Jeremiah 1:10

1:10 Know for certain that ¹  I hereby give you the authority to announce to nations and kingdoms that they will be ²  uprooted and torn down, destroyed and demolished, rebuilt and firmly planted.” ³ 

Jeremiah 2:23

2:23 “How can you say, ‘I have not made myself unclean.

I have not paid allegiance to ⁴  the gods called Baal.’

Just look at the way you have behaved in the Valley of Hinnom! ⁵ 

Think about the things you have done there!

You are like a flighty, young female camel

that rushes here and there, crisscrossing its path. ⁶ 

Jeremiah 3:2

3:2 “Look up at the hilltops and consider this. ⁷ 

You have had sex with other gods on every one of them. ⁸ 

You waited for those gods like a thief lying in wait in the desert. ⁹ 

You defiled the land by your wicked prostitution to other gods. ¹⁰ 

Jeremiah 3:7

3:7 Yet even after she had done all that, I thought that she might come back to me. ¹¹  But she did not. Her sister, unfaithful Judah, saw what she did. ¹² 

Jeremiah 5:12

5:12 “These people have denied what the Lord says. ¹³ 

They have said, ‘That is not so! ¹⁴ 

No harm will come to us.

We will not experience war and famine. ¹⁵ 

Jeremiah 5:21

5:21 Tell them: ‘Hear this,

you foolish people who have no understanding,

who have eyes but do not discern,

who have ears but do not perceive: ¹⁶ 

Jeremiah 7:11

7:11 Do you think this temple I have claimed as my own ¹⁷  is to be a hideout for robbers? ¹⁸  You had better take note! ¹⁹  I have seen for myself what you have done! says the Lord.

Jeremiah 11:20

11:20 So I said to the Lord, ²⁰ 

“O Lord who rules over all, ²¹  you are a just judge!

You examine people’s hearts and minds. ²² 

I want to see you pay them back for what they have done

because I trust you to vindicate my cause.” ²³ 

Jeremiah 12:3

12:3 But you, Lord, know all about me.

You watch me and test my devotion to you. ²⁴ 

Drag these wicked men away like sheep to be slaughtered!

Appoint a time when they will be killed! ²⁵ 

Jeremiah 13:27

13:27 People of Jerusalem, ²⁶  I have seen your adulterous worship,

your shameless prostitution to, and your lustful pursuit of, other gods. ²⁷ 

I have seen your disgusting acts of worship ²⁸ 

on the hills throughout the countryside.

You are doomed to destruction! ²⁹ 

How long will you continue to be unclean?’”

Jeremiah 17:6

17:6 They will be like a shrub ³⁰  in the desert.

They will not experience good things even when they happen.

It will be as though they were growing in the desert,

in a salt land where no one can live.

Jeremiah 22:10

Judgment on Jehoahaz

22:10 “‘Do not weep for the king who was killed.

Do not grieve for him.

But weep mournfully for the king who has gone into exile.

For he will never return to see his native land again. ³¹ 

Jeremiah 22:12

22:12 For he will die in the country where they took him as a captive. He will never see this land again.” ³² 

Jeremiah 23:18

23:18 Yet which of them has ever stood in the Lord’s inner circle ³³ 

so they ³⁴  could see and hear what he has to say? ³⁵ 

Which of them have ever paid attention or listened to what he has said?

Jeremiah 23:24

23:24 “Do you really think anyone can hide himself

where I cannot see him?” the Lord asks. ³⁶ 

“Do you not know that I am everywhere?” ³⁷ 

the Lord asks. ³⁸ 

Jeremiah 41:13

41:13 When all the people that Ishmael had taken captive saw ³⁹  Johanan son of Kareah and all the army officers with him, they were glad.

Jeremiah 46:5

46:5 What do I see?” ⁴⁰  says the Lord. ⁴¹ 

“The soldiers ⁴²  are terrified.

They are retreating.

They have been defeated.

They are overcome with terror; ⁴³ 

they desert quickly

without looking back.

[1:10]  ¹ tn Heb “See!” The Hebrew imperative of the verb used here (רָאָה, ra’ah) functions the same as the particle in v. 9. See the translator’s note there.

[1:10]  ² tn Heb “I appoint you today over nations and kingdoms to uproot….” The phrase refers to the Lord giving Jeremiah authority as a prophet to declare what he, the Lord, will do; it does not mean that Jeremiah himself will do these things. The expression involves a figure of speech where the subject of a declaration is stated instead of the declaration about it. Compare a similar use of the same figure in Gen 41:13.

[1:10]  ³ sn These three pairs represent the twofold nature of Jeremiah’s prophecies, prophecies of judgment and restoration. For the further programmatic use of these pairs for Jeremiah’s ministry see 18:7-10 and 31:27-28.

[2:23]  ⁴ tn Heb “I have not gone/followed after.” See the translator’s note on 2:5 for the meaning and usage of this idiom.

[2:23]  ⁵ tn Heb “Look at your way in the valley.” The valley is an obvious reference to the Valley of Hinnom where Baal and Molech were worshiped and child sacrifice was practiced.

[2:23]  ⁶ sn The metaphor is intended to depict Israel’s lack of clear direction and purpose without the Lord’s control.

[3:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “and see.”

[3:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “Where have you not been ravished?” The rhetorical question expects the answer “nowhere,” which suggests she has engaged in the worship of pagan gods on every one of the hilltops.

[3:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “You sat for them [the lovers, i.e., the foreign gods] beside the road like an Arab in the desert.”

