Jeremiah 3:21

3:21 “A noise is heard on the hilltops.

It is the sound of the people of Israel crying and pleading to their gods.

Indeed they have followed sinful ways; ¹ 

they have forgotten to be true to the Lord their God. ² 

Jeremiah 4:22

4:22 The Lord answered, ³ 

“This will happen ⁴  because my people are foolish.

They do not know me.

They are like children who have no sense. ⁵ 

They have no understanding.

They are skilled at doing evil.

They do not know how to do good.”

Jeremiah 18:20

18:20 Should good be paid back with evil?

Yet they are virtually digging a pit to kill me. ⁶ 

Just remember how I stood before you

pleading on their behalf ⁷ 

to keep you from venting your anger on them. ⁸ 

Jeremiah 23:9

Oracles Against the False Prophets ⁹ 

23:9 Here is what the Lord says concerning the false prophets: ¹⁰ 

My heart and my mind are deeply disturbed.

I tremble all over. ¹¹ 

I am like a drunk person,

like a person who has had too much wine, ¹² 

because of the way the Lord

and his holy word are being mistreated. ¹³ 

Jeremiah 23:17

23:17 They continually say ¹⁴  to those who reject what the Lord has said, ¹⁵ 

‘Things will go well for you!’ ¹⁶ 

They say to all those who follow the stubborn inclinations of their own hearts,

‘Nothing bad will happen to you!’

Jeremiah 23:36

23:36 You must no longer say that the Lord’s message is burdensome. ¹⁷  For what is ‘burdensome’ ¹⁸  really pertains to what a person himself says. ¹⁹  You are misrepresenting ²⁰  the words of our God, the living God, the Lord who rules over all. ²¹ 

Jeremiah 26:3

26:3 Maybe they will pay attention and each of them will stop living the evil way they do. ²²  If they do that, then I will forgo destroying them ²³  as I had intended to do because of the wicked things they have been doing. ²⁴ 

Jeremiah 32:40

32:40 I will make a lasting covenant ²⁵  with them that I will never stop doing good to them. ²⁶  I will fill their hearts and minds with respect for me so that ²⁷  they will never again turn ²⁸  away from me.

Jeremiah 49:30

49:30 The Lord says, ²⁹  “Flee quickly, you who live in Hazor. ³⁰ 

Take up refuge in remote places. ³¹ 

For King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has laid out plans to attack you.

He has formed his strategy on how to defeat you.” ³² 

Jeremiah 50:5

50:5 They will ask the way to Zion;

they will turn their faces toward it.

They will come ³³  and bind themselves to the Lord

in a lasting covenant that will never be forgotten. ³⁴ 

[3:21]  ¹ tn Heb “A sound is heard on the hilltops, the weeping of the supplication of the children of Israel because [or indeed] they have perverted their way.” At issue here is whether the supplication is made to Yahweh in repentance because of what they have done or whether it is supplication to the pagan gods which is evidence of their perverted ways. The reference in this verse to the hilltops where idolatry was practiced according to 3:2 and the reference to Israel’s unfaithfulness in the preceding verse make the latter more likely. For the asseverative use of the Hebrew particle (here rendered “indeed”) where the particle retains some of the explicative nuance; cf. BDB 472-73 s.v. כִּי 1.e and 3.c.

[3:21]  ² tn Heb “have forgotten the Lord their God,” but in the view of the parallelism and the context, the word “forget” (like “know” and “remember”) involves more than mere intellectual activity.

[4:22]  ³ tn These words are not in the text but are supplied in the translation to show clearly the shift in speaker. Jeremiah has been speaking; now the Lord answers, giving the reason for the devastation Jeremiah foresees.

[4:22]  ⁴ tn Heb “For….” This gives the explanation for the destruction envisaged in 4:20 to which Jeremiah responds in 4:19, 21.

[4:22]  ⁵ tn Heb “They are senseless children.”

[18:20]  ⁵ tn Or “They are plotting to kill me”; Heb “They have dug a pit for my soul.” This is a common metaphor for plotting against someone. See BDB 500 s.v. כָּרָה Qal and for an example see Pss 7:16 (7:15 HT) in its context.

[18:20]  ⁶ tn Heb “to speak good concerning them” going back to the concept of “good” being paid back with evil.

[18:20]  ⁷ tn Heb “to turn back your anger from them.”

[23:9]  ⁷ sn Jeremiah has already had a good deal to say about the false prophets and their fate. See 2:8, 26; 5:13, 31; 14:13-15. Here he parallels the condemnation of the wicked prophets and their fate (23:9-40) with that of the wicked kings (21:11-22:30).

[23:9]  ⁸ tn The word “false” is not in the text, but it is clear from the context that these are whom the sayings are directed against. The words “Here is what the Lord says” are also not in the text. But comparison with 46:2; 48:1; 49:1, 7, 23, 28; and 21:11 will show that this is a heading. The words are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[23:9]  ⁹ tn Heb “My heart is crushed within me. My bones tremble.” It has already been noted several times that the “heart” in ancient Hebrew psychology was the intellectual and volitional center of the person, the kidneys were the emotional center, and the bones the locus of strength and also the subject of joy, distress, and sorrow. Here Jeremiah is speaking of his distress of heart and mind in modern psychology, a distress that leads him to trembling of body which he compares to that of a drunken person staggering around under the influence of wine.

