Yeremia 1:13

1:13 The Lord again asked me, “What do you see?” I answered, “I see a pot of boiling water; it is tipped toward us from the north.” ¹ 

Yeremia 3:8

3:8 She also saw ²  that I gave wayward Israel her divorce papers and sent her away because of her adulterous worship of other gods. ³  Even after her unfaithful sister Judah had seen this, ⁴  she still was not afraid, and she too went and gave herself like a prostitute to other gods. ⁵ 

Yeremia 6:17

6:17 The Lord said, ⁶ 

“I appointed prophets as watchmen to warn you, ⁷  saying:

‘Pay attention to the warning sound of the trumpet!’” ⁸ 

But they said, “We will not pay attention!”

Yeremia 13:8

13:8 Then the Lord said to me, ⁹ 

Yeremia 18:5

18:5 Then the Lord said to me, ¹⁰ 

Yeremia 22:6-7

22:6 “‘For the Lord says concerning the palace of the king of Judah,

“This place looks like a veritable forest of Gilead to me.

It is like the wooded heights of Lebanon in my eyes.

But I swear that I will make it like a wilderness

whose towns have all been deserted. ¹¹ 

22:7 I will send men against it to destroy it ¹² 

with their axes and hatchets.

They will hack up its fine cedar panels and columns

and throw them into the fire.

Yeremia 25:8

25:8 “Therefore, the Lord who rules over all ¹³  says, ‘You have not listened to what I said. ¹⁴ 

Yeremia 25:21

25:21 all the people of Edom, ¹⁵  Moab, ¹⁶  Ammon; ¹⁷ 

Yeremia 26:4

26:4 Tell them that the Lord says, ¹⁸  ‘You must obey me! You must live according to the way I have instructed you in my laws. ¹⁹ 

Yeremia 29:30

29:30 Then the Lord spoke to Jeremiah.

Yeremia 30:20

30:20 The descendants of Jacob will enjoy their former privileges.

Their community will be reestablished in my favor ²⁰ 

and I will punish all who try to oppress them.

Yeremia 37:6

37:6 The Lord gave the prophet Jeremiah a message for them. He told him to tell them, ²¹ 

Yeremia 39:14

39:14 sent and had Jeremiah brought from the courtyard of the guardhouse. They turned him over to Gedaliah, ²²  the son of Ahikam and the grandson of Shaphan, to take him home with him. ²³  But Jeremiah stayed among the people. ²⁴ 

[1:13]  ¹ tn Heb “a blown upon [= heated; boiling] pot and its face from the face of the north [= it is facing away from the north].”

[3:8]  ² tc Heb “she [‘her sister, unfaithful Judah’ from the preceding verse] saw” with one Hebrew ms, some Greek mss, and the Syriac version. The MT reads “I saw” which may be a case of attraction to the verb at the beginning of the previous verse.

[3:8]  ³ tn Heb “because she committed adultery.” The translation is intended to spell out the significance of the metaphor.

[3:8]  ⁴ tn The words “Even after her unfaithful sister, Judah, had seen this” are not in the Hebrew text but are implicit in the connection and are supplied for clarification.

[3:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “she played the prostitute there.” This is a metaphor for Israel’s worship; she gave herself to the worship of other gods like a prostitute gives herself to her lovers. There seems no clear way to completely spell out the metaphor in the translation.

[6:17]  ⁶ tn These words are not in the text but are implicit in the interchange of pronouns in the Hebrew of vv. 16-17. They are supplied in the translation here for clarity.

[6:17]  ⁷ tn Heb “I appointed watchmen over you.”

[6:17]  ⁸ tn Heb “Pay attention to the sound of the trumpet.” The word “warning” is not in the Hebrew text, but is implied.

[13:8]  ⁹ tn Heb “Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying.”

[18:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying.”

[22:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Gilead you are to me, the height of Lebanon, but I will surely make you a wilderness [with] cities uninhabited.” The points of comparison are made explicit in the translation for the sake of clarity. See the study note for further explanation. For the use of the preposition לְ (lamed) = “in my eyes/in my opinion” see BDB 513 s.v. לְ 5.a(d) and compare Jonah 3:3; Esth 10:3. For the use of the particles אִם לֹא (’im lo’) to introduce an emphatic oath see BDB 50 s.v. אִם 1.b(2).

