Jeremiah 4:16

4:16 They are saying, ¹ 

‘Announce to the surrounding nations, ² 

“The enemy is coming!” ³ 

Proclaim this message ⁴  to Jerusalem:

“Those who besiege cities ⁵  are coming from a distant land.

They are ready to raise the battle cry against ⁶  the towns in Judah.”’

Jeremiah 14:21

14:21 For the honor of your name, ⁷  do not treat Jerusalem ⁸  with contempt.

Do not treat with disdain the place where your glorious throne sits. ⁹ 

Be mindful of your covenant with us. Do not break it! ¹⁰ 

Jeremiah 15:15

15:15 I said, ¹¹ 

“Lord, you know how I suffer. ¹² 

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 18:20

18:20 Should good be paid back with evil?

Yet they are virtually digging a pit to kill me. ¹³ 

Just remember how I stood before you

pleading on their behalf ¹⁴ 

to keep you from venting your anger on them. ¹⁵ 

Jeremiah 20:9

20:9 Sometimes I think, “I will make no mention of his message.

I will not speak as his messenger ¹⁶  any more.”

But then ¹⁷  his message becomes like a fire

locked up inside of me, burning in my heart and soul. ¹⁸ 

I grow weary of trying to hold it in;

I cannot contain it.

Jeremiah 23:36

23:36 You must no longer say that the Lord’s message is burdensome. ¹⁹  For what is ‘burdensome’ ²⁰  really pertains to what a person himself says. ²¹  You are misrepresenting ²²  the words of our God, the living God, the Lord who rules over all. ²³ 

Jeremiah 51:50

51:50 You who have escaped the sword, ²⁴ 

go, do not delay. ²⁵ 

Remember the Lord in a faraway land.

Think about Jerusalem. ²⁶ 

[4:16]  ¹ tn The words “They are saying” are not in the text but are implicit in the connection and are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[4:16]  ² tn The word “surrounding” is not in the text but is implicit and is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[4:16]  ³ tc Or “Here they come!” Heb “Look!” or “Behold!” Or “Announce to the surrounding nations, indeed [or yes] proclaim to Jerusalem, ‘Besiegers…’” The text is very elliptical here. Some of the modern English versions appear to be emending the text from הִנֵּה (hinneh, “behold”) to either הֵנָּה (hennah, “these things”; so NEB), or הַזֶּה (hazzeh, “this”; so NIV). The solution proposed here is as old as the LXX which reads, “Behold, they have come.”

[4:16]  ⁴ tn The words, “this message,” are not in the text but are supplied in the translation to make the introduction of the quote easier.

[4:16]  ⁵ tn Heb “Besiegers.” For the use of this verb to refer to besieging a city compare Isa 1:8.

[4:16]  ⁶ tn Heb “They have raised their voices against.” The verb here, a vav (ו) consecutive with an imperfect, continues the nuance of the preceding participle “are coming.”

[14:21]  ⁷ tn Heb “For the sake of your name.”

[14:21]  ⁸ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[14:21]  ⁹ tn English versions quite commonly supply “us” as an object for the verb in the first line. This is probably wrong. The Hebrew text reads: “Do not treat with contempt for the sake of your name; do not treat with disdain your glorious throne.” This is case of poetic parallelism where the object is left hanging until the second line. For an example of this see Prov 13:1 in the original and consult E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 103-4. There has also been some disagreement whether “your glorious throne” refers to the temple (as in 17:12) or Jerusalem (as in 3:17). From the beginning of the prayer in v. 19 where a similar kind of verb has been used with respect to Zion/Jerusalem it would appear that the contextual referent is Jerusalem. The absence of an object from the first line makes it possible to retain part of the metaphor in the translation and still convey some meaning.

[14:21]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Remember, do not break your covenant with us.”

[15:15]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ 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.”

[18:20]  ¹⁹ 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]  ²⁰ tn Heb “to speak good concerning them” going back to the concept of “good” being paid back with evil.

[18:20]  ²¹ tn Heb “to turn back your anger from them.”

[20:9]  ²⁵ tn Heb “speak in his name.” This idiom occurs in passages where someone functions as the messenger under the authority of another. See Exod 5:23; Deut 18:19, 29:20; Jer 14:14. The antecedent in the first line is quite commonly misidentified as being “him,” i.e., the Lord. Comparison, however, with the rest of the context, especially the consequential clause “then it becomes” (וְהָיָה, vÿhayah), and Jer 23:36 shows that it is “the word of the Lord.”

[20:9]  ²⁶ tn The English sentence has again been restructured for the sake of English style. The Hebrew construction involves two vav consecutive perfects in a condition and consequence relation, “If I say to myself…then it [his word] becomes.” See GKC 337 §112.kk for the construction.

[20:9]  ²⁷ sn Heb “It is in my heart like a burning fire, shut up in my bones.” In addition to standing as part for the whole, the “bones” for the person (e.g., Ps 35:10), the bones were associated with fear (e.g., Job 4:14) and with pain (e.g., Job 33:19, Ps 102:3 [102:4 HT]) and joy or sorrow (e.g., Ps 51:8 [51:10 HT]). As has been mentioned several times, the heart was connected with intellectual and volitional concerns.

[23:36]  ³¹ tn Heb “burden of the Lord.”

[23:36]  ³² tn Heb “the burden.”

[23:36]  ³³ 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]  ³⁴ tn Heb “turning.” See BDB 245 s.v. הָפַךְ Qal.1.c and Lev 13:55; Jer 13:33 “changing, altering.”

[23:36]  ³⁵ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.”

[51:50]  ³⁷ sn God’s exiled people are told to leave doomed Babylon (see v. 45).

[51:50]  ³⁸ tn Heb “don’t stand.”

[51:50]  ³⁹ tn Heb “let Jerusalem go up upon your heart.” The “heart” is often viewed as the seat of one’s mental faculties and thought life.