[23:9]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “wine has passed over him.”

[23:9]  ¹¹ tn Heb “wine because of the Lord and because of his holy word.” The words that are supplied in the translation are implicit from the context and are added for clarity.

[23:17]  ⁹ tn The translation reflects an emphatic construction where the infinitive absolute follows a participle (cf. GKC 343 §113.r).

[23:17]  ¹⁰ tc The translation follows the Greek version. The Hebrew text reads, “who reject me, ‘The Lord has spoken, “Things…”’” The Greek version is to be preferred here because of (1) the parallelism of the lines “reject what the Lord has said” // “follow the stubborn inclinations of their own hearts;” (2) the preceding context which speaks of “visions of their own imaginations not of what the Lord has given them;” (3) the following context which denies that they have ever had access to the Lord’s secrets; (4) the general contexts earlier regarding false prophecy where rejection of the Lord’s word is in view (6:14 [see there v. 10]; 8:11 [see there v. 9]); (5) the meter of the poetic lines (the Hebrew meter is 3/5/4/3; the meter presupposed by the translation is 5/3/4/3 with the 3’s being their words). The difference is one of vocalization of the same consonants. The vocalization of the MT is יְהוָה מְנַאֲצַי דִּבֶּר [mÿna’atsay dibber yÿhvah]; the Hebrew Vorlage behind the Greek would be vocalized as מְנַאֲצֵי דְּבַר יְהוָה (mÿna’atsey dÿvar yÿhvah).

[23:17]  ¹¹ tn Heb “You will have peace.” But see the note on 14:13. See also 6:14 and 8:11.

[23:36]  ¹¹ tn Heb “burden of the Lord.”

[23:36]  ¹² tn Heb “the burden.”

[23:36]  ¹³ tn Heb “The burden is [or will be] to a man his word.” There is a good deal of ambiguity regarding how this line is to be rendered. For the major options and the issues involved W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah (Hermeneia), 1:651-52 should be consulted. Most of them are excluded by the observation that מַשָּׂא probably does not mean “oracle” anywhere in this passage (see note on v. 33 regarding the use of this word). Hence it does not mean “every man’s word becomes his oracle” as in NIV or “for that ‘burden’ [= oracle] is what he entrusts to the man of his word” (W. McKane, Jeremiah [ICC], 1:600-601). The latter is also ruled out by the fact that the antecedent of “his” on “his word” is clearly the word “man” in front of it. This would be the only case where the phrase “man of his word” occurs. There is also no textual reason for repointing the noun with the article as the noun with the interrogative to read “For how can his word become a burden to anyone?” There are, of course, other options but this is sufficient to show that the translation has been chosen after looking at other alternatives.

[23:36]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “turning.” See BDB 245 s.v. הָפַךְ Qal.1.c and Lev 13:55; Jer 13:33 “changing, altering.”

[23:36]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.”

[26:3]  ¹³ tn Heb “will turn from his wicked way.”

[26:3]  ¹⁴ tn For the idiom and translation of terms involved here see 18:8 and the translator’s note there.

[26:3]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “because of the wickedness of their deeds.”

[32:40]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “an everlasting covenant.” For the rationale for the rendering “agreement” and the nature of the biblical covenants see the study note on 11:2.

[32:40]  ¹⁶ tn Or “stop being gracious to them” or “stop blessing them with good”; Heb “turn back from them to do good to them.”

[32:40]  ¹⁷ tn Or “I will make them want to fear and respect me so much that”; Heb “I will put the fear of me in their hearts.” However, as has been noted several times, “heart” in Hebrew is more the center of the volition (and intellect) than the center of emotions as it is in English. Both translations are intended to reflect the difference in psychology.

[32:40]  ¹⁸ tn The words “never again” are not in the text but are implicit from the context and are supplied not only by this translation but by a number of others.

[49:30]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[49:30]  ¹⁸ map For location see Map1 D2; Map2 D3; Map3 A2; Map4 C1.

[49:30]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “Make deep to dwell.” See Jer 49:8 and the translator’s note there. The use of this same phrase here argues against the alternative there of going down from a height and going back home.

[49:30]  ²⁰ tn Heb “has counseled a counsel against you, has planned a plan against you.”

[50:5]  ¹⁹ tc The translation here assumes that the Hebrew בֹּאוּ (bo’u; a Qal imperative masculine plural) should be read בָּאוּ (ba’u; a Qal perfect third plural). This reading is presupposed by the Greek version of Aquila, the Latin version, and the Targum (see BHS note a, which mistakenly assumes that the form must be imperfect).

[50:5]  ²⁰ sn See Jer 32:40 and the study note there for the nature of this lasting agreement.