5:14 Because of that, 1 the Lord, the God who rules over all, 2 said to me, 3
“Because these people have spoken 4 like this, 5
I will make the words that I put in your mouth like fire.
And I will make this people like wood
which the fiery judgments you speak will burn up.” 6
21:8 “But 14 tell the people of Jerusalem 15 that the Lord says, ‘I will give you a choice between two courses of action. One will result in life; the other will result in death. 16 21:9 Those who stay in this city will die in battle or of starvation or disease. Those who leave the city and surrender to the Babylonians who are besieging it will live. They will escape with their lives. 17 21:10 For I, the Lord, say that 18 I am determined not to deliver this city but to bring disaster on it. 19 It will be handed over to the king of Babylon and he will destroy it with fire.’” 20
24:8 “I, the Lord, also solemnly assert: ‘King Zedekiah of Judah, his officials, and the people who remain in Jerusalem 21 or who have gone to live in Egypt are like those bad figs. I consider them to be just like those bad figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten. 22 24:9 I will bring such disaster on them that all the kingdoms of the earth will be horrified. I will make them an object of reproach, a proverbial example of disaster. I will make them an object of ridicule, an example to be used in curses. 23 That is how they will be remembered wherever I banish them. 24 24:10 I will bring war, starvation, and disease 25 on them until they are completely destroyed from the land I gave them and their ancestors.’” 26
‘The Lord who rules over all 30 says,
“Zion 31 will become a plowed field.
Jerusalem 32 will become a pile of rubble.
The temple mount will become a mere wooded ridge.”’ 33
26:20 Now there was another man 34 who prophesied as the Lord’s representative 35 against this city and this land just as Jeremiah did. His name was Uriah son of Shemaiah from Kiriath Jearim. 36
23:14 “Look, today I am about to die. 55 You know with all your heart and being 56 that not even one of all the faithful promises the Lord your God made to you is left unfulfilled; every one was realized – not one promise is unfulfilled! 57 23:15 But in the same way every faithful promise the Lord your God made to you has been realized, 58 it is just as certain, if you disobey, that the Lord will bring on you every judgment 59 until he destroys you from this good land which the Lord your God gave you.
1:1 After Moses the Lord’s servant died, the Lord said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ assistant:
1 tn Heb “Therefore.”
2 tn Heb “The
3 tn The words, “to me” are not in the text but are implicit in the connection. They are supplied in the translation for clarification.
4 tn Heb “you have spoken.” The text here דַּבֶּרְכֶם (dabberkhem, “you have spoken”) is either a case of a scribal error for דַּבֶּרָם (dabberam, “they have spoken”) or an example of the rapid shift in addressee which is common in Jeremiah.
5 tn Heb “this word.”
6 tn Heb “like wood and it [i.e., the fire I put in your mouth] will consume them.”
7 tn Heb “Thus says Yahweh of armies.” For this title see the study note on 2:19. The translation attempts to avoid the confusion of embedding quotes within quotes by reducing this one to an indirect quote.
8 tn The adverb “Thus” or “Like this” normally points back to something previously mentioned. See, e.g., Exod 29:35; Num 11:15; 15:11; Deut 25:9.
9 tn Heb “Like this I will break this people and this city, just as one breaks the vessel of a potter which is not able to be repaired.”
10 sn See Jer 7:22-23 for parallels.
11 tn This phrase (Heb “Oracle of the
12 tn Heb “And afterward.”
13 tn Heb “oracle of the
14 tn Heb “And/But unto this people you shall say…” “But” is suggested here by the unusual word order which offsets what they are to say to Zedekiah (v. 3).
15 tn Heb “these people.”
16 tn Heb “Behold I am setting before you the way of life and the way of death.”
17 tn Heb “his life will be to him for spoil.”
18 tn Heb “oracle of the
19 tn Heb “I have set my face against this city for evil [i.e., disaster] and not for good [i.e., well-being].” For the use of the idiom “set one’s face against/toward” see, e.g., usage in 1 Kgs 2:15; 2 Kgs 2:17; Jer 42:15, 17 and note the interesting interplay of usage in Jer 44:11-12.
20 tn Heb “he will burn it with fire.”
21 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
22 tn Heb “Like the bad figs which cannot be eaten from badness [= because they are so bad] surely [emphatic כִּי, ki] so I regard Zedekiah, king of Judah, and his officials and the remnant of Jerusalem which remains in this land and those who are living in Egypt.” The sentence has been restructured in the translation to conform more to contemporary English style. For the use of נָתַן (natan) meaning “regard” or “treat like” see BDB 681 s.v. נָתַן 3.c and compare the usage in Ezek 28:6;Gen 42:30.
