Yeremia 2:37

2:37 Moreover, you will come away from Egypt

with your hands covering your faces in sorrow and shame ¹ 

because the Lord will not allow your reliance on them to be successful

and you will not gain any help from them. ² 

Yeremia 4:7

4:7 Like a lion that has come up from its lair ³ 

the one who destroys nations has set out from his home base. ⁴ 

He is coming out to lay your land waste.

Your cities will become ruins and lie uninhabited.

Yeremia 7:30

7:30 The Lord says, “I have rejected them because ⁵  the people of Judah have done what I consider evil. ⁶  They have set up their disgusting idols in the temple ⁷  which I have claimed for my own ⁸  and have defiled it.

Yeremia 9:16

9:16 I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their ancestors ⁹  have known anything about. I will send people chasing after them with swords ¹⁰  until I have destroyed them.’” ¹¹ 

Yeremia 18:10

18:10 But if that nation does what displeases me and does not obey me, then I will cancel the good I promised to do to it.

Yeremia 23:12

23:12 So the paths they follow will be dark and slippery.

They will stumble and fall headlong.

For I will bring disaster on them.

A day of reckoning is coming for them.” ¹² 

The Lord affirms it! ¹³ 

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 25:7

25:7 So, now the Lord says, ¹⁷  ‘You have not listened to me. But ¹⁸  you have made me angry by the things that you have done. ¹⁹  Thus you have brought harm on yourselves.’

Yeremia 25:18

25:18 I made Jerusalem ²⁰  and the cities of Judah, its kings and its officials drink it. ²¹  I did it so Judah would become a ruin. I did it so Judah, its kings, and its officials would become an object ²²  of horror and of hissing scorn, an example used in curses. ²³  Such is already becoming the case! ²⁴ 

Yeremia 29:17

29:17 The Lord who rules over all ²⁵  says, ‘I will bring war, ²⁶  starvation, and disease on them. I will treat them like figs that are so rotten ²⁷  they cannot be eaten.

Yeremia 44:3

44:3 This happened because of the wickedness the people living there did. ²⁸  They made me angry ²⁹  by worshiping and offering sacrifice to ³⁰  other gods whom neither they nor you nor your ancestors ³¹  previously knew. ³² 

Yeremia 46:19

46:19 Pack your bags for exile,

you inhabitants of poor dear Egypt. ³³ 

For Memphis will be laid waste.

It will lie in ruins ³⁴  and be uninhabited.

Yeremia 48:8

48:8 The destroyer will come against every town.

Not one town will escape.

The towns in the valley will be destroyed.

The cities on the high plain will be laid waste. ³⁵ 

I, the Lord, have spoken! ³⁶ 

Yeremia 49:9

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

would they not leave a few grapes behind? ³⁷ 

If robbers came at night,

would they not pillage only what they needed? ³⁸ 

Yeremia 50:6

50:6 “My people have been lost sheep.

Their shepherds ³⁹  have allow them to go astray.

They have wandered around in the mountains.

They have roamed from one mountain and hill to another. ⁴⁰ 

They have forgotten their resting place.

Yeremia 51:7

51:7 Babylonia had been a gold cup in the Lord’s hand.

She had made the whole world drunk.

The nations had drunk from the wine of her wrath. ⁴¹ 

So they have all gone mad. ⁴² 

Yeremia 51:29

51:29 The earth will tremble and writhe in agony. ⁴³ 

For the Lord will carry out his plan.

He plans to make the land of Babylonia ⁴⁴ 

a wasteland where no one lives. ⁴⁵ 

Yeremia 52:20

52:20 The bronze of the items that King Solomon made for the Lord’s temple (including the two pillars, the large bronze basin called “The Sea,” the twelve bronze bulls under “The Sea,” and the movable stands ⁴⁶ ) was too heavy to be weighed.

[2:37]  ¹ tn Heb “with your hands on your head.” For the picture here see 2 Sam 13:19.

[2:37]  ² tn Heb “The Lord has rejected those you trust in; you will not prosper by/from them.”

[4:7]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn Heb “his place.”

