Jeremiah 20:14

20:14 Cursed be the day I was born!

May that day not be blessed when my mother gave birth to me. ¹ 

Jeremiah 20:17

20:17 For he did not kill me before I came from the womb,

making my pregnant mother’s womb my grave forever. ² 

Jeremiah 16:3

16:3 For I, the Lord, tell you what will happen to ³  the children who are born here in this land and to the men and women who are their mothers and fathers. ⁴ 

Jeremiah 22:26

22:26 I will force you and your mother who gave you birth into exile. You will be exiled to ⁵  a country where neither of you were born, and you will both die there.

Jeremiah 15:8

15:8 Their widows will become in my sight more numerous ⁶ 

than the grains of sand on the seashores.

At noontime I will bring a destroyer

against the mothers of their young men. ⁷ 

I will cause anguish ⁸  and terror

to fall suddenly upon them. ⁹ 

Jeremiah 13:18

13:18 The Lord told me, ¹⁰ 

“Tell the king and the queen mother,

‘Surrender your thrones, ¹¹ 

for your glorious crowns

will be removed ¹²  from your heads. ¹³ 

Jeremiah 29:2

29:2 He sent it after King Jeconiah, the queen mother, the palace officials, ¹⁴  the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen, and the metal workers had been exiled from Jerusalem. ¹⁵ 

Jeremiah 15:10

Jeremiah Complains about His Lot and The Lord Responds

15:10 I said, ¹⁶ 

“Oh, mother, how I regret ¹⁷  that you ever gave birth to me!

I am always starting arguments and quarrels with the people of this land. ¹⁸ 

I have not lent money to anyone and I have not borrowed from anyone.

Yet all of these people are treating me with contempt.” ¹⁹ 

Jeremiah 16:7

16:7 No one will take any food to those who mourn for the dead to comfort them. No one will give them any wine to drink to console them for the loss of their father or mother.

Jeremiah 50:12

50:12 But Babylonia will be put to great shame.

The land where you were born ²⁰  will be disgraced.

Indeed, ²¹  Babylonia will become the least important of all nations.

It will become a dry and barren desert.

Jeremiah 52:1

The Fall of Jerusalem

52:1 ²² Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he ruled in Jerusalem ²³  for eleven years. His mother’s name was Hamutal ²⁴  daughter of Jeremiah, from Libnah.

Jeremiah 1:5

1:5 “Before I formed you in your mother’s womb ²⁵  I chose you. ²⁶ 

Before you were born I set you apart.

I appointed you to be a prophet to the nations.”

Jeremiah 20:18

20:18 Why did I ever come forth from my mother’s womb?

All I experience is trouble and grief,

and I spend my days in shame. ²⁷ 

Jeremiah 15:9

15:9 The mother who had seven children ²⁸  will grow faint.

All the breath will go out of her. ²⁹ 

Her pride and joy will be taken from her in the prime of their life.

It will seem as if the sun had set while it was still day. ³⁰ 

She will suffer shame and humiliation. ³¹ 

I will cause any of them who are still left alive

to be killed in war by the onslaughts of their enemies,” ³² 

says the Lord.

Jeremiah 31:8

31:8 Then I will reply, ³³  ‘I will bring them back from the land of the north.

I will gather them in from the distant parts of the earth.

Blind and lame people will come with them,

so will pregnant women and women about to give birth.

A vast throng of people will come back here.

Jeremiah 2:27

2:27 They say to a wooden idol, ³⁴  ‘You are my father.’

They say to a stone image, ‘You gave birth to me.’ ³⁵ 

Yes, they have turned away from me instead of turning to me. ³⁶ 

Yet when they are in trouble, they say, ‘Come and save us!’

[20:14]  ¹ sn From the heights of exaltation, Jeremiah returns to the depths of despair. For similar mood swings in the psalms of lament compare Ps 102. Verses 14-18 are similar in tone and mood to Job 3:1-10. They are very forceful rhetorical ways of Job and Jeremiah expressing the wish that they had never been born.

