Jeremiah 2:24

2:24 You are like a wild female donkey brought up in the wilderness.

In her lust she sniffs the wind to get the scent of a male. ¹ 

No one can hold her back when she is in heat.

None of the males need wear themselves out chasing after her.

At mating time she is easy to find. ² 

Jeremiah 3:19

3:19 “I thought to myself, ³ 

‘Oh what a joy it would be for me to treat you like a son! ⁴ 

What a joy it would be for me to give ⁵  you a pleasant land,

the most beautiful piece of property there is in all the world!’ ⁶ 

I thought you would call me, ‘Father’ ⁷ 

and would never cease being loyal to me. ⁸ 

Jeremiah 5:2

5:2 These people make promises in the name of the Lord. ⁹ 

But the fact is, ¹⁰  what they swear to is really a lie.” ¹¹ 

Jeremiah 6:5

6:5 So come on, let’s go ahead and attack it by night

and destroy all its fortified buildings.’

Jeremiah 6:18

6:18 So the Lord said, ¹² 

“Hear, you nations!

Be witnesses and take note of what will happen to these people. ¹³ 

Jeremiah 13:24

13:24 “The Lord says, ¹⁴ 

‘That is why I will scatter your people ¹⁵  like chaff

that is blown away by a desert wind. ¹⁶ 

Jeremiah 25:8

25:8 “Therefore, the Lord who rules over all ¹⁷  says, ‘You have not listened to what I said. ¹⁸ 

Jeremiah 31:12

31:12 They will come and shout for joy on Mount Zion.

They will be radiant with joy ¹⁹  over the good things the Lord provides,

the grain, the fresh wine, the olive oil,

the young sheep and calves he has given to them.

They will be like a well-watered garden

and will not grow faint or weary any more.

Jeremiah 31:25

31:25 I will fully satisfy the needs of those who are weary

and fully refresh the souls of those who are faint. ²⁰ 

Jeremiah 36:23

36:23 As soon as Jehudi had read three or four columns ²¹  of the scroll, the king ²²  would cut them off with a penknife ²³  and throw them on the fire in the firepot. He kept doing so until the whole scroll was burned up in the fire. ²⁴ 

Jeremiah 48:4

48:4 “Moab will be crushed.

Her children will cry out in distress. ²⁵ 

Jeremiah 48:21

48:21 “Judgment will come on the cities on the high plain: ²⁶  on Holon, Jahzah, and Mephaath,

[2:24]  ¹ tn The words “to get the scent of a male” are implicit and are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[2:24]  ² sn The metaphor is intended to depict Israel’s irrepressible desire to worship other gods.

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

[3:19]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn Heb “the most beautiful heritage among the nations.”

[3:19]  ⁷ tn Heb “my father.”

[3:19]  ⁸ tn Heb “turn back from [following] after me.”

[5:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “Though they say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives.” The idea of “swear on oath” comes from the second line.

[5:2]  ⁶ tc The translation follows many Hebrew mss and the Syriac version in reading “surely” (אָכֵן, ’akhen) instead of “therefore” (לָכֵן, lakhen) in the MT.

[5:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “they swear falsely.”

[6:18]  ⁷ tn These words are not in the text but are implicit from the flow of the context. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[6:18]  ⁸ tn Heb “Know, congregation [or witness], what in [or against] them.” The meaning of this line is somewhat uncertain. The meaning of the noun of address in the second line (“witness,” rendered as an imperative in the translation, “Be witnesses”) is greatly debated. It is often taken as “congregation” but the lexicons and commentaries generally question the validity of reading that word since it is nowhere else applied to the nations. BDB 417 s.v. עֵדָה 3 says that the text is dubious. HALOT 747 s.v. I עֵדָה, 4 emends the text to דֵּעָה (de’ah). Several modern English versions (e.g., NIV, NCV, God’s Word) take it as the feminine singular noun “witness” (cf. BDB 729 s.v. II עֵדָה) and understand it as a collective. This solution is also proposed by J. A. Thompson (Jeremiah [NICOT], 259, n. 3) and appears to make the best sense in the context. The end of the line is very elliptical but is generally taken as either, “what I will do with/to them,” or “what is coming against them” (= “what will happen to them”) on the basis of the following context.

[13:24]  ⁹ tn The words, “The Lord says” are not in the text at this point. The words “an oracle of the Lord” does, however, occur in the middle of the next verse and it is obvious the Lord is the speaker. The words have been moved up from the next verse to enhance clarity.

[13:24]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “them.” This is another example of the rapid shift in pronouns seen several times in the book of Jeremiah. The pronouns in the preceding and the following are second feminine singular. It might be argued that “them” goes back to the “flock”/“sheep” in v. 20, but the next verse refers the fate described here to “you” (feminine singular). This may be another example of the kind of metaphoric shifts in referents discussed in the notes on 13:20 above. Besides, it would sound a little odd in the translation to speak of scattering one person like chaff.

[13:24]  ¹¹ sn Compare the threat using the same metaphor in Jer 4:11-12.

[25:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.”

[25:8]  ¹² tn Heb “You have not listened to my words.”

[31:12]  ¹³ tn Reading a Qal perfect from the root II נָהַר (nahar; so KBL 509 s.v. and HALOT 639 s.v.) rather than I נָהַר (so BDB 625 s.v.).

[31:25]  ¹⁵ tn The verbs here again emphasize that the actions are as good as done (i.e., they are prophetic perfects; cf. GKC 312-13 §106.n).

[36:23]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “doors.” This is the only time the word “door” is used in this way but all the commentaries and lexicons agree that it means “columns.” The meaning is figurative based on the similarity of shape.

[36:23]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “he.” The majority of commentaries and English versions are agreed that “he” is the king. However, since a penknife (Heb “a scribe’s razor”) is used to cut the columns off, it is possible that Jehudi himself did it. However, even if Jehudi himself did it, he was acting on the king’s orders.

[36:23]  ¹⁹ sn Heb “a scribe’s razor.” There is some irony involved here since a scribe’s razor was used to trim the sheets to be sewn together, scrape them in preparation for writing, and to erase errors. What was normally used to prepare the scroll was used to destroy it.

[36:23]  ²⁰ tn Heb “until the whole scroll was consumed upon the fire which was in the fire pot.”

[48:4]  ¹⁹ tc The reading here follows the Qere צְעִירֶיהָ (tsÿ’ireha) which is the same noun found in Jer 14:3 in the sense of “servants.” Here it refers to the young ones, i.e., the children (cf. the use of the adjective BDB 859 s.v. I צָעִיר 2 and see Gen 43:33). Many of the modern commentaries and a few of the modern English versions follow the Greek version and read “their cry is heard as far as Zoar” (reading צֹעֲרָה, tso’arah; see, for example, J. A. Thompson, Jeremiah [NICOT], 699, n. 4, and BDB 858 s.v. צֹעַר). However, that leaves the verb with an indefinite subject (the verb is active 3rd plural not passive) not otherwise identified in the preceding context. Many of the modern English versions such as NRSV, NJPS, NIV retain the Hebrew as the present translation has done. In this case the masculine plural noun furnishes a logical subject for the verb.

[48:21]  ²¹ sn See the study note on Jer 48:8 for reference to this tableland or high plain that lay between the Arnon and Heshbon.