Yeremia 2:32

2:32 Does a young woman forget to put on her jewels?

Does a bride forget to put on her bridal attire?

But my people have forgotten me

for more days than can even be counted.

Yeremia 4:7

4:7 Like a lion that has come up from its lair ¹ 

the one who destroys nations has set out from his home base. ² 

He is coming out to lay your land waste.

Your cities will become ruins and lie uninhabited.

Yeremia 5:12

5:12 “These people have denied what the Lord says. ³ 

They have said, ‘That is not so! ⁴ 

No harm will come to us.

We will not experience war and famine. ⁵ 

Yeremia 5:26

5:26 “Indeed, there are wicked scoundrels among my people.

They lie in wait like bird catchers hiding in ambush. ⁶ 

They set deadly traps ⁷  to catch people.

Yeremia 5:28

5:28 That is how ⁸  they have grown fat and sleek. ⁹ 

There is no limit to the evil things they do. ¹⁰ 

They do not plead the cause of the fatherless in such a way as to win it.

They do not defend the rights of the poor.

Yeremia 22:20

Warning to Jerusalem

22:20 People of Jerusalem, ¹¹  go up to Lebanon and cry out in mourning.

Go to the land of Bashan and cry out loudly.

Cry out in mourning from the mountains of Moab. ¹² 

For your allies ¹³  have all been defeated.

Yeremia 23:18

23:18 Yet which of them has ever stood in the Lord’s inner circle ¹⁴ 

so they ¹⁵  could see and hear what he has to say? ¹⁶ 

Which of them have ever paid attention or listened to what he has said?

Yeremia 23:28

23:28 Let the prophet who has had a dream go ahead and tell his dream. Let the person who has received my message report that message faithfully. What is like straw cannot compare to what is like grain! ¹⁷  I, the Lord, affirm it! ¹⁸ 

Yeremia 24:2

24:2 One basket had very good-looking figs in it. They looked like those that had ripened early. ¹⁹  The other basket had very bad-looking figs in it, so bad they could not be eaten.

Yeremia 29:8

29:8 “For the Lord God of Israel who rules over all ²⁰  says, ‘Do not let the prophets or those among you who claim to be able to predict the future by divination ²¹  deceive you. And do not pay any attention to the dreams that you are encouraging them to dream.

Yeremia 30:15

30:15 Why do you complain about your injuries,

that your pain is incurable?

I have done all this to you

because your wickedness is so great

and your sin is so much.

Yeremia 32:17

32:17 ‘Oh, Lord God, ²²  you did indeed ²³  make heaven and earth by your mighty power and great strength. ²⁴  Nothing is too hard for you!

Yeremia 33:21

33:21 could my covenant with my servant David and my covenant with the Levites ever be broken. So David will by all means always have a descendant to occupy his throne as king and the Levites will by all means always have priests who will minister before me. ²⁵ 

Yeremia 49:9-10

49:9 If grape pickers came to pick your grapes,

would they not leave a few grapes behind? ²⁶ 

If robbers came at night,

would they not pillage only what they needed? ²⁷ 

49:10 But I will strip everything away from Esau’s descendants.

I will uncover their hiding places so they cannot hide.

Their children, relatives, and neighbors will all be destroyed.

Not one of them will be left!

Yeremia 49:31

49:31 The Lord says, ²⁸  “Army of Babylon, ²⁹  go and attack

a nation that lives in peace and security.

They have no gates or walls to protect them. ³⁰ 

They live all alone.

Yeremia 50:25

50:25 I have opened up the place where my weapons are stored. ³¹ 

I have brought out the weapons for carrying out my wrath. ³² 

For I, the Lord God who rules over all, ³³ 

have work to carry out in the land of Babylonia. ³⁴ 

Yeremia 50:32

50:32 You will stumble and fall, you proud city;

no one will help you get up.

I will set fire to your towns;

it will burn up everything that surrounds you.” ³⁵ 

Yeremia 51:17

51:17 All idolaters will prove to be stupid and ignorant.

Every goldsmith will be disgraced by the idol he made.

For the image he forges is merely a sham.

There is no breath in any of those idols.

Yeremia 52:17

52:17 The Babylonians broke the two bronze pillars in the temple of the Lord, as well as the movable stands and the large bronze basin called the “The Sea.” ³⁶  They took all the bronze to Babylon.

Yeremia 52:21

52:21 Each of the pillars was about 27 feet ³⁷  high, about 18 feet ³⁸  in circumference, three inches ³⁹  thick, and hollow.

Yeremia 52:28

52:28 Here is the official record of the number of people ⁴⁰  Nebuchadnezzar carried into exile: In the seventh year, ⁴¹  3,023 Jews;

[4:7]  ¹ tn Heb “A lion has left its lair.” The metaphor is turned into a simile for clarification. The word translated “lair” has also been understood to refer to a hiding place. However, it appears to be cognate in meaning to the word translated “lair” in Ps 10:9; Jer 25:38, a word which also refers to the abode of the Lord in Ps 76:3.

