Jeremiah 1:10

1:10 Know for certain that ¹  I hereby give you the authority to announce to nations and kingdoms that they will be ²  uprooted and torn down, destroyed and demolished, rebuilt and firmly planted.” ³ 

Jeremiah 6:11

6:11 I am as full of anger as you are, Lord, ⁴ 

I am tired of trying to hold it in.”

The Lord answered, ⁵ 

“Vent it, then, ⁶  on the children who play in the street

and on the young men who are gathered together.

Husbands and wives are to be included, ⁷ 

as well as the old and those who are advanced in years.

Jeremiah 20:8-9

20:8 For whenever I prophesy, ⁸  I must cry out, ⁹ 

“Violence and destruction are coming!” ¹⁰ 

This message from the Lord ¹¹  has made me

an object of continual insults and derision.

20:9 Sometimes I think, “I will make no mention of his message.

I will not speak as his messenger ¹²  any more.”

But then ¹³  his message becomes like a fire

locked up inside of me, burning in my heart and soul. ¹⁴ 

I grow weary of trying to hold it in;

I cannot contain it.

¹ tn Heb “See!” The Hebrew imperative of the verb used here (רָאָה, ra’ah) functions the same as the particle in v. 9. See the translator’s note there.

² tn Heb “I appoint you today over nations and kingdoms to uproot….” The phrase refers to the Lord giving Jeremiah authority as a prophet to declare what he, the Lord, will do; it does not mean that Jeremiah himself will do these things. The expression involves a figure of speech where the subject of a declaration is stated instead of the declaration about it. Compare a similar use of the same figure in Gen 41:13.

³ sn These three pairs represent the twofold nature of Jeremiah’s prophecies, prophecies of judgment and restoration. For the further programmatic use of these pairs for Jeremiah’s ministry see 18:7-10 and 31:27-28.

⁴ tn Heb “I am full of the wrath of the Lord.”

⁵ tn These words are not in the text but are implicit from the words that follow. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

⁶ tn Heb “Pour it out.”

⁷ tn Heb “are to be captured.”

⁸ tn Heb “speak,” but the speaking is in the context of speaking as a prophet.

⁹ tn Heb “I cry out, I proclaim.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “Violence and destruction.”

¹¹ tn Heb “the word of the Lord.” For the use of כִּי…כִּי (ki…ki) here in the sense of “for…and” see KBL 432 s.v. כּי 10.

¹² tn Heb “speak in his name.” This idiom occurs in passages where someone functions as the messenger under the authority of another. See Exod 5:23; Deut 18:19, 29:20; Jer 14:14. The antecedent in the first line is quite commonly misidentified as being “him,” i.e., the Lord. Comparison, however, with the rest of the context, especially the consequential clause “then it becomes” (וְהָיָה, vÿhayah), and Jer 23:36 shows that it is “the word of the Lord.”

¹³ tn The English sentence has again been restructured for the sake of English style. The Hebrew construction involves two vav consecutive perfects in a condition and consequence relation, “If I say to myself…then it [his word] becomes.” See GKC 337 §112.kk for the construction.

¹⁴ sn Heb “It is in my heart like a burning fire, shut up in my bones.” In addition to standing as part for the whole, the “bones” for the person (e.g., Ps 35:10), the bones were associated with fear (e.g., Job 4:14) and with pain (e.g., Job 33:19, Ps 102:3 [102:4 HT]) and joy or sorrow (e.g., Ps 51:8 [51:10 HT]). As has been mentioned several times, the heart was connected with intellectual and volitional concerns.