Jeremiah 1:9

1:9 Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “I will most assuredly give you the words you are to speak for me. ¹ 

Jeremiah 5:14

5:14 Because of that, ²  the Lord, the God who rules over all, ³  said to me, ⁴ 

“Because these people have spoken ⁵  like this, ⁶ 

I will make the words that I put in your mouth like fire.

And I will make this people like wood

which the fiery judgments you speak will burn up.” ⁷ 

[1:9]  ¹ tn Heb “Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.” This is an example of the Hebrew “scheduling” perfect or the “prophetic” perfect where a future event is viewed as so certain it is spoken of as past. The Hebrew particle rendered here “assuredly” (Heb הִנֵּה, hinneh) underlines the certitude of the promise for the future. See the translator’s note on v. 6.

[5:14]  ² tn Heb “Therefore.”

[5:14]  ³ tn Heb “The Lord God of armies.” See the translator’s note at 2:19.

[5:14]  ⁴ tn The words, “to me” are not in the text but are implicit in the connection. They are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[5:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “you have spoken.” The text here דַּבֶּרְכֶם (dabberkhem, “you have spoken”) is either a case of a scribal error for דַּבֶּרָם (dabberam, “they have spoken”) or an example of the rapid shift in addressee which is common in Jeremiah.

[5:14]  ⁶ tn Heb “this word.”

[5:14]  ⁷ tn Heb “like wood and it [i.e., the fire I put in your mouth] will consume them.”