Jeremiah 24:5

24:5 “I, the Lord, the God of Israel, say: ‘The exiles whom I sent away from here to the land of Babylon ¹  are like those good figs. I consider them to be good.

Jeremiah 29:8

29:8 “For the Lord God of Israel who rules over all ²  says, ‘Do not let the prophets or those among you who claim to be able to predict the future by divination ³  deceive you. And do not pay any attention to the dreams that you are encouraging them to dream.

Jeremiah 29:16

29:16 But just listen to what the Lord has to say about ⁴  the king who occupies David’s throne and all your fellow countrymen who are still living in this city of Jerusalem ⁵  and were not carried off into exile with you.

Jeremiah 46:18

46:18 I the King, whose name is the Lord who rules over all, ⁶  swear this:

I swear as surely as I live that ⁷  a conqueror is coming.

He will be as imposing as Mount Tabor is among the mountains,

as Mount Carmel is against the backdrop of the sea. ⁸ 

Jeremiah 46:25

46:25 The Lord God of Israel who rules over all ⁹  says, “I will punish Amon, the god of Thebes. ¹⁰  I will punish Egypt, its gods, and its kings. I will punish Pharaoh and all who trust in him. ¹¹ 

Jeremiah 50:3

50:3 For a nation from the north ¹²  will attack Babylon.

It will lay her land waste.

People and animals will flee out of it.

No one will inhabit it.’

Jeremiah 50:12

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

The land where you were born ¹³  will be disgraced.

Indeed, ¹⁴  Babylonia will become the least important of all nations.

It will become a dry and barren desert.

Jeremiah 51:25

51:25 The Lord says, ¹⁵  “Beware! I am opposed to you, Babylon! ¹⁶ 

You are like a destructive mountain that destroys all the earth.

I will unleash my power against you; ¹⁷ 

I will roll you off the cliffs and make you like a burned-out mountain. ¹⁸ 

Jeremiah 51:62

51:62 Then say, ‘O Lord, you have announced that you will destroy this place so that no people or animals live in it any longer. Certainly it will lie desolate forever!’

[24:5]  ¹ tn Heb “the land of the Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4.

[29:8]  ² tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.”

[29:8]  ³ sn See the study notes on 27:9 for this term.

[29:16]  ³ tn Heb “But thus says the Lord about.” The words “just listen to what” are supplied in the translation to help show the connection with the preceding.

[29:16]  ⁴ tn The words “of Jerusalem” are not in the text but are supplied in the translation to identify the referent and avoid the possible confusion that “this city” refers to Babylon.

[46:18]  ⁴ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.” For the significance of this title see the note at 2:19.

[46:18]  ⁵ tn Heb “As I live, oracle of the King, whose….” The indirect quote has been chosen to create a smoother English sentence and avoid embedding a quote within a quote.

[46:18]  ⁶ tn Heb “Like Tabor among the mountains and like Carmel by the sea he will come.” The addition of “conqueror” and “imposing” are implicit from the context and from the metaphor. They have been supplied in the translation to give the reader some idea of the meaning of the verse.

[46:25]  ⁵ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.” For the significance of this title see the note at 2:19.

[46:25]  ⁶ tn Heb “Amon of No.”

[46:25]  ⁷ tc Heb “Behold I will punish Amon of No and Pharaoh and Egypt and its gods and its kings and Pharaoh and all who trust in him.” There appears to be a copyist slip involving a double writing of וְעַל־פַּרְעֹה (vÿ’al-par’oh). The present translation has followed the suggestion of BHS and deleted the first one since the second is necessary for the syntactical connection, “Pharaoh and all who trust in him.”

[50:3]  ⁶ sn A nation from the north refers to Medo-Persia which at the time of the conquest of Babylon in 539 b.c. had conquered all the nations to the north, the northwest, and the northeast of Babylon forming a vast empire to the north and east of Babylon. Contingents of these many nations were included in her army and reference is made to them in 50:9 and 51:27-28. There is also some irony involved here because the “enemy from the north” referred to so often in Jeremiah (cf. 1:14; 4:6; 6:1) has been identified with Babylon (cf. 25:9). Here in a kind of talionic justice Judah’s nemesis from the north will be attacked and devastated by an enemy from the north.

[50:12]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ tn Heb “Behold.” For the use of this particle see the translator’s note on 1:6.

[51:25]  ⁸ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[51:25]  ⁹ tn The word “Babylon” is not in the text but is universally understood as the referent. It is supplied in the translation here to clarify the referent for the sake of the average reader.

[51:25]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “I will reach out my hand against you.” See the translator’s note on 6:12 for explanation.

[51:25]  ¹¹ tn Heb “I am against you, oh destroying mountain that destroys all the earth. I will reach out my hand against you and roll you down from the cliffs and make you a mountain of burning.” The interpretation adopted here follows the lines suggested by S. R. Driver, Jeremiah, 318, n. c and reflected also in BDB 977 s.v. שְׂרֵפָה. Babylon is addressed as a destructive mountain because it is being compared to a volcano. The Lord, however, will make it a “burned-out mountain,” i.e., an extinct volcano which is barren and desolate. This interpretation seems to this translator to fit the details of the text more consistently than alternative ones which separate the concept of “destroying/destructive” from “mountain” and explain the figure of the mountain to refer to the dominating political position of Babylon and the reference to a “mountain of burning” to be a “burned [or burned over] mountain.” The use of similes in place of metaphors makes it easier for the modern reader to understand the figures and also more easily incorporates the dissonant figure of “rolling you down from the cliffs” which involves the figure of personification.