Jeremiah 52:6

52:6 By the ninth day of the fourth month ¹  the famine in the city was so severe the residents ²  had no food.

Jeremiah 24:10

24:10 I will bring war, starvation, and disease ³  on them until they are completely destroyed from the land I gave them and their ancestors.’” ⁴ 

Jeremiah 14:16

14:16 The people to whom they are prophesying will die through war and famine. Their bodies will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem ⁵  and there will be no one to bury them. This will happen to the men and their wives, their sons, and their daughters. ⁶  For I will pour out on them the destruction they deserve.” ⁷ 

Jeremiah 29:17

29:17 The Lord who rules over all ⁸  says, ‘I will bring war, ⁹  starvation, and disease on them. I will treat them like figs that are so rotten ¹⁰  they cannot be eaten.

Jeremiah 38:9

38:9 “Your royal Majesty, those men have been very wicked in all that they have done to the prophet Jeremiah. They have thrown him into a cistern and he is sure to die of starvation there because there is no food left in the city. ¹¹ 

Jeremiah 34:17

34:17 So I, the Lord, say: “You have not really obeyed me and granted freedom to your neighbor and fellow countryman. ¹²  Therefore, I will grant you freedom, the freedom ¹³  to die in war, or by starvation or disease. I, the Lord, affirm it! ¹⁴  I will make all the kingdoms of the earth horrified at what happens to you. ¹⁵ 

Jeremiah 21:7

21:7 Then ¹⁶  I, the Lord, promise that ¹⁷  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.’

¹ sn According to modern reckoning that would have been July 18, 586 b.c. The siege thus lasted almost a full eighteen months.

² tn Heb “the people of the land.”

³ sn See Jer 14:12 and the study note there.

⁴ tn Heb “fathers.”

⁵ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

⁶ tn Heb “And the people to whom they are prophesying will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem and there will not be anyone to bury them, they, their wives, and their sons and their daughters.” This sentence has been restructured to break up a long Hebrew sentence and to avoid some awkwardness due to differences in the ancient Hebrew and contemporary English styles.

⁷ tn Heb “their evil.” Hebrew words often include within them a polarity of cause and effect. Thus the word for “evil” includes both the concept of wickedness and the punishment for it. Other words that function this way are “iniquity” = “guilt [of iniquity]” = “punishment [for iniquity].” Context determines which nuance is proper.

⁷ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.” See the study note on 2:19 for explanation of this title.

⁸ tn Heb “the sword.”

⁹ tn The meaning of this word is somewhat uncertain. It occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible. BDB 1045 s.v. שֹׁעָר relates it to the noun “horrible thing” (translated “something shocking”) in Jer 5:30; 23:14 and defines it as “horrid, disgusting.” HALOT 1495 s.v. שֹׁעָר relates it to the same noun and define it as “rotten; corrupt.” That nuance is accepted here.

⁹ tn Heb “Those men have made evil all they have done to the prophet Jeremiah in that they have thrown him into the cistern and he will die of starvation in the place where he is because there is no more food in the city.” The particle אֵת (’et) before “they have thrown” (אֵת אֲשֶׁר הִשְׁלִיכוּ, ’et ’asher hishlikhu) is explanatory or further definition of “all they have done to” (i.e., the particle is repeated for apposition). The verb form “and he is sure to die” is an unusual use of the vav (ו) consecutive + imperfect that the grammars see as giving a logical consequence without a past nuance (cf. GKC 328 §111.l and IBHS 557-58 §33.3.1f).

¹¹ tn The Hebrew text has a compound object, the two terms of which have been synonyms in vv. 14, 15. G. L. Keown, P. J. Scalise, and T. G. Smothers (Jeremiah 26-52 [WBC], 189) make the interesting observation that these two terms (Heb “brother” and “neighbor”) emphasize the relationships that should have taken precedence over their being viewed as mere slaves.

¹² sn This is, of course, a metaphorical and ironical use of the term “to grant freedom to.” It is, however, a typical statement of the concept of talionic justice which is quite often operative in God’s judgments in the OT (cf., e.g., Obad 15).

¹³ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

¹⁴ sn Compare Jer 15:4; 24:9; 29:18.

¹³ tn Heb “And afterward.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “oracle of the Lord.”