Jeremiah 2:32

2:32 Does a young woman forget to put on her jewels?

Does a bride forget to put on her bridal attire?

But my people have forgotten me

for more days than can even be counted.

Jeremiah 6:4

6:4 They will say, ¹  ‘Prepare to do battle ²  against it!

Come on! Let’s attack it at noon!’

But later they will say, ³  ‘Oh, oh! Too bad! ⁴ 

The day is almost over

and the shadows of evening are getting long.

Jeremiah 23:6

23:6 Under his rule ⁵  Judah will enjoy safety ⁶ 

and Israel will live in security. ⁷ 

This is the name he will go by:

‘The Lord has provided us with justice.’ ⁸ 

Jeremiah 30:7

30:7 Alas, what a terrible time of trouble it is! ⁹ 

There has never been any like it.

It is a time of trouble for the descendants of Jacob,

but some of them will be rescued out of it. ¹⁰ 

Jeremiah 31:6

31:6 Yes, a time is coming

when watchmen ¹¹  will call out on the mountains of Ephraim,

“Come! Let us go to Zion

to worship the Lord our God!”’” ¹² 

Jeremiah 33:14-16

The Lord Reaffirms His Covenant with David, Israel, and Levi

33:14 “I, the Lord, affirm: ¹³  ‘The time will certainly come when I will fulfill my gracious promise concerning the nations of Israel and Judah. ¹⁴  33:15 In those days and at that time I will raise up for them a righteous descendant ¹⁵  of David.

“‘He will do what is just and right in the land. 33:16 Under his rule Judah will enjoy safety ¹⁶  and Jerusalem ¹⁷  will live in security. At that time Jerusalem will be called “The Lord has provided us with justice.” ¹⁸ 

Jeremiah 50:27

50:27 Kill all her soldiers! ¹⁹ 

Let them be slaughtered! ²⁰ 

They are doomed, ²¹  for their day of reckoning ²²  has come,

the time for them to be punished.”

Jeremiah 51:2

51:2 I will send people to winnow Babylonia like a wind blowing away chaff. ²³ 

They will winnow her and strip her land bare. ²⁴ 

This will happen when ²⁵  they come against her from every direction,

when it is time to destroy her. ²⁶ 

Jeremiah 52:6

52:6 By the ninth day of the fourth month ²⁷  the famine in the city was so severe the residents ²⁸  had no food.

[6:4]  ¹ tn These words are not in the text but are implicit in the connection. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[6:4]  ² tn Heb “Sanctify war.” This is probably an idiom from early Israel’s holy wars in which religious rites were to precede the battle.

[6:4]  ³ tn These words are not in the text but are supplied in the translation for clarity. Some commentaries and English versions see these not as the words of the enemy but as those of the Israelites expressing their fear that the enemy will launch a night attack against them and further destroy them. The connection with the next verse, however, fits better with them if they are the words of the enemy.

[6:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “Woe to us!” For the usage of this phrase see the translator’s note on 4:13. The usage of this particle here is a little exaggerated. They have lost the most advantageous time for attack but they are scarcely in a hopeless or doomed situation. The equivalent in English slang is “Bad news!”

[23:6]  ¹ tn Heb “In his days [= during the time he rules].”

[23:6]  ² tn Parallelism and context (cf. v. 4) suggest this nuance for the word often translated “be saved.” For this nuance elsewhere see Ps 119:117; Prov 28:18 for the verb (יָשַׁע [yasha’] in the Niphal); and Ps 12:6; Job 5:4, 11 for the related noun (יֶשַׁע, yesha’).

[23:6]  ³ sn It should be noted that this brief oracle of deliverance implies the reunification of Israel and Judah under the future Davidic ruler. Jeremiah has already spoken about this reunification earlier in 3:18 and will have more to say about it in 30:3; 31:27, 31. This same ideal was espoused in the prophecies of Hosea (1:10-11 [2:1-2 HT]), Isaiah (11:1-4, 10-12), and Ezekiel (37:15-28) all of which have messianic and eschatological significance.

[23:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “his name will be called ‘The Lord our righteousness’.”

[30:7]  ¹ tn Heb “Alas [or Woe] for that day will be great.” For the use of the particle “Alas” to signal a time of terrible trouble, even to sound the death knell for someone, see the translator’s note on 22:13.

[30:7]  ² tn Heb “It is a time of trouble for Jacob but he will be saved out of it.”

