Yeremia 1:9

1:9 Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “I will most assuredly give you the words you are to speak for me. ¹ 

Yeremia 1:11

Visions Confirming Jeremiah’s Call and Commission

1:11 Later the Lord asked me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” I answered, “I see a branch of an almond tree.”

Yeremia 3:11

3:11 Then the Lord said to me, “Under the circumstances, wayward Israel could even be considered less guilty than unfaithful Judah. ² 

Yeremia 5:4

5:4 I thought, “Surely it is only the ignorant poor who act this way. ³ 

They act like fools because they do not know what the Lord demands. ⁴ 

They do not know what their God requires of them. ⁵ 

Yeremia 7:1

Faulty Religion and Unethical Behavior Will Lead to Judgment

7:1 The Lord said to Jeremiah: ⁶ 

Yeremia 11:9

11:9 The Lord said to me, “The people of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem have plotted rebellion against me! ⁷ 

Yeremia 18:8

18:8 But if that nation I threatened stops doing wrong, ⁸  I will cancel the destruction ⁹  I intended to do to it.

Yeremia 26:22-23

26:22 However, King Jehoiakim sent some men to Egypt, including Elnathan son of Achbor, ¹⁰  26:23 and they brought Uriah back from there. ¹¹  They took him to King Jehoiakim, who had him executed and had his body thrown into the burial place of the common people. ¹² 

Yeremia 30:23

30:23 Just watch! The wrath of the Lord

will come like a storm.

Like a raging storm it will rage down

on the heads of those who are wicked.

Yeremia 35:5

35:5 Then I set cups and pitchers full of wine in front of the members of the Rechabite community and said to them, “Have some wine.” ¹³ 

Yeremia 36:5

36:5 Then Jeremiah told Baruch, “I am no longer allowed to go ¹⁴  into the Lord’s temple.

Yeremia 36:17

36:17 Then they asked Baruch, “How did you come to write all these words? Do they actually come from Jeremiah’s mouth?” ¹⁵ 

Yeremia 36:27

Baruch and Jeremiah Write Another Scroll

36:27 The Lord spoke to Jeremiah after Jehoiakim had burned the scroll containing what Jeremiah had spoken and Baruch had written down. ¹⁶ 

Yeremia 38:13

38:13 So they pulled Jeremiah up from the cistern with ropes. Jeremiah, however, still remained confined ¹⁷  to the courtyard of the guardhouse.

Yeremia 38:24

38:24 Then Zedekiah told Jeremiah, “Do not let anyone know about the conversation we have had. ¹⁸  If you do, you will die. ¹⁹ 

Yeremia 39:2

39:2 It lasted until the ninth day of the fourth month of Zedekiah’s eleventh year. ²⁰  On that day they broke through the city walls.

Yeremia 46:13

The Lord Predicts that Nebuchadnezzar Will Attack and Plunder Egypt

46:13 The Lord spoke to the prophet Jeremiah about Nebuchadnezzar coming to attack the land of Egypt. ²¹ 

Yeremia 51:63

51:63 When you finish reading this scroll aloud, tie a stone to it and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates River. ²² 

Yeremia 52:9

52:9 They captured him and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah ²³  in the territory of Hamath and he passed sentence on him there.

[1:9]  ¹ tn Heb “Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.” This is an example of the Hebrew “scheduling” perfect or the “prophetic” perfect where a future event is viewed as so certain it is spoken of as past. The Hebrew particle rendered here “assuredly” (Heb הִנֵּה, hinneh) underlines the certitude of the promise for the future. See the translator’s note on v. 6.

[1:9]  sn The passage is reminiscent of Deut 18:18 which refers to the Lord’s promise of future revelation through a line of prophets who, like Moses, would speak God’s word.

[3:11]  ² tn Heb “Wayward Israel has proven herself to be more righteous than unfaithful Judah.”

[3:11]  sn A comparison is drawn here between the greater culpability of Judah, who has had the advantage of seeing how God disciplined her sister nation for having sinned and yet ignored the warning and committed the same sin, and the culpability of Israel who had no such advantage.

[5:4]  ³ tn Heb “Surely they are poor.” The translation is intended to make clear the explicit contrasts and qualifications drawn in this verse and the next.

[5:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “the way of the Lord.”

[5:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “the judgment [or ordinance] of their God.”

[7:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord.”

[11:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “Conspiracy [a plot to rebel] is found [or exists] among the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.”

[18:8]  ⁸ tn Heb “turns from its wickedness.”

[18:8]  ⁹ tn There is a good deal of debate about how the word translated here “revoke” should be translated. There is a good deal of reluctance to translate it “change my mind” because some see that as contradicting Num 23:19 and thus prefer “relent.” However, the English word “relent” suggests the softening of an attitude but not necessarily the change of course. It is clear that in many cases (including here) an actual change of course is in view (see, e.g., Amos 7:3, 6; Jonah 3:9; Jer 26:19; Exod 13:17; 32:14). Several of these passages deal with “conditional” prophecies where a change in behavior of the people or the mediation of a prophet involves the change in course of the threatened punishment (or the promised benefit). “Revoke” or “forgo” may be the best way to render this in contemporary English idiom.

