Jeremiah 2:14

Israel’s Reliance on Foreign Alliances (not on God)

2:14 “Israel is not a slave, is he?

He was not born into slavery, was he? ¹ 

If not, why then is he being carried off?

Jeremiah 3:20

3:20 But, you have been unfaithful to me, nation of Israel, ² 

like an unfaithful wife who has left her husband,” ³ 

says the Lord.

Jeremiah 5:11

5:11 For the nations of Israel and Judah ⁴ 

have been very unfaithful to me,”

says the Lord.

Jeremiah 10:1

The Lord, not Idols, is the Only Worthy Object of Worship

10:1 You people of Israel, ⁵  listen to what the Lord has to say to you.

Jeremiah 18:3

18:3 So I went down to the potter’s house and found him working ⁶  at his wheel. ⁷ 

Jeremiah 22:1

22:1 The Lord told me, ⁸  “Go down ⁹  to the palace of the king of Judah. Give him a message from me there. ¹⁰ 

Jeremiah 36:5

36:5 Then Jeremiah told Baruch, “I am no longer allowed to go ¹¹  into the Lord’s temple.

Jeremiah 36:22

36:22 Since it was the ninth month of the year, the king was sitting in his winter quarters. ¹²  A fire was burning in the firepot in front of him. ¹³ 

Jeremiah 37:4

37:4 (Now Jeremiah had not yet been put in prison. ¹⁴  So he was still free to come and go among the people as he pleased. ¹⁵ 

Jeremiah 41:17

41:17 They set out to go to Egypt to get away from the Babylonians, ¹⁶  but stopped at Geruth Kimham ¹⁷  near Bethlehem. ¹⁸ 

Jeremiah 48:13

48:13 The people of Moab will be disappointed by their god Chemosh.

They will be as disappointed as the people of Israel were

when they put their trust in the calf god at Bethel. ¹⁹ 

[2:14]  ¹ tn Heb “Is Israel a slave? Or is he a house born slave?” The questions are rhetorical, expecting a negative answer.

[3:20]  ² tn Heb “house of Israel.”

[3:20]  ³ tn Heb “a wife unfaithful from her husband.”

[5:11]  ³ tn Heb “the house of Israel and the house of Judah.”

[10:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “house of Israel.”

[18:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “And behold he was working.”

[18:3]  ⁶ 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.

[22:1]  ⁶ tn The word “me “ is not in the text. It is, however, implicit and is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[22:1]  ⁷ sn The allusion here is to going down from the temple to the palace which was on a lower eminence. See 36:12 in its context.

[22:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “And speak there this word:” The translation is intended to eliminate an awkward and lengthy sentence.

[36:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “I am restrained; I cannot go into.” The word “restrained” is used elsewhere in Jeremiah of his being confined to the courtyard of the guardhouse (33:1; 39:15). However, that occurred only later during the tenth year of Zedekiah (Jer 32:1-2) and Jeremiah appears here to be free to come and go as he pleased (vv. 19, 26). The word is used in the active voice of the Lord preventing Sarah from having a baby (Gen 16:2). The probable nuance is here “I am prevented/ debarred” from being able to go. No reason is given why he was prevented/debarred. It has been plausibly suggested that he was prohibited from going into the temple any longer because of the scathing sermon he delivered there earlier (Jer 26:1-3; 7:1-15).

[36:22]  ⁸ tn Heb “in the autumn house.” Commentators are agreed that this was not a separate building or palace but the winter quarters in the palace.

[36:22]  ⁹ tc Heb “the fire in the firepot was burning before him.” The translation assumes that the word “fire” (אֵשׁ, ’esh) has dropped out after the particle אֶת (’et) because of the similar beginnings of the two words. The word “fire” is found in the Greek, Syriac, and Targumic translations according to BHS. The particle אֵת should be retained rather than dropped as an erroneous writing of אֵשׁ. Its presence is to be explained as the usage of the sign of the accusative introducing a new subject (cf. BDB 85 s.v. אֶת 3.α and compare the usage in 27:8; 38:16 [in the Kethib]; 45:4).

[37:4]  ⁹ sn This statement anticipates v. 15. Verses 3-4 are parenthetical to the narrative thread which is picked up in v. 5. They provide background information necessary for understanding the situation at the time the delegation comes to Jeremiah.

[37:4]  ¹⁰ tn The words “as he pleased” are not in the text but are implicit in the idiom both in Hebrew and in English. They have been supplied in the translation for clarity and the sake of English idiom.

[41:17]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for explanation.

[41:17]  ¹¹ sn Geruth Kimham is nowhere else mentioned in the Bible and its precise location is unknown. Many commentators relate the second part of the name to the name of the son of David’s benefactor when he fled from Absalom (2 Sam 19:38-39) and see this as a reference to an estate that David assigned this son as reward for his father’s largess. Gibeon was about six miles northwest of Jerusalem and Benjamin is approximately the same distance southwest of it. Hence, the people mentioned here had not traveled all that far.

[41:17]  ¹² map For location see Map5 B1; Map7 E2; Map8 E2; Map10 B4.

[48:13]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Moab will be ashamed because of Chemosh as the house of Israel was ashamed because of Bethel, their [source of] confidence.” The “shame” is, of course, the disappointment, disillusionment because of the lack of help from these gods in which they trusted (for this nuance of the verb see BDB 101 s.v. בּוֹשׁ Qal.2 and compare usage in Jer 2:13; Isa 20:5). Because of the parallelism, some see the reference to Bethel to be a reference to a West Semitic god worshiped by the people of Israel (see J. P. Hyatt, “Bethel [Deity],” IDB 1:390 for the arguments). However, there is no evidence in the OT that such a god was worshiped in Israel, and there is legitimate evidence that northern Israel placed its confidence in the calf god that Jeroboam set up in Bethel (cf. 1 Kgs 12:28-32; Hos 10:5; 8:5-6; Amos 7:10-17).