Yeremia 1:3

1:3 The Lord also spoke to him when Jehoiakim son of Josiah ruled over Judah, and he continued to speak to him until the fifth month of the eleventh year ¹  that Zedekiah son of Josiah ruled over Judah. That was when the people of Jerusalem ²  were taken into exile. ³ 

Yeremia 6:15-16

6:15 Are they ashamed because they have done such shameful things?

No, they are not at all ashamed.

They do not even know how to blush!

So they will die, just like others have died. ⁴ 

They will be brought to ruin when I punish them,”

says the Lord.

6:16 The Lord said to his people: ⁵ 

“You are standing at the crossroads. So consider your path. ⁶ 

Ask where the old, reliable paths ⁷  are.

Ask where the path is that leads to blessing ⁸  and follow it.

If you do, you will find rest for your souls.”

But they said, “We will not follow it!”

Yeremia 9:12

9:12 I said, ⁹ 

“Who is wise enough to understand why this has happened? ¹⁰ 

Who has a word from the Lord that can explain it? ¹¹ 

Why does the land lie in ruins?

Why is it as scorched as a desert through which no one travels?”

Yeremia 11:10

11:10 They have gone back to the evil ways ¹²  of their ancestors of old who refused to obey what I told them. They, too, have paid allegiance to ¹³  other gods and worshiped them. Both the nation of Israel and the nation of Judah ¹⁴  have violated the covenant I made with their ancestors.

Yeremia 14:10

14:10 Then the Lord spoke about these people. ¹⁵ 

“They truly ¹⁶  love to go astray.

They cannot keep from running away from me. ¹⁷ 

So I am not pleased with them.

I will now call to mind ¹⁸  the wrongs they have done ¹⁹ 

and punish them for their sins.”

Yeremia 18:18

Jeremiah Petitions the Lord to Punish Those Who Attack Him

18:18 Then some people ²⁰  said, “Come on! Let us consider how to deal with Jeremiah! ²¹  There will still be priests to instruct us, wise men to give us advice, and prophets to declare God’s word. ²²  Come on! Let’s bring charges against him and get rid of him! ²³  Then we will not need to pay attention to anything he says.”

Yeremia 21:12

21:12 O royal family descended from David. ²⁴ 

The Lord says:

‘See to it that people each day ²⁵  are judged fairly. ²⁶ 

Deliver those who have been robbed from those ²⁷  who oppress them.

Otherwise, my wrath will blaze out against you.

It will burn like a fire that cannot be put out

because of the evil that you have done. ²⁸ 

Yeremia 22:18

22:18 So ²⁹  the Lord has this to say about Josiah’s son, King Jehoiakim of Judah:

People will not mourn for him, saying,

“This makes me sad, my brother!

This makes me sad, my sister!”

They will not mourn for him, saying,

“Poor, poor lord! Poor, poor majesty!” ³⁰ 

Yeremia 24:8

24:8 “I, the Lord, also solemnly assert: ‘King Zedekiah of Judah, his officials, and the people who remain in Jerusalem ³¹  or who have gone to live in Egypt are like those bad figs. I consider them to be just like those bad figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten. ³² 

Yeremia 25:3

25:3 “For the last twenty-three years, from the thirteenth year that Josiah son of Amon was ruling in Judah ³³  until now, the Lord has been speaking to me. I told you over and over again ³⁴  what he said. ³⁵  But you would not listen.

Yeremia 25:30

25:30 “Then, Jeremiah, ³⁶  make the following prophecy ³⁷  against them:

‘Like a lion about to attack, ³⁸  the Lord will roar from the heights of heaven;

from his holy dwelling on high he will roar loudly.

He will roar mightily against his land. ³⁹ 

He will shout in triumph like those stomping juice from the grapes ⁴⁰ 

against all those who live on the earth.

Yeremia 26:19

26:19 King Hezekiah and all the people of Judah did not put him to death, did they? Did not Hezekiah show reverence for the Lord and seek the Lord’s favor? ⁴¹  Did not ⁴²  the Lord forgo destroying them ⁴³  as he threatened he would? But we are on the verge of bringing great disaster on ourselves.” ⁴⁴ 

Yeremia 27:18

27:18 I also told them, ⁴⁵  “If they are really prophets and the Lord is speaking to them, ⁴⁶  let them pray earnestly to the Lord who rules over all. ⁴⁷  Let them plead with him not to let the valuable articles that are still left in the Lord’s temple, in the royal palace, and in Jerusalem be taken away ⁴⁸  to Babylon.

