Jeremiah 15:8

15:8 Their widows will become in my sight more numerous ¹ 

than the grains of sand on the seashores.

At noontime I will bring a destroyer

against the mothers of their young men. ² 

I will cause anguish ³  and terror

to fall suddenly upon them. ⁴ 

Jeremiah 23:12

23:12 So the paths they follow will be dark and slippery.

They will stumble and fall headlong.

For I will bring disaster on them.

A day of reckoning is coming for them.” ⁵ 

The Lord affirms it! ⁶ 

Jeremiah 29:28

29:28 For he has even sent a message to us here in Babylon. He wrote and told us, ⁷  “You will be there a long time. Build houses and settle down. Plant gardens and eat what they produce.”’” ⁸ 

Jeremiah 33:12

33:12 “I, the Lord who rules over all, say: ⁹  ‘This place will indeed lie in ruins. There will be no people or animals in it. But there will again be in it and in its towns sheepfolds where shepherds can rest their sheep.

Jeremiah 37:10

37:10 For even if you were to defeat all the Babylonian forces ¹⁰  fighting against you so badly that only wounded men were left lying in their tents, they would get up and burn this city down.”’” ¹¹ 

Jeremiah 38:18

38:18 But if you do not surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, this city will be handed over to the Babylonians ¹²  and they will burn it down. You yourself will not escape from them.’” ¹³ 

Jeremiah 38:23

38:23 “All your wives and your children will be turned over to the Babylonians. ¹⁴  You yourself will not escape from them but will be captured by the ¹⁵  king of Babylon. This city will be burned down.” ¹⁶ 

Jeremiah 40:9

40:9 Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam and grandson of Shaphan, took an oath so as to give them and their troops some assurance of safety. ¹⁷  “Do not be afraid to submit to the Babylonians. ¹⁸  Settle down in the land and submit to the king of Babylon. Then things will go well for you.

Jeremiah 41:18

41:18 They were afraid of what the Babylonians might do ¹⁹  because Ishmael son of Nethaniah had killed Gedaliah son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon had appointed to govern the country.

Jeremiah 51:30

51:30 The soldiers of Babylonia will stop fighting.

They will remain in their fortified cities.

They will lose their strength to do battle. ²⁰ 

They will be as frightened as women. ²¹ 

The houses in her cities will be set on fire.

The gates of her cities will be broken down. ²² 

Jeremiah 51:33

51:33 For the Lord God of Israel who rules over all says,

‘Fair Babylon ²³  will be like a threshing floor

which has been trampled flat for harvest.

The time for her to be cut down and harvested

will come very soon.’ ²⁴ 

Jeremiah 51:44

51:44 I will punish the god Bel in Babylon.

I will make him spit out what he has swallowed.

The nations will not come streaming to him any longer.

Indeed, the walls of Babylon will fall.” ²⁵ 

Jeremiah 51:64

51:64 Then say, ‘In the same way Babylon will sink and never rise again because of the judgments ²⁶  I am ready to bring upon her; they will grow faint.’”

The prophecies of Jeremiah end here. ²⁷ 

[15:8]  ¹ tn Heb “to me.” BDB 513 s.v. ל 5.a(d) compares the usage of the preposition “to” here to that in Jonah 3:3, “Nineveh was a very great city to God [in God’s estimation].” The NEB/REB interpret as though it were the agent after a passive verb, “I have made widows more numerous.” Most English versions ignore it. The present translation follows BDB though the emphasis on God’s agency has been strong in the passage.

[15:8]  ² tn The translation of this line is a little uncertain because of the double prepositional phrase which is not represented in this translation or most of the others. The Hebrew text reads: “I will bring in to them, against mother of young men, a destroyer at noon time.” Many commentaries delete the phrase with the Greek text. If the preposition read “against” like the following one this would be a case of apposition of nearer definition. There is some evidence of that in the Targum and the Syriac according to BHS. Both nouns “mothers” and “young men” are translated as plural here though they are singular; they are treated by most as collectives. It would be tempting to translate these two lines “In broad daylight I have brought destroyers against the mothers of her fallen young men.” But this may be too interpretive. In the light of 6:4, noontime was a good time to attack. NJPS has “I will bring against them – young men and mothers together – ….” In this case “mother” and “young men” would be a case of asyndetic coordination.

[15:8]  ³ tn This word is used only here and in Hos 11:9. It is related to the root meaning “to rouse” (so BDB 735 s.v. I עִיר). Here it refers to the excitement or agitation caused by terror. In Hos 11:9 it refers to the excitement or arousal of anger.

[15:8]  ⁴ tn The “them” in the Hebrew text is feminine referring to the mothers.

[23:12]  ⁵ tn For the last two lines see 11:23 and the notes there.

[23:12]  ⁶ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[29:28]  ⁹ tn Heb “For he has sent to us in Babylon, saying….” The quote, however, is part of the earlier letter.

[29:28]  ¹⁰ sn See v. 5.

[33:12]  ¹³ tn Heb “Thus says Yahweh of armies.” For the explanation for the first person introduction see the translator’s notes on 33:2, 10. Verses 4, 10, 12 introduce three oracles, all under the answer to the Lord’s promise to Jeremiah to show him “great and mysterious things which you still do not know about.”

[37:10]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “all the army of the Chaldeans.” For the rendering “Babylonian” in place of Chaldean see the study note on 21:4.