[20:17]  ² tn Heb “because he did not kill me from the womb so my mother might be to me for my grave and her womb eternally pregnant.” The sentence structure has been modified and the word “womb” moved from the last line to the next to the last line for English stylistic purposes and greater clarity.

[16:3]  ³ tn Heb “For thus says the Lord concerning…”

[16:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “Thus says the Lord concerning the sons and daughters who are born in the place and concerning their mothers who give them birth and their fathers who fathered them in this land.”

[22:26]  ⁴ tn Heb “I will hurl you and your mother…into another land where…” The verb used here is very forceful. It is the verb used for Saul throwing a spear at David (1 Sam 18:11) and for the Lord unleashing a violent storm on the sea (Jonah 1:4). It is used both here and in v. 28 for the forceful exile of Jeconiah and his mother.

[15:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “to me.” BDB 513 s.v. ל 5.a(d) compares the usage of the preposition “to” here to that in Jonah 3:3, “Nineveh was a very great city to God [in God’s estimation].” The NEB/REB interpret as though it were the agent after a passive verb, “I have made widows more numerous.” Most English versions ignore it. The present translation follows BDB though the emphasis on God’s agency has been strong in the passage.

[15:8]  ⁶ tn The translation of this line is a little uncertain because of the double prepositional phrase which is not represented in this translation or most of the others. The Hebrew text reads: “I will bring in to them, against mother of young men, a destroyer at noon time.” Many commentaries delete the phrase with the Greek text. If the preposition read “against” like the following one this would be a case of apposition of nearer definition. There is some evidence of that in the Targum and the Syriac according to BHS. Both nouns “mothers” and “young men” are translated as plural here though they are singular; they are treated by most as collectives. It would be tempting to translate these two lines “In broad daylight I have brought destroyers against the mothers of her fallen young men.” But this may be too interpretive. In the light of 6:4, noontime was a good time to attack. NJPS has “I will bring against them – young men and mothers together – ….” In this case “mother” and “young men” would be a case of asyndetic coordination.

[15:8]  ⁷ tn This word is used only here and in Hos 11:9. It is related to the root meaning “to rouse” (so BDB 735 s.v. I עִיר). Here it refers to the excitement or agitation caused by terror. In Hos 11:9 it refers to the excitement or arousal of anger.

[15:8]  ⁸ tn The “them” in the Hebrew text is feminine referring to the mothers.

[13:18]  ⁶ tn The words “The Lord told me” are not in the text but are implicit in the shift from second plural pronouns in vv. 15-17 to second singular in the Hebrew text of this verse. These words are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[13:18]  ⁷ tn Or “You will come down from your thrones”; Heb “Make low! Sit!” This is a case of a construction where two forms in the same case, mood, or tense are joined in such a way that one (usually the first) is intended as an adverbial or adjectival modifier of the other (a figure called hendiadys). This is also probably a case where the imperative is used to express a distinct assurance or promise. See GKC 324 §110.b and compare the usage in Isa 37:30 and Ps 110:2.

[13:18]  ⁸ tn Heb “have come down.” The verb here and those in the following verses are further examples of the “as good as done” form of the Hebrew verb (the prophetic perfect).

[13:18]  ⁹ tc The translation follows the common emendation of a word normally meaning “place at the head” (מַרְאֲשׁוֹת [mar’ashot] plus pronoun = מַרְאֲוֹשׁתֵיכֶם [mar’aoshtekhem]) to “from your heads” (מֵרָאשֵׁיכֶם, mera’shekhem) following the ancient versions. The meaning “tiara” is nowhere else attested for this word.

[29:2]  ⁷ tn This term is often mistakenly understood to refer to a “eunuch.” It is clear, however, in Gen 39:1 that “eunuchs” could be married. On the other hand it is clear from Isa 59:3-5 that some who bore this title could not have children. In this period, it is possible that the persons who bore this title were high officials like the rab saris who was a high official in the Babylonian court (cf. Jer 39:3, 13; 52:25). For further references see HALOT 727 s.v. סָרִיס 1.c.

[29:2]  ⁸ sn See 2 Kgs 24:14-16 and compare the study note on Jer 24:1.

[15:10]  ⁸ tn The words “I said” are not in the text. They are supplied in the translation for clarity to mark a shift in the speaker.

