Jeremiah 4:24

4:24 I looked at the mountains and saw that they were shaking.

All the hills were swaying back and forth!

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 6:14

6:14 They offer only superficial help

for the harm my people have suffered. ⁵ 

They say, ‘Everything will be all right!’

But everything is not all right! ⁶ 

Jeremiah 8:11

8:11 They offer only superficial help

for the hurt my dear people ⁷  have suffered. ⁸ 

They say, “Everything will be all right!”

But everything is not all right! ⁹ 

Jeremiah 15:10

Jeremiah Complains about His Lot and The Lord Responds

15:10 I said, ¹⁰ 

“Oh, mother, how I regret ¹¹  that you ever gave birth to me!

I am always starting arguments and quarrels with the people of this land. ¹² 

I have not lent money to anyone and I have not borrowed from anyone.

Yet all of these people are treating me with contempt.” ¹³ 

[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.

[6:14]  ¹ tn Heb “They heal [= bandage] the wound of my people lightly”; TEV “They act as if my people’s wounds were only scratches.”

[6:14]  ² tn Heb “They say, ‘Peace! Peace!’ and there is no peace!”

[8:11]  ¹ tn Heb “daughter of my people.” For the translation given here see 4:11 and the note on the phrase “dear people” there.

[8:11]  ² tn Heb “They heal the wound of my people lightly.”

[8:11]  ³ tn Heb “They say, ‘Peace! Peace!’ and there is no peace!”

[15:10]  ¹ tn The words “I said” are not in the text. They are supplied in the translation for clarity to mark a shift in the speaker.

[15:10]  ² tn Heb “Woe to me, my mother.” See the comments on 4:13 and 10:19.

[15:10]  ³ tn Heb “A man of strife and a man of contention with all the land.” The “of” relationship (Hebrew and Greek genitive) can convey either subjective or objective relationships, i.e., he instigates strife and contention or he is the object of it. A study of usage elsewhere, e.g., Isa 41:11; Job 31:35; Prov 12:19; 25:24; 26:21; 27:15, is convincing that it is subjective. In his role as God’s covenant messenger charging people with wrong doing he has instigated counterarguments and stirred about strife and contention against him.

[15:10]  ⁴ tc The translation follows the almost universally agreed upon correction of the MT. Instead of reading כֻּלֹּה מְקַלְלַונִי (kulloh mÿqallavni, “all of him is cursing me”) as the Masoretes proposed (Qere) one should read קִלְלוּנִי (qilluni) with the written text (Kethib) and redivide and repoint with the suggestion in BHS כֻּלְּהֶם (qullÿhem, “all of them are cursing me”).