Yeremia 6:4

6:4 They will say, ¹  ‘Prepare to do battle ²  against it!

Come on! Let’s attack it at noon!’

But later they will say, ³  ‘Oh, oh! Too bad! ⁴ 

The day is almost over

and the shadows of evening are getting long.

Yeremia 6:18

6:18 So the Lord said, ⁵ 

“Hear, you nations!

Be witnesses and take note of what will happen to these people. ⁶ 

Yeremia 6:23

6:23 Its soldiers are armed with bows and spears.

They are cruel and show no mercy.

They sound like the roaring sea

as they ride forth on their horses.

Lined up in formation like men going into battle

to attack you, Daughter Zion.’” ⁷ 

Yeremia 6:26

6:26 So I said, ⁸  “Oh, my dear people, ⁹  put on sackcloth

and roll in ashes.

Mourn with painful sobs

as though you had lost your only child.

For any moment now ¹⁰  that destructive army ¹¹ 

will come against us.”

Yeremia 9:19

9:19 For the sound of wailing is soon to be heard in Zion.

They will wail, ¹²  ‘We are utterly ruined! ¹³  We are completely disgraced!

For our houses have been torn down

and we must leave our land.’” ¹⁴ 

Yeremia 13:19

13:19 The gates of the towns in southern Judah will be shut tight. ¹⁵ 

No one will be able to go in or out of them. ¹⁶ 

All Judah will be carried off into exile.

They will be completely carried off into exile.’” ¹⁷ 

Yeremia 14:21

14:21 For the honor of your name, ¹⁸  do not treat Jerusalem ¹⁹  with contempt.

Do not treat with disdain the place where your glorious throne sits. ²⁰ 

Be mindful of your covenant with us. Do not break it! ²¹ 

Yeremia 19:8

19:8 I will make this city an object of horror, a thing to be hissed at. All who pass by it will be filled with horror and will hiss out their scorn ²²  because of all the disasters that have happened to it. ²³ 

Yeremia 22:20

Warning to Jerusalem

22:20 People of Jerusalem, ²⁴  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. ²⁵ 

For your allies ²⁶  have all been defeated.

Yeremia 23:20

23:20 The anger of the Lord will not turn back

until he has fully carried out his intended purposes. ²⁷ 

In days to come ²⁸ 

you people will come to understand this clearly. ²⁹ 

Yeremia 27:22

27:22 He has said, ‘They will be carried off to Babylon. They will remain there until it is time for me to show consideration for them again. ³⁰  Then I will bring them back and restore them to this place.’ I, the Lord, affirm this!” ³¹ 

Yeremia 30:17

30:17 Yes, ³²  I will restore you to health.

I will heal your wounds.

I, the Lord, affirm it! ³³ 

For you have been called an outcast,

Zion, whom no one cares for.”

Yeremia 33:4

33:4 For I, the Lord God of Israel, have something more to say about the houses in this city and the royal buildings which have been torn down for defenses against the siege ramps and military incursions of the Babylonians: ³⁴ 

Yeremia 38:2

38:2 “The Lord says, ‘Those who stay in this city will die in battle or of starvation or disease. ³⁵  Those who leave the city and surrender to the Babylonians ³⁶  will live. They will escape with their lives.’” ³⁷ 

Yeremia 50:28

50:28 Listen! Fugitives and refugees are coming from the land of Babylon.

They are coming to Zion to declare there

how the Lord our God is getting revenge,

getting revenge for what they have done to his temple. ³⁸ 

Yeremia 51:24

51:24 “But I will repay Babylon

and all who live in Babylonia

for all the wicked things they did in Zion

right before the eyes of you Judeans,” ³⁹ 

says the Lord. ⁴⁰ 

Yeremia 51:36

51:36 Therefore the Lord says,

“I will stand up for your cause.

I will pay the Babylonians back for what they have done to you. ⁴¹ 

I will dry up their sea.

I will make their springs run dry. ⁴² 

Yeremia 52:28

52:28 Here is the official record of the number of people ⁴³  Nebuchadnezzar carried into exile: In the seventh year, ⁴⁴  3,023 Jews;

[6:4]  ¹ tn These words are not in the text but are implicit in the connection. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[6:4]  ² tn Heb “Sanctify war.” This is probably an idiom from early Israel’s holy wars in which religious rites were to precede the battle.

[6:4]  ³ tn These words are not in the text but are supplied in the translation for clarity. Some commentaries and English versions see these not as the words of the enemy but as those of the Israelites expressing their fear that the enemy will launch a night attack against them and further destroy them. The connection with the next verse, however, fits better with them if they are the words of the enemy.

[6:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “Woe to us!” For the usage of this phrase see the translator’s note on 4:13. The usage of this particle here is a little exaggerated. They have lost the most advantageous time for attack but they are scarcely in a hopeless or doomed situation. The equivalent in English slang is “Bad news!”