Yeremia 28:11

28:11 Then he spoke up in the presence of all the people. “The Lord says, ‘In the same way I will break the yoke of servitude of all the nations to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon ⁴⁹  before two years are over.’” After he heard this, the prophet Jeremiah departed and went on his way. ⁵⁰ 

Yeremia 32:24

32:24 Even now siege ramps have been built up around the city ⁵¹  in order to capture it. War, ⁵²  starvation, and disease are sure to make the city fall into the hands of the Babylonians ⁵³  who are attacking it. ⁵⁴  Lord, ⁵⁵  you threatened that this would happen. Now you can see that it is already taking place. ⁵⁶ 

Yeremia 33:13

33:13 I, the Lord, say that shepherds will once again count their sheep as they pass into the fold. ⁵⁷  They will do this in all the towns in the southern hill country, the western foothills, the southern hill country, the territory of Benjamin, the villages surrounding Jerusalem, and the towns of Judah.’ ⁵⁸ 

Yeremia 42:4

42:4 The prophet Jeremiah answered them, “Agreed! ⁵⁹  I will indeed pray to the Lord your God as you have asked. I will tell you everything the Lord replies in response to you. ⁶⁰  I will not keep anything back from you.”

Yeremia 44:7

44:7 “So now the Lord, the God who rules over all, the God of Israel, ⁶¹  asks, ‘Why will you do such great harm to yourselves? Why should every man, woman, child, and baby of yours be destroyed from the midst of Judah? Why should you leave yourselves without a remnant?

Yeremia 44:30

44:30 I, the Lord, promise that ⁶²  I will hand Pharaoh Hophra ⁶³  king of Egypt over to his enemies who are seeking to kill him. I will do that just as surely as I handed King Zedekiah of Judah over to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, his enemy who was seeking to kill him.’”

Yeremia 51:58

51:58 This is what the Lord who rules over all ⁶⁴  says,

“Babylon’s thick wall ⁶⁵  will be completely demolished. ⁶⁶ 

Her high gates will be set on fire.

The peoples strive for what does not satisfy. ⁶⁷ 

The nations grow weary trying to get what will be destroyed.” ⁶⁸ 

[1:3]  ¹ sn This would have been August, 586 b.c. according to modern reckoning.

[1:3]  ² map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[1:3]  ³ tn Heb “and it [the word of the Lord] came in the days of Jehoiakim…until the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah…until the carrying away captive of Jerusalem in the fifth month.”

[6:15]  ⁴ tn Heb “They will fall among the fallen.”

[6:16]  ⁵ tn The words, “to his people” 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.

[6:16]  ⁶ tn Heb “Stand at the crossroads and look.”

[6:16]  ⁷ tn Heb “the ancient path,” i.e., the path the Lord set out in ancient times (cf. Deut 32:7).

[6:16]  ⁸ tn Heb “the way of/to the good.”

[9:12]  ⁹ tn The words, “I said” are not in the text. It is not clear that a shift in speaker has taken place. However, the words of the verse are very unlikely to be a continuation of the Lord’s threat. It is generally assumed that these are the words of Jeremiah and that a dialogue is going on between him and the Lord in vv. 9-14. That assumption is accepted here.

[9:12]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Who is the wise man that he may understand this?”

[9:12]  ¹¹ tn Heb “And [who is the man] to whom the mouth of the Lord has spoken that he may explain it?”

[11:10]  ¹² tn Or “They have repeated the evil actions of….”

[11:10]  ¹³ tn Heb “have walked/followed after.” See the translator’s note at 2:5 for the idiom.

[11:10]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “house of Israel and house of Judah.”

[14:10]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Thus said the Lord concerning this people.”

[14:10]  sn The Lord answers indirectly, speaking neither to Jeremiah directly nor to the people. Instead of an oracle of deliverance which was hoped for (cf. 2 Chr 20:14-17; Pss 12:5 [12:6 HT]; 60:6-8 [60:8-10 HT]) there is an oracle of doom.

[14:10]  ¹⁶ tn It is difficult to be certain how the particle כֵּן (ken, usually used for “thus, so”) is to be rendered here. BDB 485 s.v. כֵּן 1.b says that the force sometimes has to be elicited from the general context and points back to the line of v. 9. IHBS 666 §39.3.4e states that when there is no specific comparative clause preceding a general comparison is intended. They point to Judg 5:31 as a parallel. Ps 127:2 may also be an example if כִּי (ki) is not to be read (cf. BHS fn). “Truly” seemed the best way to render this idea in contemporary English.

[14:10]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “They do not restrain their feet.” The idea of “away from me” is implicit in the context and is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[14:10]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “remember.”

[14:10]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “their iniquities.”