[22:6]  sn Lebanon was well known for its cedars and the palace (and the temple) had used a good deal of such timber in its construction (see 1 Kgs 5:6, 8-10; 7:2-3). In this section several references are made to cedar (see vv. 7, 14, 15, 23) and allusion has also been made to the paneled and colonnade armory of the Forest of Lebanon (2:14). It appears to have been a source of pride and luxury, perhaps at the expense of justice. Gilead was also noted in antiquity for its forests as well as for its fertile pastures.

[22:7]  ¹² sn Heb “I will sanctify destroyers against it.” If this is not an attenuated use of the term “sanctify” the traditions of Israel’s holy wars are being turned against her. See also 6:4. In Israel’s early wars in the wilderness and in the conquest, the Lord fought for her against the enemies (cf., e.g., Josh 10:11, 14, 42; 24:7; Judg 5:20; 1 Sam 7:10). Now he is going to fight against them (21:5, 13) and use the enemy as his instruments of destruction. For a similar picture of destruction in the temple see the lament in Ps 74:3-7.

[25:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.”

[25:8]  sn See the study note on 2:19 for an explanation of this title.

[25:8]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “You have not listened to my words.”

[25:21]  ¹⁵ sn See further Jer 49:7-22 for the judgment against Edom. Edom, Moab, and Ammon were east of Judah.

[25:21]  ¹⁶ sn See further Jer 48:1-47 for the judgment against Moab.

[25:21]  ¹⁷ sn See further Jer 49:1-6 for the judgment against Ammon.

[26:4]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “thus says the Lord, ‘…’.” The use of the indirect quotation in the translation eliminates one level of embedded quotation to avoid confusion.

[26:4]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “by walking in my law which I set before you.”

[26:4]  sn Examples of those laws are found in Jer 7:5-6, 9. The law was summarized or epitomized in the ten commandments which are called the “words of the covenant” in Exod 34:28, but it contained much more. However, when Israel is taken to task by God, it often relates to their failure to live up to the standards of the ten commandments (Heb “the ten words”; see Hos 4:1-3; Jer 7:9).

[30:20]  ²⁰ tn Heb “his children will be as in former times and his congregation/community will be established before me.” “His children” refers to “Jacob” who has been referred to in v. 18 in the phrase “I will restore the fortunes of the tents of Jacob.” “His children” are thus the restored exiles. Some commentaries see the reference here to the restoration of numbers in accordance with the previous verse. However, the last line of this verse and the reference to the ruler in the following verse suggests rather restoration of the religious and political institutions to their former state. For the use of the word translated “community” (עֵדָה, ’edah) to refer to a political congregation as well as its normal use to refer to a religious one see 1 Kgs 12:20. For the idea of “in my favor” (i.e., under the eye and regard of) for the Hebrew phrase used here (לְפָנַי, lÿfanay) see BDB 817 s.v. פָּנֶה II.4.a(b).

[37:6]  ²¹ tn Heb “And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying.”

[39:14]  ²² sn Gedaliah. This is the first reference to this individual whom Nebuchadnezzar appointed governor over the people who were left to live in Judah (cf. 40:5; 2 Kgs 25:22). His father was the man who spoke up for Jeremiah when he was accused of being a false prophet by some of the priests and prophets (26:24). His grandfather was the royal secretary under Josiah who brought the discovery of the book of the law to Josiah’s attention, read it to him, and was involved in helping Josiah institute his reforms (2 Kgs 22:8-10).

[39:14]  ²³ tn The meaning of the last phrase is uncertain. An alternate translation is “to take him home with him.” The text reads literally “to bring him into the house.” However, it is unclear whether “the house” refers to Jeremiah’s house or to Gedaliah’s. The fact that Nebuzaradan later offers Jeremiah the option of going back to Gedaliah (40:5) suggests that the house is here Gedaliah’s where Jeremiah would be looked out for in accord with Nebuchadnezzar’s command (v. 12).

[39:14]  ²⁴ tn Many translate this last clause as a conclusion or summary remark, “So Jeremiah stayed…” However, it is better to translate it as an adversative because it probably refers to the fact that rather than staying with Gedaliah in the governor’s residence Jeremiah stayed among the people. That is how he wound up being led off as a prisoner to Ramah. See further the study note on 40:1. According to IBHS 550 §33.2.1d the vav (ו) consecutive can have either of these values (see examples 11 and 12 for the adversative or contrastive nuance).