Yeremia 4:16

4:16 They are saying, ¹ 

‘Announce to the surrounding nations, ² 

“The enemy is coming!” ³ 

Proclaim this message ⁴  to Jerusalem:

“Those who besiege cities ⁵  are coming from a distant land.

They are ready to raise the battle cry against ⁶  the towns in Judah.”’

Yeremia 4:19

4:19 I said, ⁷ 

“Oh, the feeling in the pit of my stomach! ⁸ 

I writhe in anguish.

Oh, the pain in my heart! ⁹ 

My heart pounds within me.

I cannot keep silent.

For I hear the sound of the trumpet; ¹⁰ 

the sound of the battle cry pierces my soul! ¹¹ 

Yeremia 5:12

5:12 “These people have denied what the Lord says. ¹² 

They have said, ‘That is not so! ¹³ 

No harm will come to us.

We will not experience war and famine. ¹⁴ 

Yeremia 6:23

6:23 Its soldiers are armed with bows and spears.

They are cruel and show no mercy.

They sound like the roaring sea

as they ride forth on their horses.

Lined up in formation like men going into battle

to attack you, Daughter Zion.’” ¹⁵ 

Yeremia 8:16

8:16 The snorting of the enemy’s horses

is already being heard in the city of Dan.

The sound of the neighing of their stallions ¹⁶ 

causes the whole land to tremble with fear.

They are coming to destroy the land and everything in it!

They are coming to destroy ¹⁷  the cities and everyone who lives in them!”

Yeremia 12:12

12:12 A destructive army ¹⁸  will come marching

over the hilltops in the desert.

For the Lord will use them as his destructive weapon ¹⁹ 

against ²⁰  everyone from one end of the land to the other.

No one will be safe. ²¹ 

Yeremia 20:16

20:16 May that man be like the cities ²² 

that the Lord destroyed without showing any mercy.

May he hear a cry of distress in the morning

and a battle cry at noon.

Yeremia 21:4

21:4 that the Lord, the God of Israel, says, ²³  ‘The forces at your disposal ²⁴  are now outside the walls fighting against King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and the Babylonians ²⁵  who have you under siege. I will gather those forces back inside the city. ²⁶ 

Yeremia 24:10

24:10 I will bring war, starvation, and disease ²⁷  on them until they are completely destroyed from the land I gave them and their ancestors.’” ²⁸ 

Yeremia 29:17

29:17 The Lord who rules over all ²⁹  says, ‘I will bring war, ³⁰  starvation, and disease on them. I will treat them like figs that are so rotten ³¹  they cannot be eaten.

Yeremia 38:2

38:2 “The Lord says, ‘Those who stay in this city will die in battle or of starvation or disease. ³²  Those who leave the city and surrender to the Babylonians ³³  will live. They will escape with their lives.’” ³⁴ 

Yeremia 42:22

42:22 So now be very sure of this: You will die from war, starvation, or disease in the place where you want to go and live.”

Yeremia 44:13

44:13 I will punish those who live in the land of Egypt with war, starvation, and disease just as I punished Jerusalem.

Yeremia 44:18

44:18 But ever since we stopped sacrificing and pouring out drink offerings to the Queen of Heaven, we have been in great need. Our people have died in wars or of starvation.” ³⁵ 

Yeremia 46:14

46:14 “Make an announcement throughout Egypt.

Proclaim it in Migdol, Memphis, and Tahpanhes. ³⁶ 

‘Take your positions and prepare to do battle.

For the enemy army is destroying all the nations around you.’ ³⁷ 

[4:16]  ¹ tn The words “They are saying” are not in the text but are implicit in the connection and are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[4:16]  ² tn The word “surrounding” is not in the text but is implicit and is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[4:16]  ³ tc Or “Here they come!” Heb “Look!” or “Behold!” Or “Announce to the surrounding nations, indeed [or yes] proclaim to Jerusalem, ‘Besiegers…’” The text is very elliptical here. Some of the modern English versions appear to be emending the text from הִנֵּה (hinneh, “behold”) to either הֵנָּה (hennah, “these things”; so NEB), or הַזֶּה (hazzeh, “this”; so NIV). The solution proposed here is as old as the LXX which reads, “Behold, they have come.”

