Jeremiah 1:5

1:5 “Before I formed you in your mother’s womb ¹  I chose you. ² 

Before you were born I set you apart.

I appointed you to be a prophet to the nations.”

Jeremiah 2:30

2:30 “It did no good for me to punish your people.

They did not respond to such correction.

You slaughtered your prophets

like a voracious lion.” ³ 

Jeremiah 5:13

5:13 The prophets will prove to be full of wind. ⁴ 

The Lord has not spoken through them. ⁵ 

So, let what they say happen to them.’”

Jeremiah 23:11

23:11 Moreover, ⁶  the Lord says, ⁷ 

“Both the prophets and priests are godless.

I have even found them doing evil in my temple!

Jeremiah 23:13

23:13 The Lord says, ⁸  “I saw the prophets of Samaria ⁹ 

doing something that was disgusting. ¹⁰ 

They prophesied in the name of the god Baal

and led my people Israel astray. ¹¹ 

Jeremiah 23:21

23:21 I did not send those prophets.

Yet they were in a hurry to give their message. ¹² 

I did not tell them anything.

Yet they prophesied anyway.

Jeremiah 23:25

23:25 The Lord says, ¹³  “I have heard what those prophets who are prophesying lies in my name are saying. They are saying, ‘I have had a dream! I have had a dream!’ ¹⁴ 

Jeremiah 23:30-31

23:30 So I, the Lord, affirm ¹⁵  that I am opposed to those prophets who steal messages from one another that they claim are from me. ¹⁶  23:31 I, the Lord, affirm ¹⁷  that I am opposed to those prophets who are using their own tongues to declare, ‘The Lord declares….’ ¹⁸ 

Jeremiah 23:37

23:37 Each of you should merely ask the prophet, ‘What answer did the Lord give you? Or what did the Lord say?’ ¹⁹ 

Jeremiah 29:29

29:29 Zephaniah the priest read that letter to the prophet Jeremiah. ²⁰ 

Jeremiah 34:6

34:6 The prophet Jeremiah told all this to King Zedekiah of Judah in Jerusalem.

Jeremiah 46:1

Prophecies Against Foreign Nations ²¹ 

46:1 The Lord spoke to Jeremiah about the nations. ²² 

Jeremiah 50:1

Judgment Against Babylon

50:1 The Lord spoke concerning Babylon and the land of Babylonia ²³  through the prophet Jeremiah. ²⁴ 

¹ tn Heb “the womb.” The words “your mother’s” are implicit and are supplied in the translation for clarity.

² tn Heb “I knew you.” The parallelism here with “set you apart” and “appointed you” make clear that Jeremiah is speaking of his foreordination to be a prophet. For this same nuance of the Hebrew verb see Gen 18:19; Amos 3:2.

³ tn Heb “Your sword devoured your prophets like a destroying lion.” However, the reference to the sword in this and many similar idioms is merely idiomatic for death by violent means.

⁵ tn Heb “will be wind.”

⁶ tc Heb “the word is not in them.” The MT has a highly unusual form here, the Piel perfect with the definite article (הַדִּבֵּר, haddibber). It is undoubtedly best to read with the LXX (Greek version) and one Hebrew ms the article on the noun (הַדָּבָר, haddavar).

⁷ tn The particle כִּי (ki) which begins this verse is parallel to the one at the beginning of the preceding verse. However, the connection is too distant to render it “for.” “Moreover” is intended to draw the parallel. The words “the Lord says” (Heb “Oracle of the Lord”) have been drawn up to the front to introduce the shift in speaker from Jeremiah, who describes his agitated state, to God, who describes the sins of the prophets and priests and his consequent judgment on them.

⁸ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

⁹ tn The words “The Lord says” are not in the text, but it is clear from the content that he is the speaker. These words are supplied in the translation for clarity.

¹⁰ map For location see Map2-B1; Map4-D3; Map5-E2; Map6-A4; Map7-C1.

¹¹ tn According to BDB 1074 s.v. תִּפְלָּה this word means “unseemly, unsavory.” The related adjective is used in Job 6:6 of the tastelessness of something that is unseasoned.

¹² tn Heb “by Baal.”

¹¹ tn Heb “Yet they ran.”

¹³ tn The words, “The Lord says” are not in the text. They are supplied in the translation for clarity to show that the Lord continues speaking.

¹⁴ sn To have had a dream was not an illegitimate means of receiving divine revelation. God had revealed himself in the past to his servants through dreams (e.g., Jacob [Gen 31:10-11] and Joseph [Gen 37:6, 7, 9]) and God promised to reveal himself through dreams (Num 12:6; Joel 2:28 [3:1 HT]). What was illegitimate was to use the dream to lead people away from the Lord (Deut 13:1-5 [13:2-6 HT]). That was what the prophets were doing through their dreams which were “lies” and “the delusions of their own minds.” Through them they were making people forget who the Lord really was which was just like what their ancestors had done through worshiping Baal.

¹⁵ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

¹⁶ tn Heb “who are stealing my words from one another.” However, context shows that it is their own word which they claim is from the Lord (cf. next verse).

¹⁷ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

¹⁸ tn The word “The Lord” is not actually in the text but is implicit in the idiom. It is generally supplied in all the English versions.

¹⁹ tn See the note on v. 35.

²¹ tn Heb “in the ears of Jeremiah the prophet.”

²³ sn Jeremiah was called to be a prophet not only to Judah and Jerusalem but to the nations (1:5, 10). The prophecies or oracles that are collected here in Jer 46-51 are found after 25:13a in the Greek version where they are also found in a different order and with several textual differences. The issue of which represents the original placement is part of the broader issue of the editorial or redactional history of the book of Jeremiah which went through several editions, two of which are referred to in Jer 36, i.e., the two scrolls written in the fourth year of Jehoiakim (605 b.c.), a third which included all the preceding plus the material down to the time of the fall of Jerusalem (cf. the introduction in 1:1-3) and a fourth that included all the preceding plus the materials in Jer 40-44. The oracles against the foreign nations collected here are consistent with the note of judgment sounded against all nations (including some not mentioned in Jer 46-51) in Jer 25. See the translator’s note on 25:13 for further details regarding the possible relationship of the oracles to the foreign nations to the judgment speeches in Jer 25.

²⁴ tn Heb “That which came [as] the word of the Lord to Jeremiah about the nations.” See the translator’s note on 14:1 for the construction here.

²⁵ tn Heb “the land of the Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for explanation.

²⁶ tn Heb “The word which the Lord spoke concerning Babylon, concerning the land of the Chaldeans by the hand of Jeremiah the prophet.”