Jeremiah 15:1-4

15:1 Then the Lord said to me, “Even if Moses and Samuel stood before me pleading for ¹  these people, I would not feel pity for them! ²  Get them away from me! Tell them to go away! ³  15:2 If they ask you, ‘Where should we go?’ tell them the Lord says this:

“Those who are destined to die of disease will go to death by disease.

Those who are destined to die in war will go to death in war.

Those who are destined to die of starvation will go to death by starvation.

Those who are destined to go into exile will go into exile.” ⁴ 

15:3 “I will punish them in four different ways: I will have war kill them. I will have dogs drag off their dead bodies. I will have birds and wild beasts devour and destroy their corpses. ⁵  15:4 I will make all the people in all the kingdoms of the world horrified at what has happened to them because of what Hezekiah’s son Manasseh, king of Judah, did in Jerusalem.” ⁶ 

Deuteronomy 31:17

31:17 At that time ⁷  my anger will erupt against them ⁸  and I will abandon them and hide my face from them until they are devoured. Many disasters and distresses will overcome ⁹  them ¹⁰  so that they ¹¹  will say at that time, ‘Have not these disasters ¹²  overcome us ¹³  because our ¹⁴  God is not among us ¹⁵ ?’

Deuteronomy 31:2

31:2 He said to them, “Today I am a hundred and twenty years old. I am no longer able to get about, ¹⁶  and the Lord has said to me, ‘You will not cross the Jordan.’

Deuteronomy 15:5-6

15:5 if you carefully obey ¹⁷  him ¹⁸  by keeping ¹⁹  all these commandments that I am giving ²⁰  you today. 15:6 For the Lord your God will bless you just as he has promised; you will lend to many nations but will not borrow from any, and you will rule over many nations but they will not rule over you.

Isaiah 27:11

27:11 When its branches get brittle, ²¹  they break;

women come and use them for kindling. ²² 

For these people lack understanding, ²³ 

therefore the one who made them has no compassion on them;

the one who formed them has no mercy on them.

Zechariah 8:10

8:10 Before that time there was no compensation for man or animal, nor was there any relief from adversity for those who came and went, because I had pitted everybody – each one – against everyone else.

Revelation 6:4

6:4 And another horse, fiery red, ²⁴  came out, and the one who rode it ²⁵  was granted permission ²⁶  to take peace from the earth, so that people would butcher ²⁷  one another, and he was given a huge sword.

[15:1]  ¹ tn The words “pleading for” have been supplied in the translation to explain the idiom (a metonymy). For parallel usage see BDB 763 s.v. עָמַד Qal.1.a and compare usage in Gen 19:27, Deut 4:10.

[15:1]  ² tn Heb “my soul would not be toward them.” For the usage of “soul” presupposed here see BDB 660 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ 6 in the light of the complaints and petitions in Jeremiah’s prayer in 14:19, 21.

[15:1]  ³ tn Heb “Send them away from my presence and let them go away.”

[15:2]  ⁴ tn It is difficult to render the rhetorical force of this passage in meaningful English. The text answers the question “Where should we go?” with four brief staccato-like expressions with a play on the preposition “to”: Heb “Who to the death, to the death and who to the sword, to the sword and who to the starvation, to the starvation and who to the captivity, to the captivity.” The word “death” here is commonly understood to be a poetic substitute for “plague” because of the standard trio of sword, famine, and plague (see, e.g., 14:12 and the notes there). This is likely here and in 18:21. For further support see W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah (Hermeneia), 1:440. The nuance “starvation” rather than “famine” has been chosen in the translation because the referents here are all things that accompany war.

[15:3]  ⁵ tn The translation attempts to render in understandable English some rather unusual uses of terms here. The verb translated “punish” is often used that way (cf. BDB 823 s.v. פָּקַד Qal.A.3 and compare usage in Jer 11:22, 13:21). However, here it is accompanied by a direct object and a preposition meaning “over” which is usually used in the sense of appointing someone over someone (cf. BDB 823 s.v. פָּקַד Qal.B.1 and compare usage in Jer 51:27). Moreover the word translated “different ways” normally refers to “families,” “clans,” or “guilds” (cf. BDB 1046-47 s.v. מִשְׁפָּחָה for usage). Hence the four things mentioned are referred to figuratively as officers or agents into whose power the Lord consigns them. The Hebrew text reads: “I will appoint over them four guilds, the sword to kill, the dogs to drag away, the birds of the skies and the beasts of the earth to devour and to destroy.”

[15:4]  ⁶ tn The length of this sentence runs contrary to the normal policy followed in the translation of breaking up long sentences. However, there does not seem any way to break it up here without losing the connections.

[31:17]  ⁷ tn Heb “on that day.” This same expression also appears later in the verse and in v. 18.

[31:17]  ⁸ tn Heb “him.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “them.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:17]  ⁹ tn Heb “find,” “encounter.”

[31:17]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “him.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “them.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:17]  ¹¹ tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:17]  ¹² tn Heb “evils.”

[31:17]  ¹³ tn Heb “me.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “us,” which is necessary in any case in the translation because of contemporary English style.

[31:17]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “my.”

[31:17]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “me.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “us,” which is necessary in any case in the translation because of contemporary English style.

[31:2]  ¹⁶ tn Or “am no longer able to lead you” (NIV, NLT); Heb “am no longer able to go out and come in.”

[15:5]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “if listening you listen to the voice of.” The infinitive absolute is used for emphasis, which the translation indicates with “carefully.” The idiom “listen to the voice” means “obey.”

[15:5]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in 15:4.

[15:5]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “by being careful to do.”

[15:5]  ²⁰ tn Heb “commanding” (so NASB); NAB “which I enjoin you today.”

[27:11]  ²¹ tn Heb “are dry” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[27:11]  ²² tn Heb “women come [and] light it.” The city is likened to a dead tree with dried up branches that is only good for firewood.

[27:11]  ²³ tn Heb “for not a people of understanding [is] he.”

[6:4]  ²⁴ tn L&N 79.31 states, “‘fiery red’ (probably with a tinge of yellow or orange).”

[6:4]  ²⁵ tn Grk “the one sitting on it.”

[6:4]  ²⁶ tn The word “permission” is implied; Grk “it was given to him to take peace from the earth.”

[6:4]  ²⁷ tn BDAG 979 s.v. σφάζω states, “Of the killing of a person by violence…σφάζειν τινά butcher or murder someone (4 Km 10:7; Jer 52:10; Manetho: 609 fgm. 8, 76 Jac. [in Jos., C. Ap. 1, 76]; Demetr.[?]: 722 fgm. 7; Ar. 10, 9) 1J 3:12; Rv 6:4. Pass. (Hdt. 5, 5) 5:9; 6:9; 18:24.”