Jeremiah 10:13

10:13 When his voice thunders, ¹  the heavenly ocean roars.

He makes the clouds rise from the far-off horizons. ² 

He makes the lightning flash out in the midst of the rain.

He unleashes the wind from the places where he stores it. ³ 

Jeremiah 11:5

11:5 Then I will keep the promise I swore on oath to your ancestors to give them a land flowing with milk and honey.” ⁴  That is the very land that you still live in today.’” ⁵  And I responded, “Amen! Let it be so, ⁶  Lord!”

¹ tn Heb “At the voice of his giving.” The idiom “to give the voice” is often used for thunder (cf. BDB 679 s.v. נָתַן Qal.1.x).

² tn Heb “from the ends of the earth.”

³ tn Heb “he brings out the winds from his storehouses.”

⁴ tn The phrase “a land flowing with milk and honey” is very familiar to readers in the Jewish and Christian traditions as a proverbial description of the agricultural and pastoral abundance of the land of Israel. However, it may not mean too much to readers outside those traditions; an equivalent expression would be “a land of fertile fields and fine pastures.” E. W. Bullinger (Figures of Speech, 626) identifies this as a figure of speech called synecdoche where the species is put for the genus, “a region…abounding with pasture and fruits of all kinds.”

⁵ tn Heb “‘a land flowing with milk and honey,’ as at this day.” However, the literal reading is too elliptical and would lead to confusion.

⁶ tn The words “Let it be so” are not in the text; they are an explanation of the significance of the term “Amen” for those who may not be part of the Christian or Jewish tradition.