Jeremiah 4:30

4:30 And you, Zion, city doomed to destruction, ¹ 

you accomplish nothing ²  by wearing a beautiful dress, ³ 

decking yourself out in jewels of gold,

and putting on eye shadow! ⁴ 

You are making yourself beautiful for nothing.

Your lovers spurn you.

They want to kill you. ⁵ 

Jeremiah 11:21

11:21 Then the Lord told me about ⁶  some men from Anathoth ⁷  who were threatening to kill me. ⁸  They had threatened, ⁹  “Stop prophesying in the name of the Lord or we will kill you!” ¹⁰ 

Jeremiah 21:7

21:7 Then ¹¹  I, the Lord, promise that ¹²  I will hand over King Zedekiah of Judah, his officials, and any of the people who survive the war, starvation, and disease. I will hand them over to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and to their enemies who want to kill them. He will slaughter them with the sword. He will not show them any mercy, compassion, or pity.’

Jeremiah 22:25

22:25 I will hand you over to those who want to take your life and of whom you are afraid. I will hand you over to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and his Babylonian ¹³  soldiers.

Jeremiah 38:16

38:16 So King Zedekiah made a secret promise to Jeremiah and sealed it with an oath. He promised, ¹⁴  “As surely as the Lord lives who has given us life and breath, ¹⁵  I promise you this: I will not kill you or hand you over to those men who want to kill you.” ¹⁶ 

Jeremiah 44:30

44:30 I, the Lord, promise that ¹⁷  I will hand Pharaoh Hophra ¹⁸  king of Egypt over to his enemies who are seeking to kill him. I will do that just as surely as I handed King Zedekiah of Judah over to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, his enemy who was seeking to kill him.’”

Jeremiah 49:37

49:37 I will make the people of Elam terrified of their enemies,

who are seeking to kill them.

I will vent my fierce anger

and bring disaster upon them,” ¹⁹  says the Lord. ²⁰ 

“I will send armies chasing after them ²¹ 

until I have completely destroyed them.

¹ tn Heb “And you that are doomed to destruction.” The referent is supplied from the following context and the fact that Zion/Jerusalem represents the leadership which was continually making overtures to foreign nations for help.

² tn Heb “What are you accomplishing…?” The rhetorical question assumes a negative answer, made clear by the translation in the indicative.

³ tn Heb “clothing yourself in scarlet.”

⁴ tn Heb “enlarging your eyes with antimony.” Antimony was a black powder used by women as eyeliner to make their eyes look larger.

⁵ tn Heb “they seek your life.”

⁶ tn Heb “Therefore thus says the Lord.” This phrase is anticipatory of the same phrase at the beginning of v. 22 and is introductory to what the Lord says about them. The translation seeks to show the connection of the “therefore” which is sometimes rather loose (cf. BDB 487 s.v. כֵּן 3.d[b]) with the actual response which is not given until v. 22.

⁷ tn Heb “the men of Anathoth.” However, this does not involve all of the people, only the conspirators. The literal might lead to confusion later since v. 21 mentions that there will not be any of them left alive. However, it is known from Ezra 2:23 that there were survivors.

⁸ tc The MT reads the 2nd person masculine singular suffix “your life,” but LXX reflects an alternative reading of the 1st person common singular suffix “my life.”

⁹ tn Heb “who were seeking my life, saying…” The sentence is broken up in conformity with contemporary English style.

¹⁰ tn Heb “or you will die by our hand.”

¹¹ tn Heb “And afterward.”

¹² tn Heb “oracle of the Lord.”

¹³ tn Heb “the Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4.

¹⁴ tn Heb “So King Zedekiah secretly swore an oath to Jeremiah, saying.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “who has made this life/soul/ breath [נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh] for us.” The Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ refers to the living, breathing substance of a person which constitutes his very life (cf. BDB 659 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ 1; 3).

¹⁶ tn Heb “who are seeking your life.”

¹⁷ tn Heb “Thus says the Lord, ‘Behold I will hand…’” The first person and indirect quote have been chosen because the Lord is already identified as the speaker and the indirect quote eliminates an extra level of embedded quotes.

¹⁸ sn Hophra ruled over Egypt from 589-570 b.c. He was the Pharaoh who incited Zedekiah to rebel against Nebuchadnezzar and whose army proved ineffective in providing any long-term relief to Jerusalem when it was under siege (see Jer 37 and especially the study note on 37:5). He was assassinated following a power struggle with a court official who had earlier saved him from a rebellion of his own troops and had ruled as co-regent with him.

¹⁹ tn Heb “I will bring disaster upon them, even my fierce anger.”

²⁰ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

²¹ tn Heb “I will send the sword after them.”