Yeremia 8:16

8:16 The snorting of the enemy’s horses

is already being heard in the city of Dan.

The sound of the neighing of their stallions ¹ 

causes the whole land to tremble with fear.

They are coming to destroy the land and everything in it!

They are coming to destroy ²  the cities and everyone who lives in them!”

Yeremia 10:22

10:22 Listen! News is coming even now. ³ 

The rumble of a great army is heard approaching ⁴  from a land in the north. ⁵ 

It is coming to turn the towns of Judah into rubble,

places where only jackals live.

Yeremia 20:16

20:16 May that man be like the cities ⁶ 

that the Lord destroyed without showing any mercy.

May he hear a cry of distress in the morning

and a battle cry at noon.

Yeremia 22:25

22:25 I will hand you over to those who want to take your life and of whom you are afraid. I will hand you over to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and his Babylonian ⁷  soldiers.

Yeremia 36:16

36:16 When they had heard it all, ⁸  they expressed their alarm to one another. ⁹  Then they said to Baruch, “We must certainly give the king a report about everything you have read!” ¹⁰ 

Yeremia 42:16

42:16 the wars you fear will catch up with you there in the land of Egypt. The starvation you are worried about will follow you there to ¹¹  Egypt. You will die there. ¹² 

Yeremia 46:5

46:5 What do I see?” ¹³  says the Lord. ¹⁴ 

“The soldiers ¹⁵  are terrified.

They are retreating.

They have been defeated.

They are overcome with terror; ¹⁶ 

they desert quickly

without looking back.

Yeremia 49:24

49:24 The people of Damascus will lose heart and turn to flee.

Panic will grip them.

Pain and anguish will seize them

like a woman in labor.

[8:16]  ¹ tn Heb “his stallions.”

[8:16]  ² tn The words “They are coming to destroy” are not in the text. They are inserted to break up a long sentence in conformity with contemporary English style.

[10:22]  ³ tn Heb “The sound of a report, behold, it is coming.”

[10:22]  ⁴ tn Heb “ coming, even a great quaking.”

[10:22]  ⁵ sn Compare Jer 6:22.

[20:16]  ⁶ sn The cities alluded to are Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities of the Jordan plain which had become proverbial for their wickedness and for the destruction that the Lord brought on them because of it. See Isa 1:9-10; 13:19; Jer 23:14; 49:18.

[22:25]  ⁷ tn Heb “the Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4.

[36:16]  ⁸ tn Heb “all the words.”

[36:16]  ⁹ tn According to BDB 808 s.v. פָּחַד Qal.1 and 40 s.v. אֶל 3.a, this is an example of the “pregnant” use of a preposition where an implied verb has to be supplied in the translation to conform the normal range of the preposition with the verb that is governing it. The Hebrew text reads: “they feared unto one another.” BDB translates “they turned in dread to each other.” The translation adopted seems more appropriate in this context.

[36:16]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “We must certainly report to the king all these things.” Here the word דְּבָרִים (dÿvarim) must mean “things” (cf. BDB 183 s.v. דָּבָר IV.3) rather than “words” because a verbatim report of all the words in the scroll is scarcely meant. The present translation has chosen to use a form that suggests a summary report of all the matters spoken about in the scroll rather than the indefinite “things.”

[42:16]  ¹¹ tn Or “will follow you right into Egypt,” or “will dog your steps all the way to Egypt”; Heb “cling after.” This is the only case of this verb with this preposition in the Qal stem. However, it is used with this preposition several times in the Hiphil, all with the meaning of “to pursue closely.” See BDB 180 s.v. דָּבַק Hiph.2 and compare Judg 20:45; 1 Sam 14:22; 1 Chr 10:2.

[42:16]  ¹² tn The repetition of the adverb “there” in the translation of vv. 14, 16 is to draw attention to the rhetorical emphasis on the locale of Egypt in the original text of both v. 14 and v. 16. In v. 14 they say, “to the land of Egypt we will go…and there we will live.” In v. 16 God says, “wars…there will catch up with you…the hunger…there will follow after you…and there you will die.” God rhetorically denies their focus on Egypt as a place of safety and of relative prosperity. That can only be found in Judah under the protective presence of the Lord (vv. 10-12).

[46:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “Why do I see?” The rendering is that of J. A. Thompson (Jeremiah [NICOT], 685, 88) and J. Bright (Jeremiah [AB], 301; TEV; NIV). The question is not asking for information but is expressing surprise or wonder (see E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 951).

[46:5]  sn The passage takes an unexpected turn at v. 5. After ironically summoning the Egyptian army to battle, the Lord rhetorically expresses his surprise that they are so completely routed and defeated.

[46:5]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “oracle of the Lord.” This phrase, which is part of a messenger formula (i.e., that the words that are spoken are from him), are actually at the end of the verse. They have been put here for better poetic balance and to better identify the “I.”

[46:5]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Their soldiers.” These words are actually at the midpoint of the stanza as the subject of the third of the five verbs. However, as G. L. Keown, P. J. Scalise, and T. G. Smothers (Jeremiah 26-52 [WBC], 291) note, this is the subject of all five verbs “are terrified,” “are retreating,” “have been defeated,” “have run away,” and “have not looked back.” The subject is put at the front to avoid an unidentified “they.”

[46:5]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “terror is all around.”