Jeremiah 2:10

2:10 Go west ¹  across the sea to the coasts of Cyprus ²  and see.

Send someone east to Kedar ³  and have them look carefully.

See if such a thing as this has ever happened:

Jeremiah 6:3

6:3 Kings will come against it with their armies. ⁴ 

They will encamp in siege all around it. ⁵ 

Each of them will devastate the portion assigned to him. ⁶ 

Jeremiah 6:22

6:22 “This is what the Lord says:

‘Beware! An army ⁷  is coming from a land in the north.

A mighty nation is stirring into action in faraway parts of the earth.

Jeremiah 11:23

11:23 Not one of them will survive. ⁸  I will bring disaster on those men from Anathoth who threatened you. ⁹  A day of reckoning is coming for them.” ¹⁰ 

Jeremiah 13:1

An Object Lesson from Ruined Linen Shorts

13:1 The Lord said to me, “Go and buy some linen shorts ¹¹  and put them on. ¹²  Do not put them in water.” ¹³ 

Jeremiah 15:16

15:16 As your words came to me I drank them in, ¹⁴ 

and they filled my heart with joy and happiness

because I belong to you. ¹⁵ 

Jeremiah 16:3

16:3 For I, the Lord, tell you what will happen to ¹⁶  the children who are born here in this land and to the men and women who are their mothers and fathers. ¹⁷ 

Jeremiah 17:3

17:3 and on the mountains and in the fields. ¹⁸ 

I will give your wealth and all your treasures away as plunder.

I will give it away as the price ¹⁹  for the sins you have committed throughout your land.

Jeremiah 17:22

17:22 Do not carry any loads out of your houses or do any work on the Sabbath day. ²⁰  But observe the Sabbath day as a day set apart to the Lord, ²¹  as I commanded your ancestors. ²² 

Jeremiah 18:12

18:12 But they just keep saying, ‘We do not care what you say! ²³  We will do whatever we want to do! We will continue to behave wickedly and stubbornly!’” ²⁴ 

Jeremiah 22:20

Warning to Jerusalem

22:20 People of Jerusalem, ²⁵  go up to Lebanon and cry out in mourning.

Go to the land of Bashan and cry out loudly.

Cry out in mourning from the mountains of Moab. ²⁶ 

For your allies ²⁷  have all been defeated.

Jeremiah 23:18

23:18 Yet which of them has ever stood in the Lord’s inner circle ²⁸ 

so they ²⁹  could see and hear what he has to say? ³⁰ 

Which of them have ever paid attention or listened to what he has said?

Jeremiah 26:6

26:6 If you do not obey me, ³¹  then I will do to this temple what I did to Shiloh. ³²  And I will make this city an example to be used in curses by people from all the nations on the earth.’”

Jeremiah 36:16

36:16 When they had heard it all, ³³  they expressed their alarm to one another. ³⁴  Then they said to Baruch, “We must certainly give the king a report about everything you have read!” ³⁵ 

Jeremiah 38:12

38:12 Ebed Melech ³⁶  called down to Jeremiah, “Put these rags and worn-out clothes under your armpits to pad the ropes. ³⁷  Jeremiah did as Ebed Melech instructed. ³⁸ 

Jeremiah 49:31

49:31 The Lord says, ³⁹  “Army of Babylon, ⁴⁰  go and attack

a nation that lives in peace and security.

They have no gates or walls to protect them. ⁴¹ 

They live all alone.

Jeremiah 50:41

50:41 “Look! An army is about to come from the north.

A mighty nation and many kings ⁴²  are stirring into action

in faraway parts of the earth.

[2:10]  ¹ tn Heb “For go west.”

[2:10]  ² tn Heb “pass over to the coasts of Kittim.” The words “west across the sea” in this line and “east of” in the next are implicit in the text and are supplied in the translation to give geographical orientation.

[2:10]  ³ sn Kedar is the home of the Bedouin tribes in the Syro-Arabian desert. See Gen 25:18 and Jer 49:38. See also the previous note for the significance of the reference here.

[6:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “Shepherds and their flocks will come against it.” Rulers are often depicted as shepherds; see BDB 945 s.v. רָעָה 1.d(2) (cf. Jer 12:10). The translation of this verse attempts to clarify the point of this extended metaphor.

[6:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “They will thrust [= pitch] tents around it.” The shepherd imagery has a surprisingly ominous tone. The beautiful pasture filled with shepherds grazing their sheep is in reality a city under siege from an attacking enemy.

[6:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “They will graze each one his portion.” For the use of the verb “graze” to mean “strip” or “devastate” see BDB 945 s.v. רָעָה 2.c. For a similar use of the word normally meaning “hand” to mean portion compare 2 Sam 19:43 (19:44 HT).

[6:22]  ⁷ tn Heb “people.”

[11:23]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “There will be no survivors for/among them.”

[11:23]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the men of Anathoth.” For the rationale for adding the qualification see the notes on v. 21.

[11:23]  ¹² tn Heb “I will bring disaster on…, the year of their punishment.”

[13:1]  ¹³ tn The term here (אֵזוֹר, ’ezor) has been rendered in various ways: “girdle” (KJV, ASV), “waistband” (NASB), “waistcloth” (RSV), “sash” (NKJV), “belt” (NIV, NCV, NLT), and “loincloth” (NAB, NRSV, NJPS, REB). The latter is more accurate according to J. M. Myers, “Dress and Ornaments,” IDB 1:870, and W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah (Hermeneia), 1:399. It was a short, skirt-like garment reaching from the waist to the knees and worn next to the body (cf. v. 9). The modern equivalent is “shorts” as in TEV/GNB, CEV.

[13:1]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “upon your loins.” The “loins” were the midriff of the body from the waist to the knees. For a further discussion including the figurative uses see, IDB, “Loins,” 3:149.