[4:7]  ² tn Heb “his place.”

[5:12]  ³ tn Heb “have denied the Lord.” The words “What…says” are implicit in what follows.

[5:12]  ⁴ tn Or “he will do nothing”; Heb “Not he [or it]!”

[5:12]  ⁵ tn Heb “we will not see the sword and famine.”

[5:26]  ⁶ tn The meaning of the last three words is uncertain. The pointing and meaning of the Hebrew word rendered “hiding in ambush” is debated. BDB relates the form (כְּשַׁךְ, kÿshakh) to a root שָׁכַךְ (shakhakh), which elsewhere means “decrease, abate” (cf. BDB 1013 s.v. שָׁכַךְ), and notes that this is usually understood as “like the crouching of fowlers,” but they say this meaning is dubious. HALOT 1345 s.v. I שׁוֹר questions the validity of the text and offers three proposals; the second appears to create the least textual modification, i.e., reading כְּשַׂךְ (kesakh, “as in the hiding place of (bird catchers)”; for the word שַׂךְ (sakh) see HALOT 1236 s.v. שׂךְ 4 and compare Lam 2:6 for usage. The versions do not help. The Greek does not translate the first two words of the line. The proposal given in HALOT is accepted with some hesitancy.

[5:26]  ⁷ tn Heb “a destroying thing.”

[5:28]  ⁸ tn These words are not in the text but are supplied in the translation to show that this line is parallel with the preceding.

[5:28]  ⁹ tn The meaning of this word is uncertain. This verb occurs only here. The lexicons generally relate it to the word translated “plate” in Song 5:14 and understand it to mean “smooth, shiny” (so BDB 799 s.v. I עֶשֶׁת) or “fat” (so HALOT 850 s.v. II עֶשֶׁת). The word in Song 5:14 more likely means “smooth” than “plate” (so TEV). So “sleek” is most likely here.

[5:28]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “they cross over/transgress with respect to matters of evil.”

[5:28]  sn There is a wordplay in the use of this word which has twice been applied in v. 22 to the sea not crossing the boundary set for it by God.

[22:20]  ¹¹ tn The words “people of Jerusalem” are not in the text. They are supplied in the translation to clarify the referent of the imperative. The imperative is feminine singular and it is generally agreed that personified Zion/Jerusalem is in view. The second feminine singular has commonly been applied to Jerusalem or the people of Judah throughout the book. The reference to allies (v. 20, 22) and to leaders (v. 22) make it very probable that this is the case here too.

[22:20]  map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[22:20]  ¹² tn Heb “from Abarim.” This was the mountain range in Moab from which Moses viewed the promised land (cf. Deut 32:49).

[22:20]  ¹³ tn Heb “your lovers.” For the usage of this term to refer to allies see 30:14 and a semantically similar term in 4:30.

[22:20]  sn If the passages in this section are chronologically ordered, this refers to the help that Jehoiakim relied on when he rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar.

[23:18]  ¹⁴ tn Or “has been the Lord’s confidant.”

[23:18]  sn The Lord’s inner circle refers to the council of angels (Ps 89:7 [89:8 HT]; 1 Kgs 22:19-22; Job 1-2; Job 15:8) where God made known his counsel/plans (Amos 3:7). They and those they prophesied to will find out soon enough what the purposes of his heart are, and they are not “peace” (see v. 20). By their failure to announce the impending doom they were not turning the people away from their wicked course (vv. 21-22).

[23:18]  ¹⁵ tn The form here is a jussive with a vav of subordination introducing a purpose after a question (cf. GKC 322 §109.f).

[23:18]  ¹⁶ tc Heb “his word.” In the second instance (“what he has said” at the end of the verse) the translation follows the suggestion of the Masoretes (Qere) and many Hebrew mss rather than the consonantal text (Kethib) of the Leningrad Codex.

[23:28]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “What to the straw with [in comparison with] the grain?” This idiom represents an emphatic repudiation or denial of relationship. See, for example, the usage in 2 Sam 16:10 and note BDB 553 s.v. מָה 1.d(c).

[23:28]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[24:2]  ¹⁹ sn See Isa 28:4; Hos 9:10.

[29:8]  ²⁰ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.”

[29:8]  sn See study notes on 2:19 and 7:3 for the explanation of this title.

[29:8]  ²¹ sn See the study notes on 27:9 for this term.

[32:17]  ²² tn Heb “Lord Yahweh.” For an explanation of the rendering here see the study note on 1:6.

[32:17]  sn The parallel usage of this introduction in Jer 1:6; 4:10; 14:13 shows that though this prayer has a lengthy introductory section of praise vv. 17-22, this prayer is really one of complaint or lament.

[32:17]  ²³ tn This is an attempt to render the Hebrew particle normally translated “behold.” See the translator’s note on 1:6 for the usage of this particle.

[32:17]  ²⁴ tn Heb “by your great power and your outstretched arm.” See 21:5; 27:5 and the marginal note on 27:5 for this idiom.

