Yesaya 21:9

21:9 Look what’s coming!

A charioteer,

a team of horses.” ¹ 

When questioned, he replies, ² 

“Babylon has fallen, fallen!

All the idols of her gods lie shattered on the ground!”

Yeremia 51:8

51:8 But suddenly Babylonia will fall and be destroyed. ³ 

Cry out in mourning over it!

Get medicine for her wounds!

Perhaps she can be healed!

Yeremia 16:19

16:19 Then I said, ⁴ 

“Lord, you give me strength and protect me.

You are the one I can run to for safety when I am in trouble. ⁵ 

Nations from all over the earth

will come to you and say,

‘Our ancestors had nothing but false gods –

worthless idols that could not help them at all. ⁶ 

Yeremia 17:5

Individuals Are Challenged to Put Their Trust in the Lord ⁷ 

17:5 The Lord says,

“I will put a curse on people

who trust in mere human beings,

who depend on mere flesh and blood for their strength, ⁸ 

and whose hearts ⁹  have turned away from the Lord.

Yeremia 18:2

18:2 “Go down at once ¹⁰  to the potter’s house. I will speak to you further there.” ¹¹ 

Yeremia 18:10

18:10 But if that nation does what displeases me and does not obey me, then I will cancel the good I promised to do to it.

[21:9]  ¹ tn Or “[with] teams of horses,” or perhaps, “with a pair of horsemen.”

[21:9]  ² tn Heb “and he answered and said” (so KJV, ASV).

[51:8]  ³ tn The verbs in this verse and the following are all in the Hebrew perfect tense, a tense that often refers to a past action or a past action with present results. However, as the translator’s notes have indicated, the prophets use this tense to view the actions as if they were as good as done (the Hebrew prophetic perfect). The stance here is ideal, viewed as already accomplished.

[16:19]  ⁴ tn The words “Then I said” are not in the text. They are supplied in the translation to show the shift from God, who has been speaking to Jeremiah, to Jeremiah, who here addresses God.

[16:19]  sn The shift here is consistent with the interruptions that have taken place in chapters 14 and 15 and in Jeremiah’s response to God’s condemnation of the people of Judah’s idolatry in chapter 10 (note especially vv. 6-16).

[16:19]  ⁵ tn Heb “O Lord, my strength and my fortress, my refuge in the day of trouble. The literal which piles up attributes is of course more forceful than the predications. However, piling up poetic metaphors like this adds to the length of the English sentence and risks lack of understanding on the part of some readers. Some rhetorical force has been sacrificed for the sake of clarity.

[16:19]  ⁶ tn Once again the translation has sacrificed some of the rhetorical force for the sake of clarity and English style: Heb “Only falsehood did our ancestors possess, vanity and [things in which?] there was no one profiting in them.”

[16:19]  sn This passage offers some rather forceful contrasts. The Lord is Jeremiah’s source of strength, security, and protection. The idols are false gods, worthless idols, that can offer no help at all.

[17:5]  ⁷ sn Verses 5-11 are a collection of wisdom-like sayings (cf. Ps 1) which set forth the theme of the two ways and their consequences. It has as its background the blessings and the curses of Deut 28 and the challenge to faith in Deut 29-30 which climaxes in Deut 30:15-20. The nation is sinful and God is weary of showing them patience. However, there is hope for individuals within the nation if they will trust in him.

[17:5]  ⁸ tn Heb “who make flesh their arm.” The “arm” is the symbol of strength and the flesh is the symbol of mortal man in relation to the omnipotent God. The translation “mere flesh and blood” reflects this.

[17:5]  ⁹ sn In the psychology of ancient Hebrew thought the heart was the center not only of the emotions but of the thoughts and motivations. It was also the seat of moral conduct (cf. its placement in the middle of the discussion of moral conduct in Prov 4:20-27, i.e., in v. 23).

[18:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Get up and go down.” The first verb is not literal but is idiomatic for the initiation of an action. See 13:4, 6 for other occurrences of this idiom.

[18:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “And I will cause you to hear my word there.”