Yeremia 9:11

9:11 The Lord said, ¹ 

“I will make Jerusalem ²  a heap of ruins.

Jackals will make their home there. ³ 

I will destroy the towns of Judah

so that no one will be able to live in them.”

Yeremia 10:22

10:22 Listen! News is coming even now. ⁴ 

The rumble of a great army is heard approaching ⁵  from a land in the north. ⁶ 

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

places where only jackals live.

Yeremia 12:10-11

12:10 Many foreign rulers ⁷  will ruin the land where I planted my people. ⁸ 

They will trample all over my chosen land. ⁹ 

They will turn my beautiful land

into a desolate wasteland.

12:11 They will lay it waste.

It will lie parched ¹⁰  and empty before me.

The whole land will be laid waste.

But no one living in it will pay any heed. ¹¹ 

Yeremia 32:43

32:43 You and your people ¹²  are saying that this land will become desolate, uninhabited by either people or animals. You are saying that it will be handed over to the Babylonians. ¹³  But fields ¹⁴  will again be bought in this land. ¹⁵ 

Yeremia 44:6

44:6 So my anger and my wrath were poured out and burned like a fire through the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem. That is why they have become the desolate ruins that they are today.’

Yeremia 49:33

49:33 “Hazor will become a permanent wasteland,

a place where only jackals live. ¹⁶ 

No one will live there.

No human being will settle in it.” ¹⁷ 

Yeremia 50:13

50:13 After I vent my wrath on it Babylon will be uninhabited. ¹⁸ 

It will be totally desolate.

All who pass by will be filled with horror and will hiss out their scorn

because of all the disasters that have happened to it. ¹⁹ 

Yeremia 51:26

51:26 No one will use any of your stones as a cornerstone.

No one will use any of them in the foundation of his house.

For you will lie desolate forever,” ²⁰ 

says the Lord. ²¹ 

[9:11]  ¹ tn The words “the Lord said” are not in the text, but it is obvious from the content that he is the speaker. These words are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[9:11]  ² map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[9:11]  ³ tn Heb “a heap of ruins, a haunt for jackals.”

[10:22]  ⁴ tn Heb “The sound of a report, behold, it is coming.”

[10:22]  ⁵ tn Heb “ coming, even a great quaking.”

[10:22]  ⁶ sn Compare Jer 6:22.

[12:10]  ⁷ tn Heb “Many shepherds.” For the use of the term “shepherd” as a figure for rulers see the notes on 10:21.

[12:10]  ⁸ tn Heb “my vineyard.” To translate literally would presuppose an unlikely familiarity of this figure on the part of some readers. To translate as “vineyards” as some do would be misleading because that would miss the figurative nuance altogether.

[12:10]  sn The figure of Israel as God’s vine and the land as God’s vineyard is found several times in the Bible. The best known of these is the extended metaphor in Isa 5:1-7. This figure also appears in Jer 2:20.

[12:10]  ⁹ tn Heb “my portion.”

[12:11]  ¹⁰ tn For the use of this verb see the notes on 12:4. Some understand the homonym here meaning “it [the desolated land] will mourn to me.” However, the only other use of the preposition עַל (’al) with this root means “to mourn over” not “to” (cf. Hos 10:5). For the use of the preposition here see BDB 753 s.v. עַל II.1.b and compare the use in Gen 48:7.

[12:11]  ¹¹ tn Heb “But there is no man laying it to heart.” For the idiom here see BDB 525 s.v. לֵב II.3.d and compare the usage in Isa 42:25; 47:7.

[12:11]  sn There is a very interesting play on words and sounds in this verse that paints a picture of desolation and the pathos it evokes. Part of this is reflected in the translation. The same Hebrew word referring to a desolation or a waste (שְׁמֵמָה, shÿmemah) is repeated three times at the end of three successive lines and the related verb is found at the beginning of the fourth (נָשַׁמָּה, nashammah). A similar sounding word is found in the second of the three successive lines (שָׁמָהּ, shamah = “he [they] will make it”). This latter word is part of a further play because it is repeated in a different form in the last line (שָׁם, sham = “laying”); they lay it waste but no one lays it to heart. There is also an interesting contrast between the sorrow the Lord feels and the inattention of the people.

[32:43]  ¹² tn Heb “you.” However, the pronoun is plural and is addressed to more than just Jeremiah (v. 26). It includes Jeremiah and those who have accepted his prophecy of doom.

[32:43]  ¹³ tn Heb “The Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for further explanation.

[32:43]  ¹⁴ tn The noun is singular with the article, but it is a case of the generic singular (cf. GKC 406 §126.m).

[32:43]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Fields will be bought in this land of which you [masc. pl.] are saying, ‘It will be desolate [a perfect of certainty or prophetic perfect] without man or beast; it will be given into the hand of the Chaldeans.’” The original sentence has been broken down to better conform to contemporary English style.

[49:33]  ¹⁶ sn Compare Jer 9:11.

[49:33]  ¹⁷ sn Compare Jer 49:18 and 50:40 where the same thing is said about Edom and Babylon.

[50:13]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “From [or Because of] the wrath of the Lord it will be uninhabited.” The causal connection is spelled out more clearly and actively and the first person has been used because the speaker is the Lord. The referent “it” has been spelled out clearly from the later occurrence in the verse, “all who pass by Babylon.”

[50:13]  ¹⁹ sn Compare Jer 49:17 and the study note there and see also the study notes on 18:16 and 19:8.

[51:26]  ²⁰ tn This is a fairly literal translation of the original which reads “No one will take from you a stone for a cornerstone nor a stone for foundations.” There is no unanimity of opinion in the commentaries, many feeling that the figure of the burned mountain continues and others feeling that the figure here shifts to a burned city whose stones are so burned that they are useless to be used in building. The latter is the interpretation adopted here (see, e.g., F. B. Huey, Jeremiah, Lamentations [NAC], 423; W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah [Hermeneia], 2:426; NCV).

[51:26]  sn The figure here shifts to that of a burned-up city whose stones cannot be used for building. Babylon will become a permanent heap of ruins.

[51:26]  ²¹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”