[15:10]  ⁹ tn Heb “Woe to me, my mother.” See the comments on 4:13 and 10:19.

[15:10]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “A man of strife and a man of contention with all the land.” The “of” relationship (Hebrew and Greek genitive) can convey either subjective or objective relationships, i.e., he instigates strife and contention or he is the object of it. A study of usage elsewhere, e.g., Isa 41:11; Job 31:35; Prov 12:19; 25:24; 26:21; 27:15, is convincing that it is subjective. In his role as God’s covenant messenger charging people with wrong doing he has instigated counterarguments and stirred about strife and contention against him.

[15:10]  ¹¹ tc The translation follows the almost universally agreed upon correction of the MT. Instead of reading כֻּלֹּה מְקַלְלַונִי (kulloh mÿqallavni, “all of him is cursing me”) as the Masoretes proposed (Qere) one should read קִלְלוּנִי (qilluni) with the written text (Kethib) and redivide and repoint with the suggestion in BHS כֻּלְּהֶם (qullÿhem, “all of them are cursing me”).

[50:12]  ⁹ tn Heb “Your mother will be utterly shamed, the one who gave you birth…” The word “mother” and the parallel term “the one who gave you birth” are used metaphorically for the land of Babylonia. For the figure compare the usage in Isa 50:1 (Judah) and Hos 2:2, 5 (2:4, 7 HT) and see BDB 52 s.v. אֵם 2 and 408 s.v. יָלַד Qal.2.c.

[50:12]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Behold.” For the use of this particle see the translator’s note on 1:6.

[52:1]  ¹⁰ sn This final chapter does not mention Jeremiah, but its description of the downfall of Jerusalem and exile of the people validates the prophet’s ministry.

[52:1]  ¹¹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[52:1]  ¹² tn Some textual witnesses support the Kethib (consonantal text) in reading “Hamital.”

[1:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the womb.” The words “your mother’s” are implicit and are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[1:5]  ¹² tn Heb “I knew you.” The parallelism here with “set you apart” and “appointed you” make clear that Jeremiah is speaking of his foreordination to be a prophet. For this same nuance of the Hebrew verb see Gen 18:19; Amos 3:2.

[20:18]  ¹² tn Heb “Why did I come forth from the womb to see [= so that I might see] trouble and grief and that my days might be consumed in shame.”

[15:9]  ¹³ tn Heb “who gave birth to seven.”

[15:9]  ¹⁴ tn The meaning of this line is debated. Some understand this line to mean “she has breathed out her life” (cf., e.g., BDB 656 s.v. נָפַח and 656 s.v. ֶנפֶשׁ 1.c). However, as several commentaries have noted (e.g., W. McKane, Jeremiah [ICC], 1:341; J. Bright, Jeremiah [AB], 109) it makes little sense to talk about her suffering shame and embarrassment if she has breathed her last. Both the Greek and Latin versions understand “soul” not as the object but as the subject and the idea being one of fainting under despair. This idea seems likely in light of the parallelism. Bright suggests the phrase means either “she gasped out her breath” or “her throat gasped.” The former is more likely. One might also render “she fainted dead away,” but that idiom might not be familiar to all readers.

[15:9]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Her sun went down while it was still day.”

[15:9]  ¹⁶ sn She has lost her position of honor and the source of her pride. For the concepts here see 1 Sam 2:5.

[15:9]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “I will deliver those of them that survive to the sword before their enemies.” The referent of “them” is ambiguous. Does it refer to the children of the widow (nearer context) or the people themselves (more remote context, v. 7)? Perhaps it was meant to include both. Verse seven spoke of the destruction of the people and the killing off of the children.

[31:8]  ¹⁴ tn The words “And I will reply” are not in the text but the words vv. 8-9 appear to be the answer to the petition at the end of v. 7. These words are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[2:27]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “wood…stone…”

[2:27]  ¹⁶ sn The reference to wood and stone is, of course, a pejorative reference to idols made by human hands. See the next verse where reference is made to “the gods you have made.”

[2:27]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “they have turned [their] backs to me, not [their] faces.”