Jeremiah 2:2

2:2 “Go and declare in the hearing of the people of Jerusalem: ¹  ‘This is what the Lord says: “I have fond memories of you, ²  how devoted you were to me in your early years. ³  I remember how you loved me like a new bride; you followed me through the wilderness, through a land that had never been planted.

Jeremiah 2:19

2:19 Your own wickedness will bring about your punishment.

Your unfaithful acts will bring down discipline on you. ⁴ 

Know, then, and realize how utterly harmful ⁵ 

it was for you to reject me, the Lord your God, ⁶ 

to show no respect for me,” ⁷ 

says the Lord God who rules over all. ⁸ 

Jeremiah 3:6

3:6 When Josiah was king of Judah, the Lord said to me, “Jeremiah, you have no doubt seen what wayward Israel has done. ⁹  You have seen how she went up to every high hill and under every green tree to give herself like a prostitute to other gods. ¹⁰ 

Jeremiah 7:20

7:20 So,” the Lord God ¹¹  says, “my raging fury will be poured out on this land. ¹²  It will be poured out on human beings and animals, on trees and crops. ¹³  And it will burn like a fire which cannot be extinguished.”

Jeremiah 11:5

11:5 Then I will keep the promise I swore on oath to your ancestors to give them a land flowing with milk and honey.” ¹⁴  That is the very land that you still live in today.’” ¹⁵  And I responded, “Amen! Let it be so, ¹⁶  Lord!”

Jeremiah 12:16

12:16 But they must make sure you learn to follow the religious practices of my people. ¹⁷  Once they taught my people to swear their oaths using the name of the god Baal. ¹⁸  But then, they must swear oaths using my name, saying, “As surely as the Lord lives, I swear.” ¹⁹  If they do these things, ²⁰  then they will be included among the people I call my own. ²¹ 

Jeremiah 14:13

14:13 Then I said, “Oh, Lord God, ²²  look! ²³  The prophets are telling them that you said, ²⁴  ‘You will not experience war or suffer famine. ²⁵  I will give you lasting peace and prosperity in this land.’” ²⁶ 

Jeremiah 25:5

25:5 He said through them, ²⁷  ‘Each of you must turn from your wicked ways and stop doing the evil things you are doing. ²⁸  If you do, I will allow you to continue to live here in the land that I gave to you and your ancestors as a lasting possession. ²⁹ 

Jeremiah 26:16

26:16 Then the officials and all the people rendered their verdict to the priests and the prophets. They said, ³⁰  “This man should not be condemned to die. ³¹  For he has spoken to us under the authority of the Lord our God.” ³² 

Jeremiah 34:8

The Lord Threatens to Destroy Those Who Wronged Their Slaves

34:8 The Lord spoke to Jeremiah after King Zedekiah had made a covenant ³³  with all the people in Jerusalem ³⁴  to grant their slaves their freedom.

Jeremiah 45:5

45:5 Are you looking for great things for yourself? Do not look for such things. For I, the Lord, affirm ³⁵  that I am about to bring disaster on all humanity. ³⁶  But I will allow you to escape with your life ³⁷  wherever you go.”’”

[2:2]  ¹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[2:2]  ² tn Heb “I remember to/for you.”

[2:2]  ³ tn Heb “the loyal love of your youth.”

[2:19]  ⁴ tn Or “teach you a lesson”; Heb “rebuke/chide you.”

[2:19]  ⁵ tn Heb “how evil and bitter.” The reference is to the consequences of their acts. This is a figure of speech (hendiadys) where two nouns or adjectives joined by “and” introduce a main concept modified by the other noun or adjective.

[2:19]  ⁶ tn Heb “to leave the Lord your God.” The change in person is intended to ease the problem of the rapid transition, which is common in Hebrew style but not in English, from third to first person between this line and the next.

[2:19]  ⁷ tn Heb “and no fear of me was on you.”

[2:19]  ⁸ tn Heb “the Lord Yahweh, [the God of] hosts.” For the title Lord God see the study note on 1:6. For the title “who rules over all” see the following study note. The title “the Lord who rules over all” is a way of rendering the title “Yahweh of armies.” It is an abbreviation of a longer title “Yahweh the God of armies” which occurs five times in Jeremiah (see, e.g., 44:7). The abbreviated title occurs seventy-seven times in the book of Jeremiah. On thirty-two occasions it is further qualified by the title “the God of Israel,” showing his special relation to Israel. On six occasions it is preceded by the title “Lord” (see, e.g., 46:10) and twice it is preceded by the title “the King” (see, e.g., 51:17). Both titles emphasize his sovereignty. Twice it is said that he is the maker of all things (10:16; 51:19), and once it is said that he made the earth and the people and animals on it and gives them into the control of whomever he wishes (27:4-5). On two occasions it is emphasized that he also made the heavenly elements and controls the natural elements of wind, rain, thunder, and hail (31:35; 51:14-16). All this is consistent with usage elsewhere where the “armies” over which he has charge are identified as (1) the angels which surround his throne (Isa 6:3, 5; 1 Kgs 22:19) and which he sends to protect his servants (2 Kgs 6:17), (2) the natural forces of thunder, rain, and hail (Isa 29:6; Josh 10:11; Judg 5:4, 5) through which he sends the enemy into panic and “gums” up their chariot wheels, (3) the armies of Israel (1 Sam 17:45) which he leads into battle (Num 10:34-35; Josh 5:14, 15) and for whom he fights as a mighty warrior (Exod 15:3; Isa 42:13; Ps 24:8), and even (4) the armies of the nations which he musters against his disobedient people (Isa 13:14). This title is most commonly found in the messenger formula “Thus says…” introducing both oracles of judgment (on Israel [e.g., 9:7, 15] and on the nations [e.g. 46:19; 50:18]; and see in general 25:29-32). It emphasizes his sovereignty as the king and creator, the lord of creation and of history, and the just judge who sees and knows all (11:20; 20:12) and judges each person and nation according to their actions (Jer 32:18-19). In the first instance (in the most dominant usage) this will involve the punishment of his own people through the agency of the Babylonians (cf., e.g., 25:8-9). But it will also include the punishment of all nations, including Babylon itself (cf. Jer 25:17-26, 32-38), and will ultimately result in the restoration of his people and a new relation with them (30:8; 31:35-37).

