Yeremia 4:25

4:25 I looked and saw that there were no more people, ¹ 

and that all the birds in the sky had flown away.

Yeremia 30:13

30:13 There is no one to plead your cause.

There are no remedies for your wounds. ² 

There is no healing for you.

[4:25]  ¹ tn Heb “there was no man/human being.”

[30:13]  ² tc The translation of these first two lines follows the redivision of the lines suggested in NIV and NRSV rather than that of the Masoretes who read, “There is no one who pleads your cause with reference to [your] wound.”

[30:13]  sn This verse exhibits a mixed metaphor of an advocate pleading someone’s case (cf., Jer 5:28; 22:18) and of a physician applying medicine to wounds and sores resulting from them (see, e.g., Jer 8:18 for the latter metaphor). Zion’s sins are beyond defense and the wounds inflicted upon her beyond healing. However, God, himself, in his own time will forgive her sins (Jer 31:34; 33:8) and heal her wounds (Jer 30:17).