Jeremiah 6:27

6:27 The Lord said to me, ¹ 

“I have made you like a metal assayer

to test my people like ore. ² 

You are to observe them

and evaluate how they behave.” ³ 

Jeremiah 49:15

49:15 The Lord says to Edom, ⁴ 

“I will certainly make you small among nations.

I will make you despised by all humankind.

Jeremiah 1:5

1:5 “Before I formed you in your mother’s womb ⁵  I chose you. ⁶ 

Before you were born I set you apart.

I appointed you to be a prophet to the nations.”

Jeremiah 1:18

1:18 I, the Lord, ⁷  hereby promise to make you ⁸  as strong as a fortified city, an iron pillar, and a bronze wall. You will be able to stand up against all who live in ⁹  the land, including the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests and all the people of the land.

¹ tn These words are not in the text but are supplied in the translation for clarity. Note “I have appointed you.” Compare Jer 1:18.

² tn Heb “I have made you an assayer of my people, a tester [?].” The meaning of the words translated “assayer” (בָּחוֹן, bakhon) and “tester” (מִבְצָר, mivtsar) is uncertain. The word בָּחוֹן (bakhon) can mean “tower” (cf. BDB 103 s.v. בָּחוֹן; cf. Isa 23:13 for the only other use) or “assayer” (cf. BDB 103 s.v. בָּחוֹן). The latter would be the more expected nuance because of the other uses of nouns and verbs from this root. The word מִבְצָר (mivtsar) normally means “fortress” (cf. BDB 131 s.v. מִבְצָר), but most modern commentaries and lexicons deem that nuance inappropriate here. HALOT follows a proposal that the word is to be repointed to מְבַצֵּר (mÿvatser) and derived from a root בָּצַר (batsar) meaning “to test” (cf. HALOT 143 s.v. IV בָּצַר). That proposal makes the most sense in the context, but the root appears nowhere else in the OT.

³ tn Heb “test their way.”

⁴ tn The words “The Lord says to Edom” are not in the text. They have been supplied in the translation to mark the shift from the address of the messenger summoning the nations to prepare to do battle against Edom. The Lord is clearly the speaker (see the end of v. 16) and Edom is clearly the addressee. Such sudden shifts are common in Hebrew poetry, particularly Hebrew prophecy, but are extremely disruptive to a modern reader trying to follow the argument of a passage. TEV adds “The Lord said” and then retains third person throughout. CEV puts all of vv. 14-16 in the second person and uses indirect discourse in v. 15.

⁷ tn Heb “the womb.” The words “your mother’s” are implicit and are supplied in the translation for clarity.

⁸ tn Heb “I knew you.” The parallelism here with “set you apart” and “appointed you” make clear that Jeremiah is speaking of his foreordination to be a prophet. For this same nuance of the Hebrew verb see Gen 18:19; Amos 3:2.

¹⁰ tn See the note on “Jeremiah” at the beginning of v. 17.

¹¹ tn Heb “today I have made you.” The Hebrew verb form here emphasizes the certainty of a yet future act; the Lord is promising to protect Jeremiah from any future attacks which may result from his faithfully carrying out his commission. See a similar use of the same Hebrew verb tense in v. 9, and see the translator’s note there.

¹² tn Heb “I make you a fortified city…against all the land….” The words “as strong as” and “so you will be able to stand against all the people of…” are given to clarify the meaning of the metaphor.