2:24 You are like a wild female donkey brought up in the wilderness.
In her lust she sniffs the wind to get the scent of a male. 1
No one can hold her back when she is in heat.
None of the males need wear themselves out chasing after her.
At mating time she is easy to find. 2
2:28 But where are the gods you made for yourselves?
Let them save you when you are in trouble.
The sad fact is that 3 you have as many gods
as you have towns, Judah.
4:2 You must be truthful, honest and upright
when you take an oath saying, ‘As surely as the Lord lives!’ 4
If you do, 5 the nations will pray to be as blessed by him as you are
and will make him the object of their boasting.” 6
10:20 But our tents have been destroyed.
The ropes that held them in place have been ripped apart. 11
Our children are gone and are not coming back. 12
There is no survivor to put our tents back up,
no one left to hang their tent curtains in place.
46:21 Even her mercenaries 18
will prove to be like pampered, 19 well-fed calves.
For they too will turn and run away.
They will not stand their ground
when 20 the time for them to be destroyed comes,
the time for them to be punished.
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.
51:12 Give the signal to attack Babylon’s wall! 21
Bring more guards! 22
Post them all around the city! 23
Put men in ambush! 24
For the Lord will do what he has planned.
He will do what he said he would do to the people of Babylon. 25
1 tn The words “to get the scent of a male” are implicit and are supplied in the translation for clarification.
2 sn The metaphor is intended to depict Israel’s irrepressible desire to worship other gods.
3 tn This is an attempt to render the Hebrew particle כִּי (ki, “for, indeed”) contextually.
4 tn Heb “If you [= you must, see the translator’s note on the word “do” later in this verse] swear/take an oath, ‘As the
5 tn 4:1-2a consists of a number of “if” clauses, two of which are formally introduced by the Hebrew particle אִם (’im) while the others are introduced by the conjunction “and,” followed by a conjunction (“and” = “then”) with a perfect in 4:2b which introduces the consequence. The translation “You must…. If you do,” was chosen to avoid a long and complicated sentence.
6 tn Heb “bless themselves in him and make their boasts in him.”
7 tn Heb “Stop oppressing foreigner, orphan, and widow.”
8 tn Heb “Stop shedding innocent blood.”
9 tn Heb “going/following after.” See the translator’s note at 2:5 for an explanation of the idiom involved here.
10 tn Heb “going after other gods to your ruin.”
11 tn Heb “My tent has been destroyed and my tent cords have been ripped apart.” For a very similar identification of Jeremiah’s plight with the plight of the personified community see 4:20 and the notes there.
12 tn Heb “my children have gone from me and are no more.”
sn What is being referred to is the exile of the people of the land. This passage could refer to the exiles of 605
13 tn This is again an attempt to render the Hebrew particle כִּי (ki) contextually. The nuance is a little hard to establish due to the nature of the rhetoric of the passage which utilizes the figure of apostrophe where the
14 sn Cf. Jer 2:28.
15 tn Heb “For [or Indeed] the number of your [sing.] cities are your [sing.] gods, Judah, and the number of the streets of Jerusalem [or perhaps (your) streets, Jerusalem] you [plur.] have set up altars to the shameful thing, altars to sacrifice to Baal.” This passage involves a figure of speech where the speaker turns from describing something about someone to addressing him/her directly (a figure called apostrophe). This figure is not common in contemporary English literature or conversation and translating literally would lead to confusion on the part of some readers. Hence, the translation retains the third person in keeping with the rest of the context. The shift from singular “your cities” to plural “you have set up” is interpreted contextually to refer to a shift in addressing Judah to addressing the citizens of Jerusalem whose streets are being talked about. The appositional clause, “altars to sacrifice to Baal” has been collapsed with the preceding clause to better identify what the shameful thing is and to eliminate a complex construction. The length of this sentence runs contrary to the usual practice of breaking up long complex sentences in Hebrew into shorter equivalent ones in English. However, breaking up this sentence and possibly losing the connecting link with the preceding used to introduce it might lead to misunderstanding.
16 tn Heb “Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for explanation.
17 tn Heb “will not escape from their hand.”
sn Zedekiah held out this hope of escape until the end and attempted to do so but was unsuccessful (cf. 39:4-5).
18 tn Heb “her hirelings in her midst.”
19 tn The word “pampered” is not in the text. It is supplied in the translation to explain the probable meaning of the simile. The mercenaries were well cared for like stall-fed calves, but in the face of the danger they will prove no help because they will turn and run away without standing their ground. Some see the point of the simile to be that they too are fattened for slaughter. However, the next two lines do not fit that interpretation too well.
20 tn The temporal use of the particle כִּי (ki; BDB 472 s.v. כִּי 2.a) seems more appropriate to the context than the causal use.
21 tn Heb “Raise a banner against the walls of Babylon.”
22 tn Heb “Strengthen the watch.”
23 tn Heb “Station the guards.”
24 tn Heb “Prepare ambushes.”
sn The commands are here addressed to the kings of the Medes to fully blockade the city by posting watchmen and setting men in ambush to prevent people from escaping from the city (cf. 2 Kgs 25:4).
25 tn Heb “For the