Jeremiah 1:18

1:18 I, the Lord, ¹  hereby promise to make you ²  as strong as a fortified city, an iron pillar, and a bronze wall. You will be able to stand up against all who live in ³  the land, including the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests and all the people of the land.

Jeremiah 5:17

5:17 They will eat up your crops and your food.

They will kill off ⁴  your sons and your daughters.

They will eat up your sheep and your cattle.

They will destroy your vines and your fig trees. ⁵ 

Their weapons will batter down ⁶ 

the fortified cities you trust in.

Jeremiah 8:14

Jeremiah Laments over the Coming Destruction

8:14 The people say, ⁷ 

“Why are we just sitting here?

Let us gather together inside the fortified cities. ⁸ 

Let us at least die there fighting, ⁹ 

since the Lord our God has condemned us to die.

He has condemned us to drink the poison waters of judgment ¹⁰ 

because we have sinned against him. ¹¹ 

Jeremiah 34:7

34:7 He did this while the army of the king of Babylon was attacking Jerusalem and the cities of Lachish and Azekah. He was attacking these cities because they were the only fortified cities of Judah which were still holding out. ¹² 

¹ tn See the note on “Jeremiah” at the beginning of v. 17.

² tn Heb “today I have made you.” The Hebrew verb form here emphasizes the certainty of a yet future act; the Lord is promising to protect Jeremiah from any future attacks which may result from his faithfully carrying out his commission. See a similar use of the same Hebrew verb tense in v. 9, and see the translator’s note there.

³ tn Heb “I make you a fortified city…against all the land….” The words “as strong as” and “so you will be able to stand against all the people of…” are given to clarify the meaning of the metaphor.

⁴ tn Heb “eat up.”

⁵ tn Or “eat up your grapes and figs”; Heb “eat up your vines and your fig trees.”

⁶ tn Heb “They will beat down with the sword.” The term “sword” is a figure of speech (synecdoche) for military weapons in general. Siege ramps, not swords, beat down city walls; swords kill people, not city walls.

⁷ tn The words “The people say” are not in the text but are implicit in the shift of speakers between vv. 4-13 and vv. 14-16. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

⁸ tn Heb “Gather together and let us enter into the fortified cities.”

⁹ tn Heb “Let us die there.” The words “at least” and “fighting” are intended to bring out the contrast of passive surrender to death in the open country and active resistance to the death implicit in the context.

¹⁰ tn The words “of judgment” are not in the text but are intended to show that “poison water” is not literal but figurative of judgment at the hands of God through the agency of the enemy mentioned in v. 16.

¹¹ tn Heb “against the Lord.” The switch is for the sake of smoothness in English.

¹⁰ tn Heb “And the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem and against all the cities of Judah which were left, [namely] against Lachish and Azekah for they alone were left of the cities of Judah as fortified cities.” The intent of this sentence is to serve as a circumstantial sentence to v. 6 (= “while the army…”). That thought is picked up by “he did this while….” The long complex sentence in v. 7 has been broken down and qualifying material placed in the proper places to convey the same information in shorter English sentences in conformity with contemporary English style.