Yeremia 9:12

9:12 I said, ¹ 

“Who is wise enough to understand why this has happened? ² 

Who has a word from the Lord that can explain it? ³ 

Why does the land lie in ruins?

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

Yeremia 10:7

10:7 Everyone should revere you, O King of all nations, ⁴ 

because you deserve to be revered. ⁵ 

For there is no one like you

among any of the wise people of the nations nor among any of their kings. ⁶ 

Yeremia 29:1

Jeremiah’s Letter to the Exiles

29:1 The prophet Jeremiah sent a letter to the exiles Nebuchadnezzar had carried off from Jerusalem ⁷  to Babylon. It was addressed to the elders who were left among the exiles, to the priests, to the prophets, and to all the other people who were exiled in Babylon. ⁸ 

Yeremia 50:9

50:9 For I will rouse into action and bring against Babylon

a host of mighty nations ⁹  from the land of the north.

They will set up their battle lines against her.

They will come from the north and capture her. ¹⁰ 

Their arrows will be like a skilled soldier ¹¹ 

who does not return from the battle empty-handed. ¹² 

Yeremia 50:29

50:29 “Call for archers ¹³  to come against Babylon!

Summon against her all who draw the bow!

Set up camp all around the city!

Do not allow anyone to escape!

Pay her back for what she has done.

Do to her what she has done to others.

For she has proudly defied me, ¹⁴ 

the Holy One of Israel. ¹⁵ 

Yeremia 51:57

51:57 “I will make her officials and wise men drunk,

along with her governors, leaders, ¹⁶  and warriors.

They will fall asleep forever and never wake up,” ¹⁷ 

says the King whose name is the Lord who rules over all. ¹⁸ 

[9:12]  ¹ 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]  ² tn Heb “Who is the wise man that he may understand this?”

[9:12]  ³ tn Heb “And [who is the man] to whom the mouth of the Lord has spoken that he may explain it?”

[10:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “Who should not revere you…?” The question is rhetorical and expects a negative answer.

[10:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “For it is fitting to you.”

[10:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “their royalty/dominion.” This is a case of substitution of the abstract for the concrete “royalty, royal power” for “kings” who exercise it.

[29:1]  ⁷ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[29:1]  ⁸ tn Jer 29:1-3 are all one long sentence in Hebrew containing a parenthetical insertion. The text reads “These are the words of the letter which the prophet Jeremiah sent to the elders…people whom Nebuchadnezzar had exiled from Jerusalem to Babylon after King Jeconiah…had gone from Jerusalem by the hand of Elasah…whom Zedekiah sent…saying, ‘Thus says the Lord…’” The sentence has been broken up for the sake of contemporary English style and clarity.

[50:9]  ⁹ sn Some of these are named in Jer 51:27-28.

[50:9]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “She will be captured from there (i.e., from the north).”

[50:9]  ¹¹ tc Read Heb ַָמשְׂכִּיל (moskil) with a number of Hebrew mss and some of the versions in place of מַשְׁכִּיל (mashkil, “one who kills children”) with the majority of Hebrew mss and some of the versions. See BHS note d for the details.

[50:9]  ¹² tn Or more freely, “Their arrows will be as successful at hitting their mark // as a skilled soldier always returns from battle with plunder.”

[50:9]  sn I.e., none of the arrows misses its mark.

[50:29]  ¹³ tn For this word see BDB 914 s.v. III רַב and compare usage in Prov 26:10 and Job 16:12 and compare the usage of the verb in Gen 49:23. Based on this evidence, it is not necessary to emend the form to רֹבִים (rovim) as many commentators contend.

[50:29]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “for she has acted insolently against the Lord.” Once again there is the problem of the Lord speaking about himself in the third person (or the prophet dropping his identification with the Lord). As in several other places the present translation, along with several other modern English versions (TEV, CEV, NIrV), has substituted the first person to maintain consistency with the context.

[50:29]  ¹⁵ sn The Holy One of Israel is a common title for the Lord in the book of Isaiah. It is applied to the Lord only here and in 51:5 in the book of Jeremiah. It is a figure where an attribute of a person is put as a title of a person (compare “your majesty” for a king). It pictures the Lord as the sovereign king who rules over his covenant people and exercises moral authority over them.

[51:57]  ¹⁶ sn For discussion of the terms “governors” and “leaders” see the note at Jer 51:23.

[51:57]  ¹⁷ sn See the note at Jer 51:39.

[51:57]  ¹⁸ tn For the title “Yahweh of armies” see the study note on Jer 2:19.