Yeremia 5:25

5:25 Your misdeeds have stopped these things from coming. ¹ 

Your sins have deprived you of my bounty.’ ² 

Yeremia 15:12

15:12 Can you people who are like iron and bronze

break that iron fist from the north? ³ 

Yeremia 17:17

17:17 Do not cause me dismay! ⁴ 

You are my source of safety in times of trouble.

Yeremia 22:1

22:1 The Lord told me, ⁵  “Go down ⁶  to the palace of the king of Judah. Give him a message from me there. ⁷ 

Yeremia 27:1

Jeremiah Counsels Submission to Babylon

27:1 The Lord spoke to Jeremiah ⁸  early in the reign of Josiah’s son, King Zedekiah of Judah. ⁹ 

Yeremia 28:12

28:12 But shortly after the prophet Hananiah had broken the yoke off the prophet Jeremiah’s neck, the Lord spoke to Jeremiah.

Yeremia 29:27

29:27 You should have reprimanded Jeremiah from Anathoth who is pretending to be a prophet among you! ¹⁰ 

Yeremia 30:5

30:5 Yes, ¹¹  here is what he says:

“You hear cries of panic and of terror;

there is no peace in sight. ¹² 

Yeremia 46:24

46:24 Poor dear Egypt ¹³  will be put to shame.

She will be handed over to the people from the north.”

Yeremia 48:42

48:42 Moab will be destroyed and no longer be a nation, ¹⁴ 

because she has vaunted herself against the Lord.

Yeremia 50:10

50:10 Babylonia ¹⁵  will be plundered.

Those who plunder it will take all they want,”

says the Lord. ¹⁶ 

[5:25]  ¹ tn Heb “have turned these things away.”

[5:25]  ² tn Heb “have withheld the good from you.”

[15:12]  ³ tn Or “Can iron and bronze break iron from the north?” The question is rhetorical and expects a negative answer. The translation and meaning of this verse are debated. See note for further details. The two main difficulties here involve the relation of words to one another and the obscure allusion to iron from the north. To translate “literally” is difficult since one does not know whether “iron” is subject of “break” or object of an impersonal verb. Likewise, the dangling “and bronze” fits poorly with either understanding. Options: “Can iron break iron from the north and bronze?” Or “Can one break iron, even iron from the north and bronze.” This last is commonly opted for by translators and interpreters, but why add “and bronze” at the end? And what does “iron from the north” refer to? A long history of interpretation relates it to the foe from the north (see already 1:14; 4:6; 6:1; 13:20). The translation follows the lead of NRSV and takes “and bronze” as a compound subject. I have no ready parallels for this syntax but the reference to “from the north” and the comparison to the stubbornness of the unrepentant people to bronze and iron in 6:28 suggests a possible figurative allusion. There is no evidence in the Bible that Israel knew about a special kind of steel like iron from the Black Sea mentioned in later Greek sources. The word “fist” is supplied in the translation to try to give some hint that it refers to a hostile force.

[15:12]  sn Compare Isa 10:5-6 for the idea here.

[17:17]  ⁴ tn Heb “do not be a source of dismay for me.” For this nuance of מְחִתָּה (mÿkhittah) rather than “terror” as many of the English versions have it see BDB 370 s.v. מְחִתָּה 1.b and the usage in Prov 21:15. Compare also the usage of the related verb which occurs in the next verse (see also BDB 369 s.v. חָתַת Qal.2).

[22:1]  ⁵ tn The word “me “ is not in the text. It is, however, implicit and is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[22:1]  ⁶ sn The allusion here is to going down from the temple to the palace which was on a lower eminence. See 36:12 in its context.

[22:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “And speak there this word:” The translation is intended to eliminate an awkward and lengthy sentence.

[27:1]  ⁸ sn The names of Jeremiah and of Nebuchadnezzar are spelled differently in the Hebrew of chapter 27-29. That and other literary features show that these three chapters are all closely related. The events of these three chapters all take place within the space of one year (cf. 28:1; 29:17).

[27:1]  ⁹ tc The reading here is based on a few Hebrew mss and the Syriac and Arabic versions. The majority of Hebrew mss and most of the versions read “At the beginning of the reign of Josiah’s son, Jehoiakim king of Judah” as in 26:1. The LXX does not have this whole verse. It has long been recognized that the text of 27:1 is textually corrupt. The date formula in the majority of Hebrew mss at 27:1 is contradictory both with the context of the passage which deals with an event in the reign of Zedekiah (see vv. 3, 13 and v. 20 which presupposes that Jeconiah, Jehoiakim’s son, has been taken captive [i.e., after the death of Jehoiakim!]) and the date formula in 28:1 which refers to an event “in that same year” and then qualifies it with “Early in the reign of Zedekiah.” Hence it is preferable to read “Zedekiah” here in place of “Jehoiakim” and explain the error in the Hebrew manuscripts as an erroneous copying of 26:1.

[27:1]  sn If the text of 28:1 is correct, the date here would be sometime in the fourth year of Zedekiah which would be 594/3 b.c. Zedekiah had been placed on the throne as a puppet king by Nebuchadnezzar after he deposed Zedekiah’s nephew, Jeconiah (Jehoiachin) and sent him, his family, some of the temple treasures, and some of the Judean leaders away to Babylon (2 Kgs 23:8-17). The author does not state directly why the envoys from the nations mentioned in v. 3 were in Jerusalem, but the implication is that they were there trying to interest Zedekiah in rebelling. Modern scholars have used the data here and in 28:1 and in the Babylonian Chronicles (it contains a record of major events of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign) to suggest a plausible background for such a meeting. Nebuchadnezzar had to put down an uprising in the east and quell a rebellion in Babylon itself in the two years prior to this meeting. Some “prophets” in the nation of Israel and in these other nations (see vv. 9-10) saw in these events hopes for not having to pay tribute to (i.e., submit to the yoke of) Nebuchadnezzar and were counseling rebellion. Jeremiah saw this as foolhardy and counseled otherwise. Again, there is a conflict between “prophets” which is what this whole section (Jer 27–29) is all about.

[29:27]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “So why have you not reprimanded Jeremiah…?” The rhetorical question functions as an emphatic assertion made explicit in the translation.

[30:5]  ¹¹ tn The particle כִּי (ki) is functioning here as loosely causal or epexegetical of the preceding introduction. For this usage cf. BDB 473-74 s.v. כִּי 3.c. This nuance borders on that of the intensive use of כִּי. See the discussion in BDB 472 s.v. כִּי note and כִּי 1.e.

[30:5]  ¹² tn Heb “We have heard the sound of panic and of fear, and there is no peace.” It is generally agreed that the person of the verb presupposes that this is an unintroduced quote of the people.

[46:24]  ¹³ tn Heb “Daughter Egypt.” See the translator’s note on v. 19.

[48:42]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “Moab will be destroyed from [being] a people.”

[50:10]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “The land of the Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for explanation.

[50:10]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”