Jeremiah 31:24

31:24 The land of Judah will be inhabited by people who live in its towns

as well as by farmers and shepherds with their flocks. ¹ 

Jeremiah 41:17

41:17 They set out to go to Egypt to get away from the Babylonians, ²  but stopped at Geruth Kimham ³  near Bethlehem. ⁴ 

Jeremiah 26:3

26:3 Maybe they will pay attention and each of them will stop living the evil way they do. ⁵  If they do that, then I will forgo destroying them ⁶  as I had intended to do because of the wicked things they have been doing. ⁷ 

Jeremiah 26:10

26:10 However, some of the officials ⁸  of Judah heard about what was happening ⁹  and they rushed up to the Lord’s temple from the royal palace. They set up court ¹⁰  at the entrance of the New Gate of the Lord’s temple. ¹¹ 

Jeremiah 34:11

34:11 But later ¹²  they had changed their minds. They had taken back their male and female slaves that they had freed and forced them to be slaves again. ¹³ 

Jeremiah 41:14

41:14 All those people that Ishmael had taken captive from Mizpah turned and went over to Johanan son of Kareah.

Jeremiah 50:39

50:39 Therefore desert creatures and jackals will live there.

Ostriches ¹⁴  will dwell in it too. ¹⁵ 

But no people will ever live there again.

No one will dwell there for all time to come. ¹⁶ 

Jeremiah 23:8

23:8 But at that time they will affirm them with “I swear as surely as the Lord lives who delivered the descendants of the former nation of Israel ¹⁷  from the land of the north and from all the other lands where he had banished ¹⁸  them.” ¹⁹  At that time they will live in their own land.’”

Jeremiah 36:7

36:7 Perhaps then they will ask the Lord for mercy and will all stop doing the evil things they have been doing. ²⁰  For the Lord has threatened to bring great anger and wrath against these people.” ²¹ 

Jeremiah 39:3

39:3 Then Nergal-Sharezer of Samgar, Nebo-Sarsekim, who was a chief officer, Nergal-Sharezer, who was a high official, ²²  and all the other officers of the king of Babylon came and set up quarters ²³  in the Middle Gate. ²⁴ 

Jeremiah 40:12

40:12 So all these Judeans returned to the land of Judah from the places where they had been scattered. They came to Gedaliah at Mizpah. Thus they harvested a large amount of wine and dates and figs. ²⁵ 

[31:24]  ¹ tn The translation “those who move about with their flocks” is based on an emendation of the Hebrew text which reads a third plural Qal perfect (נָסְעוּ, nos’u) to a masculine plural Qal participle in the construct (נֹסְעֵי, nosÿ’e) as suggested in the BHS fn. For the use of the construct participle before a noun with a preposition see GKC 421 §130.a. It is generally agreed that three classes of people are referred to here, townspeople, farmers, and shepherds. But the syntax of the Hebrew sentence is a little awkward: “And they [i.e., “people” (the indefinite plural, GKC 460 §144.g)] will live in it, Judah and all its cities [an apposition of nearer definition (GKC 425-26 §131.n)], [along with] farmers and those who move about with their flocks.” The first line refers awkwardly to the townspeople and the other two classes are added asyndetically (i.e., without the conjunction “and”).

[41:17]  ² tn Heb “Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for explanation.

[41:17]  ³ sn Geruth Kimham is nowhere else mentioned in the Bible and its precise location is unknown. Many commentators relate the second part of the name to the name of the son of David’s benefactor when he fled from Absalom (2 Sam 19:38-39) and see this as a reference to an estate that David assigned this son as reward for his father’s largess. Gibeon was about six miles northwest of Jerusalem and Benjamin is approximately the same distance southwest of it. Hence, the people mentioned here had not traveled all that far.

[41:17]  ⁴ map For location see Map5 B1; Map7 E2; Map8 E2; Map10 B4.

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

[26:3]  ⁴ tn For the idiom and translation of terms involved here see 18:8 and the translator’s note there.

[26:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “because of the wickedness of their deeds.”

[26:10]  ⁴ sn These officials of Judah were officials from the royal court. They may have included some of the officials mentioned in Jer 36:12-25. They would have been concerned about any possible “illegal” proceedings going on in the temple.

[26:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “these things.”

[26:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “they sat” or “they took their seats.” However, the context is one of judicial trial.

[26:10]  ⁷ tn The translation follows many Hebrew mss and ancient versions in reading the word “house” (= temple) here. The majority of Hebrew mss do not have this word. It is, however, implicit in the construction “the New Gate of the Lord.”