[13:1]  ¹⁵ tn Or “Do not ever put them in water,” i.e., “Do not even wash them.”

[15:16]  ¹⁶ sn Heb “Your words were found and I ate them.” This along with Ezek 2:8–3:3 is a poetic picture of inspiration. The prophet accepted them, assimilated them, and made them such a part of himself that he spoke with complete assurance what he knew were God’s words.

[15:16]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Your name is called upon me.”

[16:3]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “For thus says the Lord concerning…”

[16:3]  ²⁰ tn Heb “Thus says the Lord concerning the sons and daughters who are born in the place and concerning their mothers who give them birth and their fathers who fathered them in this land.”

[17:3]  ²² tc This reading follows some of the ancient versions. The MT reads, “hills. My mountain in the open field [alluding to Jerusalem] and your wealth…I will give.” The vocalization of the noun plus pronoun and the unusual form of the expression to allude to Jerusalem calls into question the originality of the MT. The MT reads הֲרָרִי (harari) which combines the suffix for a singular noun with a pointing of the noun in the plural, a form which would be without parallel (compare the forms in Ps 30:8 for the singular noun with suffix and Deut 8:9 for the plural noun with suffix). Likewise, Jerusalem was not “in the open field.” For a similar expression compare Jer 13:27.

[17:3]  ²³ tc Or “I will give away your wealth, all your treasures, and your places of worship…” The translation follows the emendation suggested in the footnote in BHS, reading בִּמְחִיר (bimkhir) in place of בָּמֹתֶיךָ (bamotekha). The forms are graphically very close and one could explain the origin of either from the other. The parallel in 15:13-14 reads לֹא בִּמְחִיר (lo’ bimkhir). The text here may be a deliberate play on that one. The emended text makes decidedly better sense contextually than the MT unless some sardonic reference to their idolatry is intended.

[17:22]  ²⁵ 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]  ²⁶ 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]  ²⁷ tn Heb “fathers.”

[18:12]  ²⁸ tn Heb “It is useless!” See the same expression in a similar context in Jer 2:25.

[18:12]  ²⁹ tn Heb “We will follow our own plans and do each one according to the stubbornness of his own wicked heart.”

[22:20]  ³¹ tn The words “people of Jerusalem” are not in the text. They are supplied in the translation to clarify the referent of the imperative. The imperative is feminine singular and it is generally agreed that personified Zion/Jerusalem is in view. The second feminine singular has commonly been applied to Jerusalem or the people of Judah throughout the book. The reference to allies (v. 20, 22) and to leaders (v. 22) make it very probable that this is the case here too.

[22:20]  ³² tn Heb “from Abarim.” This was the mountain range in Moab from which Moses viewed the promised land (cf. Deut 32:49).

[22:20]  ³³ tn Heb “your lovers.” For the usage of this term to refer to allies see 30:14 and a semantically similar term in 4:30.

[23:18]  ³⁴ tn Or “has been the Lord’s confidant.”

[23:18]  ³⁵ tn The form here is a jussive with a vav of subordination introducing a purpose after a question (cf. GKC 322 §109.f).

[23:18]  ³⁶ tc Heb “his word.” In the second instance (“what he has said” at the end of the verse) the translation follows the suggestion of the Masoretes (Qere) and many Hebrew mss rather than the consonantal text (Kethib) of the Leningrad Codex.

[26:6]  ³⁷ tn 26:4-6 are all one long sentence containing a long condition with subordinate clauses (vv. 4-5) and a compound consequence in v. 6: Heb “If you will not obey me by walking in my law…by paying attention to the words of the prophets which…and you did not pay heed, then I will make…and I will make…” The sentence has been broken down in conformity to contemporary English style but an attempt has been made to reflect all the subordinations in the English translation.

[26:6]  ³⁸ sn See the study note on Jer 7:13.

[36:16]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “all the words.”

[36:16]  ⁴¹ tn According to BDB 808 s.v. פָּחַד Qal.1 and 40 s.v. אֶל 3.a, this is an example of the “pregnant” use of a preposition where an implied verb has to be supplied in the translation to conform the normal range of the preposition with the verb that is governing it. The Hebrew text reads: “they feared unto one another.” BDB translates “they turned in dread to each other.” The translation adopted seems more appropriate in this context.

[36:16]  ⁴² tn Heb “We must certainly report to the king all these things.” Here the word דְּבָרִים (dÿvarim) must mean “things” (cf. BDB 183 s.v. דָּבָר IV.3) rather than “words” because a verbatim report of all the words in the scroll is scarcely meant. The present translation has chosen to use a form that suggests a summary report of all the matters spoken about in the scroll rather than the indefinite “things.”

[38:12]  ⁴³ tn Heb “Ebed Melech the Ethiopian.” The words “the Ethiopian” are unnecessary and are not repeated in the translation because he has already been identified as such in vv. 7, 10.

[38:12]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “under the joints of your arms under the ropes.” The two uses of “under” have different orientations and are best reflected by “between your armpits and the ropes” or “under your armpits to pad the ropes.”

[38:12]  ⁴⁵ tn Or “Jeremiah did so.” The alternate translation is what the text reads literally.

[49:31]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[49:31]  ⁴⁷ tn The words “Army of Babylon” are not in the text but are implicit from the context. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[49:31]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “no gates and no bar,” i.e., “that lives securely without gates or bars.” The phrase is used by the figure of species for genus (synecdoche) to refer to the fact that they have no defenses, i.e., no walls, gates, or bars on the gates. The figure has been interpreted in the translation for the benefit of the average reader.

[50:41]  ⁴⁹ sn A mighty nation and many kings is an allusion to the Medo-Persian empire and the vassal kings who provided forces for the Medo-Persian armies.