Jeremiah 11:4

11:4 Those are the terms that I charged your ancestors ¹  to keep ²  when I brought them out of Egypt, that place which was like an iron-smelting furnace. ³  I said at that time, ⁴  “Obey me and carry out the terms of the agreement ⁵  exactly as I commanded you. If you do, ⁶  you will be my people and I will be your God. ⁷ 

Jeremiah 21:2

21:2 “Please ask the Lord to come and help us, ⁸  because King Nebuchadnezzar ⁹  of Babylon is attacking us. Maybe the Lord will perform one of his miracles as in times past and make him stop attacking us and leave.” ¹⁰ 

Jeremiah 26:20

26:20 Now there was another man ¹¹  who prophesied as the Lord’s representative ¹²  against this city and this land just as Jeremiah did. His name was Uriah son of Shemaiah from Kiriath Jearim. ¹³ 

Jeremiah 27:12

27:12 I told King Zedekiah of Judah the same thing. I said, ¹⁴  “Submit ¹⁵  to the yoke of servitude to ¹⁶  the king of Babylon. Be subject to him and his people. Then you will continue to live.

Jeremiah 35:18

35:18 Then Jeremiah spoke to the Rechabite community, “The Lord God of Israel who rules over all ¹⁷  says, ‘You have obeyed the orders of your ancestor Jonadab. You have followed all his instructions. You have done exactly as he commanded you.’

Jeremiah 38:27

38:27 All the officials did indeed come and question Jeremiah. ¹⁸  He told them exactly what the king had instructed him to say. ¹⁹  They stopped questioning him any further because no one had actually heard their conversation. ²⁰ 

Jeremiah 42:5

42:5 They answered Jeremiah, “May the Lord be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not do just as ²¹  the Lord sends you to tell us to do.

Jeremiah 50:29

50:29 “Call for archers ²²  to come against Babylon!

Summon against her all who draw the bow!

Set up camp all around the city!

Do not allow anyone to escape!

Pay her back for what she has done.

Do to her what she has done to others.

For she has proudly defied me, ²³ 

the Holy One of Israel. ²⁴ 

[11:4]  ¹ tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 5, 7, 10).

[11:4]  ² tn Heb “does not listen…this covenant which I commanded your fathers.” The sentence is broken up this way in conformity with contemporary English style.

[11:4]  ³ tn Heb “out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron-smelting furnace.”

[11:4]  ⁴ tn In place of the words “I said at that time” the Hebrew text has “saying.” The sentence is again being restructured in English to avoid the long, confusing style of the Hebrew original.

[11:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “Obey me and carry them out.” The “them” refers back to the terms of the covenant which they were charged to keep according to the preceding. The referent is made specific to avoid ambiguity.

[11:4]  ⁶ tn The words, “If you do” are not in the text. They have been supplied in the translation to break up a long sentence consisting of an imperative followed by a consequential sentence.

[11:4]  ⁷ sn Obey me and carry out the terms of the agreement…and I will be your God. This refers to the Mosaic law which was instituted at Sinai and renewed on the Plains of Moab before Israel entered into the land. The words “the terms of the covenant” are explicitly used for the Ten Commandments in Exod 34:28 and for the additional legislation given in Deut 28:69; 29:8. The formulation here is reminiscent of Deut 29:9-14 (29:10-15 HT). The book of Deuteronomy is similar in its structure and function to an ancient Near Eastern treaty. In these the great king reminded his vassal of past benefits that he had given to him, charged him with obligations (the terms or stipulations of the covenant) chief among which was absolute loyalty and sole allegiance, promised him future benefits for obeying the stipulations (the blessings), and placed him under a curse for disobeying them. Any disobedience was met with stern warnings of punishment in the form of destruction and exile. Those who had witnessed the covenant were called in to confirm the continuing goodness of the great king and the disloyalty of the vassal. The vassal was then charged with a list of particular infringements of the stipulations and warned to change his actions or suffer the consequences. This is the background for Jer 11:1-9. Jeremiah is here functioning as a messenger from the Lord, Israel’s great king, and charging both the fathers and the children with breach of covenant.

[21:2]  ⁸ tn The verb used here is often used of seeking information through a prophet (e.g., 2 Kgs 1:16; 8:8) and hence many translate “inquire of the Lord for us.” However, it is obvious from the following that they were not seeking information but help. The word is also used for that in Pss 34:4 (34:5 HT); 77:2 (77:3 HT).

[21:2]  ⁹ tn The dominant spelling of this name is actually Nebuchadrezzar which is closer to his Babylonian name Nebu kudduri uzzur. An alternate spelling which is found 6 times in the book of Jeremiah and 17 times elsewhere is Nebuchadnezzar which is the form of the name that is usually used in English versions.

[21:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Perhaps the Lord will do according to his miracles that he may go up from against us.”

[26:20]  ¹⁵ sn This is a brief parenthetical narrative about an otherwise unknown prophet who was executed for saying the same things Jeremiah did. It is put here to show the real danger that Jeremiah faced for saying what he did. There is nothing in the narrative here to show any involvement by Jehoiakim. This was a “lynch mob” instigated by the priests and false prophets which was stymied by the royal officials supported by some of the elders of Judah. Since it is disjunctive or parenthetical it is unclear whether this incident happened before or after that in the main narrative being reported.

[26:20]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “in the name of the Lord,” i.e., as his representative and claiming his authority. See the study note on v. 16.

[26:20]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Now also a man was prophesying in the name of the Lord, Uriah son of…, and he prophesied against this city and against this land according to all the words of Jeremiah.” The long Hebrew sentence has been broken up in conformity with contemporary English style and the major emphasis brought out by putting his prophesying first, then identifying him.

[27:12]  ²² tn Heb “I spoke to Zedekiah…according to all these words, saying.”

[27:12]  ²³ sn The verbs in this verse are all plural. They are addressed to Zedekiah and his royal advisers (compare 22:2).

[27:12]  ²⁴ tn Heb “put their necks in the yoke of.” See the study note on v. 2 for the figure.

[35:18]  ²⁹ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.” For this title, which occurs again in the following verse, see the notes on 7:3 and the study note on 2:19.

[38:27]  ³⁶ tn Heb “All the officials came to Jeremiah and questioned him.”

[38:27]  ³⁷ tn Heb “And he reported to them according to all these words which the king had commanded.”

[38:27]  ³⁸ tn Heb “And they were silent from him because the word/matter [i.e., the conversation between Jeremiah and the king] had not been heard.” According to BDB 578 s.v. מִן 1.a the preposition “from” is significant in this construction, implying a verb of motion. I.e., “they were [fell] silent [and turned away] from him.”

[42:5]  ⁴³ tn Heb “do according to all the word which.”

[50:29]  ⁵⁰ tn For this word see BDB 914 s.v. III רַב and compare usage in Prov 26:10 and Job 16:12 and compare the usage of the verb in Gen 49:23. Based on this evidence, it is not necessary to emend the form to רֹבִים (rovim) as many commentators contend.

[50:29]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “for she has acted insolently against the Lord.” Once again there is the problem of the Lord speaking about himself in the third person (or the prophet dropping his identification with the Lord). As in several other places the present translation, along with several other modern English versions (TEV, CEV, NIrV), has substituted the first person to maintain consistency with the context.

[50:29]  ⁵² sn The Holy One of Israel is a common title for the Lord in the book of Isaiah. It is applied to the Lord only here and in 51:5 in the book of Jeremiah. It is a figure where an attribute of a person is put as a title of a person (compare “your majesty” for a king). It pictures the Lord as the sovereign king who rules over his covenant people and exercises moral authority over them.