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 4:26

4:26 I looked and saw that the fruitful land had become a desert

and that all of the cities had been laid in ruins.

The Lord had brought this all about

because of his blazing anger. ³ 

Jeremiah 7:17

7:17 Do you see ⁴  what they are doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? ⁵ 

Jeremiah 13:19

13:19 The gates of the towns in southern Judah will be shut tight. ⁶ 

No one will be able to go in or out of them. ⁷ 

All Judah will be carried off into exile.

They will be completely carried off into exile.’” ⁸ 

Jeremiah 19:12

19:12 I, the Lord, say: ⁹  ‘That is how I will deal with this city and its citizens. I will make it like Topheth.

Jeremiah 21:6

21:6 I will kill everything living in Jerusalem, ¹⁰  people and animals alike! They will die from terrible diseases.

Jeremiah 31:24

31:24 The land of Judah will be inhabited by people who live in its towns

as well as by farmers and shepherds with their flocks. ¹¹ 

Jeremiah 31:38

Jerusalem Will Be Enlarged

31:38 “Indeed a time is coming,” ¹²  says the Lord, ¹³  “when the city of Jerusalem ¹⁴  will be rebuilt as my special city. ¹⁵  It will be built from the Tower of Hananel westward to the Corner Gate. ¹⁶ 

Jeremiah 37:8

37:8 Then the Babylonian forces ¹⁷  will return. They will attack the city and will capture it and burn it down.

Jeremiah 38:3

38:3 They had also heard him say, ¹⁸  “The Lord says, ‘This city will certainly be handed over to the army of the king of Babylon. They will capture it.’” ¹⁹ 

Jeremiah 39:2

39:2 It lasted until the ninth day of the fourth month of Zedekiah’s eleventh year. ²⁰  On that day they broke through the city walls.

Jeremiah 48:9

48:9 Set up a gravestone for Moab,

for it will certainly be laid in ruins! ²¹ 

Its cities will be laid waste

and become uninhabited.”

Jeremiah 48:24

48:24 on Kerioth and Bozrah. It will come on all the towns of Moab, both far and near.

Jeremiah 48:28

48:28 Leave your towns, you inhabitants of Moab.

Go and live in the cliffs.

Be like a dove that makes its nest

high on the sides of a ravine. ²² 

Jeremiah 50:32

50:32 You will stumble and fall, you proud city;

no one will help you get up.

I will set fire to your towns;

it will burn up everything that surrounds you.” ²³ 

Jeremiah 52:5-6

52:5 The city remained under siege until Zedekiah’s eleventh year. 52:6 By the ninth day of the fourth month ²⁴  the famine in the city was so severe the residents ²⁵  had no food.

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

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

[4:26]  ³ tn Heb “because of the Lord, because of his blazing anger.”

[7:17]  ⁵ tn Or “Just look at…” The question is rhetorical and expects a positive answer.

[7:17]  ⁶ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[13:19]  ⁷ tn Heb “The towns of the Negev will be shut.”

[13:19]  ⁸ tn Heb “There is no one to open them.” The translation is based on the parallel in Josh 6:1 where the very expression in the translation is used. Opening the city would have permitted entrance (of relief forces) as well as exit (of fugitives).

[13:19]  ⁹ sn The statements are poetic exaggerations (hyperbole), as most commentaries note. Even in the exile of 587 b.c. not “all” of the people of Jerusalem or of Judah were exiled. Cf. the context of 2 Kgs 24:14-16 again.

[19:12]  ⁹ tn This phrase (Heb “Oracle of the Lord”) has been handled this way on several occasions when it occurs within first person addresses where the Lord is the speaker. See, e.g., 16:16; 17:24; 18:6.

[21:6]  ¹¹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[31:24]  ¹³ tn The translation “those who move about with their flocks” is based on an emendation of the Hebrew text which reads a third plural Qal perfect (נָסְעוּ, nos’u) to a masculine plural Qal participle in the construct (נֹסְעֵי, nosÿ’e) as suggested in the BHS fn. For the use of the construct participle before a noun with a preposition see GKC 421 §130.a. It is generally agreed that three classes of people are referred to here, townspeople, farmers, and shepherds. But the syntax of the Hebrew sentence is a little awkward: “And they [i.e., “people” (the indefinite plural, GKC 460 §144.g)] will live in it, Judah and all its cities [an apposition of nearer definition (GKC 425-26 §131.n)], [along with] farmers and those who move about with their flocks.” The first line refers awkwardly to the townspeople and the other two classes are added asyndetically (i.e., without the conjunction “and”).

[31:38]  ¹⁵ tc The words “is coming” (בָּאִים, ba’im) are not in the written text (Kethib) but are supplied in the margin (Qere), in several Hebrew mss and in the versions. It is part of the idiom that also occurs in vv. 27, 31.