[33:21]  ²⁵ tn The very complex and elliptical syntax of the original Hebrew of vv. 20-21 has been broken down to better conform with contemporary English style. The text reads somewhat literally (after the addition of a couple of phrases which have been left out by ellipsis): “Thus says the Lord, ‘If you can break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night so that there is not to be daytime and night in their proper time then also my covenant can be broken with my servant David so that there is not to him a son reigning upon his throne [and also my covenant can be broken] with the Levites [so there are not] priests who minister to me.” The two phrases in brackets are elliptical, the first serving double duty for the prepositional phrase “with the Levites” as well as “with David” and the second serving double duty with the noun “priests” which parallels “a son.” The noun “priests” is not serving here as appositional because that phrase is always “the priests, the Levites,” never “the Levites, the priests.”

[33:21]  sn This refers to a reaffirmation of the Davidic covenant (cf., e.g., 2 Sam 7:11-16, 25-29; Ps 89:3-4, 19-29) and God’s covenant with the Levites (cf. Num 25:10-13; Mal 2:4-6; Deut 32:8-11).

[49:9]  ²⁶ tn The translation of this verse is generally based on the parallels in Obad 5. There the second line has a ה interrogative in front of it. The question can still be assumed because questions can be asked in Hebrew without a formal marker (cf. GKC 473 §150.a and BDB 519 s.v. לֹא 1.a[e] and compare usage in 2 Kgs 5:26).

[49:9]  ²⁷ tn The tense and nuance of the verb translated “pillage” are both different than the verb in Obad 5. There the verb is the imperfect of גָּנַב (ganav, “to steal”). Here the verb is the perfect of a verb which means to “ruin” or “spoil.” The English versions and commentaries, however, almost all render the verb here in much the same way as in Obad 5. The nuance must mean they only “ruin, destroy” (by stealing) only as much as they need (Heb “their sufficiency”), and the verb is used as metonymical substitute, effect for cause. The perfect must be some kind of a future perfect; “would they not have destroyed only…” The negative question is carried over by ellipsis from the preceding lines.

[49:31]  ²⁸ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[49:31]  ²⁹ tn The words “Army of Babylon” are not in the text but are implicit from the context. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[49:31]  ³⁰ tn Heb “no gates and no bar,” i.e., “that lives securely without gates or bars.” The phrase is used by the figure of species for genus (synecdoche) to refer to the fact that they have no defenses, i.e., no walls, gates, or bars on the gates. The figure has been interpreted in the translation for the benefit of the average reader.

[50:25]  ³¹ tn Or “I have opened up my armory.”

[50:25]  ³² tn Heb “The Lord has opened up his armory and has brought out the weapons of his wrath.” The problem of the Lord referring to himself in the third person (or of the prophet speaking on his behalf) is again raised here and is again resolved by using the first person throughout. The construction “weapons of my wrath” would not convey any meaning to many readers so the significance has been spelled out in the translation.

[50:25]  sn The weapons are the nations which God is bringing from the north against them. Reference has already been made in the study notes that Assyria is the “rod” or “war club” by which God vents his anger against Israel (Isa 10:5-6) and Babylon a hammer or war club with which he shatters the nations (Jer 50:23; 51:20). Now God will use other nations as weapons to execute his wrath against Babylon. For a similar idea see Isa 13:2-5 where reference is made to marshaling the nations against Babylon. Some of the nations that the Lord will marshal against Babylon are named in Jer 51:27-28.

[50:25]  ³³ tn Heb “the Lord Yahweh of armies.” For an explanation of this rendering and the significance of this title see the study note on 2:19.

[50:25]  ³⁴ tn The words “of Babylonia” are not in the text but are implicit from the context. They have been supplied in the translation to clarify the referent.

[50:25]  sn The verbs in vv. 22-25 are all descriptive of the present but, all of this is really to take place in the future. Hebrew poetry has a way of rendering future actions as though they were already accomplished. The poetry of this section makes it difficult, however, to render the verbs as future as the present translation has regularly done.

[50:32]  ³⁵ tn Heb “And the proud one will fall and there will be no one to help him up. I will start a fire in his towns and it will consume all that surround him.” The personification continues but now the stance is indirect (third person) rather than direct (second person). It is easier for the modern reader who is not accustomed to such sudden shifts if the second person is maintained. The personification of the city (or nation) as masculine is a little unusual; normally cities and nations are personified as feminine, as daughters or mothers.

[52:17]  ³⁶ sn For discussion of the items listed here, see the study notes at Jer 27:19.

[52:21]  ³⁷ tn Heb “eighteen cubits.” A “cubit” was a unit of measure, approximately equivalent to a foot and a half.

[52:21]  ³⁸ tn Heb “twelve cubits.” A “cubit” was a unit of measure, approximately equivalent to a foot and a half.

[52:21]  ³⁹ tn Heb “four fingers.”

[52:28]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “these are the people.”

[52:28]  ⁴¹ sn This would be 597 b.c.