Jeremiah 1:11-14

Visions Confirming Jeremiah’s Call and Commission

1:11 Later the Lord asked me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” I answered, “I see a branch of an almond tree.” 1:12 Then the Lord said, “You have observed correctly. This means ¹  I am watching to make sure my threats are carried out.” ² 

1:13 The Lord again asked me, “What do you see?” I answered, “I see a pot of boiling water; it is tipped toward us from the north.” ³  1:14 Then the Lord said, “This means ⁴  destruction will break out from the north on all who live in the land.

Jeremiah 1:1

The Superscription

1:1 The following is a record of what Jeremiah son of Hilkiah prophesied. ⁵  He was one of the priests who lived at Anathoth in the territory of the tribe of Benjamin.

Jeremiah 9:9

9:9 I will certainly punish them for doing such things!” says the Lord.

“I will certainly bring retribution on such a nation as this!” ⁶ 

Amos 7:8

7:8 The Lord said to me, “What do you see, Amos?” I said, “Tin.” The sovereign One then said,

“Look, I am about to place tin among my people Israel.

I will no longer overlook their sin. ⁷ 

Amos 8:2

8:2 He said, “What do you see, Amos?” I replied, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the Lord said to me, “The end ⁸  has come for my people Israel! I will no longer overlook their sins. ⁹ 

Zechariah 4:2

4:2 He asked me, “What do you see?” I replied, ¹⁰  “I see a menorah of pure gold with a receptacle at the top and seven lamps, with fourteen pipes going to the lamps.

Zechariah 5:2

5:2 Someone asked me, “What do you see?” I replied, “I see a flying scroll thirty feet long and fifteen feet wide.” ¹¹ 

Zechariah 5:5-11

Vision Seven: The Ephah

5:5 After this the angelic messenger ¹²  who had been speaking to me went out and said, “Look, see what is leaving.” 5:6 I asked, “What is it?” And he replied, “It is a basket for measuring grain ¹³  that is moving away from here.” Moreover, he said, “This is their ‘eye’ ¹⁴  throughout all the earth.” 5:7 Then a round lead cover was raised up, revealing a woman sitting inside the basket. 5:8 He then said, “This woman represents wickedness,” and he pushed her down into the basket and placed the lead cover on top. 5:9 Then I looked again and saw two women ¹⁵  going forth with the wind in their wings (they had wings like those of a stork) and they lifted up the basket between the earth and the sky. 5:10 I asked the messenger who was speaking to me, “Where are they taking the basket?” 5:11 He replied, “To build a temple ¹⁶  for her in the land of Babylonia. ¹⁷  When it is finished, she will be placed there in her own residence.”

Matthew 25:32-33

25:32 All ¹⁸  the nations will be assembled before him, and he will separate people one from another like a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 25:33 He ¹⁹  will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

[1:12]  ¹ tn This represents the Hebrew particle (כִּי, ki) that is normally rendered “for” or “because.” The particle here is meant to give the significance of the vision, not the rationale for the statement “you have observed correctly.”

[1:12]  ² tn Heb “watching over my word to do it.”

[1:13]  ³ tn Heb “a blown upon [= heated; boiling] pot and its face from the face of the north [= it is facing away from the north].”

[1:14]  ⁴ tn There is nothing in the Hebrew text for these words but it is implicit in the connection. Once again the significance of the vision is spelled out. Compare the translator’s note on v. 12.

[1:1]  ⁵ tn Or “This is a record of what Jeremiah prophesied and did”; Heb “The words [or affairs] of Jeremiah.” The phrase could refer to either the messages of Jeremiah recorded in the book or to both his messages and the biographical (and autobiographical) narratives recorded about him in the book. Since the phrase is intended to serve as the title or superscription for the whole book and recurs again in 51:64 at the end of the book before the final appendix, it might refer to the latter. The expression “The words of [someone]” is a standard introductory formula (Deut 29:1[28:69]; 2 Sam 23:1; Amos 1:1; Eccl 1:1; Neh 1:1).

[9:9]  ⁶ tn Heb “Should I not punish them…? Should I not bring retribution…?” The rhetorical questions function as emphatic declarations.

[7:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “And I will no longer pass over him.”

[8:2]  ⁸ tn There is a wordplay here. The Hebrew word קֵץ (qets, “end”) sounds like קָיִץ (qayits, “summer fruit”). The summer fruit arrived toward the end of Israel’s agricultural year; Israel’s national existence was similarly at an end.

[8:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “I will no longer pass over him.”

[4:2]  ¹⁰ tc The present translation (along with most other English versions) follows the reading of the Qere and many ancient versions, “I said,” as opposed to the MT Kethib “he said.”

[5:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “twenty cubits…ten cubits” (so NAB, NRSV). These dimensions (“thirty feet long and fifteen feet wide”) can hardly be referring to the scroll when unrolled since that would be all out of proportion to the normal ratio, in which the scroll would be 10 to 15 times as long as it was wide. More likely, the scroll is 15 feet thick when rolled, a hyperbole expressing the enormous amount and the profound significance of the information it contains.

[5:5]  ¹² tn See the note on the expression “angelic messenger” in 1:9.

[5:6]  ¹³ tn Heb “[This is] the ephah.” An ephah was a liquid or solid measure of about a bushel (five gallons or just under twenty liters). By metonymy it refers here to a measuring container (probably a basket) of that quantity.

[5:6]  ¹⁴ tc The LXX and Syriac read עֲוֹנָם (’avonam, “their iniquity,” so NRSV; NIV similar) for the MT עֵינָם (’enam, “their eye”), a reading that is consistent with the identification of the woman in v. 8 as wickedness, but one that is unnecessary. In 4:10 the “eye” represented divine omniscience and power; here it represents the demonic counterfeit.

[5:9]  ¹⁵ sn Here two women appear as the agents of the Lord because the whole scene is feminine in nature. The Hebrew word for “wickedness” in v. 8 (רִשְׁעָה) is grammatically feminine, so feminine imagery is appropriate throughout.

[5:11]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “house” (so NIV, NRSV, CEV).

[5:11]  ¹⁷ sn The land of Babylonia (Heb “the land of Shinar”) is another name for Sumer and Akkad, where Babylon was located (Gen 10:10). Babylon throughout the Bible symbolizes the focus of anti-God sentiment and activity (Gen 11:4; 14:1; Isa 13–14; 47:1-3; Jer 50–51; Rev 14:8; 17:1, 5, 18; 18:21).

[25:32]  ¹⁸ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

[25:33]  ¹⁹ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.