Yeremia 14:3

14:3 The leading men of the cities send their servants for water.

They go to the cisterns, ¹  but they do not find any water there.

They return with their containers ²  empty.

Disappointed and dismayed, they bury their faces in their hands. ³ 

Yeremia 18:5

18:5 Then the Lord said to me, ⁴ 

Yeremia 29:30

29:30 Then the Lord spoke to Jeremiah.

Yeremia 37:6

37:6 The Lord gave the prophet Jeremiah a message for them. He told him to tell them, ⁵ 

Yeremia 44:4

44:4 I sent my servants the prophets to you people over and over ⁶  again warning you not to do this disgusting thing I hate. ⁷ 

[14:3]  ¹ tn Though the concept of “cisterns” is probably not familiar to some readers, it would be a mistake to translate this word as “well.” Wells have continual sources of water. Cisterns were pits dug in the ground and lined with plaster to hold rain water. The drought had exhausted all the water in the cisterns.

[14:3]  ² tn The word “containers” is a generic word in Hebrew = “vessels.” It would probably in this case involve water “jars” or “jugs.” But since in contemporary English one would normally associate those terms with smaller vessels, “containers” may be safer.

[14:3]  ³ tn Heb “they cover their heads.” Some of the English versions have gone wrong here because of the “normal” use of the words translated here “disappointed” and “dismayed.” They are regularly translated “ashamed” and “disgraced, humiliated, dismayed” elsewhere (see e.g., Jer 22:22); they are somewhat synonymous terms which are often parallel or combined. The key here, however, is the expression “they cover their heads” which is used in 2 Sam 15:30 for the expression of grief. Moreover, the word translated here “disappointed” (בּוֹשׁ, bosh) is used that way several times. See for example Jer 12:13 and consult examples in BDB 101 s.v. בּוֹשׁ Qal.2. A very similar context with the same figure is found in Jer 2:36-37.

[18:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying.”

[37:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying.”

[44:4]  ⁶ tn See 7:13 for an explanation of this idiom and compare 7:25; 25:4; 26:5; 29:19; 35:15 for similar references to the persistent warnings of the prophets.

[44:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “sent…over again, saying, ‘Do not do this terrible thing that I hate.’” The indirect quote has been used to shorten the sentence and eliminate one level of embedded quotes.

[44:4]  sn This refers to the worship of other gods mentioned in the previous verse.