[6:18]  ⁵ tn These words are not in the text but are implicit from the flow of the context. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[6:18]  ⁶ tn Heb “Know, congregation [or witness], what in [or against] them.” The meaning of this line is somewhat uncertain. The meaning of the noun of address in the second line (“witness,” rendered as an imperative in the translation, “Be witnesses”) is greatly debated. It is often taken as “congregation” but the lexicons and commentaries generally question the validity of reading that word since it is nowhere else applied to the nations. BDB 417 s.v. עֵדָה 3 says that the text is dubious. HALOT 747 s.v. I עֵדָה, 4 emends the text to דֵּעָה (de’ah). Several modern English versions (e.g., NIV, NCV, God’s Word) take it as the feminine singular noun “witness” (cf. BDB 729 s.v. II עֵדָה) and understand it as a collective. This solution is also proposed by J. A. Thompson (Jeremiah [NICOT], 259, n. 3) and appears to make the best sense in the context. The end of the line is very elliptical but is generally taken as either, “what I will do with/to them,” or “what is coming against them” (= “what will happen to them”) on the basis of the following context.

[6:23]  ⁷ sn Jerualem is personified as a young maiden helpless before enemy attackers.

[6:26]  ⁸ tn These words are not in the text but are implicit from the context.

[6:26]  ⁹ tn Heb “daughter of my people.” For the translation given here see 4:11 and the translator’s note there.

[6:26]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “suddenly.”

[6:26]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the destroyer.”

[9:19]  ¹² tn The words “They will wail” are not in the text. They are supplied in the translation to make clear that this is the wailing that will be heard.

[9:19]  sn The destruction is still in the future, but it is presented graphically as though it had already taken place.

[9:19]  ¹³ tn Heb “How we are ruined!”

[9:19]  ¹⁴ tn The order of these two lines has been reversed for English stylistic reasons. The text reads in Hebrew “because we have left our land because they have thrown down our dwellings.” The two clauses offer parallel reasons for the cries “How ruined we are! [How] we are greatly disgraced!” But the first line must contain a prophetic perfect (because the lament comes from Jerusalem) and the second a perfect referring to a destruction that is itself future. This seems the only way to render the verse that would not be misleading.

[13:19]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “The towns of the Negev will be shut.”

[13:19]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “There is no one to open them.” The translation is based on the parallel in Josh 6:1 where the very expression in the translation is used. Opening the city would have permitted entrance (of relief forces) as well as exit (of fugitives).

[13:19]  ¹⁷ sn The statements are poetic exaggerations (hyperbole), as most commentaries note. Even in the exile of 587 b.c. not “all” of the people of Jerusalem or of Judah were exiled. Cf. the context of 2 Kgs 24:14-16 again.

[14:21]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “For the sake of your name.”

[14:21]  ¹⁹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[14:21]  ²⁰ tn English versions quite commonly supply “us” as an object for the verb in the first line. This is probably wrong. The Hebrew text reads: “Do not treat with contempt for the sake of your name; do not treat with disdain your glorious throne.” This is case of poetic parallelism where the object is left hanging until the second line. For an example of this see Prov 13:1 in the original and consult E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 103-4. There has also been some disagreement whether “your glorious throne” refers to the temple (as in 17:12) or Jerusalem (as in 3:17). From the beginning of the prayer in v. 19 where a similar kind of verb has been used with respect to Zion/Jerusalem it would appear that the contextual referent is Jerusalem. The absence of an object from the first line makes it possible to retain part of the metaphor in the translation and still convey some meaning.

[14:21]  sn The place of God’s glorious throne was first of all the ark of the covenant where God was said to be enthroned between the cherubim, then the temple that housed it, then the city itself. See 2 Kgs 19:14-15 in the context of Sennacherib’s attack on Jerusalem.

[14:21]  ²¹ tn Heb “Remember, do not break your covenant with us.”

[19:8]  ²² sn See 18:16 and the study note there.

[19:8]  ²³ tn Heb “all its smitings.” This word has been used several times for the metaphorical “wounds” that Israel has suffered as a result of the blows from its enemies. See, e.g., 14:17. It is used in the Hebrew Bible of scourging, both literally and metaphorically (cf. Deut 25:3; Isa 10:26), and of slaughter and defeat (1 Sam 4:10; Josh 10:20). Here it refers to the results of the crushing blows at the hands of her enemies which has made her the object of scorn.

[22:20]  ²⁴ 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]  ²⁵ tn Heb “from Abarim.” This was the mountain range in Moab from which Moses viewed the promised land (cf. Deut 32:49).

[22:20]  ²⁶ 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.

[23:20]  ²⁷ tn Heb “until he has done and until he has carried out the purposes of his heart.”

