Jeremiah 12:12

12:12 A destructive army ¹  will come marching

over the hilltops in the desert.

For the Lord will use them as his destructive weapon ² 

against ³  everyone from one end of the land to the other.

No one will be safe. ⁴ 

Jeremiah 14:13

14:13 Then I said, “Oh, Lord God, ⁵  look! ⁶  The prophets are telling them that you said, ⁷  ‘You will not experience war or suffer famine. ⁸  I will give you lasting peace and prosperity in this land.’” ⁹ 

Jeremiah 14:15

14:15 I did not send those prophets, though they claim to be prophesying in my name. They may be saying, ‘No war or famine will happen in this land.’ But I, the Lord, say this about ¹⁰  them: ‘War and starvation will kill those prophets.’ ¹¹ 

Jeremiah 14:18

14:18 If I go out into the countryside,

I see those who have been killed in battle.

If I go into the city,

I see those who are sick because of starvation. ¹² 

For both prophet and priest go about their own business

in the land without having any real understanding.’” ¹³ 

Jeremiah 25:29

25:29 For take note, I am already beginning to bring disaster on the city that I call my own. ¹⁴  So how can you possibly avoid being punished? ¹⁵  You will not go unpunished! For I am proclaiming war against all who live on the earth. I, the Lord who rules over all, ¹⁶  affirm it!’ ¹⁷ 

Jeremiah 33:10

33:10 “I, the Lord, say: ¹⁸  ‘You and your people are saying ¹⁹  about this place, “It lies in ruins. There are no people or animals in it.” That is true. The towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem ²⁰  will soon be desolate, uninhabited either by people or by animals. But happy sounds will again be heard in these places.

Jeremiah 44:28

44:28 Some who survive in battle will return to the land of Judah from the land of Egypt. But they will be very few indeed! ²¹  Then the Judean remnant who have come to live in the land of Egypt will know whose word proves true, ²²  mine or theirs.’

Jeremiah 46:10

46:10 But that day belongs to the Lord God who rules over all. ²³ 

It is the day when he will pay back his enemies. ²⁴ 

His sword will devour them until its appetite is satisfied!

It will drink their blood until it is full! ²⁵ 

For the Lord God who rules over all ²⁶  will offer them up as a sacrifice

in the land of the north by the Euphrates River.

[12:12]  ¹ tn Heb “destroyers.”

[12:12]  ² tn Heb “It is the Lord’s consuming sword.”

[12:12]  ³ tn Heb “For a sword of the Lord will devour.” The sword is often symbolic for destructive forces of all kinds. Here and in Isa 34:6; Jer 47:6 it is symbolic of the enemy armies that the Lord uses to carry out destructive punishment against his enemies, hence the translation “his destructive weapon.” A similar figure is use in Isa 10:5 where the figure is more clearly identified; Assyria is the rod/club that the Lord will use to discipline unfaithful Israel.

[12:12]  ⁴ tn Heb “There is no peace to all flesh.”

[14:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “Lord Yahweh.” The translation follows the ancient Jewish tradition of substituting the Hebrew word for God for the proper name Yahweh.

[14:13]  ⁶ tn Heb “Behold.” See the translator’s note on usage of this particle in 1:6.

[14:13]  ⁷ tn The words “that you said” are not in the text but are implicit from the first person in the affirmation that follows. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[14:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “You will not see sword and you will not have starvation [or hunger].”

[14:13]  ⁹ tn Heb “I will give you unfailing peace in this place.” The translation opts for “peace and prosperity” here for the word שָׁלוֹם (shalom) because in the context it refers both to peace from war and security from famine and plague. The word translated “lasting” (אֱמֶת, ’emet) is a difficult to render here because it has broad uses: “truth, reliability, stability, steadfastness,” etc. “Guaranteed” or “lasting” seem to fit the context the best.

[14:15]  ⁹ tn Heb “Thus says the Lord about.” The first person construction has been used in the translation for better English style.

