Yeremia 2:3

2:3 Israel was set apart to the Lord; they were like the first fruits of a harvest to him. ¹  All who tried to devour them were punished; disaster came upon them,” says the Lord.’”

Yeremia 3:24

3:24 From earliest times our worship of that shameful god, Baal,

has taken away ²  all that our ancestors ³  worked for.

It has taken away our flocks and our herds,

and even our sons and daughters.

Yeremia 7:29

7:29 So, mourn, ⁴  you people of this nation. ⁵  Cut off your hair and throw it away. Sing a song of mourning on the hilltops. For the Lord has decided to reject ⁶  and forsake this generation that has provoked his wrath!’” ⁷ 

Yeremia 11:22

11:22 So the Lord who rules over all ⁸  said, “I will surely ⁹  punish them! Their young men will be killed in battle. ¹⁰  Their sons and daughters will die of starvation.

Yeremia 14:3

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

They go to the cisterns, ¹¹  but they do not find any water there.

They return with their containers ¹²  empty.

Disappointed and dismayed, they bury their faces in their hands. ¹³ 

Yeremia 22:22

22:22 My judgment will carry off all your leaders like a storm wind! ¹⁴ 

Your allies will go into captivity.

Then you will certainly ¹⁵  be disgraced and put to shame

because of all the wickedness you have done.

Yeremia 25:10

25:10 I will put an end to the sounds of joy and gladness, to the glad celebration of brides and grooms in these lands. ¹⁶  I will put an end to the sound of people grinding meal. I will put an end to lamps shining in their houses. ¹⁷ 

Yeremia 31:4

31:4 I will rebuild you, my dear children Israel, ¹⁸ 

so that you will once again be built up.

Once again you will take up the tambourine

and join in the happy throng of dancers. ¹⁹ 

Yeremia 52:6

52:6 By the ninth day of the fourth month ²⁰  the famine in the city was so severe the residents ²¹  had no food.

[2:3]  ¹ sn Heb “the first fruits of his harvest.” Many commentators see the figure here as having theological significance for the calling of the Gentiles. It is likely, however, that in this context the metaphor – here rendered as a simile – is intended to bring out the special relationship and inviolability that Israel had with God. As the first fruits were the special possession of the Lord, to be eaten only by the priests and off limits to the common people, so Israel was God’s special possession and was not to be “eaten” by the nations.

[3:24]  ² tn Heb “From our youth the shameful thing has eaten up…” The shameful thing is specifically identified as Baal in Jer 11:13. Compare also the shift in certain names such as Ishbaal (“man of Baal”) to Ishbosheth (“man of shame”).

[3:24]  ³ tn Heb “fathers” (also in v. 25).

[7:29]  ⁴ tn The word “mourn” is not in the text. It is supplied in the translation for clarity to explain the significance of the words “Cut your hair and throw it away.”

[7:29]  sn Cf. Mic 1:16; Job 1:20 for other examples of this practice which was involved in mourning.

[7:29]  ⁵ tn The words, “you people of this nation” are not in the text. Many English versions supply, “Jerusalem.” The address shifts from second masculine singular addressing Jeremiah (vv. 27-28a) to second feminine singular. It causes less disruption in the flow of the context to see the nation as a whole addressed here as a feminine singular entity (as, e.g., in 2:19, 23; 3:2, 3; 6:26) than to introduce a new entity, Jerusalem.

[7:29]  ⁶ tn The verbs here are the Hebrew scheduling perfects. For this use of the perfect see GKC 312 §106.m.

[7:29]  ⁷ tn Heb “the generation of his wrath.”

[11:22]  ⁸ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.”

[11:22]  sn For the significance of the term see the notes at 2:19 and 7:3.

[11:22]  ⁹ tn Heb “Behold I will.” For the function of this particle see the translator’s note on 1:6.

[11:22]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “will die by the sword.” Here “sword” stands contextually for “battle” while “starvation” stands for death by starvation during siege.

[14:3]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ 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.

[22:22]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “A wind will shepherd away all your shepherds.” The figures have all been interpreted in the translation for the sake of clarity. For the use of the word “wind” as a metaphor or simile for God’s judgment (using the enemy forces) see 4:11-12; 13:24; 18:17. For the use of the word “shepherd” to refer to rulers/leaders 2:8; 10:21; and 23:1-4. For the use of the word “shepherd away” in the sense of carry off/drive away see BDB 945 s.v. רָעָה 2.d and compare Job 20:26. There is an obvious wordplay involved in two different senses of the word “shepherd,” one referring to their leaders and one referring to the loss of those leaders by the wind driving them off. There may even be a further play involving the word “wickedness” which comes from a word having the same consonants. If the oracles in this section are chronologically ordered this threat was fulfilled in 597 b.c. when many of the royal officials and nobles were carried away captive with Jehoiachin (see 2 Kgs 24:15) who is the subject of the next oracle.

[22:22]  ¹⁵ tn The use of the Hebrew particle כִּי (ki) is intensive here and probably also at the beginning of the last line of v. 21. (See BDB 472 s.v. כִּי 1.e.)

[25:10]  ¹⁶ sn Compare Jer 7:24 and 16:9 for this same dire prediction limited to Judah and Jerusalem.

[25:10]  ¹⁷ sn The sound of people grinding meal and the presence of lamps shining in their houses were signs of everyday life. The Lord is going to make these lands desolate (v. 11) destroying all signs of life. (The statement is, of course, hyperbolic or poetic exaggeration; even after the destruction of Jerusalem many people were left in the land.) For these same descriptions of everyday life applying to the end of life see the allegory in Eccl 12:3-6.

[31:4]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “Virgin Israel.”

[31:4]  sn For the significance of this metaphor see the note on Jer 14:17. Here the emphasis appears on his special love and care for his people and the hint (further developed in vv. 21-22) that, though guilty of sin, he considers them like an innocent young virgin.

[31:4]  ¹⁹ sn Contrast Jer 7:34 and 25:10.

[52:6]  ²⁰ sn According to modern reckoning that would have been July 18, 586 b.c. The siege thus lasted almost a full eighteen months.

[52:6]  ²¹ tn Heb “the people of the land.”