23 tn Or “an object of reproach in peoples’ proverbs…an object of ridicule in people’s curses.” The alternate translation treats the two pairs which are introduced without vavs (ו) but are joined by vavs as examples of hendiadys. This is very possible here but the chain does not contain this pairing in 25:18; 29:18.
24 tn Heb “I will make them for a terror for disaster to all the kingdoms of the earth, for a reproach and for a proverb, for a taunt and a curse in all the places which I banish them there.” The complex Hebrew sentence has been broken down into equivalent shorter sentences to conform more with contemporary English style.
25 sn See Jer 14:12 and the study note there.
26 tn Heb “fathers.”
27 tn Heb “For in truth the
28 sn Micah from Moresheth was a contemporary of Isaiah (compare Mic 1:1 with Isa 1:1) from the country town of Moresheth in the hill country southwest of Jerusalem. The prophecy referred to is found in Mic 3:12. This is the only time in the OT where an OT prophet is quoted verbatim and identified.
29 sn Hezekiah was co-regent with his father Ahaz from 729-715
30 tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.”
31 sn Zion was first of all the citadel that David captured (2 Sam 5:6-10), then the city of David and the enclosed temple area, then the whole city of Jerusalem. It is often in poetic parallelism with Jerusalem as it is here (see, e.g., Ps 76:2; Amos 1:2).
32 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
33 sn There is irony involved in this statement. The text reads literally “high places of a forest/thicket.” The “high places” were the illicit places of worship that Jerusalem was supposed to replace. Because of their sin, Jerusalem would be like one of the pagan places of worship with no place left sacrosanct. It would even be overgrown with trees and bushes. So much for its inviolability!
34 sn This is a brief parenthetical narrative about an otherwise unknown prophet who was executed for saying the same things Jeremiah did. It is put here to show the real danger that Jeremiah faced for saying what he did. There is nothing in the narrative here to show any involvement by Jehoiakim. This was a “lynch mob” instigated by the priests and false prophets which was stymied by the royal officials supported by some of the elders of Judah. Since it is disjunctive or parenthetical it is unclear whether this incident happened before or after that in the main narrative being reported.
35 tn Heb “in the name of the
36 tn Heb “Now also a man was prophesying in the name of the
37 tn Heb “Thus says the
38 tn Heb “Behold, I will give this city into the hand of…”
39 tn Heb “The Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for further explanation.
40 tn Heb “The Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for further explanation.
41 sn Compare Jer 19:13.
42 tn Heb “told him”; the referent (Jeremiah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
43 tn Heb “told him”; the referent (Jeremiah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
44 tn Heb 34:1 “The word which came to Jeremiah from the
45 tn Heb “Your eyes will see the eyes of the king of Babylon and his mouth will speak with your mouth.” For this same idiom in reverse order see 32:4 and consult the translator’s note there for the obligatory nuance given to the verbs.
46 tn Heb “Oracle of the
47 tn Heb “Therefore, thus says the
48 tn Heb “for their iniquity.”
49 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
50 tn Heb “all the disaster which I spoke against them and they did not listen [or obey].”
51 tn Heb “The survivors of the sword will return from the land of Egypt to the land of Judah few in number [more literally, “men of number”; for the idiom see BDB 709 s.v. מִסְפָּר 1.a].” The term “survivors of the sword” may be intended to represent both those who survive death in war or death by starvation or disease, a synecdoche of species for all three genera.
52 tn Heb “will stand,” i.e., in the sense of being fulfilled, proving to be true, or succeeding (see BDB 878 s.v. קוּם 7.g).
53 tn Heb “oracle of the
54 tn Heb “This will be to you the sign, oracle of the
55 tn Heb “go the way of all the earth.”
56 tn Or “soul.”
57 tn Heb “one word from all these words which the
58 tn Heb “and it will be as every good word which the
59 tn Heb “so the
60 tn Heb “he has fulfilled his word(s) which he spoke.”
61 tn Heb “our judges.”
62 tn Heb “who judged.”
63 tc BHS suggests אֶתְכֶם (’etkhem, “you”) for the MT אֲבֹתֵיכֶם (’avotekhem, “your fathers”) to harmonize with v. 4. In v. 4 the ancestors would not turn but in v. 6 they appear to have done so. The subject in v. 6, however, is to be construed as Zechariah’s own listeners.
64 tn Heb “they turned” (so ASV). Many English versions have “they repented” here; cf. CEV “they turned back to me.”
65 sn The words that Jesus predicts here will never pass away. They are more stable and lasting than creation itself. For this kind of image, see Isa 40:8; 55:10-11.