Jeremiah 10:1

The Lord, not Idols, is the Only Worthy Object of Worship

10:1 You people of Israel, ¹  listen to what the Lord has to say to you.

Jeremiah 13:3

13:3 Then the Lord spoke to me again and said, ² 

Jeremiah 14:1

A Lament over the Ravages of Drought ³ 

14:1 The Lord spoke to Jeremiah ⁴  about the drought. ⁵ 

Jeremiah 22:29

22:29 O land of Judah, land of Judah, land of Judah! ⁶ 

Listen to what the Lord has to say!

Jeremiah 32:6

32:6 So now, Jeremiah said, “The Lord told me, ⁷ 

Jeremiah 34:12

34:12 That was when the Lord spoke to Jeremiah, ⁸ 

Jeremiah 37:6

37:6 The Lord gave the prophet Jeremiah a message for them. He told him to tell them, ⁹ 

Jeremiah 42:7

42:7 Ten days later the Lord spoke to Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 43:8

Jeremiah Predicts that Nebuchadnezzar Will Plunder Egypt and Its Gods

43:8 At Tahpanhes the Lord spoke to Jeremiah. ¹⁰ 

Jeremiah 46:1

Prophecies Against Foreign Nations ¹¹ 

46:1 The Lord spoke to Jeremiah about the nations. ¹² 

[10:1]  ¹ tn Heb “house of Israel.”

[13:3]  ² tn Heb “The word of the Lord came to me a second time, saying.”

[14:1]  ³ sn The form of Jer 14:1–15:9 is very striking rhetorically. It consists essentially of laments and responses to them. However, what makes it so striking is its deviation from normal form (cf. 2 Chr 20:5-17 for what would normally be expected). The descriptions of the lamentable situation come from the mouth of God not the people (cf.14:1-6, 17-18). The prophet utters the petitions with statements of trust (14:7-9, 19-22) and the Lord answers not with oracles promising deliverance but promising doom (14:10; 15:1-9). In the course of giving the first oracle of doom, the Lord commands Jeremiah not to pray for the people (14:11-12) and Jeremiah tries to provide an excuse for their actions (14:13). The Lord responds to that with an oracle of doom on the false prophets (14:14-16).

[14:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “That which came [as] the word of the Lord to Jeremiah.” The introductory formula here is a variation of that found in 7:1; 10:1; 11:1, i.e., “The word of the Lord which came to Jeremiah.” The relative pronoun “which” (אֲשֶׁר, ’asher) actually precedes the noun it modifies. See BDB 82 s.v. אֲשֶׁר 6.a for discussion and further examples.

[14:1]  ⁵ sn Drought was one of the punishments for failure to adhere to the terms of their covenant with God. See Deut 28:22-24; Lev 26:18-20.

[22:29]  ⁴ tn There is no certain explanation for the triple repetition of the word “land” here. F. B. Huey (Jeremiah, Lamentations [NAC], 209) suggests the idea of exasperation, but exasperation at what? Their continued apostasy which made these exiles necessary? Or exasperation at their pitiful hopes of seeing Jeconiah restored? Perhaps “pitiful, pitiful, pitiful land of Judah” would convey some of the force of the repetition without being any more suggestive of why the land is so addressed.

[32:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “The word of the Lord came to me, saying.” This verse resumes the narrative introduction in v. 1 which was interrupted by the long parenthetical note about historical background. There is again some disjunction in the narrative (compare the translator’s notes on 27:2 and 28:1). What was begun as a biographical (third person) narrative turns into an autobiographical (first person) narrative until v. 26 where the third person is again resumed. Again this betrays the hand of the narrator, Baruch.

[34:12]  ⁶ tn Heb “And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying.” This is the resumption of the introduction in v. 8 after the lengthy description of the situation that had precipitated the Lord’s message to Jeremiah. “That was when” is intended to take the reader back to v. 8.

[37:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying.”

[43:8]  ⁸ tn Heb “The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah at Tahpanhes, saying.”

[46:1]  ⁹ sn Jeremiah was called to be a prophet not only to Judah and Jerusalem but to the nations (1:5, 10). The prophecies or oracles that are collected here in Jer 46-51 are found after 25:13a in the Greek version where they are also found in a different order and with several textual differences. The issue of which represents the original placement is part of the broader issue of the editorial or redactional history of the book of Jeremiah which went through several editions, two of which are referred to in Jer 36, i.e., the two scrolls written in the fourth year of Jehoiakim (605 b.c.), a third which included all the preceding plus the material down to the time of the fall of Jerusalem (cf. the introduction in 1:1-3) and a fourth that included all the preceding plus the materials in Jer 40-44. The oracles against the foreign nations collected here are consistent with the note of judgment sounded against all nations (including some not mentioned in Jer 46-51) in Jer 25. See the translator’s note on 25:13 for further details regarding the possible relationship of the oracles to the foreign nations to the judgment speeches in Jer 25.

[46:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “That which came [as] the word of the Lord to Jeremiah about the nations.” See the translator’s note on 14:1 for the construction here.