6:11 I am as full of anger as you are, Lord, 1
I am tired of trying to hold it in.”
The Lord answered, 2
“Vent it, then, 3 on the children who play in the street
and on the young men who are gathered together.
Husbands and wives are to be included, 4
as well as the old and those who are advanced in years.
8:19 I hear my dear people 5 crying out 6
throughout the length and breadth of the land. 7
They are crying, ‘Is the Lord no longer in Zion?
Is her divine King 8 no longer there?’”
The Lord answers, 9
“Why then do they provoke me to anger with their images,
with their worthless foreign idols?” 10
14:19 Then I said,
“Lord, 11 have you completely rejected the nation of Judah?
Do you despise 12 the city of Zion?
Why have you struck us with such force
that we are beyond recovery? 13
We hope for peace, but nothing good has come of it.
We hope for a time of relief from our troubles, but experience terror. 14
31:8 Then I will reply, 32 ‘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.
31:12 They will come and shout for joy on Mount Zion.
They will be radiant with joy 33 over the good things the Lord provides,
the grain, the fresh wine, the olive oil,
the young sheep and calves he has given to them.
They will be like a well-watered garden
and will not grow faint or weary any more.
31:23 The Lord God of Israel who rules over all 34 says,
“I will restore the people of Judah to their land and to their towns.
When I do, they will again say 35 of Jerusalem, 36
‘May the Lord bless you, you holy mountain,
the place where righteousness dwells.’ 37
1 tn Heb “I am full of the wrath of the
2 tn These words are not in the text but are implicit from the words that follow. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.
3 tn Heb “Pour it out.”
4 tn Heb “are to be captured.”
5 tn Heb “daughter of my people.” For the translation given here see 4:11 and the note on the phrase “dear people” there.
6 tn Heb “Behold the voice of the crying of the daughter of my people.”
7 tn Heb “Land of distances, i.e., of wide extent.” For parallel usage cf. Isa 33:17.
8 tn Heb “her King” but this might be misunderstood by some to refer to the Davidic ruler even with the capitalization.
9 tn The words, “The
10 sn The people’s cry and the
9 tn The words, “Then I said, ‘
10 tn Heb “does your soul despise.” Here as in many places the word “soul” stands as part for whole for the person himself emphasizing emotional and volitional aspects of the person. However, in contemporary English one does not regularly speak of the “soul” in contexts such as this but of the person.
11 tn Heb “Why have you struck us and there is no healing for us.” The statement involves poetic exaggeration (hyperbole) for rhetorical effect.
12 tn Heb “[We hope] for a time of healing but behold terror.”
13 tn The text merely has “they.” But since a reference is made later to “they” and “their ancestors,” the referent must be to the people that the leaders of the people and leaders of the priests represent.
14 sn Heb “have made this city foreign.” The verb here is one that is built off of the noun and adjective which relate to foreign nations. Comparison may be made to Jer 2:21 where the adjective refers to the strange, wild vine as opposed to the choice vine the
15 tn Heb “fathers.”
16 tn Heb “the blood of innocent ones.” This must be a reference to child sacrifice as explained in the next verse. Some have seen a reference to the sins of social injustice alluded to in 2 Kgs 21:16 and 24:4 but those are connected with the city itself. Hence the word children is supplied in the translation to make the referent explicit.
17 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.
18 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.
19 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.”
20 sn See Jer 7:22-23 for parallels.
21 tn Heb “Take them [the goods, etc.] as plunder and seize them.”
25 tn Heb “Tell Zedekiah, ‘Thus says the
26 tn Heb “the weapons which are in your hand.” Weapons stands here by substitution for the soldiers who wield them.
27 sn The Babylonians (Heb “the Chaldeans”). The Chaldeans were a group of people in the country south of Babylon from which Nebuchadnezzar came. The Chaldean dynasty his father established became the name by which the Babylonians are regularly referred to in the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah’s contemporary Ezekiel uses both terms.
28 tn The structure of the Hebrew sentence of this verse is long and complex and has led to a great deal of confusion and misunderstanding. There are two primary points of confusion: 1) the relation of the phrase “outside the walls,” and 2) the antecedent of “them” in the last clause of the verse that reads in Hebrew: “I will gather them back into the midst of the city.” Most take the phrase “outside the walls” with “the Babylonians….” Some take it with “turn back/bring back” to mean “from outside….” However, the preposition “from” is part of the idiom for “outside….” The phrase goes with “fighting” as J. Bright (Jeremiah [AB], 215) notes and as NJPS suggests. The antecedent of “them” has sometimes been taken mistakenly to refer to the Babylonians. It refers rather to “the forces at your disposal” which is literally “the weapons which are in your hands.” This latter phrase is a figure involving substitution (called metonymy) as Bright also correctly notes. The whole sentence reads in Hebrew: “I will bring back the weapons of war which are in your hand with which you are fighting Nebuchadrezzar the King of Babylon and the Chaldeans who are besieging you outside your wall and I will gather them into the midst of the city.” The sentence has been restructured to better reflect the proper relationships and to make the sentence conform more to contemporary English style.
29 tn Heb “which is called by my name.” See translator’s note on 7:10 for support.
30 tn This is an example of a question without the formal introductory particle following a conjunctive vav introducing an opposition. (See Joüon 2:609 §161.a.) It is also an example of the use of the infinitive before the finite verb in a rhetorical question involving doubt or denial. (See Joüon 2:422-23 §123.f, and compare usage in Gen 37:8.)
31 tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.”
32 tn Heb “Oracle of Yahweh of armies.”
33 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.
37 tn Reading a Qal perfect from the root II נָהַר (nahar; so KBL 509 s.v. and HALOT 639 s.v.) rather than I נָהַר (so BDB 625 s.v.).
41 tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.” See 7:3 and the study note of 2:19 for the rendering of this title and an explanation of its significance.
42 tn Heb “They [i.e., people (the indefinite plural, GKC 460 §144.g)] will again say in the land of Judah and in its cities when I restore their fortunes.” For the meaning of the idiom “to restore the fortunes” see the translator’s note on 29:14.
43 tn The words “of Jerusalem” are not in the text but it is implicit in the titles that follow. They have been supplied in the translation for clarity to aid in identifying the referent.
44 sn The blessing pronounced on the city of Zion/Jerusalem by the restored exiles looks at the restoration of its once exalted state as the city known for its sanctity and its just dealing (see Isa 1:21 and Ps 122). This was a reversal of the state of Jerusalem in the time of Isaiah and Jeremiah where wickedness not righteousness characterized the inhabitants of the city (cf. Isa 1:21; Jer 4:14; 5:1; 13:27). The blessing here presupposes the rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem and the temple which gave the city its sanctity.
45 tn Heb “And it [the city] will be to me for a name for joy and for praise and for honor before all the nations of the earth which will hear of all the good things which I will do for them and which will be in awe and tremble for all the good things and all the peace [or prosperity] which I will do for them.” The long complex Hebrew sentence has been broken down to better conform with contemporary English style.