Jeremiah 2:15

2:15 Like lions his enemies roar victoriously over him;

they raise their voices in triumph. ¹ 

They have laid his land waste;

his cities have been burned down and deserted. ² 

Jeremiah 13:16

13:16 Show the Lord your God the respect that is due him. ³ 

Do it before he brings the darkness of disaster. ⁴ 

Do it before you stumble ⁵  into distress

like a traveler on the mountains at twilight. ⁶ 

Do it before he turns the light of deliverance you hope for

into the darkness and gloom of exile. ⁷ 

Jeremiah 31:21

31:21 I will say, ⁸  ‘My dear children of Israel, ⁹  keep in mind

the road you took when you were carried off. ¹⁰ 

Mark off in your minds the landmarks.

Make a mental note of telltale signs marking the way back.

Return, my dear children of Israel.

Return to these cities of yours.

Jeremiah 51:39

51:39 When their appetites are all stirred up, ¹¹ 

I will set out a banquet for them.

I will make them drunk

so that they will pass out, ¹² 

they will fall asleep forever,

they will never wake up,” ¹³ 

says the Lord. ¹⁴ 

Jeremiah 3:19

3:19 “I thought to myself, ¹⁵ 

‘Oh what a joy it would be for me to treat you like a son! ¹⁶ 

What a joy it would be for me to give ¹⁷  you a pleasant land,

the most beautiful piece of property there is in all the world!’ ¹⁸ 

I thought you would call me, ‘Father’ ¹⁹ 

and would never cease being loyal to me. ²⁰ 

Jeremiah 22:6

22:6 “‘For the Lord says concerning the palace of the king of Judah,

“This place looks like a veritable forest of Gilead to me.

It is like the wooded heights of Lebanon in my eyes.

But I swear that I will make it like a wilderness

whose towns have all been deserted. ²¹ 

Jeremiah 50:3

50:3 For a nation from the north ²²  will attack Babylon.

It will lay her land waste.

People and animals will flee out of it.

No one will inhabit it.’

[2:15]  ¹ tn Heb “Lions shout over him, they give out [raise] their voices.”

[2:15]  ² tn Heb “without inhabitant.”

[13:16]  ³ tn Heb “Give glory/respect to the Lord your God.” For this nuance of the word “glory” (כָּבוֹד, kavod), see BDB 459 s.v. כָּבוֹד 6.b and compare the usage in Mal 1:6 and Josh 7:19.

[13:16]  ⁴ tn The words “of disaster” are not in the text. They are supplied in the translation to explain the significance of the metaphor to readers who may not be acquainted with the metaphorical use of light and darkness for salvation and joy and distress and sorrow respectively.

[13:16]  ⁵ tn Heb “your feet stumble.”

[13:16]  ⁶ tn Heb “you stumble on the mountains at twilight.” The added words are again supplied in the translation to help explain the metaphor to the uninitiated reader.

[13:16]  ⁷ tn Heb “and while you hope for light he will turn it into deep darkness and make [it] into gloom.” The meaning of the metaphor is again explained through the addition of the “of” phrases for readers who are unacquainted with the metaphorical use of these terms.

[31:21]  ⁵ tn The words “I will say” are not in the text. They are supplied in the translation to mark the transition from the address about Israel in a response to Rachel’s weeping (vv. 15-20) to a direct address to Israel which is essentially the answer to Israel’s prayer of penitence (cf. G. L. Keown, P. J. Scalise, T. G. Smothers, Jeremiah 26-52 [WBC], 121.)

[31:21]  ⁶ tn Heb “Virgin Israel.” For the significance see the study note on 31:3.

