Yeremia 49:27

49:27 “I will set fire to the walls of Damascus;

it will burn up the palaces of Ben Hadad.” ¹ 

Yeremia 2:15

2:15 Like lions his enemies roar victoriously over him;

they raise their voices in triumph. ² 

They have laid his land waste;

his cities have been burned down and deserted. ³ 

Yeremia 21:14

21:14 But I will punish you as your deeds deserve,’

says the Lord. ⁴ 

‘I will set fire to your palace;

it will burn up everything around it.’” ⁵ 

Yeremia 50:32

50:32 You will stumble and fall, you proud city;

no one will help you get up.

I will set fire to your towns;

it will burn up everything that surrounds you.” ⁶ 

Yeremia 11:16

11:16 I, the Lord, once called ⁷  you a thriving olive tree,

one that produced beautiful fruit.

But I will set you ⁸  on fire,

fire that will blaze with a mighty roar. ⁹ 

Then all your branches will be good for nothing. ¹⁰ 

Yeremia 46:19

46:19 Pack your bags for exile,

you inhabitants of poor dear Egypt. ¹¹ 

For Memphis will be laid waste.

It will lie in ruins ¹²  and be uninhabited.

Yeremia 51:30

51:30 The soldiers of Babylonia will stop fighting.

They will remain in their fortified cities.

They will lose their strength to do battle. ¹³ 

They will be as frightened as women. ¹⁴ 

The houses in her cities will be set on fire.

The gates of her cities will be broken down. ¹⁵ 

Yeremia 9:10

The Coming Destruction Calls For Mourning

9:10 I said, ¹⁶ 

“I will weep and mourn ¹⁷  for the grasslands on the mountains, ¹⁸ 

I will sing a mournful song for the pastures in the wilderness

because they are so scorched no one travels through them.

The sound of livestock is no longer heard there.

Even the birds in the sky and the wild animals in the fields

have fled and are gone.”

Yeremia 9:12

9:12 I said, ¹⁹ 

“Who is wise enough to understand why this has happened? ²⁰ 

Who has a word from the Lord that can explain it? ²¹ 

Why does the land lie in ruins?

Why is it as scorched as a desert through which no one travels?”

Yeremia 17:27

17:27 But you must obey me and set the Sabbath day apart to me. You must not carry any loads in through ²²  the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. If you disobey, I will set the gates of Jerusalem on fire. It will burn down all the fortified dwellings in Jerusalem and no one will be able to put it out.’”

Yeremia 32:29

32:29 The Babylonian soldiers ²³  that are attacking this city will break into it and set it on fire. They will burn it down along with the houses where people have made me angry by offering sacrifices to the god Baal and by pouring out drink offerings to other gods on their rooftops. ²⁴ 

Yeremia 43:12

43:12 He will set fire ²⁵  to the temples of the gods of Egypt. He will burn their gods or carry them off as captives. ²⁶  He will pick Egypt clean like a shepherd picks the lice from his clothing. ²⁷  He will leave there unharmed. ²⁸ 

Yeremia 49:2

49:2 Because you did that,

I, the Lord, affirm that ²⁹  a time is coming

when I will make Rabbah, the capital city of Ammon,

hear the sound of the battle cry.

It will become a mound covered with ruins. ³⁰ 

Its villages will be burned to the ground. ³¹ 

Then Israel will take back its land

from those who took their land from them.

I, the Lord, affirm it! ³² 

Yeremia 51:58

51:58 This is what the Lord who rules over all ³³  says,

“Babylon’s thick wall ³⁴  will be completely demolished. ³⁵ 

Her high gates will be set on fire.

The peoples strive for what does not satisfy. ³⁶ 

The nations grow weary trying to get what will be destroyed.” ³⁷ 

[49:27]  ¹ sn Ben-Hadad was a common name borne by a number of the kings of Damascus, e.g., one during the time of Asa around 900 b.c. (cf. 1 Kgs 15:18-20), one a little later during the time of Omri and Ahab around 850 (1 Kgs 20), and one during the time of Jehoash about 800 (2 Kgs 13:24-25).

[2:15]  ² tn Heb “Lions shout over him, they give out [raise] their voices.”