[7:30]  ⁵ tn The words “I have rejected them” are not in the Hebrew text, which merely says “because.” These words are supplied in the translation to show more clearly the connection to the preceding.

[7:30]  ⁶ tn Heb “have done the evil in my eyes.”

[7:30]  ⁷ sn Compare, e.g., 2 Kgs 21:3, 5, 7; 23:4, 6; Ezek 8:3, 5, 10-12, 16. Manasseh had desecrated the temple by building altars, cult symbols, and idols in it. Josiah had purged the temple of these pagan elements. But it is obvious from both Jeremiah and Ezekiel that they had been replaced shortly after Josiah’s death. They were a primary cause of Judah’s guilt and punishment (see beside this passage, 19:5; 32:34-35).

[7:30]  ⁸ tn Heb “the house which is called by my name.” Cf. 7:10, 11, 14 and see the translator’s note 7:10 for the explanation for this rendering.

[9:16]  ⁹ tn Heb “fathers.”

[9:16]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “I will send the sword after them.” The sword here is probably not completely literal but refers to death by violent means, including death by the sword.

[9:16]  ¹¹ sn He will destroy them but not completely. See Jer 5:18; 30:11; 46:28.

[23:12]  ¹² tn For the last two lines see 11:23 and the notes there.

[23:12]  ¹³ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[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.

[25:7]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[25:7]  ¹⁸ tn This is a rather clear case where the Hebrew particle לְמַעַן (lÿma’an) introduces a consequence and not a purpose, contrary to the dictum of BDB 775 s.v. מַעַן note 1. They have not listened to him in order to make him angry but with the result that they have made him angry by going their own way. Jeremiah appears to use this particle for result rather than purpose on several other occasions (see, e.g., 7:18, 19; 27:10, 15; 32:29).

[25:7]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “make me angry with the work of your hands.” The term “work of your own hands” is often interpreted as a reference to idolatry as is clearly the case in Isa 2:8; 37:19. However, the parallelism in 25:14 and the context in 32:30 show that it is more general and refers to what they have done. That is likely the meaning here as well.

[25:18]  ²⁰ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[25:18]  ²¹ tn The words “I made” and “drink it” are not in the text. The text from v. 18 to v. 26 contains a list of the nations that Jeremiah “made drink it.” The words are supplied in the translation here and at the beginning of v. 19 for the sake of clarity. See also the note on v. 26.

[25:18]  ²² tn Heb “in order to make them a ruin, an object of…” The sentence is broken up and the antecedents are made specific for the sake of clarity and English style.

[25:18]  ²³ tn See the study note on 24:9 for explanation.

[25:18]  ²⁴ tn Heb “as it is today.” This phrase would obviously be more appropriate after all these things had happened as is the case in 44:6, 23 where the verbs referring to these conditions are past. Some see this phrase as a marginal gloss added after the tragedies of 597 b.c. or 586 b.c. However, it may refer here to the beginning stages where Judah has already suffered the loss of Josiah, of its freedom, of some of its temple treasures, and of some of its leaders (Dan 1:1-3. The different date for Jehoiakim there is due to the different method of counting the king’s first year; the third year there is the same as the fourth year in 25:1).

[29:17]  ²⁵ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.” See the study note on 2:19 for explanation of this title.

[29:17]  ²⁶ tn Heb “the sword.”

[29:17]  ²⁷ tn The meaning of this word is somewhat uncertain. It occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible. BDB 1045 s.v. שֹׁעָר relates it to the noun “horrible thing” (translated “something shocking”) in Jer 5:30; 23:14 and defines it as “horrid, disgusting.” HALOT 1495 s.v. שֹׁעָר relates it to the same noun and define it as “rotten; corrupt.” That nuance is accepted here.

[29:17]  sn Compare Jer 24:8-10 in its context for the figure here.

[44:3]  ²⁸ tn Heb “they.” The referent must be supplied from the preceding, i.e., Jerusalem and all the towns of Judah. “They” are those who have experienced the disaster and are distinct from those being addressed and their ancestors (44:3b).

[44:3]  ²⁹ tn Heb “thus making me angry.” However, this is a good place to break the sentence to create a shorter sentence that is more in keeping with contemporary English style.