[18:8]  sn There is a wordplay here involving the word “evil” (רָעָה, ra’ah) which refers to both the crime and the punishment. This same play is carried further in Jonah 3:10-4:1 where Jonah becomes very displeased (Heb “it was very evil to Jonah with great evil”) when God forgoes bringing disaster (evil) on Nineveh because they have repented of their wickedness (evil).

[26:22]  ¹⁰ sn Elnathan son of Achbor was one of the officials who urged Jeremiah and Baruch to hide after they heard Jeremiah’s prophecies read before them (Jer 36:11-19). He was also one of the officials who urged Jehoiakim not to burn the scroll containing Jeremiah’s prophecies (Jer 36:25). He may have been Jehoiakim’s father-in-law (2 Kgs 24:6, 8).

[26:23]  ¹¹ tn Heb “from Egypt.”

[26:23]  sn A standard part of international treaties at this time was a stipulation of mutual extradition of political prisoners. Jehoiakim was a vassal of Pharaoh Necho (see 2 Kgs 23:34-35) and undoubtedly had such a treaty with him.

[26:23]  ¹² sn The burial place of the common people was the public burial grounds, distinct from the family tombs, where poor people without any distinction were buried. It was in the Kidron Valley east of Jerusalem (2 Kgs 23:6). The intent of reporting this is to show the ruthlessness of Jehoiakim.

[35:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “Drink wine.”

[36:5]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “I am restrained; I cannot go into.” The word “restrained” is used elsewhere in Jeremiah of his being confined to the courtyard of the guardhouse (33:1; 39:15). However, that occurred only later during the tenth year of Zedekiah (Jer 32:1-2) and Jeremiah appears here to be free to come and go as he pleased (vv. 19, 26). The word is used in the active voice of the Lord preventing Sarah from having a baby (Gen 16:2). The probable nuance is here “I am prevented/ debarred” from being able to go. No reason is given why he was prevented/debarred. It has been plausibly suggested that he was prohibited from going into the temple any longer because of the scathing sermon he delivered there earlier (Jer 26:1-3; 7:1-15).

[36:17]  ¹⁵ tn Or “Did Jeremiah dictate them to you?” The words “Do they actually come from Jeremiah’s mouth?” assume that the last phrase (מִפִּיו, mippiv) is a question, either without the formal he (הֲ) interrogative (see GKC 473 §150.a and compare usage in 1 Sam 16:4; Prov 5:16) or with a letter supplied from the end of the preceding word (single writing of a letter following the same letter [haplography]; so the majority of modern commentaries). The word is missing in the Greek version. The presence of this same word at the beginning of the answer in the next verse suggests that this was a question (probably without the he [הֲ] interrogative to make it more emphatic) since the common way to answer affirmatively is to repeat the emphatic word in the question (cf. GKC 476 §150.n and compare usage in Gen 24:58). The intent of the question is to make sure that these were actually Jeremiah’s words not Baruch’s own creation (cf. Jer 42:2-3 for a similar suspicion).

[36:27]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah after the king had burned the scroll and the words [= containing the words] which Baruch wrote down from the mouth of Jeremiah, saying.”

[38:13]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Jeremiah remained/stayed in the courtyard of the guardhouse.” The translation is meant to better reflect the situation; i.e., Jeremiah was released from the cistern but still had to stay in the courtyard of the guardhouse.

[38:24]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “about these words.”

[38:24]  ¹⁹ tn Or “so that you will not die.” Or “or you will die.” See the similar construction in 37:20 and the translator’s note there.

[38:24]  sn This is probably not a threat that the king himself will kill Jeremiah, but a premonition that if the pro-Egyptian party that was seeking to kill Jeremiah found out about the conversation they would go ahead and kill Jeremiah (cf. 38:2-4).

[39:2]  ²⁰ sn According to modern reckoning that would have been July 18, 586 b.c. The siege thus lasted almost a full eighteen months.

[46:13]  ²¹ tn Heb “The word which the Lord spoke to the prophet Jeremiah about the coming of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to attack the land of Egypt.”

[46:13]  sn Though there is much debate in the commentaries regarding the dating and reference of this prophecy, it most likely refers to a time shortly after 604 b.c. when Nebuchadnezzar followed up his successful battle against Necho at Carchemish with a campaign into the Philistine plain which resulted in the conquest and sacking of Ashkelon. Nebuchadnezzar now stood poised on the border of Egypt to invade it. See J. A. Thompson, Jeremiah (NICOT), 691, and for a fuller discussion including the other main options see G. L. Keown, P. J. Scalise, T. G. Smothers, Jeremiah 26-52 (WBC), 287-88.

[51:63]  ²² tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied for clarity.

[52:9]  ²³ sn Riblah was a strategic town on the Orontes River in Syria. It was at a crossing of the major roads between Egypt and Mesopotamia. Pharaoh Necho had earlier received Jehoahaz there and put him in chains (2 Kgs 23:33) prior to taking him captive to Egypt. Nebuchadnezzar had set up his base camp for conducting his campaigns against the Palestinian states there and was now sitting in judgment on prisoners brought to him.