[2:15]  sn The reference to lions is here a metaphor for the Assyrians (and later the Babylonians, see Jer 50:17). The statement about lions roaring over their prey implies that the prey has been vanquished.

[2:15]  ³ tn Heb “without inhabitant.”

[21:14]  ⁴ tn Heb “oracle of the Lord.”

[21:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “I will set fire in its forest and it will devour its surroundings.” The pronouns are actually third feminine singular going back to the participle “you who sit enthroned above the valley.” However, this is another example of those rapid shifts in pronouns typical of the biblical Hebrew style which are uncommon in English. They have regularly been leveled to the same person throughout in the translation to avoid possible confusion for the English reader.

[50:32]  ⁶ tn Heb “And the proud one will fall and there will be no one to help him up. I will start a fire in his towns and it will consume all that surround him.” The personification continues but now the stance is indirect (third person) rather than direct (second person). It is easier for the modern reader who is not accustomed to such sudden shifts if the second person is maintained. The personification of the city (or nation) as masculine is a little unusual; normally cities and nations are personified as feminine, as daughters or mothers.

[11:16]  ⁷ tn Heb “The Lord once called you….” This is another example of the rapid shift in person that is common to Hebrew style which is not common in English and could lead to confusion for some readers. Here and in the verses that follow the person has been shifted to first person for consistency in English.

[11:16]  ⁸ tn The verb form used here is another example of a verb expressing that the action is as good as done (the Hebrew prophetic perfect).

[11:16]  ⁹ tn Heb “At the sound of a mighty roar he will set fire to it.” For the shift from third person “he” to the first person “I” see the preceding note. The Hebrew use of the pronouns in vv. 16-17 for the olive tree and the people that it represents is likely to cause confusion if retained. In v. 16 the people are “you” and the olive tree is “it.” The people are again “you” in v. 17 but part of the metaphor is carried over, i.e., “he ‘planted’ you.” It creates less confusion in the flow of the passage if the metaphorical identification is carried out throughout by addressing the people/plant as “you.”

[11:16]  ¹⁰ tn The verb here has most commonly been derived from a root meaning “to be broken” (cf. BDB 949 s.v. II רָעַע) which fits poorly with the metaphor of setting the plant on fire. Another common option is to emend it to a verb meaning “to be burned up” (בָּעַר, ba’ar). However, it is better to follow the lead of the Greek version which translates “be good for nothing” (ἠχρειώθησαν, hcreiwqhsan) and derive the verb from רָעַע (ra’a’) meaning “be bad/evil” (cf. BDB 949 and compare the nuance of the adjective from this verb in BDB 948 s.v. רַע 5).

[46:19]  ¹¹ tn Heb “inhabitants of daughter Egypt.” Like the phrase “daughter Zion,” “daughter Egypt” is a poetic personification of the land, here perhaps to stress the idea of defenselessness.

[46:19]  ¹² tn For the verb here see HALOT 675 s.v. II נָצָה Nif and compare the usage in Jer 4:7; 9:11 and 2 Kgs 19:25. BDB derives the verb from יָצַת (so BDB 428 s.v. יָצַת Niph meaning “kindle, burn”) but still give it the meaning “desolate” here and in 2:15 and 9:11.

[51:30]  ¹³ tn Heb “Their strength is dry.” This is a figurative nuance of the word “dry” which BDB 677 s.v. נָשַׁת Qal.1 explain as meaning “fails.” The idea of “strength to do battle” is implicit from the context and is supplied in the translation here for clarity.

[51:30]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “They have become women.” The metaphor has been turned into a simile and the significance of the comparison drawn out for the sake of clarity. See 50:37 for the same figure.

[51:30]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Her dwelling places have been set on fire. Her bars [i.e., the bars on the gates of her cities] have been broken.” The present translation has substituted the word “gates” for “bars” because the intent of the figure is to show that the bars of the gates have been broken giving access to the city. “Gates” makes it easier for the modern reader to understand the figure.