[14:15]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who are prophesying in my name and I did not send them [= whom I did not send] and they are saying [= who are saying], ‘Sword and famine…’, by sword and famine those prophets will be killed.” This sentence has been restructured to conform to contemporary English style.

[14:18]  ¹³ tn The word “starvation” has been translated “famine” elsewhere in this passage. It is the word which refers to hunger. The “starvation” here may be war induced and not simply that which comes from famine per se. “Starvation” will cover both.

[14:18]  ¹⁴ tn The meaning of these last two lines is somewhat uncertain. The meaning of these two lines is debated because of the uncertainty of the meaning of the verb rendered “go about their business” (סָחַר, sakhar) and the last phrase translated here “without any real understanding.” The verb in question most commonly occurs as a participle meaning “trader” or “merchant” (cf., e.g., Ezek 27:21, 36; Prov 31:14). It occurs as a finite verb elsewhere only in Gen 34:10, 21; 42:34 and there in a literal sense of “trading,” “doing business.” While the nuance is metaphorical here it need not extend to “journeying into” (cf., e.g., BDB 695 s.v. סָחַר Qal.1) and be seen as a reference to exile as is sometimes assumed. That seems at variance with the causal particle which introduces this clause, the tense of the verb, and the surrounding context. People are dying in the land (vv. 17-18a) not because prophet and priest have gone (the verb is the Hebrew perfect or past) into exile but because prophet and priest have no true knowledge of God or the situation. The clause translated here “without having any real understanding” (Heb “and they do not know”) is using the verb in the absolute sense indicated in BDB 394 s.v. יָדַע Qal.5 and illustrated in Isa 1:3; 56:10. For a more thorough discussion of the issues one may consult W. McKane, Jeremiah (ICC), 1:330-31.

[25:29]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “which is called by my name.” See translator’s note on 7:10 for support.

[25:29]  ¹⁸ tn This is an example of a question without the formal introductory particle following a conjunctive vav introducing an opposition. (See Joüon 2:609 §161.a.) It is also an example of the use of the infinitive before the finite verb in a rhetorical question involving doubt or denial. (See Joüon 2:422-23 §123.f, and compare usage in Gen 37:8.)

[25:29]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.”

[25:29]  ²⁰ tn Heb “Oracle of Yahweh of armies.”

[33:10]  ²¹ tn Heb “Thus says the Lord.” For the first person rendering see the translator’s note at the end of v. 2.

[33:10]  ²² tn Heb “You.” However, the pronoun is plural as in 32:36, 43. See the translator’s note on 32:36.

[33:10]  ²³ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[44:28]  ²⁵ tn Heb “The survivors of the sword will return from the land of Egypt to the land of Judah few in number [more literally, “men of number”; for the idiom see BDB 709 s.v. מִסְפָּר 1.a].” The term “survivors of the sword” may be intended to represent both those who survive death in war or death by starvation or disease, a synecdoche of species for all three genera.

[44:28]  ²⁶ tn Heb “will stand,” i.e., in the sense of being fulfilled, proving to be true, or succeeding (see BDB 878 s.v. קוּם 7.g).

[46:10]  ²⁹ tn Heb “the Lord Yahweh of armies.” See the study note at 2:19 for the translation and significance of this title for God.

[46:10]  ³⁰ sn Most commentators think that this is a reference to the Lord exacting vengeance on Pharaoh Necho for killing Josiah, carrying Jehoahaz off into captivity, and exacting heavy tribute on Judah in 609 b.c. (2 Kgs 23:29, 33-35).

[46:10]  ³¹ tn Or more paraphrastically, “he will kill them/ until he has exacted full vengeance”; Heb “The sword will eat and be sated; it will drink its fill of their blood.”

[46:10]  ³² tn Heb “the Lord Yahweh of armies.” See the study note at 2:19 for the translation and significance of this title for God.