Jeremiah 13:11

13:11 For,’ I say, ¹  ‘just as shorts cling tightly to a person’s body, so I bound the whole nation of Israel and the whole nation of Judah ²  tightly ³  to me.’ I intended for them to be my special people and to bring me fame, honor, and praise. ⁴  But they would not obey me.

Jeremiah 19:11

19:11 Tell them the Lord who rules over all says, ⁵  ‘I will do just as Jeremiah has done. ⁶  I will smash this nation and this city as though it were a potter’s vessel which is broken beyond repair. ⁷  The dead will be buried here in Topheth until there is no more room to bury them.’ ⁸ 

Jeremiah 36:14

36:14 All the officials sent Jehudi, who was the son of Nethaniah and the grandson of Cushi, to Baruch. They ordered him to tell Baruch, “Come here and bring with you ⁹  the scroll you read in the hearing of the people.” ¹⁰  So Baruch son of Neriah went to them, carrying the scroll in his hand. ¹¹ 

Jeremiah 37:21

37:21 Then King Zedekiah ordered that Jeremiah be committed to the courtyard of the guardhouse. He also ordered that a loaf of bread ¹²  be given to him every day from the baker’s street until all the bread in the city was gone. So Jeremiah was kept ¹³  in the courtyard of the guardhouse.

Jeremiah 38:6

38:6 So the officials ¹⁴  took Jeremiah and put him in the cistern ¹⁵  of Malkijah, one of the royal princes, ¹⁶  that was in the courtyard of the guardhouse. There was no water in the cistern, only mud. So when they lowered Jeremiah into the cistern with ropes he sank in the mud. ¹⁷ 

[13:11]  ¹ tn The words “I say” are “Oracle of the Lord” in Hebrew, and are located at the end of this statement in the Hebrew text rather than the beginning. However, they are rendered in the first person and placed at the beginning for smoother English style.

[13:11]  ² tn Heb “all the house of Israel and all the house of Judah.”

[13:11]  ³ tn It would be somewhat unnatural in English to render the play on the word translated here “cling tightly” and “bound tightly” in a literal way. They are from the same root word in Hebrew (דָּבַק, davaq), a word that emphasizes the closest of personal relationships and the loyalty connected with them. It is used, for example, of the relationship of a husband and a wife and the loyalty expected of them (cf. Gen 2:24; for other similar uses see Ruth 1:14; 2 Sam 20:2; Deut 11:22).

[13:11]  ⁴ tn Heb “I bound them…in order that they might be to me for a people and for a name and for praise and for honor.” The sentence has been separated from the preceding and an equivalent idea expressed which is more in keeping with contemporary English style.

[19:11]  ⁵ tn Heb “Thus says Yahweh of armies.” For this title see the study note on 2:19. The translation attempts to avoid the confusion of embedding quotes within quotes by reducing this one to an indirect quote.

[19:11]  ⁶ tn The adverb “Thus” or “Like this” normally points back to something previously mentioned. See, e.g., Exod 29:35; Num 11:15; 15:11; Deut 25:9.

[19:11]  ⁷ tn Heb “Like this I will break this people and this city, just as one breaks the vessel of a potter which is not able to be repaired.”

[19:11]  ⁸ sn See Jer 7:22-23 for parallels.

[36:14]  ⁹ tn Heb “in your hand.”

[36:14]  ¹⁰ tn The original has another example of a prepositioned object (called casus pendens in the grammars; cf. GKC 458 §143.b) which is intended to focus attention on “the scroll.” The Hebrew sentence reads: “The scroll which you read from it in the ears of the people take it and come.” Any attempt to carry over this emphasis into the English translation would be awkward. Likewise, the order of the two imperatives has been reversed as more natural in English.

[36:14]  ¹¹ tn Heb “So Baruch son of Neriah took the scroll in his hand and went to them.” The clause order has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[37:21]  ¹³ tn Heb “And/Then King Zedekiah ordered and they committed Jeremiah to [or deposited…in] the courtyard of the guardhouse and they gave to him a loaf of bread.” The translation has been structured the way it has to avoid the ambiguous “they” which is the impersonal subject which is sometimes rendered passive in English (cf. GKC 460 §144.d). This text also has another example of the vav (ו) + infinitive absolute continuing a finite verbal form (וְנָתֹן [vÿnaton] = “and they gave”; cf. GKC 345 §113.y and see Jer 32:44; 36:23).

[37:21]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “Stayed/Remained/ Lived.”

[38:6]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “they.”

[38:6]  ¹⁸ sn A cistern was a pear-shaped pit with a narrow opening. Cisterns were cut or dug in the limestone rock and lined with plaster to prevent seepage. They were used to collect and store rain water or water carried up from a spring.

[38:6]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the son of the king.” See the translator’s note on Jer 36:26 for the rendering here.

[38:6]  ²⁰ tn Heb “And they let Jeremiah down with ropes and in the cistern there was no water, only mud, and Jeremiah sank in the mud.” The clauses have been reordered and restructured to create a more natural and smoother order in English.