Jeremiah 4:13

4:13 Look! The enemy is approaching like gathering clouds. ¹ 

The roar of his chariots is like that of a whirlwind. ² 

His horses move more swiftly than eagles.”

I cry out, ³  “We are doomed, ⁴  for we will be destroyed!”

Jeremiah 9:19

9:19 For the sound of wailing is soon to be heard in Zion.

They will wail, ⁵  ‘We are utterly ruined! ⁶  We are completely disgraced!

For our houses have been torn down

and we must leave our land.’” ⁷ 

[4:13]  ¹ tn Heb “he is coming up like clouds.” The words “The enemy” are supplied in the translation to identify the referent and the word “gathering” is supplied to try to convey the significance of the simile, i.e., that of quantity and of an approaching storm.

[4:13]  ² tn Heb “his chariots [are] like a whirlwind.” The words “roar” and “sound” are supplied in the translation to clarify the significance of the simile.

[4:13]  ³ tn The words “I cry out” are not in the text, but the words that follow are obviously not the Lord’s. They are either those of the people or of Jeremiah. Taking them as Jeremiah’s parallels the interjection of Jeremiah’s response in 4:10 which is formally introduced.

[4:13]  ⁴ tn Heb “Woe to us!” The words “woe to” are common in funeral laments and at the beginning of oracles of judgment. In many contexts they carry the connotation of hopelessness or apprehensiveness of inevitable doom.

[9:19]  ⁵ tn The words “They will wail” are not in the text. They are supplied in the translation to make clear that this is the wailing that will be heard.

[9:19]  ⁶ tn Heb “How we are ruined!”

[9:19]  ⁷ tn The order of these two lines has been reversed for English stylistic reasons. The text reads in Hebrew “because we have left our land because they have thrown down our dwellings.” The two clauses offer parallel reasons for the cries “How ruined we are! [How] we are greatly disgraced!” But the first line must contain a prophetic perfect (because the lament comes from Jerusalem) and the second a perfect referring to a destruction that is itself future. This seems the only way to render the verse that would not be misleading.