[18:18]  ²⁰ tn Heb “They.” The referent is unidentified; “some people” has been used in the translation.

[18:18]  ²¹ tn Heb “Let us make plans against Jeremiah.” See 18:18 where this has sinister overtones as it does here.

[18:18]  ²² tn Heb “Instruction will not perish from priest, counsel from the wise, word from the prophet.”

[18:18]  sn These are the three channels through whom God spoke to his people in the OT. See Jer 8:8-10 and Ezek 7:26.

[18:18]  ²³ tn Heb “Let us smite him with our tongues.” It is clear from the context that this involved plots to kill him.

[21:12]  ²⁴ tn Heb “house of David.” This is essentially equivalent to the royal court in v. 11.

[21:12]  ²⁵ tn Heb “to the morning” = “morning by morning” or “each morning.” See Isa 33:2 and Amos 4:4 for parallel usage.

[21:12]  ²⁶ sn The kings of Israel and Judah were responsible for justice. See Pss 122:5. The king himself was the final court of appeals judging from the incident of David with the wise woman of Tekoa (2 Sam 14), Solomon and the two prostitutes (1 Kgs 3:16-28), and Absalom’s attempts to win the hearts of the people of Israel by interfering with due process (2 Sam 15:2-4). How the system was designed to operate may be seen from 2 Chr 19:4-11.

[21:12]  ²⁷ tn Heb “from the hand [or power] of.”

[21:12]  ²⁸ tn Heb “Lest my wrath go out like fire and burn with no one to put it out because of the evil of your deeds.”

[22:18]  ²⁹ sn This is the regular way of introducing the announcement of judgment after an indictment of crimes. See, e.g., Isa 5:13, 14; Jer 23:2.

[22:18]  ³⁰ tn The translation follows the majority of scholars who think that the address of brother and sister are the address of the mourners to one another, lamenting their loss. Some scholars feel that all four terms are parallel and represent the relation that the king had metaphorically to his subjects; i.e., he was not only Lord and Majesty to them but like a sister or a brother. In that case something like: “How sad it is for the one who was like a brother to us! How sad it is for the one who was like a sister to us.” This makes for poor poetry and is not very likely. The lover can call his bride sister in Song of Solomon (Song 4:9, 10) but there are no documented examples of a subject ever speaking of a king in this way in Israel or the ancient Near East.

[24:8]  ³¹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[24:8]  ³² tn Heb “Like the bad figs which cannot be eaten from badness [= because they are so bad] surely [emphatic כִּי, ki] so I regard Zedekiah, king of Judah, and his officials and the remnant of Jerusalem which remains in this land and those who are living in Egypt.” The sentence has been restructured in the translation to conform more to contemporary English style. For the use of נָתַן (natan) meaning “regard” or “treat like” see BDB 681 s.v. נָתַן 3.c and compare the usage in Ezek 28:6;Gen 42:30.

[25:3]  ³³ sn The year referred to would be 627 b.c. The same year is referred to in 1:2 in reference to his call to be a prophet.

[25:3]  ³⁴ tn For the idiom involved here see the notes at 7:13 and 11:7.

[25:3]  ³⁵ tn The words “what he said” are not in the text but are implicit. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[25:30]  ³⁶ tn The word “Jeremiah” is not in the text. It is supplied in the translation to make clear who is being addressed.

[25:30]  ³⁷ tn Heb “Prophesy against them all these words.”

[25:30]  ³⁸ tn The words “like a lion about to attack” are not in the text but are implicit in the metaphor. The explicit comparison of the Lord to a lion is made at the end of the passage in v. 38. The words are supplied in the translation here for clarity.

[25:30]  sn For the metaphor of the Lord going forth against his enemies like an attacking lion see Jer 49:19; 50:44; Isa 31:4 in all of which the Lord comes against the nations in defense of his people. In Hos 5:14 the metaphor is turned against his own people. The figure of a lion ravaging people has already been used in Jer 4:7 of the enemy from the north (Babylon).

[25:30]  ³⁹ sn The word used here (Heb “his habitation”) refers to the land of Canaan which the Lord chose to make his earthly dwelling (Exod 15:13) and which was the dwelling place of his chosen people (Jer 10:25; Isa 32:18). Judgment would begin at the “house of God” (v. 29; 1 Pet 4:17) but would extend to the rest of the earth (v. 29).

[25:30]  ⁴⁰ sn The metaphor shifts from God as a lion to God as a mighty warrior (Jer 20:11; Isa 42:13; Zeph 3:17) shouting in triumph over his foes. Within the metaphor is a simile where the warrior is compared to a person stomping on grapes to remove the juice from them in the making of wine. The figure will be invoked later in a battle scene where the sounds of joy in the grape harvest are replaced by the sounds of joy of the enemy soldiers (Jer 48:33). The picture is drawn in more gory detail in Isa 63:1-6.

