Jeremiah 14:6

14:6 Wild donkeys stand on the hilltops

and pant for breath like jackals.

Their eyes are strained looking for food,

because there is none to be found.” ¹ 

Jeremiah 3:2

3:2 “Look up at the hilltops and consider this. ² 

You have had sex with other gods on every one of them. ³ 

You waited for those gods like a thief lying in wait in the desert. ⁴ 

You defiled the land by your wicked prostitution to other gods. ⁵ 

Jeremiah 7:29

7:29 So, mourn, ⁶  you people of this nation. ⁷  Cut off your hair and throw it away. Sing a song of mourning on the hilltops. For the Lord has decided to reject ⁸  and forsake this generation that has provoked his wrath!’” ⁹ 

Jeremiah 12:12

12:12 A destructive army ¹⁰  will come marching

over the hilltops in the desert.

For the Lord will use them as his destructive weapon ¹¹ 

against ¹²  everyone from one end of the land to the other.

No one will be safe. ¹³ 

¹ tn Heb “their eyes are strained because there is no verdure.”

² tn Heb “and see.”

³ tn Heb “Where have you not been ravished?” The rhetorical question expects the answer “nowhere,” which suggests she has engaged in the worship of pagan gods on every one of the hilltops.

⁴ tn Heb “You sat for them [the lovers, i.e., the foreign gods] beside the road like an Arab in the desert.”

⁵ tn Heb “by your prostitution and your wickedness.” This is probably an example of hendiadys where, when two nouns are joined by “and,” one expresses the main idea and the other qualifies it.

³ tn The word “mourn” is not in the text. It is supplied in the translation for clarity to explain the significance of the words “Cut your hair and throw it away.”

⁴ tn The words, “you people of this nation” are not in the text. Many English versions supply, “Jerusalem.” The address shifts from second masculine singular addressing Jeremiah (vv. 27-28a) to second feminine singular. It causes less disruption in the flow of the context to see the nation as a whole addressed here as a feminine singular entity (as, e.g., in 2:19, 23; 3:2, 3; 6:26) than to introduce a new entity, Jerusalem.

⁵ tn The verbs here are the Hebrew scheduling perfects. For this use of the perfect see GKC 312 §106.m.

⁶ tn Heb “the generation of his wrath.”

⁴ tn Heb “destroyers.”

⁵ tn Heb “It is the Lord’s consuming sword.”

⁶ tn Heb “For a sword of the Lord will devour.” The sword is often symbolic for destructive forces of all kinds. Here and in Isa 34:6; Jer 47:6 it is symbolic of the enemy armies that the Lord uses to carry out destructive punishment against his enemies, hence the translation “his destructive weapon.” A similar figure is use in Isa 10:5 where the figure is more clearly identified; Assyria is the rod/club that the Lord will use to discipline unfaithful Israel.

⁷ tn Heb “There is no peace to all flesh.”