[31:6]  ¹ sn Watchmen were stationed at vantage points to pass on warning of coming attack (Jer 6:17; Ezek 33:2, 6) or to spread the news of victory (Isa 52:8). Here reference is made to the watchmen who signaled the special times of the year such as the new moon and festival times when Israel was to go to Jerusalem to worship. Reference is not made to these in the Hebrew Bible but there is a good deal of instruction regarding them in the later Babylonian Talmud.

[31:6]  ² sn Not only will Israel and Judah be reunited under one ruler (cf. 23:5-6), but they will share a unified place and practice of worship once again in contrast to Israel using the illicit places of worship, illicit priesthood, and illicit feasts instituted by Jeroboam (1 Kgs 12:26-31) and continued until the downfall of Samaria in 722 b.c.

[33:14]  ¹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.” For the first person form of address see the translator’s notes on vv. 2, 10, 12.

[33:14]  ² sn This refers at the very least to the promises of Jer 23:5-6, 7-8; 30:3; 31:27, 31 where the same formula “The time will certainly come (Heb “Behold the days are coming”)” occurs. Reference may also be to the promises through the earlier prophets of what is alluded to here, i.e., the restoration of Israel and Judah under a Davidic ruler and the revival of the offerings (cf. Hos 1:10-11; 3:4-5; Amos 9:11-12; Isa 11:1-5, 10-16; Jer 30:9, 21 for the former and Jer 31:14; 33:11 for the latter).

[33:15]  ¹ tn Heb “sprig” or “shoot.”

[33:16]  ¹ tn For the translation of this term in this context see the parallel context in 23:6 and consult the translator’s note there.

[33:16]  ² map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[33:16]  ³ tn Heb “And this is what will be called to it: ‘The Lord our righteousness.’”

[50:27]  ¹ tn Heb “Kill all her young bulls.” Commentators are almost universally agreed that the reference to “young bulls” is figurative here for the princes and warriors (cf. BDB 831 s.v. פַּר 2.f, which compares Isa 34:7 and Ezek 39:18). This is virtually certain because of the reference to the time coming for them to be punished; this would scarcely fit literal bulls. For the verb rendered “kill” here see the translator’s note on v. 21.

[50:27]  ² tn Heb “Let them go down to the slaughter.”

[50:27]  ³ tn Or “How terrible it will be for them”; Heb “Woe to them.” See the study note on 22:13 and compare the usage in 23:1; 48:1.

[50:27]  ⁴ tn The words “of reckoning” are not in the text but are implicit from the context. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[51:2]  ¹ tn Or “I will send foreign people against Babylonia.” The translation follows the reading of the Greek recensions of Aquila and Symmachus and the Latin version (the Vulgate). That reading is accepted by the majority of modern commentaries and several of the modern versions (e.g., NRSV, REB, NAB, and God’s Word). It fits better with the verb that follows it than the reading of the Hebrew text and the rest of the versions. The difference in the two readings is again only the difference in vocalization, the Hebrew text reading זָרִים (zarim) and the versions cited reading זֹרִים (zorim). If the Hebrew text is followed, there is a wordplay between the two words, “foreigners” and “winnow.” The words “like a wind blowing away chaff” have been supplied in the translation to clarify for the reader what “winnow” means.

[51:2]  ² tn Or “They will strip her land bare like a wind blowing away chaff.” The alternate translation would be necessary if one were to adopt the alternate reading of the first line (the reading of the Hebrew text). The explanation of “winnow” would then be necessary in the second line. The verb translated “strip…bare” means literally “to empty out” (see BDB 132 s.v. בָּקַק Polel). It has been used in 19:7 in the Qal of “making void” Judah’s plans in a wordplay on the word for “bottle.” See the study note on 19:7 for further details.

[51:2]  ³ tn This assumes that the particle כִּי (ki) is temporal (cf. BDB 473 s.v. כִּי 2.a). This is the interpretation adopted also by NRSV and G. L. Keown, P. J. Scalise, T. G. Smothers, Jeremiah 26-52 (WBC), 349. J. Bright (Jeremiah [AB], 345) and J. A. Thompson (Jeremiah [NICOT], 747, n. 3) interpret it as asseverative or emphatic, “Truly, indeed.” Many of the modern English versions merely ignore it. Reading it as temporal makes it unnecessary to emend the following verb as Bright and Thompson do (from הָיוּ [hayu] to יִהְיוּ [yihyu]).

[51:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “in the day of disaster.”

[52:6]  ¹ 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]  ² tn Heb “the people of the land.”