Yeremia 2:17

2:17 You have brought all this on yourself, Israel, ¹ 

by deserting the Lord your God when he was leading you along the right path. ² 

Yeremia 4:6

4:6 Raise a signal flag that tells people to go to Zion. ³ 

Run for safety! Do not delay!

For I am about to bring disaster out of the north.

It will bring great destruction. ⁴ 

Yeremia 6:14

6:14 They offer only superficial help

for the harm my people have suffered. ⁵ 

They say, ‘Everything will be all right!’

But everything is not all right! ⁶ 

Yeremia 6:24

6:24 The people cry out, ⁷  “We have heard reports about them!

We have become helpless with fear! ⁸ 

Anguish grips us,

agony like that of a woman giving birth to a baby!

Yeremia 7:19

7:19 But I am not really the one being troubled!” ⁹  says the Lord. “Rather they are bringing trouble on themselves to their own shame! ¹⁰ 

Yeremia 10:24

10:24 Correct us, Lord, but only in due measure. ¹¹ 

Do not punish us in anger or you will reduce us to nothing. ¹² 

Yeremia 35:16

35:16 Yes, ¹³  the descendants of Jonadab son of Rechab have carried out the orders that their ancestor gave them. But you people ¹⁴  have not obeyed me!

Yeremia 36:5

36:5 Then Jeremiah told Baruch, “I am no longer allowed to go ¹⁵  into the Lord’s temple.

Yeremia 36:13

36:13 Micaiah told them everything he had heard Baruch read from the scroll in the hearing of the people. ¹⁶ 

Yeremia 46:7

46:7 “Who is this that rises like the Nile,

like its streams ¹⁷  turbulent at flood stage?

Yeremia 47:7

47:7 But how can it rest ¹⁸ 

when I, the Lord, have ¹⁹  given it orders?

I have ordered it to attack

the people of Ashkelon and the seacoast. ²⁰ 

Yeremia 50:41

50:41 “Look! An army is about to come from the north.

A mighty nation and many kings ²¹  are stirring into action

in faraway parts of the earth.

Yeremia 50:43

50:43 The king of Babylon will become paralyzed with fear ²² 

when he hears news of their coming. ²³ 

Anguish will grip him,

agony like that of a woman giving birth to a baby. ²⁴ 

Yeremia 51:55

51:55 For the Lord is ready to destroy Babylon,

and put an end to her loud noise.

Their waves ²⁵  will roar like turbulent ²⁶  waters.

They will make a deafening noise. ²⁷ 

[2:17]  ¹ tn Heb “Are you not bringing this on yourself.” The question is rhetorical and expects a positive answer.

[2:17]  ² tn Heb “at the time of leading you in the way.”

[4:6]  ³ tn Heb “Raise up a signal toward Zion.”

[4:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “out of the north, even great destruction.”

[6:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “They heal [= bandage] the wound of my people lightly”; TEV “They act as if my people’s wounds were only scratches.”

[6:14]  ⁶ tn Heb “They say, ‘Peace! Peace!’ and there is no peace!”

[6:24]  ⁷ tn These words are not in the text, but, from the context, someone other than God is speaking and is speaking for and to the people (either Jeremiah or the people themselves). These words are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[6:24]  ⁸ tn Or “We have lost our strength to do battle”; Heb “Our hands hang limp [or helpless at our sides].” According to BDB 951 s.v. רָפָה Qal.2, this idiom is used figuratively for losing heart or energy. The best example of its figurative use of loss of strength or the feeling of helplessness is in Ezek 21:12 where it appears in the context of the heart (courage) melting, the spirit sinking, and the knees becoming like water. For other examples compare 2 Sam 4:1; Zeph 3:16. In Neh 6:9 it is used literally of the builders “dropping their hands from the work” out of fear. The words “with fear” are supplied in the translation because they are implicit in the context.

[7:19]  ⁹ tn Heb “Is it I whom they provoke?” The rhetorical question expects a negative answer which is made explicit in the translation.

[7:19]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Is it not themselves to their own shame?” The rhetorical question expects a positive answer which is made explicit in the translation.

[10:24]  ¹¹ tn Heb “with justice.”

[10:24]  ¹² tn The words, “to almost nothing” are not in the text. They are implicit from the general context and are supplied by almost all English versions.

[35:16]  ¹³ tn This is an attempt to represent the particle כִּי (ki) which is probably not really intensive here (cf. BDB 472 s.v. כִּי 1.e) but is one of those causal uses of כִּי that BDB discusses on 473-74 s.v. כִּי 3.c where the cause is really the failure of the people of Judah and Jerusalem to listen/obey. I.e., the causal particle is at the beginning of the sentence so as not to interrupt the contrast drawn.

[35:16]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “this people.” However, the speech is addressed to the people of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem, so the second person is retained in English. In addition to the stylistic difference that Hebrew exhibits in the rapid shift between persons (second to third and third to second, which have repeatedly been noted and documented from GKC 462 §144.p) there may be a subtle rhetorical reason for the shift here. The shift from direct address to indirect address which characterizes this verse and the next may reflect the Lord’s rejection of the people he is addressing. A similar shift takes place in Wisdom’s address to the simple minded, fools, and mockers in Prov 1:28-32 after the direct address of 1:22-27.

[36:5]  ¹⁵ 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).

[36:13]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Micaiah reported to them all the words which he heard when Baruch read from the scroll in the ears of the people.”

[46:7]  ¹⁷ tn The word translated “streams” here refers to the streams of the Nile (cf. Exod 7:19; 8:1) for parallel usage.

[46:7]  sn The hubris of the Egyptian Pharaoh is referred to in vv. 7-8 as he compares his might to that of the Nile River whose annual flooding was responsible for the fertility of Egypt. A very similar picture of the armies of Assyria overcoming everything in its path is presented in Isa 8:7-8.

[47:7]  ¹⁸ tn The reading here follows the Greek, Syriac, and Latin versions. The Hebrew text reads “how can you rest” as a continuation of the second person in v. 6.

[47:7]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “When the Lord has.” The first person is again adopted because the Lord has been speaking.

[47:7]  ²⁰ tn Heb “Against Ashkelon and the sea coast, there he has appointed it.” For the switch to the first person see the preceding translator’s note. “There” is poetical and redundant and the idea of “attacking” is implicit in “against.”

[50:41]  ²¹ sn A mighty nation and many kings is an allusion to the Medo-Persian empire and the vassal kings who provided forces for the Medo-Persian armies.

[50:43]  ²² tn Heb “his hands will drop/hang limp.” For the meaning of this idiom see the translator’s note on 6:24.

[50:43]  ²³ tn Heb “The king of Babylon hears report of them and his hands hang limp.” The verbs are translated as future because the passage is prophetic and the verbs may be interpreted as prophetic perfects (the action viewed as if it were as good as done). In the parallel passage in 6:24 the verbs could be understood as present perfects because the passage could be viewed as in the present. Here it is future.

[50:43]  ²⁴ sn Compare Jer 6:22-24 where almost the same exact words as 50:41-43 are applied to the people of Judah. The repetition of prophecies here and in the following verses emphasizes the talionic nature of God’s punishment of Babylon; as they have done to others, so it will be done to them (cf. 25:14; 50:15).

[51:55]  ²⁵ tn The antecedent of the third masculine plural pronominal suffix is not entirely clear. It probably refers back to the “destroyers” mentioned in v. 53 as the agents of God’s judgment on Babylon.

[51:55]  ²⁶ tn Or “mighty waters.”

[51:55]  ²⁷ tn Heb “and the noise of their sound will be given,”