Jeremiah 18:3

18:3 So I went down to the potter’s house and found him working ¹  at his wheel. ² 

Jeremiah 17:22

17:22 Do not carry any loads out of your houses or do any work on the Sabbath day. ³  But observe the Sabbath day as a day set apart to the Lord, ⁴  as I commanded your ancestors. ⁵ 

Jeremiah 50:25

50:25 I have opened up the place where my weapons are stored. ⁶ 

I have brought out the weapons for carrying out my wrath. ⁷ 

For I, the Lord God who rules over all, ⁸ 

have work to carry out in the land of Babylonia. ⁹ 

Jeremiah 17:24

17:24 The Lord says, ¹⁰  ‘You must make sure to obey me. You must not bring any loads through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day. You must set the Sabbath day apart to me. You must not do any work on that day.

[18:3]  ¹ tn Heb “And behold he was working.”

[18:3]  ² sn At his wheel (Heb “at the two stones”). The Hebrew expression is very descriptive of the construction of a potter’s wheel which consisted of two stones joined by a horizontal shaft. The potter rotated the wheel with his feet on the lower wheel and worked the clay with his hands on the upper. For a picture of a potter working at his wheel see I. Ben-Dor, “Potter’s Wheel,” IDB 3:846. See also the discussion regarding the making of pottery in J. L. Kelso, “Pottery,” IDB 3:846-53.

[17:22]  ³ tn Heb “Do not carry any loads out of your houses on the Sabbath day and do not do any work.” Translating literally might give the wrong impression that they were not to work at all. The phrase “on the Sabbath day” is, of course, intended to qualify both prohibitions.

[17:22]  ⁴ tn Heb “But sanctify [or set apart as sacred] the Sabbath day.” The idea of setting it apart as something sacred to the Lord is implicit in the command. See the explicit statements of this in Exod 20:10; 31:5; 35:2; Lev 24:8. For some readers the idea of treating the Sabbath day as something sacred won’t mean much without spelling the qualification out specifically. Sabbath observance was not just a matter of not working.

[17:22]  ⁵ tn Heb “fathers.”

[50:25]  ⁵ tn Or “I have opened up my armory.”

[50:25]  ⁶ tn Heb “The Lord has opened up his armory and has brought out the weapons of his wrath.” The problem of the Lord referring to himself in the third person (or of the prophet speaking on his behalf) is again raised here and is again resolved by using the first person throughout. The construction “weapons of my wrath” would not convey any meaning to many readers so the significance has been spelled out in the translation.

[50:25]  ⁷ tn Heb “the Lord Yahweh of armies.” For an explanation of this rendering and the significance of this title see the study note on 2:19.

[50:25]  ⁸ tn The words “of Babylonia” are not in the text but are implicit from the context. They have been supplied in the translation to clarify the referent.

[17:24]  ⁷ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”