[26:19]  ⁴¹ tn This Hebrew idiom (חָלָה פָּנִים, khalah panim) is often explained in terms of “stroking” or “patting the face” of someone, seeking to gain his favor. It is never used in a literal sense and is found in contexts of prayer (Exod 32:11; Ps 119:158), worship (Zech 8:21-22), humble submission (2 Chr 3:12), or amendment of behavior (Dan 9:13). All were true to one extent or another of Hezekiah.

[26:19]  ⁴² tn The he interrogative (הַ)with the negative governs all three of the verbs, the perfect and the two vav (ו) consecutive imperfects that follow it. The next clause has disjunctive word order and introduces a contrast. The question expects a positive answer.

[26:19]  ⁴³ tn For the translation of the terms involved here see the translator’s note on 18:8.

[26:19]  ⁴⁴ tn Or “great harm to ourselves.” The word “disaster” (or “harm”) is the same one that has been translated “destroying” in the preceding line and in vv. 3 and 13.

[27:18]  ⁴⁵ tn The words “I also told them” are not in the text, but it is obvious from the fact that the Lord is spoken about in the third person in vv. 18, 19, 21 that he is not the speaker. This is part of Jeremiah’s own speech to the priests and the people (v. 16). These words are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[27:18]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “the word of the Lord is with them.”

[27:18]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.”

[27:18]  sn For the significance of this title see the study note on 2:19.

[27:18]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “…speaking to them, let them entreat the Lord…so that the valuable articles…will not go to Babylon.” The long original sentence has been broken up for the sake of English style.

[28:11]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “I will break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from upon the necks of all the nations.”

[28:11]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “Then the prophet Jeremiah went his way.”

[32:24]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “Siege ramps have come up to the city to capture it.”

[32:24]  ⁵² tn Heb “sword.”

[32:24]  ⁵³ tn Heb “The Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for further explanation.

[32:24]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “And the city has been given into the hands of the Chaldeans who are fighting against it because of the sword, starvation, and disease.” The verb “has been given” is one of those perfects that view the action as good as done (the perfect of certainty or prophetic perfect).

[32:24]  ⁵⁵ tn The word “Lord” is not in the text but is supplied in the translation as a reminder that it is he who is being addressed.

[32:24]  ⁵⁶ tn Heb “And what you said has happened and behold you see it.”

[33:13]  ⁵⁷ sn Heb “Sheep will again pass under the hands of the counter.” This appears to be a reference to counting the sheep to make sure that none was missing as they returned to the fold. See the same idiom in Lev 27:52 and in the metaphor in Ezek 20:37.

[33:13]  ⁵⁸ sn Compare Jer 32:44.

[42:4]  ⁵⁹ tn Heb “I have heard” = “I agree.” For this nuance of the verb see BDB 1034 s.v. שָׁמַע Qal.1.j and compare the usage in Gen 37:27 and Judg 11:17 listed there.

[42:4]  ⁶⁰ tn Heb “all the word which the Lord will answer you.

[44:7]  ⁶¹ tn Heb “Yahweh, the God of armies, the God of Israel.” Compare 35:17; 38:17 and for the title “God of armies” see the study note on 2:19.

[44:30]  ⁶² tn Heb “Thus says the Lord, ‘Behold I will hand…’” The first person and indirect quote have been chosen because the Lord is already identified as the speaker and the indirect quote eliminates an extra level of embedded quotes.

[44:30]  ⁶³ sn Hophra ruled over Egypt from 589-570 b.c. He was the Pharaoh who incited Zedekiah to rebel against Nebuchadnezzar and whose army proved ineffective in providing any long-term relief to Jerusalem when it was under siege (see Jer 37 and especially the study note on 37:5). He was assassinated following a power struggle with a court official who had earlier saved him from a rebellion of his own troops and had ruled as co-regent with him.

[51:58]  ⁶⁴ sn See the note at Jer 2:19.

[51:58]  ⁶⁵ tn The text has the plural “walls,” but many Hebrew mss read the singular “wall,” which is also supported by the ancient Greek version. The modifying adjective “thick” is singular as well.

[51:58]  ⁶⁶ tn The infinitive absolute emphasizes the following finite verb. Another option is to translate, “will certainly be demolished.”

[51:58]  ⁶⁷ tn Heb “for what is empty.”

[51:58]  ⁶⁸ tn Heb “and the nations for fire, and they grow weary.”