[31:21]  ⁷ tn Heb “Set your mind to the highway, the way which you went.” The phrase “the way you went” has been translated “the road you took when you were carried off” to help the reader see the reference to the exile implicit in the context. The verb “which you went” is another example of the old second feminine singular which the Masoretes typically revocalize (Kethib הָלָכְתִּי [halakhti]; Qere הָלָכְתְּ [halakht]). The vocative has been supplied in the translation at the beginning to help make the transition from third person reference to Ephraim/Israel in the preceding to second person in the following and to identify the referent of the imperatives. Likewise, this line has been moved to the front to show that the reference to setting up sign posts and landmarks is not literal but figurative, referring to making a mental note of the way they took when carried off so that they can easily find their way back. Lines three and four in the Hebrew text read, “Set up sign posts for yourself; set up guideposts/landmarks for yourself.” The word translated “telltale signs marking the way” occurs only here. Though its etymology and precise meaning are unknown, all the lexicons agree in translating it as “sign post” or something similar based on the parallelism.

[51:39]  ⁷ tn Heb “When they are hot.”

[51:39]  ⁸ tc The translation follows the suggestion of KBL 707 s.v. עָלַז and a number of modern commentaries (e.g., Bright, J. A. Thompson, and W. L. Holladay) in reading יְעֻלְּפוּ (ye’ullÿfu) for יַעֲלֹזוּ (ya’alozu) in the sense of “swoon away” or “grow faint” (see KBL 710 s.v. עָלַף Pual). That appears to be the verb that the LXX (the Greek version) was reading when they translated καρωθῶσιν (karwqwsin, “they will be stupefied”). For parallel usage KBL cites Isa 51:20. This fits the context much better than “they will exult” in the Hebrew text.

[51:39]  ⁹ sn The central figure here is the figure of the cup of the Lord’s wrath (cf. 25:15-29, especially v. 26). Here the Babylonians have been made to drink so deeply of it that they fall into a drunken sleep from which they will never wake up (i.e., they die, death being compared to sleep [cf. Ps 13:3 (13:4 HT); 76:5 (76:6 HT); 90:5]). Compare the usage in Jer 51:57 for this same figure.

[51:39]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[3:19]  ⁹ tn Heb “I, myself, said.” See note on “I thought that she might come back to me” in 3:7.

[3:19]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “How I would place you among the sons.” Israel appears to be addressed here contextually as the Lord’s wife (see the next verse). The pronouns of address in the first two lines are second feminine singular as are the readings of the two verbs preferred by the Masoretes (the Qere readings) in the third and fourth lines. The verbs that are written in the text in the third and fourth lines (the Kethib readings) are second masculine plural as is the verb describing Israel’s treachery in the next verse.

[3:19]  ¹¹ tn The words “What a joy it would be for me to” are not in the Hebrew text but are implied in the parallel structure.

[3:19]  ¹² tn Heb “the most beautiful heritage among the nations.”

[3:19]  ¹³ tn Heb “my father.”

[3:19]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “turn back from [following] after me.”

[22:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Gilead you are to me, the height of Lebanon, but I will surely make you a wilderness [with] cities uninhabited.” The points of comparison are made explicit in the translation for the sake of clarity. See the study note for further explanation. For the use of the preposition לְ (lamed) = “in my eyes/in my opinion” see BDB 513 s.v. לְ 5.a(d) and compare Jonah 3:3; Esth 10:3. For the use of the particles אִם לֹא (’im lo’) to introduce an emphatic oath see BDB 50 s.v. אִם 1.b(2).

[50:3]  ¹³ sn A nation from the north refers to Medo-Persia which at the time of the conquest of Babylon in 539 b.c. had conquered all the nations to the north, the northwest, and the northeast of Babylon forming a vast empire to the north and east of Babylon. Contingents of these many nations were included in her army and reference is made to them in 50:9 and 51:27-28. There is also some irony involved here because the “enemy from the north” referred to so often in Jeremiah (cf. 1:14; 4:6; 6:1) has been identified with Babylon (cf. 25:9). Here in a kind of talionic justice Judah’s nemesis from the north will be attacked and devastated by an enemy from the north.