[23:20]  ²⁸ tn Heb “in the latter days.” However, as BDB 31 s.v. אַחֲרִית b suggests, the meaning of this idiom must be determined from the context. Sometimes it has remote, even eschatological, reference and other times it has more immediate reference as it does here and in Jer 30:23 where it refers to the coming days of Babylonian conquest and exile.

[23:20]  ²⁹ tn The translation is intended to reflect a Hebrew construction where a noun functions as the object of a verb from the same root word (the Hebrew cognate accusative).

[27:22]  ³⁰ tn This verb is a little difficult to render here. The word is used in the sense of taking note of something and acting according to what is noticed. It is the word that has been translated several times throughout Jeremiah as “punish [someone].” It is also used in the opposite of sense of taking note and “show consideration for” (or “care for;” see, e.g., Ruth 1:6). Here the nuance is positive and is further clarified by the actions that follow, bringing them back and restoring them.

[27:22]  ³¹ tn Heb “oracle of the Lord.”

[30:17]  ³² tn Again the particle כִּי (ki) appears to be intensive rather than causal. Compare the translator’s note on v. 12. It is possible that it has an adversative sense as an implicit contrast with v. 13 which expresses these concepts in the negative (cf. BDB 474 s.v. כִּי 3.e for this use in statements which are contextually closer to one another).

[30:17]  ³³ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[33:4]  ³⁴ tn Heb “the sword.” The figure has been interpreted for the sake of clarity.

[38:2]  ³⁵ tn Heb “by sword, by starvation, or by disease.”

[38:2]  ³⁶ tn Heb “those who go out to the Chaldeans.” For the rendering “Babylonians” for “Chaldeans” see the study note on 21:4.

[38:2]  ³⁷ tn Heb “his life will be to him for spoil and he will live.” For the meaning of this idiom see the study note on 21:9. The words and “he will live” have been left out of the translation because they are redundant after “will live” and “they will escape with their lives.”

[38:2]  sn See Jer 21:9 for this prophecy.

[50:28]  ³⁸ tn Heb “Hark! Fugitives and refugees from the land of Babylon to declare in Zion the vengeance of the Lord our God, vengeance for his temple.” For the meaning “Hark!” for the noun קוֹל (qol) see BDB 877 s.v. קוֹל 1.f and compare the usage in Jer 10:22. The syntax is elliptical because there is no main verb. The present translation has supplied the verb “come” as many other English versions have done. The translation also expands the genitival expression “vengeance for his temple” to explain what all the commentaries agree is involved.

[50:28]  sn This verse appears to be a parenthetical exclamation of the prophet in the midst of his report of what the Lord said through him. He throws himself into the future and sees the fall of Babylon and hears the people reporting in Zion how God has destroyed Babylon to get revenge for the Babylonians destroying his temple. Jeremiah prophesied from 627 b.c. (see the study note on 1:2) until sometime after 586 b.c. after Jerusalem fell and he was taken to Egypt. The fall of Babylon occurred in 538 b.c. some fifty years later. However, Jeremiah had prophesied as early as the first year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign (605 b.c.; Jer 25:1) that many nations and great kings would come and subject Babylon, the instrument of God’s wrath – his sword against the nations – to bondage (Jer 25:12-14).

[51:24]  ³⁹ tn Or “Media, you are my war club…I will use you to smash…leaders. So before your very eyes I will repay…for all the wicked things they did in Zion.” For explanation see the translator’s note on v. 20. The position of the phrase “before your eyes” at the end of the verse after “which they did in Zion” and the change in person from second masculine singular in vv. 20b-23 (“I used you to smite”) to second masculine plural in “before your eyes” argue that a change in referent/addressee occurs in this verse. To maintain that the referent in vv. 20-23 is Media/Cyrus requires that this position and change in person be ignored; “before your eyes” then is attached to “I will repay.” The present translation follows J. A. Thompson (Jeremiah [NICOT], 757) and F. B. Huey (Jeremiah, Lamentations [NAC], 423) in seeing the referent as the Judeans who had witnessed the destruction of Zion/Jerusalem. The word “Judean” has been supplied for the sake of identifying the referent for the modern reader.

[51:24]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[51:36]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “I will avenge your vengeance [= I will take vengeance for you; the phrase involves a verb and a cognate accusative].” The meaning of the phrase has been spelled out in more readily understandable terms.

[51:36]  ⁴² tn Heb “I will dry up her [Babylon’s] sea and make her fountain dry.” “Their” has been substituted for “her” because “Babylonians” has been inserted in the previous clause and is easier to understand than the personification of Babylon = “her.”

[51:36]  sn The reference to their sea is not clear. Most interpreters understand it to be a figurative reference to the rivers and canals surrounding Babylon. But some feel it refers to the reservoir that the wife of Nebuchadnezzar, Queen Nictoris, had made.

[52:28]  ⁴³ tn Heb “these are the people.”

[52:28]  ⁴⁴ sn This would be 597 b.c.