[4:16]  ⁴ tn The words, “this message,” are not in the text but are supplied in the translation to make the introduction of the quote easier.

[4:16]  ⁵ tn Heb “Besiegers.” For the use of this verb to refer to besieging a city compare Isa 1:8.

[4:16]  ⁶ tn Heb “They have raised their voices against.” The verb here, a vav (ו) consecutive with an imperfect, continues the nuance of the preceding participle “are coming.”

[4:19]  ⁷ tn The words “I said” are not in the text. They are used to mark the shift from the Lord’s promise of judgment to Jeremiah’s lament concerning it.

[4:19]  ⁸ tn Heb “My bowels! My bowels!”

[4:19]  ⁹ tn Heb “the walls of my heart!”

[4:19]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “ram’s horn,” but the modern equivalent is “trumpet” and is more readily understandable.

[4:19]  ¹¹ tc The translation reflects a different division of the last two lines than that suggested by the Masoretes. The written text (the Kethib) reads “for the sound of the ram’s horn I have heard [or “you have heard,” if the form is understood as the old second feminine singular perfect] my soul” followed by “the battle cry” in the last line. The translation is based on taking “my soul” with the last line and understanding an elliptical expression “the battle cry [to] my soul.” Such an elliptical expression is in keeping with the elliptical nature of the exclamations at the beginning of the verse (cf. the literal translations of the first two lines of the verse in the notes on the words “stomach” and “heart”).

[5:12]  ¹² tn Heb “have denied the Lord.” The words “What…says” are implicit in what follows.

[5:12]  ¹³ tn Or “he will do nothing”; Heb “Not he [or it]!”

[5:12]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “we will not see the sword and famine.”

[6:23]  ¹⁵ sn Jerualem is personified as a young maiden helpless before enemy attackers.

[8:16]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “his stallions.”

[8:16]  ¹⁷ tn The words “They are coming to destroy” are not in the text. They are inserted to break up a long sentence in conformity with contemporary English style.

[12:12]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “destroyers.”

[12:12]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “It is the Lord’s consuming sword.”

[12:12]  ²⁰ tn Heb “For a sword of the Lord will devour.” The sword is often symbolic for destructive forces of all kinds. Here and in Isa 34:6; Jer 47:6 it is symbolic of the enemy armies that the Lord uses to carry out destructive punishment against his enemies, hence the translation “his destructive weapon.” A similar figure is use in Isa 10:5 where the figure is more clearly identified; Assyria is the rod/club that the Lord will use to discipline unfaithful Israel.

[12:12]  ²¹ tn Heb “There is no peace to all flesh.”

[20:16]  ²² sn The cities alluded to are Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities of the Jordan plain which had become proverbial for their wickedness and for the destruction that the Lord brought on them because of it. See Isa 1:9-10; 13:19; Jer 23:14; 49:18.

[21:4]  ²³ tn Heb “Tell Zedekiah, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel.’” Using the indirect quote eliminates one level of embedded quotation and makes it easier for the reader to follow.

[21:4]  ²⁴ tn Heb “the weapons which are in your hand.” Weapons stands here by substitution for the soldiers who wield them.

[21:4]  ²⁵ sn The Babylonians (Heb “the Chaldeans”). The Chaldeans were a group of people in the country south of Babylon from which Nebuchadnezzar came. The Chaldean dynasty his father established became the name by which the Babylonians are regularly referred to in the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah’s contemporary Ezekiel uses both terms.

