Jeremiah 1:6

1:6 I answered, “Oh, Lord God, ¹  I really ²  do not know how to speak well enough for that, ³  for I am too young.” ⁴ 

Jeremiah 3:5

3:5 You will not always be angry with me, will you?

You will not be mad at me forever, will you?’ ⁵ 

That is what you say,

but you continually do all the evil that you can.” ⁶ 

Jeremiah 4:13

4:13 Look! The enemy is approaching like gathering clouds. ⁷ 

The roar of his chariots is like that of a whirlwind. ⁸ 

His horses move more swiftly than eagles.”

I cry out, ⁹  “We are doomed, ¹⁰  for we will be destroyed!”

Jeremiah 7:8

7:8 “‘But just look at you! ¹¹  You are putting your confidence in a false belief ¹²  that will not deliver you. ¹³ 

Jeremiah 8:9

8:9 Your wise men will be put to shame.

They will be dumbfounded and be brought to judgment. ¹⁴ 

Since they have rejected the word of the Lord,

what wisdom do they really have?

Jeremiah 9:25

9:25 The Lord says, “Watch out! ¹⁵  The time is soon coming when I will punish all those who are circumcised only in the flesh. ¹⁶ 

Jeremiah 17:15

17:15 Listen to what they are saying to me. ¹⁷ 

They are saying, “Where are the things the Lord threatens us with?

Come on! Let’s see them happen!” ¹⁸ 

Jeremiah 23:19

23:19 But just watch! ¹⁹  The wrath of the Lord

will come like a storm! ²⁰ 

Like a raging storm it will rage down ²¹ 

on the heads of those who are wicked.

Jeremiah 30:23

30:23 Just watch! The wrath of the Lord

will come like a storm.

Like a raging storm it will rage down

on the heads of those who are wicked.

Jeremiah 31:38

Jerusalem Will Be Enlarged

31:38 “Indeed a time is coming,” ²²  says the Lord, ²³  “when the city of Jerusalem ²⁴  will be rebuilt as my special city. ²⁵  It will be built from the Tower of Hananel westward to the Corner Gate. ²⁶ 

Jeremiah 32:27

32:27 “I am the Lord, the God of all humankind. There is, indeed, nothing too difficult for me. ²⁷ 

Jeremiah 38:5

38:5 King Zedekiah said to them, “Very well, you can do what you want with him. ²⁸  For I cannot do anything to stop you.” ²⁹ 

Jeremiah 48:40

48:40 For the Lord says,

“Look! Like an eagle with outspread wings

a nation will swoop down on Moab. ³⁰ 

Jeremiah 48:47

48:47 Yet in days to come

I will reverse Moab’s ill fortune.” ³¹ 

says the Lord. ³² 

The judgment against Moab ends here.

Jeremiah 50:12

50:12 But Babylonia will be put to great shame.

The land where you were born ³³  will be disgraced.

Indeed, ³⁴  Babylonia will become the least important of all nations.

It will become a dry and barren desert.

Jeremiah 50:41

50:41 “Look! An army is about to come from the north.

A mighty nation and many kings ³⁵  are stirring into action

in faraway parts of the earth.

[1:6]  ¹ tn Heb “Lord Yahweh.”

[1:6]  ² tn Heb “Behold, I do not know how to speak.” The particle הִנֵּה (hinneh, commonly rendered “behold”) often introduces a speech and calls special attention to a specific word or the statement as a whole (see IBHS 675-78 §40.2.1).

[1:6]  ³ tn The words “well enough for that” are implicit and are supplied in the translation for clarity. Jeremiah is not claiming an absolute inability to speak.

[1:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “I am a boy/youth.” The Hebrew word can refer to an infant (Exod 2:6), a young boy (1 Sam 2:11), a teenager (Gen 21:12), or a young man (2 Sam 18:5). The translation is deliberately ambiguous since it is unclear how old Jeremiah was when he was called to begin prophesying.

[3:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “Will he keep angry forever? Will he maintain [it] to the end?” The questions are rhetorical and expect a negative answer. The change to direct address in the English translation is intended to ease the problem of the rapid transition, common in Hebrew style (but not in English), from second person direct address in the preceding lines to third person indirect address in these two lines. See GKC 462 §144.p.

[3:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “You do the evil and you are able.” This is an example of hendiadys, meaning “You do all the evil that you are able to do.”

[4:13]  ⁹ tn Heb “he is coming up like clouds.” The words “The enemy” are supplied in the translation to identify the referent and the word “gathering” is supplied to try to convey the significance of the simile, i.e., that of quantity and of an approaching storm.

[4:13]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “his chariots [are] like a whirlwind.” The words “roar” and “sound” are supplied in the translation to clarify the significance of the simile.