[9:10]  ¹⁶ tn The words “I said” are not in the text, but there is general agreement that Jeremiah is the speaker. Cf. the lament in 8:18-9:1. These words are supplied in the translation for clarity. Some English versions follow the Greek text which reads a plural imperative here. Since this reading would make the transition between 9:10 and 9:11 easier it is probably not original but a translator’s way of smoothing over a difficulty.

[9:10]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “I will lift up weeping and mourning.”

[9:10]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “for the mountains.” However, the context makes clear that it is the grasslands or pastures on the mountains that are meant. The words “for the grasslands” are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[9:12]  ¹⁹ tn The words, “I said” are not in the text. It is not clear that a shift in speaker has taken place. However, the words of the verse are very unlikely to be a continuation of the Lord’s threat. It is generally assumed that these are the words of Jeremiah and that a dialogue is going on between him and the Lord in vv. 9-14. That assumption is accepted here.

[9:12]  ²⁰ tn Heb “Who is the wise man that he may understand this?”

[9:12]  ²¹ tn Heb “And [who is the man] to whom the mouth of the Lord has spoken that he may explain it?”

[17:27]  ²² tn Heb “carry loads on the Sabbath and bring [them] in through.” The translation treats the two verbs “carry” and “bring in” are an example of hendiadys (see the note on “through” in 17:21).

[32:29]  ²³ tn Heb “The Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for further explanation.

[32:29]  ²⁴ sn Compare Jer 19:13.

[43:12]  ²⁵ tc The translation follows the Greek, Syriac, and Latin versions. The Hebrew text reads: “I will set fire to.” While it would be possible to explain the first person subject here in the same way as in the two verbs in v. 12b, the corruption of the Hebrew text is easy to explain here as a metathesis of two letters, י (yod) and ת (tav). The Hebrew reads הִצַּתִּי (hitsatti) and the versions presuppose הִצִּית (hitsit).

[43:12]  ²⁶ tn Heb “burn them or carry them off as captives.” Some of the commentaries and English versions make a distinction between the objects of the verbs, i.e., burn the temples and carry off the gods. However, the burning down of the temples is referred to later in v. 13.

[43:12]  sn It was typical in the ancient Near East for the images of the gods of vanquished nations to be carried off and displayed in triumphal procession on the return from battle to show the superiority of the victor’s gods over those of the vanquished (cf., e.g., Isa 46:1-2).

[43:12]  ²⁷ tn Or “he will take over Egypt as easily as a shepherd wraps his cloak around him.” The translation follows the interpretation of HALOT 769 s.v. II ָעטָה Qal, the Greek translation, and a number of the modern commentaries (e.g., J. A. Thompson, Jeremiah [NICOT], 671). The only other passage where that translation is suggested for this verb is Isa 22:17 according to HAL. The alternate translation follows the more normal meaning of עָטָה (’atah; cf. BDB 741 s.v. I עָטָה Qal which explains “so completely will it be in his power”). The fact that the subject is “a shepherd” lends more credence to the former view though there may be a deliberate double meaning playing on the homonyms (cf. W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah [Hermeneia], 2:302).

[43:12]  ²⁸ tn Heb “in peace/wholeness/well-being/safety [shalom].”

[49:2]  ²⁹ tn Heb “oracle of the Lord.”

[49:2]  ³⁰ tn Heb “a desolate tel.” For the explanation of what a “tel” is see the study note on 30:18.

[49:2]  ³¹ tn Heb “Its daughters will be burned with fire.” For the use of the word “daughters” to refer to the villages surrounding a larger city see BDB 123 s.v. I בַּת 4 and compare the usage in Judg 1:27.

[49:2]  ³² tn Heb “says the Lord.” The first person is used to maintain the first person address throughout.

[51:58]  ³³ sn See the note at Jer 2:19.

[51:58]  ³⁴ tn The text has the plural “walls,” but many Hebrew mss read the singular “wall,” which is also supported by the ancient Greek version. The modifying adjective “thick” is singular as well.

[51:58]  ³⁵ tn The infinitive absolute emphasizes the following finite verb. Another option is to translate, “will certainly be demolished.”

[51:58]  ³⁶ tn Heb “for what is empty.”

[51:58]  ³⁷ tn Heb “and the nations for fire, and they grow weary.”