Jeremiah 30:6-8

30:6 Ask yourselves this and consider it carefully: ¹ 

Have you ever seen a man give birth to a baby?

Why then do I see all these strong men

grabbing their stomachs in pain like ²  a woman giving birth?

And why do their faces

turn so deathly pale?

30:7 Alas, what a terrible time of trouble it is! ³ 

There has never been any like it.

It is a time of trouble for the descendants of Jacob,

but some of them will be rescued out of it. ⁴ 

30:8 When the time for them to be rescued comes,” ⁵ 

says the Lord who rules over all, ⁶ 

“I will rescue you from foreign subjugation. ⁷ 

I will deliver you from captivity. ⁸ 

Foreigners will then no longer subjugate them.

[30:6]  ¹ tn Heb “Ask and see/consider.”

[30:6]  ² tn Heb “with their hands on their loins.” The word rendered “loins” refers to the area between the ribs and the thighs.

[30:7]  ³ tn Heb “Alas [or Woe] for that day will be great.” For the use of the particle “Alas” to signal a time of terrible trouble, even to sound the death knell for someone, see the translator’s note on 22:13.

[30:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “It is a time of trouble for Jacob but he will be saved out of it.”

[30:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “And it shall happen in that day.”

[30:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “Oracle of Yahweh of armies.” See the study note on 2:19 for explanation of the title for God.

[30:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “I will break his yoke from upon your neck.” For the explanation of the figure see the study note on 27:2. The shift from third person at the end of v. 7 to second person in v. 8c, d and back to third person in v. 8e is typical of Hebrew poetry in the book of Psalms and in the prophetic books (cf., GKC 351 §114.p and compare usage in Deut 32:15; Isa 5:8 listed there). The present translation, like several other modern ones, has typically leveled them to the same person to avoid confusion for modern readers who are not accustomed to this poetic tradition.

[30:8]  ⁸ tn Heb “I will tear off their bands.” The “bands” are the leather straps which held the yoke bars in place (cf. 27:2). The metaphor of the “yoke on the neck” is continued. The translation reflects the sense of the metaphor but not the specific referent.