[4:13]  ¹¹ tn The words “I cry out” are not in the text, but the words that follow are obviously not the Lord’s. They are either those of the people or of Jeremiah. Taking them as Jeremiah’s parallels the interjection of Jeremiah’s response in 4:10 which is formally introduced.

[4:13]  ¹² tn Heb “Woe to us!” The words “woe to” are common in funeral laments and at the beginning of oracles of judgment. In many contexts they carry the connotation of hopelessness or apprehensiveness of inevitable doom.

[7:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “Behold!”

[7:8]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “You are trusting in lying words.” See the similar phrase in v. 4 and the note there.

[7:8]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “not profit [you].”

[8:9]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “be trapped.” However, the word “trapped” generally carries with it the connotation of divine judgment. See BDB 540 s.v. לָכַד Niph.2, and compare usage in Jer 6:11 for support. The verbs in the first two lines are again the form of the Hebrew verb that emphasizes that the action is as good as done (Hebrew prophetic perfects).

[9:25]  ²¹ tn Heb “Behold!”

[9:25]  ²² tn Heb “punish all who are circumcised in the flesh.” The translation is contextually motivated to better bring out the contrast that follows.

[17:15]  ²⁵ tn Heb “Behold, they are saying to me.”

[17:15]  ²⁶ tn Heb “Where is the word of the Lord. Let it come [or come to pass] please.”

[23:19]  ²⁹ tn Heb “Behold!”

[23:19]  ³⁰ tn The syntax of this line has generally been misunderstood, sometimes to the point that some want to delete the word wrath. Both here and in 30:23 where these same words occur the word “anger” stands not as an accusative of attendant circumstance but an apposition, giving the intended referent to the figure. Comparison should be made with Jer 25:15 where “this wrath” is appositional to “the cup of wine” (cf. GKC 425 §131.k).

[23:19]  ³¹ tn The translation is deliberate, intending to reflect the repetition of the Hebrew root which is “swirl/swirling.”

[31:38]  ³³ tc The words “is coming” (בָּאִים, ba’im) are not in the written text (Kethib) but are supplied in the margin (Qere), in several Hebrew mss and in the versions. It is part of the idiom that also occurs in vv. 27, 31.

[31:38]  ³⁴ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[31:38]  ³⁵ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[31:38]  ³⁶ tn Heb “the city will be built to [or for] the Lord.” The words “of Jerusalem” are not in the text but are implicit from the context. They have been supplied in the translation for clarity. However, the word occurs in a first person speech so the translation has accommodated the switch in person as it has in a number of other places (compare also NIV, TEV, ICV).

[31:38]  ³⁷ tn The word “westward” is not in the text but is supplied in the translation to give some orientation.

[32:27]  ³⁷ tn Heb “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me?” The question is rhetorical expecting an emphatic negative answer (cf. E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 949, citing the parallel in Gen 18:14). The Hebrew particle “Behold” (הִנֵּה, hinneh) introduces the grounds for this rhetorical negative (cf. T. O. Lambdin, Introduction to Biblical Hebrew, 170, §135 [3]), i.e., “Since I am the Lord, the God of all mankind, there is indeed nothing too hard for me [or is there anything too hard for me?].”

[38:5]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “Behold, he is in your hands [= power/control].”

[38:5]  ⁴² tn Heb “For the king cannot do a thing with/against you.” The personal pronoun “I” is substituted in the English translation due to differences in style; Hebrew style often uses the third person or the title in speaking of oneself but English rarely if ever does. Compare the common paraphrasis of “your servant” for “I” in Hebrew (cf. BDB 714 s.v. עֶבֶד 6 and usage in 1 Sam 20:7, 8) and compare the usage in Pss 63:11 (63:12 HT); 61:6 (61:7 HT) where the king is praying for himself. For the meaning of יָכֹל (yakhol) as “to be able to do anything,” see BDB 407 s.v. יָכֹל 1.g.

[48:40]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “Behold! Like an eagle he will swoop and will spread his wings against Moab.” The sentence has been reordered in English to give a better logical flow and the unidentified “he” has been identified as “a nation.” The nation is, of course, Babylon, but it is nowhere identified so the referent has been left ambiguous.

[48:47]  ⁴⁹ tn See 29:14; 30:3 and the translator’s note on 29:14 for the idiom used here.

[48:47]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[50:12]  ⁵³ tn Heb “Your mother will be utterly shamed, the one who gave you birth…” The word “mother” and the parallel term “the one who gave you birth” are used metaphorically for the land of Babylonia. For the figure compare the usage in Isa 50:1 (Judah) and Hos 2:2, 5 (2:4, 7 HT) and see BDB 52 s.v. אֵם 2 and 408 s.v. יָלַד Qal.2.c.

[50:12]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “Behold.” For the use of this particle see the translator’s note on 1:6.

[50:41]  ⁵⁷ sn A mighty nation and many kings is an allusion to the Medo-Persian empire and the vassal kings who provided forces for the Medo-Persian armies.