[3:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “by your prostitution and your wickedness.” This is probably an example of hendiadys where, when two nouns are joined by “and,” one expresses the main idea and the other qualifies it.

[3:7]  ¹⁰ tn Or “I said to her, ‘Come back to me!’” The verb אָמַר (’amar) usually means “to say,” but here it means “to think,” of an assumption that turns out to be wrong (so HALOT 66.4 s.v. אמר); cf. Gen 44:28; Jer 3:19; Pss 82:6; 139:11; Job 29:18; Ruth 4:4; Lam 3:18.

[3:7]  ¹¹ tn The words “what she did” are not in the text but are implicit from the context and are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[5:12]  ¹³ tn Heb “have denied the Lord.” The words “What…says” are implicit in what follows.

[5:12]  ¹⁴ tn Or “he will do nothing”; Heb “Not he [or it]!”

[5:12]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “we will not see the sword and famine.”

[5:21]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “they have eyes but they do not see, they have ears but they do not hear.”

[7:11]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “over which my name is called.” For this nuance of this idiom cf. BDB 896 s.v. קָרָא Niph.2.d(4) and see the usage in 2 Sam 12:28.

[7:11]  ²⁰ tn Heb “Is this house…a den/cave of robbers in your eyes?”

[7:11]  ²¹ tn Heb “Behold!”

[11:20]  ²² tn The words “So I said to the Lord” are not in the text but are implicit from the context. They are supplied in the translation for clarity to show the shift in address.

[11:20]  ²³ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.”

[11:20]  ²⁴ tn Heb “Lord of armies, just judge, tester of kidneys and heart.” The sentence has been broken up to avoid a long and complex English sentence. The translation is more in keeping with contemporary English style. In Hebrew thought the “kidneys” were thought of as the seat of the emotions and passions and the “heart” was viewed as the seat of intellect, conscience, and will. The “heart” and the “kidneys” are often used figuratively for the thoughts, emotions, motives, and drives that are thought to be seated in them.

[11:20]  ²⁵ tn Heb “Let me see your retribution [i.e., see you exact retribution] from them because I reveal my cause [i.e., plea for justice] to you.”

[12:3]  ²⁵ tn Heb “You, Lord, know me. You watch me and you test my heart toward you.”

[12:3]  ²⁶ tn Heb “set aside for them a day of killing.”

[13:27]  ²⁸ tn Heb “Jerusalem.” This word has been pulled up from the end of the verse to help make the transition. The words “people of” have been supplied in the translation here to ease the difficulty mentioned earlier of sustaining the personification throughout.

[13:27]  ²⁹ tn Heb “[I have seen] your adulteries, your neighings, and your shameless prostitution.” The meanings of the metaphorical references have been incorporated in the translation for the sake of clarity for readers of all backgrounds.

[13:27]  ³⁰ tn Heb “your disgusting acts.” This word is almost always used of idolatry or of the idols themselves. See BDB 1055 s.v. שִׁקֻּוּץ and Deut 29:17 and Jer 4:1; 7:30.

[13:27]  ³¹ tn Heb “Woe to you!”

[17:6]  ³¹ tn This word occurs only here and in Jer 48:6. It has been identified as a kind of juniper, which is a short shrub with minute leaves that look like scales. For a picture and more discussion see Fauna and Flora of the Bible, 131.

[22:10]  ³⁴ tn The word “king” is not in the original text of either the first or the third line. It is implicit in the connection and is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[22:12]  ³⁷ sn This prophecy was fulfilled according to 2 Kgs 23:34.

[23:18]  ⁴⁰ tn Or “has been the Lord’s confidant.”

[23:18]  ⁴¹ tn The form here is a jussive with a vav of subordination introducing a purpose after a question (cf. GKC 322 §109.f).

[23:18]  ⁴² tc Heb “his word.” In the second instance (“what he has said” at the end of the verse) the translation follows the suggestion of the Masoretes (Qere) and many Hebrew mss rather than the consonantal text (Kethib) of the Leningrad Codex.

[23:24]  ⁴³ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[23:24]  ⁴⁴ tn The words “Don’t you know” are not in the text. They are a way of conveying the idea that the question which reads literally “Do I not fill heaven and earth?” expects a positive answer. They follow the pattern used at the beginning of the previous two questions and continue that thought. The words are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[23:24]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[41:13]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “all the people who were with Ishmael.” However, this does not refer to his own troops but to those he had taken with him from Mizpah, i.e., the captives. The phrase is specifically clarified in the next verse, i.e. “the people whom Ishmael had taken captive from Mizpah.” Hence the phrase is translated here according to sense, not according to the literal wording.

[46:5]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “Why do I see?” The rendering is that of J. A. Thompson (Jeremiah [NICOT], 685, 88) and J. Bright (Jeremiah [AB], 301; TEV; NIV). The question is not asking for information but is expressing surprise or wonder (see E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 951).

[46:5]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “oracle of the Lord.” This phrase, which is part of a messenger formula (i.e., that the words that are spoken are from him), are actually at the end of the verse. They have been put here for better poetic balance and to better identify the “I.”

[46:5]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “Their soldiers.” These words are actually at the midpoint of the stanza as the subject of the third of the five verbs. However, as G. L. Keown, P. J. Scalise, and T. G. Smothers (Jeremiah 26-52 [WBC], 291) note, this is the subject of all five verbs “are terrified,” “are retreating,” “have been defeated,” “have run away,” and “have not looked back.” The subject is put at the front to avoid an unidentified “they.”

[46:5]  ⁵² tn Heb “terror is all around.”