4:6 Raise a signal flag that tells people to go to Zion. 1
Run for safety! Do not delay!
For I am about to bring disaster out of the north.
It will bring great destruction. 2
6:22 “This is what the Lord says:
‘Beware! An army 3 is coming from a land in the north.
A mighty nation is stirring into action in faraway parts of the earth.
10:22 Listen! News is coming even now. 4
The rumble of a great army is heard approaching 5 from a land in the north. 6
It is coming to turn the towns of Judah into rubble,
places where only jackals live.
25:32 The Lord who rules over all 7 says,
‘Disaster will soon come on one nation after another. 8
A mighty storm of military destruction 9 is rising up
from the distant parts of the earth.’
30:7 Alas, what a terrible time of trouble it is! 10
There has never been any like it.
It is a time of trouble for the descendants of Jacob,
but some of them will be rescued out of it. 11
31:8 Then I will reply, 12 ‘I will bring them back from the land of the north.
I will gather them in from the distant parts of the earth.
Blind and lame people will come with them,
so will pregnant women and women about to give birth.
A vast throng of people will come back here.
42:1 Then all the army officers, including Johanan son of Kareah and Jezaniah son of Hoshaiah 15 and all the people of every class, 16 went to the prophet Jeremiah.
51:55 For the Lord is ready to destroy Babylon,
and put an end to her loud noise.
Their waves 18 will roar like turbulent 19 waters.
They will make a deafening noise. 20
1 tn Heb “Raise up a signal toward Zion.”
2 tn Heb “out of the north, even great destruction.”
3 tn Heb “people.”
5 tn Heb “The sound of a report, behold, it is coming.”
6 tn Heb “ coming, even a great quaking.”
7 sn Compare Jer 6:22.
7 tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.”
8 tn Heb “will go forth from nation to nation.”
9 tn The words “of military destruction” have been supplied in the translation to make the metaphor clear. The metaphor has shifted from that of God as a lion, to God as a warrior, to God as a judge, to God as the author of the storm winds of destruction.
9 tn Heb “Alas [or Woe] for that day will be great.” For the use of the particle “Alas” to signal a time of terrible trouble, even to sound the death knell for someone, see the translator’s note on 22:13.
10 tn Heb “It is a time of trouble for Jacob but he will be saved out of it.”
11 tn The words “And I will reply” are not in the text but the words vv. 8-9 appear to be the answer to the petition at the end of v. 7. These words are supplied in the translation for clarity.
13 tn Heb “You brought your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and wonders and with a mighty hand and with outstretched arm and with great terror.” For the figurative expressions involved here see the marginal notes on 27:5. The sentence has been broken down to better conform to contemporary English style.
15 tn The verb here should be interpreted as a future perfect; though some of the people have already been exiled (in 605 and 597
17 sn Jezaniah son of Hoshaiah may have been the same as the Jezaniah son of the Maacathite mentioned in 40:8. The title “the Maacathite” would identify the locality from which his father came, i.e., a region in northern Transjordan east of Lake Huleh. Many think he is also the same man who is named “Azariah” in Jer 43:2 (the Greek version has Azariah both here and in 43:2). It was not uncommon for one man to have two names, e.g., Uzziah who was also named Azariah (compare 2 Kgs 14:21 with 2 Chr 26:1).
18 tn Or “without distinction,” or “All the people from the least important to the most important”; Heb “from the least to the greatest.” This is a figure of speech that uses polar opposites as an all-inclusive designation of everyone without exception (i.e., it included all the people from the least important or poorest to the most important or richest.)
19 tn Or “without distinction,” or “All the people from the least important to the most important”; Heb “from the least to the greatest.” This is a figure of speech that uses polar opposites as an all-inclusive designation of everyone without exception (i.e., it included all the people from the least important or poorest to the most important or richest.)
21 tn The antecedent of the third masculine plural pronominal suffix is not entirely clear. It probably refers back to the “destroyers” mentioned in v. 53 as the agents of God’s judgment on Babylon.
22 tn Or “mighty waters.”
23 tn Heb “and the noise of their sound will be given,”