Jeremiah 1:18

1:18 I, the Lord, ¹  hereby promise to make you ²  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 ³  the land, including the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests and all the people of the land.

Jeremiah 6:1

The Destruction of Jerusalem Depicted

6:1 “Run for safety, people of Benjamin!

Get out of Jerusalem! ⁴ 

Sound the trumpet ⁵  in Tekoa!

Light the signal fires at Beth Hakkerem!

For disaster lurks ⁶  out of the north;

it will bring great destruction. ⁷ 

Jeremiah 9:3

The Lord Laments That He Has No Choice But to Judge Them

9:3 The Lord says, ⁸ 

“These people are like soldiers who have readied their bows.

Their tongues are always ready to shoot out lies. ⁹ 

They have become powerful in the land,

but they have not done so by honest means. ¹⁰ 

Indeed, they do one evil thing after another ¹¹ 

and do not pay attention to me. ¹² 

Jeremiah 10:14

10:14 All these idolaters ¹³  will prove to be stupid and ignorant.

Every goldsmith will be disgraced by the idol he made.

For the image he forges is merely a sham. ¹⁴ 

There is no breath in any of those idols. ¹⁵ 

Jeremiah 38:2

38:2 “The Lord says, ‘Those who stay in this city will die in battle or of starvation or disease. ¹⁶  Those who leave the city and surrender to the Babylonians ¹⁷  will live. They will escape with their lives.’” ¹⁸ 

Jeremiah 46:26

46:26 I will hand them over to Nebuchadnezzar and his troops, who want to kill them. But later on, people will live in Egypt again as they did in former times. I, the Lord, affirm it!” ¹⁹ 

Jeremiah 51:17

51:17 All idolaters will prove to be stupid and ignorant.

Every goldsmith will be disgraced by the idol he made.

For the image he forges is merely a sham.

There is no breath in any of those idols.

Jeremiah 51:25

51:25 The Lord says, ²⁰  “Beware! I am opposed to you, Babylon! ²¹ 

You are like a destructive mountain that destroys all the earth.

I will unleash my power against you; ²² 

I will roll you off the cliffs and make you like a burned-out mountain. ²³ 

[1:18]  ¹ tn See the note on “Jeremiah” at the beginning of v. 17.

[1:18]  ² 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.

[1:18]  ³ 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.

[6:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “Flee for safety, people of Benjamin, out of the midst of Jerusalem.”

[6:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “ram’s horn,” but the modern equivalent is “trumpet” and is more readily understandable.

[6:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “leans down” or “looks down.” This verb personifies destruction leaning/looking down from its window in the sky, ready to attack.

[6:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “[It will be] a severe fracture.” The nation is pictured as a limb being fractured.

[9:3]  ⁷ tn The words “The Lord says” have been moved up from the end of the verse to make clear that a change in speaker has occurred.

[9:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “They have readied [or strung] their tongue as their bow for lies.”

[9:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “but not through honesty.”

[9:3]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “they go from evil to evil.”

[9:3]  ¹¹ tn Or “do not acknowledge me”; Heb “do not know me.” But “knowing” in Hebrew thought often involves more than intellectual knowledge; it involves emotional and volitional commitment as well. For יָדַע meaning “acknowledge” see 1 Chr 28:9; Isa 29:21; Hos 2:20; Prov 3:6. This word is also found in ancient Near Eastern treaty contexts where it has the idea of a vassal king acknowledging the sovereignty of a greater king (cf. H. Huffmon, “The Treaty Background of Hebrew yada,” BASOR 181 [1966]: 31-37).

[10:14]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Every man.” But in the context this is not a reference to all people without exception but to all idolaters. The referent is made explicit for the sake of clarity.

[10:14]  ¹¹ tn Or “nothing but a phony god”; Heb “a lie/falsehood.”

[10:14]  ¹² tn Heb “There is no breath in them.” The referent is made explicit so that no one will mistakenly take it to refer to the idolaters or goldsmiths.

[38:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “by sword, by starvation, or by disease.”

[38:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “those who go out to the Chaldeans.” For the rendering “Babylonians” for “Chaldeans” see the study note on 21:4.

[38:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “his life will be to him for spoil and he will live.” For the meaning of this idiom see the study note on 21:9. The words and “he will live” have been left out of the translation because they are redundant after “will live” and “they will escape with their lives.”

[46:26]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[51:25]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[51:25]  ²⁰ tn The word “Babylon” is not in the text but is universally understood as the referent. It is supplied in the translation here to clarify the referent for the sake of the average reader.

[51:25]  ²¹ tn Heb “I will reach out my hand against you.” See the translator’s note on 6:12 for explanation.

[51:25]  ²² tn Heb “I am against you, oh destroying mountain that destroys all the earth. I will reach out my hand against you and roll you down from the cliffs and make you a mountain of burning.” The interpretation adopted here follows the lines suggested by S. R. Driver, Jeremiah, 318, n. c and reflected also in BDB 977 s.v. שְׂרֵפָה. Babylon is addressed as a destructive mountain because it is being compared to a volcano. The Lord, however, will make it a “burned-out mountain,” i.e., an extinct volcano which is barren and desolate. This interpretation seems to this translator to fit the details of the text more consistently than alternative ones which separate the concept of “destroying/destructive” from “mountain” and explain the figure of the mountain to refer to the dominating political position of Babylon and the reference to a “mountain of burning” to be a “burned [or burned over] mountain.” The use of similes in place of metaphors makes it easier for the modern reader to understand the figures and also more easily incorporates the dissonant figure of “rolling you down from the cliffs” which involves the figure of personification.