[37:10]  ¹⁸ tn The length and complexity of this English sentence violates the more simple style that has been used to conform such sentences to contemporary English style. However, there does not seem to be any alternative that would enable a simpler style and still retain the causal and conditional connections that give this sentence the rhetorical force that it has in the original. The condition is, of course, purely hypothetical and the consequence a poetic exaggeration. The intent is to assure Zedekiah that there is absolutely no hope of the city being spared.

[38:18]  ²¹ tn Heb “Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for explanation.

[38:18]  ²² tn Heb “will not escape from their hand.”

[38:23]  ²⁵ tn Heb “Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for explanation.

[38:23]  ²⁶ tn Heb “you yourself will not escape from their hand but will be seized by [caught in] the hand of the king of Babylon.” Neither use of “hand” is natural to the English idiom.

[38:23]  ²⁷ tc This translation follows the reading of the Greek version and a few Hebrew mss. The majority of the Hebrew mss read “and you will burn down this city.” This reading is accepted by the majority of modern commentaries and English versions. Few of the commentaries, however, bother to explain the fact that the particle אֶת (’et), which normally marks the accusative object, is functioning here as the subject. For this point of grammar see BDB 85 s.v. I אֵת 1.b. Or this may be another case where אֵת introduces a new subject (see BDB 85 s.v. אֵת 3.α and see usage in 27:8; 36:22).

[40:9]  ²⁹ tn The words “so as to give them some assurance of safety” are not in the text but are generally understood by all commentators. This would be a case of substitution of cause for effect, the oath, put for the effect, the assurance of safety (NJPS translates directly “reassured them”).

[40:9]  ³⁰ tn Heb “Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for explanation.

[41:18]  ³³ tn Verses 16-18a are a long complex sentence in the Hebrew text with some rather awkward placement of qualifying terms. In the Hebrew text these verses read: “41:16 And he took, Johanan…and all the army officers with him, all the people who were left alive which he [Johanan] had taken back from Ishmael son of Nethaniah from Mizpah after he [Ishmael] had killed Gedaliah…men, men of war, and women and children and court officials which he [Johanan] had brought back from Gibeon 41:17 and they went and they stayed at Geruth Kimham…to go to enter Egypt 41:18 because of the Chaldean because they were afraid of them because Ishmael…” The sentence has been broken down and restructured to reflect all the relevant data in shorter sentences which better conform with contemporary English style. There are a couple of places where the text and syntax are debated. Many modern English versions and commentaries read “They led off/took control of/took all survivors of the people whom Ishmael…had taken captive [reading שָׁבָה ֹאתָם (shavah ’otam) in place of הֵשִׁיב מֵאֵת (heshiv me’et), “whom he (Johanan) had taken back/rescued from Ishmael] from Mizpah after he had…” This is a decidedly smoother text but there is no manuscript or versional evidence for it and so it has been rejected here. Some commentators and English versions see the words “men of war” (“soldiers”) following the word “men” as appositional to that word and hence see only one category. However, there are no parallels to these words used in this kind of apposition. So the translation reflects two categories.

[51:30]  ³⁷ tn Heb “Their strength is dry.” This is a figurative nuance of the word “dry” which BDB 677 s.v. נָשַׁת Qal.1 explain as meaning “fails.” The idea of “strength to do battle” is implicit from the context and is supplied in the translation here for clarity.

[51:30]  ³⁸ tn Heb “They have become women.” The metaphor has been turned into a simile and the significance of the comparison drawn out for the sake of clarity. See 50:37 for the same figure.

[51:30]  ³⁹ tn Heb “Her dwelling places have been set on fire. Her bars [i.e., the bars on the gates of her cities] have been broken.” The present translation has substituted the word “gates” for “bars” because the intent of the figure is to show that the bars of the gates have been broken giving access to the city. “Gates” makes it easier for the modern reader to understand the figure.

[51:33]  ⁴¹ sn Heb “Daughter Babylon.” See the study note at 50:42 for explanation.

[51:33]  ⁴² tn Heb “Daughter Babylon will be [or is; there is no verb and the tense has to be supplied from the context] like a threshing floor at the time one tramples it. Yet a little while and the time of the harvest will come for her.” It is generally agreed that there are two figures here: one of leveling the threshing floor and stamping it into a smooth, hard surface and the other of the harvest where the grain is cut, taken to the threshing floor, and threshed by trampling the sheaves of grain to loosen the grain from the straw, and finally winnowed by throwing the mixture into the air (cf., e.g., J. A. Thompson, Jeremiah [NICOT], 760). The translation has sought to convey those ideas as clearly as possible without digressing too far from the literal.

[51:44]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “And I will punish Bel in Babylon…And the nations will not come streaming to him anymore. Yea, the walls of Babylon have fallen.” The verbs in the first two lines are vav consecutive perfects and the verb in the third line is an imperfect all looking at the future. That indicates that the perfect that follows and the perfects that precede are all prophetic perfects. The translation adopted seemed to be the best way to make the transition from the pasts which were adopted in conjunction with the taunting use of אֵיךְ (’ekh) in v. 41 to the futures in v. 44. For the usage of גַּם (gam) to indicate a climax, “yea” or “indeed” see BDB 169 s.v. גַּם 3. It seemed to be impossible to render the meaning of v. 44 in any comprehensible way, even in a paraphrase.

[51:64]  ⁴⁹ tn Or “disaster”; or “calamity.”

[51:64]  ⁵⁰ sn The final chapter of the book of Jeremiah does not mention Jeremiah or record any of his prophecies.