[21:4]  ²⁶ tn The structure of the Hebrew sentence of this verse is long and complex and has led to a great deal of confusion and misunderstanding. There are two primary points of confusion: 1) the relation of the phrase “outside the walls,” and 2) the antecedent of “them” in the last clause of the verse that reads in Hebrew: “I will gather them back into the midst of the city.” Most take the phrase “outside the walls” with “the Babylonians….” Some take it with “turn back/bring back” to mean “from outside….” However, the preposition “from” is part of the idiom for “outside….” The phrase goes with “fighting” as J. Bright (Jeremiah [AB], 215) notes and as NJPS suggests. The antecedent of “them” has sometimes been taken mistakenly to refer to the Babylonians. It refers rather to “the forces at your disposal” which is literally “the weapons which are in your hands.” This latter phrase is a figure involving substitution (called metonymy) as Bright also correctly notes. The whole sentence reads in Hebrew: “I will bring back the weapons of war which are in your hand with which you are fighting Nebuchadrezzar the King of Babylon and the Chaldeans who are besieging you outside your wall and I will gather them into the midst of the city.” The sentence has been restructured to better reflect the proper relationships and to make the sentence conform more to contemporary English style.

[24:10]  ²⁷ sn See Jer 14:12 and the study note there.

[24:10]  ²⁸ tn Heb “fathers.”

[29:17]  ²⁹ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.” See the study note on 2:19 for explanation of this title.

[29:17]  ³⁰ tn Heb “the sword.”

[29:17]  ³¹ tn The meaning of this word is somewhat uncertain. It occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible. BDB 1045 s.v. שֹׁעָר relates it to the noun “horrible thing” (translated “something shocking”) in Jer 5:30; 23:14 and defines it as “horrid, disgusting.” HALOT 1495 s.v. שֹׁעָר relates it to the same noun and define it as “rotten; corrupt.” That nuance is accepted here.

[29:17]  sn Compare Jer 24:8-10 in its context for the figure here.

[38:2]  ³² tn Heb “by sword, by starvation, or by disease.”

[38:2]  ³³ tn Heb “those who go out to the Chaldeans.” For the rendering “Babylonians” for “Chaldeans” see the study note on 21:4.

[38:2]  ³⁴ tn Heb “his life will be to him for spoil and he will live.” For the meaning of this idiom see the study note on 21:9. The words and “he will live” have been left out of the translation because they are redundant after “will live” and “they will escape with their lives.”

[38:2]  sn See Jer 21:9 for this prophecy.

[44:18]  ³⁵ tn Heb “we have been consumed/destroyed by sword or by starvation.” The “we” cannot be taken literally here since they are still alive.

[44:18]  sn What is being contrasted here is the relative peace and prosperity under the reign of Manasseh, who promoted all kinds of pagan cults including the worship of astral deities (2 Kgs 21:2-9), and the disasters that befell Judah after the reforms of Josiah, which included the removal of all the cult images and altars from Jerusalem and Judah (2 Kgs 23:4-15). The disasters included the death of Josiah himself at the battle of Megiddo, the deportation of his son Jehoahaz to Egypt, the death of Jehoiakim, the deportation of Jehoiachin (Jeconiah) and many other Judeans in 597 b.c., the death by war, starvation, and disease of many Judeans during the siege of Jerusalem in 588-86 b.c., and the captivity of many of those who survived. Instead of seeing these as punishments for their disobedience to the Lord as Jeremiah had preached to them, they saw these as consequences of their failure to continue the worship of the foreign gods.

[46:14]  ³⁶ tn Heb “Declare in Egypt and announce in Migdol and announce in Noph [= Memphis] and in Tahpanhes.” The sentence has been restructured to reflect the fact that the first command is a general one, followed by announcements in specific (representative?) cities.

[46:14]  sn For the location of the cities of Migdol, Memphis, and Tahpanhes see the note on Jer 44:1. These were all cities in Lower or northern Egypt that would have been the first affected by an invasion.

[46:14]  ³⁷ tn Heb “For the sword devours those who surround you.” The “sword” is again figurative of destructive forces. Here it is a reference to the forces of Nebuchadnezzar which have already destroyed the Egyptian forces at Carchemish and have made victorious forays into the Philistine plain.