15:15 I said, 1
“Lord, you know how I suffer. 2
Take thought of me and care for me.
Pay back for me those who have been persecuting me.
Do not be so patient with them that you allow them to kill me.
Be mindful of how I have put up with their insults for your sake.
17:18 May those who persecute me be disgraced.
Do not let me be disgraced.
May they be dismayed.
Do not let me be dismayed.
Bring days of disaster on them.
Bring on them the destruction they deserve.” 3
18:20 Should good be paid back with evil?
Yet they are virtually digging a pit to kill me. 4
Just remember how I stood before you
pleading on their behalf 5
to keep you from venting your anger on them. 6
18:21 So let their children die of starvation.
Let them be cut down by the sword. 7
Let their wives lose their husbands and children.
Let the older men die of disease 8
and the younger men die by the sword in battle.
18:22 Let cries of terror be heard in their houses
when you send bands of raiders unexpectedly to plunder them. 9
For they have virtually dug a pit to capture me
and have hidden traps for me to step into.
18:23 But you, Lord, know
all their plots to kill me.
Do not pardon their crimes!
Do not ignore their sins as though you had erased them! 10
Let them be brought down in defeat before you!
Deal with them while you are still angry! 11
4:14 “Oh people of Jerusalem, purify your hearts from evil 14
so that you may yet be delivered.
How long will you continue to harbor up
wicked schemes within you?
6:9 Now 15 when the Lamb opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been violently killed 16 because of the word of God and because of the testimony they had given. 6:10 They 17 cried out with a loud voice, 18 “How long, 19 Sovereign Master, 20 holy and true, before you judge those who live on the earth and avenge our blood?”
18:20 (Rejoice over her, O heaven,
and you saints and apostles and prophets,
for God has pronounced judgment 21 against her on your behalf!) 22
1 tn The words “I said” are not in the text. They are supplied in the translation for clarity to mark the shift from the
2 tn The words “how I suffer” are not in the text but are implicit from the continuation. They are supplied in the translation for clarity. Jeremiah is not saying “you are all knowing.”
3 tn Or “complete destruction.” See the translator’s note on 16:18.
4 tn Or “They are plotting to kill me”; Heb “They have dug a pit for my soul.” This is a common metaphor for plotting against someone. See BDB 500 s.v. כָּרָה Qal and for an example see Pss 7:16 (7:15 HT) in its context.
5 tn Heb “to speak good concerning them” going back to the concept of “good” being paid back with evil.
6 tn Heb “to turn back your anger from them.”
7 tn Heb “be poured out to the hand [= power] of the sword.” For this same expression see Ezek 35:5; Ps 63:10 (63:11 HT). Comparison with those two passages show that it involved death by violent means, perhaps death in battle.
8 tn Heb “be slain by death.” The commentaries are generally agreed that this refers to death by disease or plague as in 15:2. Hence, the reference is to the deadly trio of sword, starvation, and disease which were often connected with war. See the notes on 15:2.
9 tn Heb “when you bring marauders in against them.” For the use of the noun translated here “bands of raiders to plunder them” see 1 Sam 30:3, 15, 23 and BDB 151 s.v. גְּדוּד 1.
10 sn Heb “Do not blot out their sins from before you.” For this anthropomorphic figure which looks at God’s actions as though connected with record books, i.e., a book of wrongdoings to be punished, and a book of life for those who are to live, see e.g., Exod 32:32, 33, Ps 51:1 (51:3 HT); 69:28 (69:29 HT).
11 tn Heb “in the time of your anger.”
12 tn Heb “Get up and go down.” The first verb is not literal but is idiomatic for the initiation of an action. See 13:4, 6 for other occurrences of this idiom.
13 tn Heb “And I will cause you to hear my word there.”
14 tn Heb “Oh, Jerusalem, wash your heart from evil.”
15 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the introduction of a new and somewhat different topic after the introduction of the four riders.
16 tn Or “murdered.” See the note on the word “butcher” in 6:4.
17 tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.
18 tn Grk “voice, saying”; the participle λέγοντες (legontes) is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated here.
19 tn The expression ἕως πότε (ews pote) was translated “how long.” Cf. BDAG 423 s.v. ἕως 1.b.γ.
20 tn The Greek term here is δεσπότης (despoths; see L&N 37.63).
21 tn On the phrase “pronounced judgment” BDAG 567 s.v. κρίμα 4.b states, “The OT is the source of the expr. κρίνειν τὸ κρ. (cp. Zech 7:9; 8:16; Ezk 44:24) ἔκρινεν ὁ θεὸς τὸ κρίμα ὑμῶν ἐξ αὐτῆς God has pronounced judgment for you against her or God has pronounced on her the judgment she wished to impose on you (HHoltzmann, Hdb. 1893 ad loc.) Rv 18:20.”
22 tn Grk “God has judged a judgment of you of her.” Verse 20 is set in parentheses because in it the saints, etc. are addressed directly in the second person.