[3:6]  ⁷ tn “Have you seen…” The question is rhetorical and expects a positive answer.

[3:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “she played the prostitute there.” This is a metaphor for Israel’s worship; she gave herself to the worship of other gods like a prostitute gives herself to her lovers. There seems no clear way to completely spell out the metaphor in the translation.

[7:20]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Lord Yahweh.” The translation follows the ancient Jewish tradition of substituting the Hebrew word for God for the proper name Yahweh.

[7:20]  ¹¹ tn Heb “this place.” Some see this as a reference to the temple but the context has been talking about what goes on in the towns of Judah and Jerusalem and the words that follow, meant as a further explanation, are applied to the whole land.

[7:20]  ¹² tn Heb “the trees of/in the field and the fruit of/in the ground.”

[11:5]  ¹³ tn The phrase “a land flowing with milk and honey” is very familiar to readers in the Jewish and Christian traditions as a proverbial description of the agricultural and pastoral abundance of the land of Israel. However, it may not mean too much to readers outside those traditions; an equivalent expression would be “a land of fertile fields and fine pastures.” E. W. Bullinger (Figures of Speech, 626) identifies this as a figure of speech called synecdoche where the species is put for the genus, “a region…abounding with pasture and fruits of all kinds.”

[11:5]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “‘a land flowing with milk and honey,’ as at this day.” However, the literal reading is too elliptical and would lead to confusion.

[11:5]  ¹⁵ tn The words “Let it be so” are not in the text; they are an explanation of the significance of the term “Amen” for those who may not be part of the Christian or Jewish tradition.

[12:16]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the ways of my people.” For this nuance of the word “ways” compare 10:2 and the notes there.

[12:16]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “taught my people to swear by Baal.”

[12:16]  ¹⁸ tn The words “I swear” are not in the text but are implicit to the oath formula. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[12:16]  ¹⁹ tn The words “If they do this” are not in the text. They are part of an attempt to break up a Hebrew sentence which is long and complex into equivalent shorter sentences consistent with contemporary English style. Verse 16 in Hebrew is all one sentence with a long complex conditional clause followed by a short consequence: “If they carefully learn the ways of my people to swear by name, ‘By the life of the Lord,’ as they taught my people to swear by Baal, then they will be built up in the midst of my people.” The translation strives to create the same contingencies and modifications by breaking up the sentence into shorter sentences in accord with contemporary English style.

[12:16]  ²⁰ tn Heb “they will be built up among my people.” The expression “be built up among” is without parallel. However, what is involved here is conceptually parallel to the ideas expressed in Isa 19:23-25 and Zech 14:16-19. That is, these people will be allowed to live on their own land, to worship the Lord there, and to come to Jerusalem to celebrate the feasts. To translate literally would be meaningless or misleading for many readers.

[14:13]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “Lord Yahweh.” The translation follows the ancient Jewish tradition of substituting the Hebrew word for God for the proper name Yahweh.

[14:13]  ²⁰ tn Heb “Behold.” See the translator’s note on usage of this particle in 1:6.

[14:13]  ²¹ tn The words “that you said” are not in the text but are implicit from the first person in the affirmation that follows. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[14:13]  ²² tn Heb “You will not see sword and you will not have starvation [or hunger].”

[14:13]  ²³ tn Heb “I will give you unfailing peace in this place.” The translation opts for “peace and prosperity” here for the word שָׁלוֹם (shalom) because in the context it refers both to peace from war and security from famine and plague. The word translated “lasting” (אֱמֶת, ’emet) is a difficult to render here because it has broad uses: “truth, reliability, stability, steadfastness,” etc. “Guaranteed” or “lasting” seem to fit the context the best.

[25:5]  ²² tn Heb “saying.” The infinitive goes back to “he sent”; i.e., “he sent, saying.”

[25:5]  ²³ tn Heb “Turn [masc. pl.] each person from his wicked way and from the evil of your [masc. pl.] doings.” See the same demand in 23:22.

[25:5]  ²⁴ tn Heb “gave to you and your fathers with reference to from ancient times even unto forever.” See the same idiom in 7:7.

[26:16]  ²⁵ tn Heb “Then the officials and all the people said to the priests and the prophets…”

[26:16]  ²⁶ sn Contrast v. 11.

[26:16]  ²⁷ tn Heb “For in the name of the Lord our God he has spoken to us.” The emphasis is on “in the name of…”

[34:8]  ²⁸ tn Usually translated “covenant.” See the study note on 11:2 for the rationale for the translation here.

[34:8]  ²⁹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[45:5]  ³¹ tn Heb “oracle of the Lord.”

[45:5]  ³² sn Compare Jer 25:31, 33. The reference here to universal judgment also forms a nice transition to the judgments on the nations that follow in Jer 46-51 which may be another reason for the placement of this chapter here, out of its normal chronological order (see also the study note on v. 1).

[45:5]  ³³ tn Heb “I will give you your life for a spoil.” For this idiom see the translator’s note on 21:9 and compare the usage in 21:9; 38:2; 39:18.