Jeremiah 4:27

4:27 All this will happen because the Lord said, ¹ 

“The whole land will be desolate;

however, I will not completely destroy it.

Jeremiah 6:8

6:8 So ²  take warning, Jerusalem,

or I will abandon you in disgust ³ 

and make you desolate,

a place where no one can live.”

Jeremiah 9:11

9:11 The Lord said, ⁴ 

“I will make Jerusalem ⁵  a heap of ruins.

Jackals will make their home there. ⁶ 

I will destroy the towns of Judah

so that no one will be able to live in them.”

Jeremiah 10:22

10:22 Listen! News is coming even now. ⁷ 

The rumble of a great army is heard approaching ⁸  from a land in the north. ⁹ 

It is coming to turn the towns of Judah into rubble,

places where only jackals live.

Jeremiah 12:10-11

12:10 Many foreign rulers ¹⁰  will ruin the land where I planted my people. ¹¹ 

They will trample all over my chosen land. ¹² 

They will turn my beautiful land

into a desolate wasteland.

12:11 They will lay it waste.

It will lie parched ¹³  and empty before me.

The whole land will be laid waste.

But no one living in it will pay any heed. ¹⁴ 

Jeremiah 32:43

32:43 You and your people ¹⁵  are saying that this land will become desolate, uninhabited by either people or animals. You are saying that it will be handed over to the Babylonians. ¹⁶  But fields ¹⁷  will again be bought in this land. ¹⁸ 

Jeremiah 49:33

49:33 “Hazor will become a permanent wasteland,

a place where only jackals live. ¹⁹ 

No one will live there.

No human being will settle in it.” ²⁰ 

Jeremiah 50:13

50:13 After I vent my wrath on it Babylon will be uninhabited. ²¹ 

It will be totally desolate.

All who pass by will be filled with horror and will hiss out their scorn

because of all the disasters that have happened to it. ²² 

Jeremiah 34:22

34:22 For I, the Lord, affirm that ²³  I will soon give the order and bring them back to this city. They will fight against it and capture it and burn it down. I will also make the towns of Judah desolate so that there will be no one living in them.”’”

Jeremiah 49:2

49:2 Because you did that,

I, the Lord, affirm that ²⁴  a time is coming

when I will make Rabbah, the capital city of Ammon,

hear the sound of the battle cry.

It will become a mound covered with ruins. ²⁵ 

Its villages will be burned to the ground. ²⁶ 

Then Israel will take back its land

from those who took their land from them.

I, the Lord, affirm it! ²⁷ 

¹ tn Heb “For this is what the Lord said,”

² tn This word is not in the text but is supplied in the translation. Jeremiah uses a figure of speech (enallage) where the speaker turns from talking about someone to address him/her directly.

³ tn Heb “lest my soul [= I] becomes disgusted with you.”

³ tn The words “the Lord said” are not in the text, but it is obvious from the content that he is the speaker. These words are supplied in the translation for clarity.

⁴ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

⁵ tn Heb “a heap of ruins, a haunt for jackals.”

⁴ tn Heb “The sound of a report, behold, it is coming.”

⁵ tn Heb “ coming, even a great quaking.”

⁶ sn Compare Jer 6:22.

⁵ tn Heb “Many shepherds.” For the use of the term “shepherd” as a figure for rulers see the notes on 10:21.

⁶ tn Heb “my vineyard.” To translate literally would presuppose an unlikely familiarity of this figure on the part of some readers. To translate as “vineyards” as some do would be misleading because that would miss the figurative nuance altogether.

⁷ tn Heb “my portion.”

⁶ tn For the use of this verb see the notes on 12:4. Some understand the homonym here meaning “it [the desolated land] will mourn to me.” However, the only other use of the preposition עַל (’al) with this root means “to mourn over” not “to” (cf. Hos 10:5). For the use of the preposition here see BDB 753 s.v. עַל II.1.b and compare the use in Gen 48:7.

⁷ tn Heb “But there is no man laying it to heart.” For the idiom here see BDB 525 s.v. לֵב II.3.d and compare the usage in Isa 42:25; 47:7.

⁷ tn Heb “you.” However, the pronoun is plural and is addressed to more than just Jeremiah (v. 26). It includes Jeremiah and those who have accepted his prophecy of doom.

⁸ tn Heb “The Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for further explanation.

⁹ tn The noun is singular with the article, but it is a case of the generic singular (cf. GKC 406 §126.m).

¹⁰ tn Heb “Fields will be bought in this land of which you [masc. pl.] are saying, ‘It will be desolate [a perfect of certainty or prophetic perfect] without man or beast; it will be given into the hand of the Chaldeans.’” The original sentence has been broken down to better conform to contemporary English style.

⁸ sn Compare Jer 9:11.

⁹ sn Compare Jer 49:18 and 50:40 where the same thing is said about Edom and Babylon.

⁹ tn Heb “From [or Because of] the wrath of the Lord it will be uninhabited.” The causal connection is spelled out more clearly and actively and the first person has been used because the speaker is the Lord. The referent “it” has been spelled out clearly from the later occurrence in the verse, “all who pass by Babylon.”

¹⁰ sn Compare Jer 49:17 and the study note there and see also the study notes on 18:16 and 19:8.

¹⁰ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

¹¹ tn Heb “oracle of the Lord.”

¹² tn Heb “a desolate tel.” For the explanation of what a “tel” is see the study note on 30:18.

¹³ tn Heb “Its daughters will be burned with fire.” For the use of the word “daughters” to refer to the villages surrounding a larger city see BDB 123 s.v. I בַּת 4 and compare the usage in Judg 1:27.

¹⁴ tn Heb “says the Lord.” The first person is used to maintain the first person address throughout.