[31:38]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[31:38]  ¹⁷ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[31:38]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “the city will be built to [or for] the Lord.” The words “of Jerusalem” are not in the text but are implicit from the context. They have been supplied in the translation for clarity. However, the word occurs in a first person speech so the translation has accommodated the switch in person as it has in a number of other places (compare also NIV, TEV, ICV).

[31:38]  ¹⁹ tn The word “westward” is not in the text but is supplied in the translation to give some orientation.

[37:8]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “the Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for the rendering “Babylonian.” The word “forces” is supplied in the translation here for the sake of clarity.

[38:3]  ¹⁹ tn The words “They had also heard him say,” are not in the Hebrew text. They are supplied in the translation for clarity so as to avoid any possible confusion that might be created by saying merely “And the Lord says,” without any introduction.

[38:3]  ²⁰ sn See Jer 21:10; 32:28; 34:2; 37:8 for this same prophecy. Jeremiah had repeatedly said this or words to the same effect.

[39:2]  ²¹ sn According to modern reckoning that would have been July 18, 586 b.c. The siege thus lasted almost a full eighteen months.

[48:9]  ²³ tn Or “Scatter salt over Moab for it will certainly be laid in ruins.” The meaning of these two lines is very uncertain. The Hebrew of these two lines presents several difficulties. It reads תְּנוּ־צִיץ לְמוֹאָב נָצֹא תֵּצֵא (tÿnu-tsits lÿmo’av natso’ tetse’). Of the five words two are extremely problematic and the meaning of the second affects also the meaning of the last word which normally means “go out.” The word צִיץ (tsits) regularly refers to a blossom or flower or the diadem on the front of Aaron’s mitre. BDB 851 s.v. II צִיץ gives a nuance “wings (coll)” based on the interpretation of Abu Walid and some medieval Jewish interpreters who related it to an Aramaic root. But BDB says that meaning is dubious and refers to the Greek which reads σημεῖα (shmeia, “sign” or “sign post”). Along with KBL 802 s.v. I צִיץ and HALOT 959 s.v. II צִיץ, BDB suggests that the Greek presupposes the word צִיּוּן (tsiyyun) which refers to a road marker (Jer 31:21) or a gravestone (2 Kgs 23:17). That is the meaning followed here. Several modern commentaries and English versions have followed a proposal by W. Moran that the word is related to a Ugaritic word meaning salt (cf., e.g., J. Bright, Jeremiah [AB], 320). However, HALOT 959 s.v. II צִיץ questions the validity of this on philological grounds saying that the meaning of salt does not really fit the Ugaritic either. The present translation follows the suggestions of the lexicons here and reads the word as though the Greek supported the meaning “gravestone.” The other difficulty is with the word נָצֹא (natso’), which looks like a Qal infinitive absolute of an otherwise unattested root which BDB s.v. נָצָא says is defined in Gesenius’ Thesaurus as “fly.” However, see the meaning and the construction of an infinitive absolute of one root with that of another as highly improbable. Hence, most modern lexicons either emend the forms to read נָצֹה תִּצֶּה (natsoh titseh) from the root נָצָה (natsah) meaning “to fall into ruins” (so KBL 629 s.v. נָצָה Qal, and see among others J. A. Thompson, Jeremiah [NICOT], 700, n. 10, who notes that final א [aleph] and final ה [hey] are often confused; see the discussion and examples in GKC 216-17 §75.nn-rr). This is the option that this translation as well as a number of modern ones have taken. A second option is to see נָצֹא (natso’) as an error for יָצֹא (yatso’) and read the text in the sense of “she will certainly surrender,” a meaning that the verb יָצָא (yatsa’) has in 1 Sam 11:3; Isa 36:6. The best discussion of this option as well as a discussion on the problem of reading צִיץ (tsits) as salt is found in G. L. Keown, P. J. Scalise, T. G. Smothers, Jeremiah 26-52 (WBC), 313-14.

[48:28]  ²⁵ tn Heb “in the sides of the mouth of a pit/chasm.” The translation follows the suggestion of J. Bright, Jeremiah (AB), 321. The point of the simile is inaccessibility.

[50:32]  ²⁷ tn Heb “And the proud one will fall and there will be no one to help him up. I will start a fire in his towns and it will consume all that surround him.” The personification continues but now the stance is indirect (third person) rather than direct (second person). It is easier for the modern reader who is not accustomed to such sudden shifts if the second person is maintained. The personification of the city (or nation) as masculine is a little unusual; normally cities and nations are personified as feminine, as daughters or mothers.

[52:6]  ²⁹ sn According to modern reckoning that would have been July 18, 586 b.c. The siege thus lasted almost a full eighteen months.

[52:6]  ³⁰ tn Heb “the people of the land.”