Jeremiah 3:16

3:16 In those days, your population will greatly increase ¹  in the land. At that time,” says the Lord, “people will no longer talk about having the ark ²  that contains the Lord’s covenant with us. ³  They will not call it to mind, remember it, or miss it. No, that will not be done any more! ⁴ 

Jeremiah 6:10

6:10 I answered, ⁵ 

“Who would listen

if I spoke to them and warned them? ⁶ 

Their ears are so closed ⁷ 

that they cannot hear!

Indeed, ⁸  what the Lord says is offensive to them.

They do not like it at all. ⁹ 

Jeremiah 17:24

17:24 The Lord says, ¹⁰  ‘You must make sure to obey me. You must not bring any loads through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day. You must set the Sabbath day apart to me. You must not do any work on that day.

Jeremiah 19:4

19:4 I will do so because these people ¹¹  have rejected me and have defiled ¹²  this place. They have offered sacrifices in it to other gods which neither they nor their ancestors ¹³  nor the kings of Judah knew anything about. They have filled it with the blood of innocent children. ¹⁴ 

Jeremiah 22:28

22:28 This man, Jeconiah, will be like a broken pot someone threw away.

He will be like a clay vessel ¹⁵  that no one wants. ¹⁶ 

Why will he and his children be forced into exile?

Why will they be thrown out into a country they know nothing about? ¹⁷ 

Jeremiah 27:7

27:7 All nations must serve him and his son and grandson ¹⁸  until the time comes for his own nation to fall. ¹⁹  Then many nations and great kings will in turn subjugate Babylon. ²⁰ 

Jeremiah 31:20

31:20 Indeed, the people of Israel are my dear children.

They are the children I take delight in. ²¹ 

For even though I must often rebuke them,

I still remember them with fondness.

So I am deeply moved with pity for them ²² 

and will surely have compassion on them.

I, the Lord, affirm it! ²³ 

Jeremiah 46:25

46:25 The Lord God of Israel who rules over all ²⁴  says, “I will punish Amon, the god of Thebes. ²⁵  I will punish Egypt, its gods, and its kings. I will punish Pharaoh and all who trust in him. ²⁶ 

Jeremiah 48:11

48:11 “From its earliest days Moab has lived undisturbed.

It has never been taken into exile.

Its people are like wine allowed to settle undisturbed on its dregs,

never poured out from one jar to another.

They are like wine which tastes like it always did,

whose aroma has remained unchanged. ²⁷ 

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!’

[3:16]  ¹ tn Heb “you will become numerous and fruitful.”

[3:16]  ² tn Or “chest.”

[3:16]  ³ tn Heb “the ark of the covenant.” It is called this because it contained the tables of the law which in abbreviated form constituted their covenant obligations to the Lord, cf. Exod 31:18; 32:15; 34:29.

[3:16]  ⁴ tn Or “Nor will another one be made”; Heb “one will not do/make [it?] again.”

[6:10]  ⁵ tn These words are not in the text but are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[6:10]  ⁶ tn Or “To whom shall I speak? To whom shall I give warning? Who will listen?” Heb “Unto whom shall I speak and give warning that they may listen?”

[6:10]  ⁷ tn Heb “are uncircumcised.”

[6:10]  ⁸ tn Heb “Behold!”

[6:10]  ⁹ tn Heb “They do not take pleasure in it.”

[17:24]  ⁹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[19:4]  ¹³ tn The text merely has “they.” But since a reference is made later to “they” and “their ancestors,” the referent must be to the people that the leaders of the people and leaders of the priests represent.

[19:4]  ¹⁴ sn Heb “have made this city foreign.” The verb here is one that is built off of the noun and adjective which relate to foreign nations. Comparison may be made to Jer 2:21 where the adjective refers to the strange, wild vine as opposed to the choice vine the Lord planted and to 5:19 and 8:19 where the noun is used of worshiping foreign gods. Israel through its false worship has “denationalized” itself in its relation to God.

[19:4]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “fathers.”

[19:4]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the blood of innocent ones.” This must be a reference to child sacrifice as explained in the next verse. Some have seen a reference to the sins of social injustice alluded to in 2 Kgs 21:16 and 24:4 but those are connected with the city itself. Hence the word children is supplied in the translation to make the referent explicit.

[22:28]  ¹⁷ tn The word translated “clay vessel” occurs only here. Its meaning, however, is assured on the basis of the parallelism and on the basis of the verb root which is used for shaping or fashioning in Job 10:8. The KJV renders it as “idol,” but that word, while having the same consonants, never appears in the singular. The word is missing in the Greek version but is translated “vessel” in the Latin version. The word “clay” is supplied in the translation to clarify what sort of vessel is meant; its inclusion is justified based on the context and the use of the same verb root in Job 10:8 to refer to shaping or fashioning, which would imply clay pots or vessels.

[22:28]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “Is this man, Coniah, a despised, broken vessel or a vessel that no one wants?” The question is rhetorical expecting a positive answer in agreement with the preceding oracle.

[22:28]  ¹⁹ sn The question “Why?” is a common rhetorical feature in the book of Jeremiah. See Jer 2:14, 31; 8:5, 19, 22; 12:1; 13:22; 14:19. In several cases like this one no answer is given, leaving a sense of exasperation and hopelessness with the sinfulness of the nation that calls forth such punishment from God.

[27:7]  ²¹ sn This is a figure that emphasizes that they will serve for a long time but not for an unlimited duration. The kingdom of Babylon lasted a relatively short time by ancient standards. It lasted from 605 b.c. when Nebuchadnezzar defeated Necho at Carchemish until the fall of Babylon in 538 b.c. There were only four rulers. Nebuchadnezzar was succeeded by his son, Evil Merodach (cf. 52:31), and two other rulers who were not descended from him.

[27:7]  ²² tn Heb “until the time of his land, even his, comes.” The independent pronoun is placed here for emphasis on the possessive pronoun. The word “time” is used by substitution for the things that are done in it (compare in the NT John 2:4; 7:30; 8:20 “his hour had not yet come”).

[27:7]  ²³ tn Heb “him.” This is a good example of the figure of substitution where the person is put for his descendants or the nation or subject he rules. (See Gen 28:13-14 for another good example and Acts 22:7 in the NT.)

[31:20]  ²⁵ tn Heb “Is Ephraim a dear son to me or a child of delight?” For the substitution of Israel for Ephraim and the plural pronouns for the singular see the note on v. 18. According to BDB 210 s.v. הֲ 1.c the question is rhetorical having the force of an impassioned affirmation. See 1 Sam 2:27; Job 41:9 (41:1 HT) for parallel usage.

[31:20]  ²⁶ tn Heb “my stomach churns for him.” The parallelism shows that this refers to pity or compassion.

[31:20]  ²⁷ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[46:25]  ²⁹ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.” For the significance of this title see the note at 2:19.

[46:25]  ³⁰ tn Heb “Amon of No.”

[46:25]  ³¹ 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.”

[48:11]  ³³ tn Heb “Therefore his taste remains in him and his aroma is not changed.” The metaphor is changed into a simile in an attempt to help the reader understand the figure in the context.