Yeremia 3:21

3:21 “A noise is heard on the hilltops.

It is the sound of the people of Israel crying and pleading to their gods.

Indeed they have followed sinful ways; ¹ 

they have forgotten to be true to the Lord their God. ² 

Yeremia 3:23

3:23 We know our noisy worship of false gods

on the hills and mountains did not help us. ³ 

We know that the Lord our God

is the only one who can deliver Israel. ⁴ 

Yeremia 7:29

7:29 So, mourn, ⁵  you people of this nation. ⁶  Cut off your hair and throw it away. Sing a song of mourning on the hilltops. For the Lord has decided to reject ⁷  and forsake this generation that has provoked his wrath!’” ⁸ 

Yeremia 11:11

11:11 So I, the Lord, say this: ⁹  ‘I will soon bring disaster on them which they will not be able to escape! When they cry out to me for help, I will not listen to them.

Yeremia 13:16

13:16 Show the Lord your God the respect that is due him. ¹⁰ 

Do it before he brings the darkness of disaster. ¹¹ 

Do it before you stumble ¹²  into distress

like a traveler on the mountains at twilight. ¹³ 

Do it before he turns the light of deliverance you hope for

into the darkness and gloom of exile. ¹⁴ 

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.” ¹⁵ 

The Lord affirms it! ¹⁶ 

Yeremia 51:56

51:56 For a destroyer is attacking Babylon. ¹⁷ 

Her warriors will be captured;

their bows will be broken. ¹⁸ 

For the Lord is a God who punishes; ¹⁹ 

he pays back in full. ²⁰ 

Yeremia 51:64

51:64 Then say, ‘In the same way Babylon will sink and never rise again because of the judgments ²¹  I am ready to bring upon her; they will grow faint.’”

The prophecies of Jeremiah end here. ²² 

[3:21]  ¹ tn Heb “A sound is heard on the hilltops, the weeping of the supplication of the children of Israel because [or indeed] they have perverted their way.” At issue here is whether the supplication is made to Yahweh in repentance because of what they have done or whether it is supplication to the pagan gods which is evidence of their perverted ways. The reference in this verse to the hilltops where idolatry was practiced according to 3:2 and the reference to Israel’s unfaithfulness in the preceding verse make the latter more likely. For the asseverative use of the Hebrew particle (here rendered “indeed”) where the particle retains some of the explicative nuance; cf. BDB 472-73 s.v. כִּי 1.e and 3.c.

[3:21]  ² tn Heb “have forgotten the Lord their God,” but in the view of the parallelism and the context, the word “forget” (like “know” and “remember”) involves more than mere intellectual activity.

[3:23]  ³ tn Heb “Truly in vain from the hills the noise/commotion [and from] the mountains.” The syntax of the Hebrew sentence is very elliptical here.

[3:23]  ⁴ tn Heb “Truly in the Lord our God is deliverance for Israel.”

[7:29]  ⁵ tn The word “mourn” is not in the text. It is supplied in the translation for clarity to explain the significance of the words “Cut your hair and throw it away.”

[7:29]  sn Cf. Mic 1:16; Job 1:20 for other examples of this practice which was involved in mourning.

[7:29]  ⁶ tn The words, “you people of this nation” are not in the text. Many English versions supply, “Jerusalem.” The address shifts from second masculine singular addressing Jeremiah (vv. 27-28a) to second feminine singular. It causes less disruption in the flow of the context to see the nation as a whole addressed here as a feminine singular entity (as, e.g., in 2:19, 23; 3:2, 3; 6:26) than to introduce a new entity, Jerusalem.

[7:29]  ⁷ tn The verbs here are the Hebrew scheduling perfects. For this use of the perfect see GKC 312 §106.m.

[7:29]  ⁸ tn Heb “the generation of his wrath.”

[11:11]  ⁹ tn Heb “Therefore, thus, says the Lord.” The person has been shifted in the translation in accordance with the difference between Hebrew and English style.

[13:16]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Give glory/respect to the Lord your God.” For this nuance of the word “glory” (כָּבוֹד, kavod), see BDB 459 s.v. כָּבוֹד 6.b and compare the usage in Mal 1:6 and Josh 7:19.

[13:16]  ¹¹ tn The words “of disaster” are not in the text. They are supplied in the translation to explain the significance of the metaphor to readers who may not be acquainted with the metaphorical use of light and darkness for salvation and joy and distress and sorrow respectively.

[13:16]  sn For the metaphorical use of these terms the reader should consult O. A. Piper, “Light, Light and Darkness,” IDB 3:130-32. For the association of darkness with the Day of the Lord, the time when he will bring judgment, see, e.g., Amos 5:18-20. For the association of darkness with exile see Isa 9:1-2 (8:23-9:1 HT).

[13:16]  ¹² tn Heb “your feet stumble.”

[13:16]  ¹³ tn Heb “you stumble on the mountains at twilight.” The added words are again supplied in the translation to help explain the metaphor to the uninitiated reader.

[13:16]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and while you hope for light he will turn it into deep darkness and make [it] into gloom.” The meaning of the metaphor is again explained through the addition of the “of” phrases for readers who are unacquainted with the metaphorical use of these terms.

[13:16]  sn For the meaning and usage of the term “deep darkness” (צַלְמָוֶת, tsalmavet), see the notes on Jer 2:6. For the association of the term with exile see Isa 9:2 (9:1 HT). For the association of the word gloom with the Day of the Lord see Isa 60:2; Joel 2:2; Zeph 1:15.

[23:12]  ¹⁵ tn For the last two lines see 11:23 and the notes there.

[23:12]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[51:56]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “for a destroyer is coming against her, against Babylon.”

[51:56]  ¹⁸ tn The Piel form (which would be intransitive here, see GKC 142 §52.k) should probably be emended to Qal.

[51:56]  ¹⁹ tn Or “God of retribution.”

[51:56]  ²⁰ tn The infinitive absolute emphasizes the following finite verb. Another option is to translate, “he certainly pays one back.” The translation assumes that the imperfect verbal form here describes the Lord’s characteristic actions. Another option is to take it as referring specifically to his judgment on Babylon, in which case one should translate, “he will pay (Babylon) back in full.”

[51:64]  ²¹ tn Or “disaster”; or “calamity.”

[51:64]  ²² sn The final chapter of the book of Jeremiah does not mention Jeremiah or record any of his prophecies.