Jeremiah 3:2

3:2 “Look up at the hilltops and consider this. ¹ 

You have had sex with other gods on every one of them. ² 

You waited for those gods like a thief lying in wait in the desert. ³ 

You defiled the land by your wicked prostitution to other gods. ⁴ 

Jeremiah 4:6

4:6 Raise a signal flag that tells people to go to Zion. ⁵ 

Run for safety! Do not delay!

For I am about to bring disaster out of the north.

It will bring great destruction. ⁶ 

Jeremiah 7:16

7:16 Then the Lord said, ⁷  “As for you, Jeremiah, ⁸  do not pray for these people! Do not cry out to me or petition me on their behalf! Do not plead with me to save them, ⁹  because I will not listen to you.

Jeremiah 7:29

7:29 So, mourn, ¹⁰  you people of this nation. ¹¹  Cut off your hair and throw it away. Sing a song of mourning on the hilltops. For the Lord has decided to reject ¹²  and forsake this generation that has provoked his wrath!’” ¹³ 

Jeremiah 15:15

15:15 I said, ¹⁴ 

“Lord, you know how I suffer. ¹⁵ 

Take thought of me and care for me.

Pay back for me those who have been persecuting me.

Do not be so patient with them that you allow them to kill me.

Be mindful of how I have put up with their insults for your sake.

Jeremiah 17:21

17:21 The Lord says, ‘Be very careful if you value your lives! ¹⁶  Do not carry any loads ¹⁷  in through ¹⁸  the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day.

Jeremiah 31:19

31:19 For after we turned away from you we repented.

After we came to our senses ¹⁹  we beat our breasts in sorrow. ²⁰ 

We are ashamed and humiliated

because of the disgraceful things we did previously.’ ²¹ 

Jeremiah 49:29

49:29 Their tents and their flocks will be taken away.

Their tent curtains, equipment, and camels will be carried off.

People will shout ²²  to them,

‘Terror is all around you!’” ²³ 

Jeremiah 51:9

51:9 Foreigners living there will say, ²⁴ 

‘We tried to heal her, but she could not be healed.

Let’s leave Babylonia ²⁵  and each go back to his own country.

For judgment on her will be vast in its proportions.

It will be like it is piled up to heaven, stacked up into the clouds.’ ²⁶ 

[3:2]  ¹ tn Heb “and see.”

[3:2]  ² tn Heb “Where have you not been ravished?” The rhetorical question expects the answer “nowhere,” which suggests she has engaged in the worship of pagan gods on every one of the hilltops.

[3:2]  ³ tn Heb “You sat for them [the lovers, i.e., the foreign gods] beside the road like an Arab in the desert.”

[3:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “by your prostitution and your wickedness.” This is probably an example of hendiadys where, when two nouns are joined by “and,” one expresses the main idea and the other qualifies it.

[4:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “Raise up a signal toward Zion.”

[4:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “out of the north, even great destruction.”

[7:16]  ⁹ tn The words “Then the Lord said” are not in the text but are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[7:16]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “As for you.” The personal name Jeremiah is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[7:16]  ¹¹ tn The words “to save them” are not in the text but are implicit from the context. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[7:29]  ¹³ tn The word “mourn” is not in the text. It is supplied in the translation for clarity to explain the significance of the words “Cut your hair and throw it away.”

[7:29]  ¹⁴ tn The words, “you people of this nation” are not in the text. Many English versions supply, “Jerusalem.” The address shifts from second masculine singular addressing Jeremiah (vv. 27-28a) to second feminine singular. It causes less disruption in the flow of the context to see the nation as a whole addressed here as a feminine singular entity (as, e.g., in 2:19, 23; 3:2, 3; 6:26) than to introduce a new entity, Jerusalem.

[7:29]  ¹⁵ tn The verbs here are the Hebrew scheduling perfects. For this use of the perfect see GKC 312 §106.m.

[7:29]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the generation of his wrath.”

[15:15]  ¹⁷ tn The words “I said” are not in the text. They are supplied in the translation for clarity to mark the shift from the Lord speaking to Jerusalem, to Jeremiah speaking to God.

[15:15]  ¹⁸ tn The words “how I suffer” are not in the text but are implicit from the continuation. They are supplied in the translation for clarity. Jeremiah is not saying “you are all knowing.”

[17:21]  ²¹ tn Heb “Be careful at the risk of your lives.” The expression with the preposition בְּ (bet) is unique. Elsewhere the verb “be careful” is used with the preposition לְ (lamed) in the sense of the reflexive. Hence the word “soul” cannot be simply reflexive here. BDB 1037 s.v. שָׁמַר Niph.1 understands this as a case where the preposition בְּ introduces the cost or price (cf. BDB 90 s.v. בּ III.3.a).

[17:21]  ²² sn Comparison with Neh 13:15-18 suggests that these loads were merchandise or agricultural produce which were being brought in for sale. The loads that were carried out of the houses in the next verse were probably goods for barter.

[17:21]  ²³ tn Heb “carry loads on the Sabbath and bring [them] in through.” The two verbs “carry” and “bring in” are an example of hendiadys (see the note on “Be careful…by carrying”). This is supported by the next line where only “carry out” of the houses is mentioned.

[31:19]  ²⁵ tn For this meaning of the verb see HAL 374 s.v. יָדַע Nif 5 or W. L. Holladay, Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon, 129. REB translates “Now that I am submissive” relating the verb to a second root meaning “be submissive.” (See HALOT 375 s.v. II יָדַע and J. Barr, Comparative Philology and the Text of the Old Testament, 19-21, for evidence for this verb. Other passages cited with this nuance are Judg 8:16; Prov 10:9; Job 20:20.)

[31:19]  ²⁶ tn Heb “I struck my thigh.” This was a gesture of grief and anguish (cf. Ezek 21:12 [21:17 HT]). The modern equivalent is “to beat the breast.”

[31:19]  ²⁷ tn Heb “because I bear the reproach of my youth.” For the plural referents see the note at the beginning of v. 18.

[49:29]  ²⁹ tn Or “Let their tents…be taken….Let their tent…be carried…. Let people shout….”

[49:29]  ³⁰ sn This expression is a favorite theme in the book of Jeremiah. It describes the terrors of war awaiting the people of Judah and Jerusalem (6:25), the Egyptians at Carchemish (46:5), and here the Kedarites.

[51:9]  ³³ tn The words “Foreigners living there will say” are not in the text but are implicit from the third line. These words are generally assumed by the commentaries and are explicitly added in TEV and NCV which are attempting to clarify the text for the average reader.

[51:9]  ³⁴ tn Heb “Leave/abandon her.” However, it is smoother in the English translation to make this verb equivalent to the cohortative that follows.

[51:9]  ³⁵ tn This is an admittedly very paraphrastic translation that tries to make the figurative nuance of the Hebrew original understandable for the average reader. The Hebrew text reads: “For her judgment [or punishment (cf. BDB 1078 s.v. מִשְׁפָּט 1.f) = ‘execution of judgment’] touches the heavens, and is lifted up as far as the clouds.” The figure of hyperbole or exaggeration is being used here to indicate the vastness of Babylon’s punishment which is the reason to escape (vv. 6, 9c). For this figure see Deut 1:28 in comparison with Num 13:28 and see also Deut 9:1. In both of the passages in Deut it refers to an exaggeration about the height of the walls of fortified cities. The figure also may be a play on Gen 11:4 where the nations gather in Babylon to build a tower that reaches to the skies. The present translation has interpreted the perfects here as prophetic because it has not happened yet or they would not be encouraging one another to leave and escape. For the idea here compare 50:16.