[34:11]  ⁵ sn Most commentators are agreed that the incident referred to here occurred during the period of relief from the siege provided by the Babylonians going off to fight against the Egyptians who were apparently coming to Zedekiah’s aid (compare vv. 21-22 with 37:5, 7). The freeing of the slaves had occurred earlier, under the crisis of the siege while the people were more responsive to the Lord due to the threat of destruction (cf. v. 15).

[34:11]  ⁶ tn Heb “they had brought them into subjection for male and female slaves.” However, the qualification of “male and female” is already clear from the preceding and is unnecessary to the English sentence.

[50:39]  ⁶ tn The identification of this bird has been called into question by G. R. Driver, “Birds in the Old Testament,” PEQ 87 (1955): 137-38. He refers to this bird as an owl. That identification, however, is not reflected in any of the lexicons including the most recent, which still gives “ostrich” (HALOT 402 s.v. יַעֲנָה) as does W. S. McCullough, “Ostrich,” IDB 3:611. REB, NIV, NCV, and God’s Word all identify this bird as “owl/desert owl.”

[50:39]  ⁷ tn Heb “Therefore desert creatures will live with jackals and ostriches will live in it.”

[50:39]  ⁸ tn Heb “It will never again be inhabited nor dwelt in unto generation and generation.” For the meaning of this last phrase compare the usage in Ps 100:5 and Isaiah 13:20. Since the first half of the verse has spoken of animals living there, it is necessary to add “people” and turn the passive verbs into active ones.

[23:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “descendants of the house of Israel.”

[23:8]  ⁸ tc It is probably preferable to read the third masculine singular plus suffix (הִדִּיחָם, hiddikham) here with the Greek version and the parallel passage in 16:15 rather than the first singular plus suffix in the MT (הִדַּחְתִּים, hiddakhtim). If this is not a case of mere graphic confusion, the MT could have arisen under the influence of the first person in v. 3. Though sudden shifts in person have been common in the book of Jeremiah, that is unlikely in a context reporting an oath.

[23:8]  ⁹ tn This passage is the same as 16:14-15 with a few minor variations in Hebrew wording. The notes on that passage should be consulted for the rendering here. This passage has the Niphal of the verb “to say” rather than the impersonal use of the Qal. It adds the idea of “bringing out” to the idea of “bringing up out” and (Heb “who brought up and who brought out,” probably a case of hendiadys) before “the people [here “seed” rather than “children”] of Israel [here “house of Israel”] from the land of the north.” These are minor variations and do not affect the sense in any way. So the passage is rendered in much the same way.

[36:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “will turn each one from his wicked way.”

[36:7]  ⁹ tn Heb “For great is the anger and the wrath which the Lord has spoken against this people.” The translation uses the more active form which is more in keeping with contemporary English style.

[39:3]  ⁹ tn English versions and commentaries differ on the number of officials named here and the exact spelling of their names. For a good discussion of the options see F. B. Huey, Jeremiah, Lamentations (NAC), 341, n. 71. Most commentaries follow the general lead of J. Bright (Jeremiah [AB], 243) as the present translation has done here. However, the second name is not emended on the basis of v. 13 as Bright does, nor is the second Nergal-Sharezer regarded as the same man as the first and the information on the two combined as he does. The first Nergal-Sharezer is generally identified on the basis of Babylonian records as the man who usurped the throne from Nebuchadnezzar’s son, Awel-Marduk or Evil-Merodach as he is known in the OT (Jer 52:31; 2 Kgs 25:27). The present translation renders the two technical Babylonian terms “Rab-Saris” (only in Jer 39:3, 13; 2 Kgs 18:17) and “Rab-Mag” (only in Jer 39:3, 13) as “chief officer” and “high official” without knowing precisely what offices they held. This has been done to give the modern reader some feeling of their high position without specifying exactly what their precise positions were (i.e., the generic has been used for the [unknown] specific).

[39:3]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “sat.” The precise meaning of this phrase is not altogether clear, but J. Bright (Jeremiah [AB], 243) is undoubtedly correct in assuming that it had to do with setting up a provisional military government over the city.

[39:3]  ¹¹ tn The Hebrew style here is typically full or redundant, giving a general subject first and then listing the specifics. The Hebrew text reads: “Then all the officers of the king of Babylon came and sat in the Middle Gate, Nergal-Sharezer…and all the rest of the officers of the king of Babylon.” In the translation the general subject has been eliminated and the list of the “real” subjects used instead; this eliminates the dashes or commas typical of some modern English versions.

[40:12]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “summer fruit.” “Summer fruit” is meaningless to most modern readers; dates and figs are what is involved.