Jeremiah 10:5

10:5 Such idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field.

They cannot talk.

They must be carried

because they cannot walk.

Do not be afraid of them

because they cannot hurt you.

And they do not have any power to help you.” ¹ 

Jeremiah 11:5

11:5 Then I will keep the promise I swore on oath to your ancestors to give them a land flowing with milk and honey.” ²  That is the very land that you still live in today.’” ³  And I responded, “Amen! Let it be so, ⁴  Lord!”

Jeremiah 27:12

27:12 I told King Zedekiah of Judah the same thing. I said, ⁵  “Submit ⁶  to the yoke of servitude to ⁷  the king of Babylon. Be subject to him and his people. Then you will continue to live.

Jeremiah 34:18

34:18 I will punish those people who have violated their covenant with me. I will make them like the calf they cut in two and passed between its pieces. ⁸  I will do so because they did not keep the terms of the covenant they made in my presence. ⁹ 

Jeremiah 44:27

44:27 I will indeed ¹⁰  see to it that disaster, not prosperity, happens to them. ¹¹  All the people of Judah who are in the land of Egypt will die in war or from starvation until not one of them is left.

Jeremiah 51:6

51:6 Get out of Babylonia quickly, you foreign people. ¹² 

Flee to save your lives.

Do not let yourselves be killed because of her sins.

For it is time for the Lord to wreak his revenge.

He will pay Babylonia ¹³  back for what she has done. ¹⁴ 

[10:5]  ¹ tn Heb “And it is not in them to do good either.”

[11:5]  ² tn The phrase “a land flowing with milk and honey” is very familiar to readers in the Jewish and Christian traditions as a proverbial description of the agricultural and pastoral abundance of the land of Israel. However, it may not mean too much to readers outside those traditions; an equivalent expression would be “a land of fertile fields and fine pastures.” E. W. Bullinger (Figures of Speech, 626) identifies this as a figure of speech called synecdoche where the species is put for the genus, “a region…abounding with pasture and fruits of all kinds.”

[11:5]  ³ tn Heb “‘a land flowing with milk and honey,’ as at this day.” However, the literal reading is too elliptical and would lead to confusion.

[11:5]  ⁴ tn The words “Let it be so” are not in the text; they are an explanation of the significance of the term “Amen” for those who may not be part of the Christian or Jewish tradition.

[27:12]  ³ tn Heb “I spoke to Zedekiah…according to all these words, saying.”

[27:12]  ⁴ sn The verbs in this verse are all plural. They are addressed to Zedekiah and his royal advisers (compare 22:2).

[27:12]  ⁵ tn Heb “put their necks in the yoke of.” See the study note on v. 2 for the figure.

[34:18]  ⁴ sn See the study note on v. 8 for explanation and parallels.

[34:18]  ⁵ tn There is a little confusion in the syntax of this section because the noun “the calf” does not have any formal conjunction or preposition with it showing how it relates to the rest of the sentence. KJV treats it and the following words as though they were a temporal clause modifying “covenant which they made.” The majority of modern English versions and commentaries, however, understand it as a second accusative after the verb + object “I will make the men.” This fits under the category of what GKC 375 §118.r calls an accusative of comparison (compare usage in Isa 21:8; Zech 2:8). Stated baldly, “I will make the people…the calf,” it is, however, more forceful than the formal use of the noun + preposition כְּ just as metaphors are generally more forceful than similes. The whole verse is one long, complex sentence in Hebrew: “I will make the men who broke my covenant [referring to the Mosaic covenant containing the stipulation to free slaves after six years] [and] who did not keep the terms of the covenant which they made before me [referring to their agreement to free their slaves] [like] the calf which they cut in two and passed between its pieces.” The sentence has been broken down into shorter sentences in conformity with contemporary English style.

[44:27]  ⁵ tn Heb “Behold I.” For the use of this particle see the translator’s note on 1:6. Here it announces the reality of a fact.

[44:27]  ⁶ tn Heb “Behold, I am watching over them for evil/disaster/harm not for good/prosperity/ blessing.” See a parallel usage in 31:28.

[51:6]  ⁶ tn The words “you foreign people” are not in the text and many think the referent is the exiles of Judah. While this is clearly the case in v. 45 the referent seems broader here where the context speaks of every man going to his own country (v. 9).

[51:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “her.”

[51:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “paying to her a recompense [i.e., a payment in kind].”