marks to help avoid confusion.

[25:27]  ⁴³ tn The words “this cup” are not in the text but are implicit to the metaphor and the context. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[25:27]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “Drink, and get drunk, and vomit and fall down and don’t get up.” The imperatives following drink are not parallel actions but consequent actions. For the use of the imperative plus the conjunctive “and” to indicate consequent action, even intention see GKC 324-25 §110.f and compare usage in 1 Kgs 22:12; Prov 3:3b-4a.

[25:27]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “because of the sword that I will send among you.” See the notes on 2:16 for explanation.

[26:2]  ⁴⁶ sn It is generally agreed that the incident recorded in this chapter relates to the temple message that Jeremiah gave in 7:1-15. The message there is summarized here in vv. 3-6. The primary interest here is in the response to that message.

[29:19]  ⁴⁷ tn See the translator’s note on 7:13 for an explanation of this idiom.

[29:19]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[29:19]  ⁴⁹ tn The word “exiles” is not in the text. It is supplied in the translation to clarify the referent of “you.”

[29:19]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[36:31]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “for their iniquity.”

[36:31]  ⁵² map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[36:31]  ⁵³ tn Heb “all the disaster which I spoke against them and they did not listen [or obey].”

[41:6]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “he was weeping/crying.” The translation is intended to better reflect the situation.

[41:6]  ⁵⁵ tn Heb “Come to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam.” The words that are supplied in the translation are implicit to the situation and are added for clarity.

[42:4]  ⁵⁶ tn Heb “I have heard” = “I agree.” For this nuance of the verb see BDB 1034 s.v. שָׁמַע Qal.1.j and compare the usage in Gen 37:27 and Judg 11:17 listed there.

[42:4]  ⁵⁷ tn Heb “all the word which the Lord will answer you.

[43:1]  ⁵⁸ tn This sentence contains an emphasis that is impossible to translate into idiomatic English that would not sound redundant. In Hebrew the sentence reads: “When Jeremiah finished [the temporal subordination is left out here because it would make the sentence too long] telling all the people all the words [or all the things] which the Lord their God had sent him [to say] to them, namely all these words,…” The last phrase has been left out of the translation as already having been included. Though they have been left out of the translation, attention is called to their presence here.

[43:10]  ⁵⁹ sn This is another of those symbolic prophecies of Jeremiah which involved an action and an explanation. Compare Jer 19, 27.

[43:10]  ⁶⁰ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.” Compare 7:3 and see the study note on 2:19 for explanation of the translation and significance of this title.

[43:10]  ⁶¹ tn Heb “send and take/fetch.”

[43:10]  ⁶² sn See the study note on Jer 25:9 for the use of this epithet for foreign rulers. The term emphasizes God’s sovereignty over history.

[43:10]  ⁶³ tn The Greek version reads the verbs in this sentence as third person, “he will set,” and second person, “you have buried.” This fits the context better but it is difficult to explain how the Hebrew could have arisen from this smoother reading. The figure of substitution (metonymy of cause for effect) is probably involved: “I will have him set” and “I have had you bury.” The effect of these substitutions is to emphasize the sovereignty of God.

[43:10]  ⁶⁴ tn The meaning of this word is uncertain. The word here (שַׁפְרִירוֹ [shafriro] Qere, שַׁפְרוּרוֹ [shafruro] Kethib) occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible. According to the lexicons it refers to either the carpet for his throne or the canopy over it. See, e.g., HALOT 1510 s.v. שַׁפְרִיר.