Yeremia 3:16

3:16 In those days, your population will greatly increase ¹  in the land. At that time,” says the Lord, “people will no longer talk about having the ark ²  that contains the Lord’s covenant with us. ³  They will not call it to mind, remember it, or miss it. No, that will not be done any more! ⁴ 

Yeremia 18:18

Jeremiah Petitions the Lord to Punish Those Who Attack Him

18:18 Then some people ⁵  said, “Come on! Let us consider how to deal with Jeremiah! ⁶  There will still be priests to instruct us, wise men to give us advice, and prophets to declare God’s word. ⁷  Come on! Let’s bring charges against him and get rid of him! ⁸  Then we will not need to pay attention to anything he says.”

Yeremia 22:3

22:3 The Lord says, “Do what is just and right. Deliver those who have been robbed from those ⁹  who oppress them. Do not exploit or mistreat foreigners who live in your land, children who have no fathers, or widows. ¹⁰  Do not kill innocent people ¹¹  in this land.

Yeremia 30:10

30:10 So I, the Lord, tell you not to be afraid,

you descendants of Jacob, my servants. ¹² 

Do not be terrified, people of Israel.

For I will rescue you and your descendants

from a faraway land where you are captives. ¹³ 

The descendants of Jacob will return to their land and enjoy peace.

They will be secure and no one will terrify them. ¹⁴ 

Yeremia 31:34

31:34 “People will no longer need to teach their neighbors and relatives to know me. ¹⁵  For all of them, from the least important to the most important, will know me,” ¹⁶  says the Lord. “For ¹⁷  I will forgive their sin and will no longer call to mind the wrong they have done.”

Yeremia 40:9

40:9 Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam and grandson of Shaphan, took an oath so as to give them and their troops some assurance of safety. ¹⁸  “Do not be afraid to submit to the Babylonians. ¹⁹  Settle down in the land and submit to the king of Babylon. Then things will go well for you.

Yeremia 46:27

A Promise of Hope for Israel

46:27 ²⁰ “You descendants of Jacob, my servants, ²¹  do not be afraid;

do not be terrified, people of Israel.

For I will rescue you and your descendants

from the faraway lands where you are captives. ²² 

The descendants of Jacob will return to their land and enjoy peace.

They will be secure and no one will terrify them.

[3:16]  ¹ tn Heb “you will become numerous and fruitful.”

[3:16]  ² tn Or “chest.”

[3:16]  ³ tn Heb “the ark of the covenant.” It is called this because it contained the tables of the law which in abbreviated form constituted their covenant obligations to the Lord, cf. Exod 31:18; 32:15; 34:29.

[3:16]  ⁴ tn Or “Nor will another one be made”; Heb “one will not do/make [it?] again.”

[18:18]  ⁵ tn Heb “They.” The referent is unidentified; “some people” has been used in the translation.

[18:18]  ⁶ tn Heb “Let us make plans against Jeremiah.” See 18:18 where this has sinister overtones as it does here.

[18:18]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ tn Heb “Let us smite him with our tongues.” It is clear from the context that this involved plots to kill him.

[22:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “from the hand [or power] of.”

[22:3]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “aliens, orphans, or widows” treating the terms as generic or collective. However, the term “alien” carries faulty connotations and the term “orphan” is not totally appropriate because the Hebrew term does not necessarily mean that both parents have died.

[22:3]  sn These were classes of people who had no one to look out for their rights. The laws of Israel, however, were careful to see that their rights were guarded (cf. Deut 10:18) and that provision was made for meeting their needs (cf. Deut 24:19-21). The Lord promised to protect them (cf. Ps 146:9) and a curse was called down on any who deprived them of justice (cf. Deut 27:19).

[22:3]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Do not shed innocent blood.”

[22:3]  sn Do not kill innocent people. For an example of one of the last kings who did this see Jer 36:20-23. Manasseh was notorious for having done this and the book of 2 Kgs attributes the ultimate destruction of Judah to this crime and his sin of worshiping false gods (2 Kgs 21:16; 24:4).

[30:10]  ¹² tn Heb “So do not be afraid, my servant Jacob, oracle of the Lord.” Here and elsewhere in the verse the terms Jacob and Israel are poetic for the people of Israel descended from the patriarch Jacob. The terms have been supplied throughout with plural referents for greater clarity.

[30:10]  ¹³ tn Heb “For I will rescue you from far away, your descendants from the land of their captivity.”

[30:10]  ¹⁴ sn Compare the ideals of the Mosaic covenant in Lev 26:6, the Davidic covenant in 2 Sam 7:10-11, and the new covenant in Ezek 34:25-31.

[31:34]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “teach…, saying, ‘Know the Lord.’” The indirect quote has been chosen for stylistic reasons, i.e., to better parallel the following line.

[31:34]  sn As mentioned in the translator’s note on 9:3 (9:2 HT) “knowing” God in covenant contexts like this involves more than just an awareness of who he is (9:23 [9:22 HT]). It involves an acknowledgment of his sovereignty and whole hearted commitment to obedience to him. This is perhaps best seen in the parallelisms in Hos 4:1; 6:6 where “the knowledge of God” is parallel with faithfulness and steadfast love and in the context of Hos 4 refers to obedience to the Lord’s commands.

[31:34]  ¹⁶ sn This statement should be understood against the background of Jer 8:8-9 where class distinctions were drawn and certain people were considered to have more awareness and responsibility for knowing the law and also Jer 5:1-5 and 9:3-9 where the sinfulness of Israel was seen to be universal across these class distinctions and no trust was to be placed in friends, neighbors, or relatives because all without distinction had cast off God’s yoke (i.e., refused to submit themselves to his authority).

[31:34]  ¹⁷ tn The Hebrew particle כִּי (ki) that introduces this clause refers to more than just the preceding clause (i.e., that all will know the Lord) but to all of vv. 31-34a (See BDB 474 s.v. כִּי 3.c).

[40:9]  ¹⁸ tn The words “so as to give them some assurance of safety” are not in the text but are generally understood by all commentators. This would be a case of substitution of cause for effect, the oath, put for the effect, the assurance of safety (NJPS translates directly “reassured them”).

[40:9]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for explanation.

[46:27]  ²⁰ sn Jer 46:27-28 are virtually the same as 30:10-11. The verses are more closely related to that context than to this. But the presence of a note of future hope for the Egyptians may have led to a note of encouragement also to the Judeans who were under threat of judgment at the same time (cf. the study notes on 46:2, 13 and 25:1-2 for the possible relative dating of these prophecies).

[46:27]  ²¹ tn Heb “And/But you do not be afraid, my servant Jacob.” Here and elsewhere in the verse the terms Jacob and Israel are poetic for the people of Israel descended from the patriarch Jacob. The terms have been supplied throughout with plural referents for greater clarity.

[46:27]  ²² tn Heb “For I will rescue you from far away, your descendants from the land of their captivity.”