[44:3]  ³⁰ tn Heb “by going to offer sacrifice in serving/worshiping.” The second לְ (lamed) + infinitive is epexegetical of the first (cf. IBHS 608-9 §36.2.3e).

[44:3]  ³¹ tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 9, 10, 17, 21).

[44:3]  ³² sn Compare Jer 19:4 for the same thought and see also 7:9.

[46:19]  ³³ tn Heb “inhabitants of daughter Egypt.” Like the phrase “daughter Zion,” “daughter Egypt” is a poetic personification of the land, here perhaps to stress the idea of defenselessness.

[46:19]  ³⁴ tn For the verb here see HALOT 675 s.v. II נָצָה Nif and compare the usage in Jer 4:7; 9:11 and 2 Kgs 19:25. BDB derives the verb from יָצַת (so BDB 428 s.v. יָצַת Niph meaning “kindle, burn”) but still give it the meaning “desolate” here and in 2:15 and 9:11.

[48:8]  ³⁵ tn Heb “The valley will be destroyed and the tableland be laid waste.” However, in the context this surely refers to the towns and not to the valley and the tableland itself.

[48:8]  sn Most commentaries see a reference to the towns in the Jordan valley referred to in Josh 13:27 and the towns mentioned in Josh 13:15-17 which were on the high tableland or high plateau or plain north of the Arnon. The mention of the towns in the first half of the verse is broader than that because it would include all the towns in the southern half of Moab between the Arnon and Zered as well as those mentioned in the second half in conjunction with the valley and the high plateau north of the Arnon.

[48:8]  ³⁶ tn Heb “which/for/as the Lord has spoken.” The first person form has again been adopted because the Lord is the speaker throughout (cf. v. 1).

[49:9]  ³⁷ 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]  ³⁸ 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.

[50:6]  ³⁹ sn The shepherds are the priests, prophets, and leaders who have led Israel into idolatry (2:8).

[50:6]  ⁴⁰ sn The allusion here, if it is not merely a part of the metaphor of the wandering sheep, is to the worship of the false gods on the high hills (2:20, 3:2).

[51:7]  ⁴¹ tn The words “of her wrath” are not in the Hebrew text but are supplied in the translation to help those readers who are not familiar with the figure of the “cup of the Lord’s wrath.”

[51:7]  sn The figure of the cup of the Lord’s wrath invoked in Jer 25:15-29 is invoked again here and Babylon is identified as the agent through which the wrath of the Lord is visited on the other nations. See the study note on 25:15 for explanation and further references.

[51:7]  ⁴² tn Heb “upon the grounds of such conditions the nations have gone mad.”

[51:29]  ⁴³ sn The figure here is common in the poetic tradition of the Lord going forth to do battle against his foes and the earth’s reaction to it is compared to a person trembling with fear and writhing in agony, agony like that of a woman in labor (cf. Judg 5:4; Nah 1:2-5; Hab 3:1-15 [especially v. 6]).

[51:29]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “For the plans of the Lord have been carried out to make the land of Babylon…” The passive has been turned into an active and the sentence broken up to better conform with contemporary English style. For the meaning of the verb קוּם (qum) in the sense used here see BDB 878 s.v. קוּם 7.g and compare the usage in Prov 19:21 and Isa 46:10.

[51:29]  ⁴⁵ tn The verbs in this verse and v. 30 are all in the past tense in Hebrew, in the tense that views the action as already as good as done (the Hebrew prophetic perfect). The verb in v. 31a, however, is imperfect, viewing the action as future; the perfects that follow are all dependent on that future. Verse 33 looks forward to a time when Babylon will be harvested and trampled like grain on the threshing floor and the imperatives imply a time in the future. Hence the present translation has rendered all the verbs in vv. 29-30 as future.

[52:20]  ⁴⁶ tc The translation follows the LXX (Greek version), which reflects the description in 1 Kgs 7:25-26. The Hebrew text reads, “the twelve bronze bulls under the movable stands.” הַיָּם (hayyam, “The Sea”) has been accidentally omitted by homoioarcton; note that the following form, הַמְּכֹנוֹת (hammÿkhonot, “the movable stands”), also begins with the article.