Jeremiah 4:28

4:28 Because of this the land will mourn

and the sky above will grow black. ¹ 

For I have made my purpose known ² 

and I will not relent or turn back from carrying it out.” ³ 

Jeremiah 8:7

8:7 Even the stork knows

when it is time to move on. ⁴ 

The turtledove, swallow, and crane ⁵ 

recognize ⁶  the normal times for their migration.

But my people pay no attention

to ⁷  what I, the Lord, require of them. ⁸ 

Jeremiah 10:2

10:2 The Lord says,

“Do not start following pagan religious practices. ⁹ 

Do not be in awe of signs that occur ¹⁰  in the sky

even though the nations hold them in awe.

Jeremiah 10:13

10:13 When his voice thunders, ¹¹  the heavenly ocean roars.

He makes the clouds rise from the far-off horizons. ¹² 

He makes the lightning flash out in the midst of the rain.

He unleashes the wind from the places where he stores it. ¹³ 

Jeremiah 23:24

23:24 “Do you really think anyone can hide himself

where I cannot see him?” the Lord asks. ¹⁴ 

“Do you not know that I am everywhere?” ¹⁵ 

the Lord asks. ¹⁶ 

Jeremiah 33:25

33:25 But I, the Lord, make the following promise: ¹⁷  I have made a covenant governing the coming of day and night. I have established the fixed laws governing heaven and earth.

Jeremiah 34:20

34:20 I will hand them over to their enemies who want to kill them. Their dead bodies will become food for the birds and the wild animals. ¹⁸ 

Jeremiah 44:18-19

44:18 But ever since we stopped sacrificing and pouring out drink offerings to the Queen of Heaven, we have been in great need. Our people have died in wars or of starvation.” ¹⁹  44:19 The women added, ²⁰  “We did indeed sacrifice and pour out drink offerings to the Queen of Heaven. But it was with the full knowledge and approval of our husbands that we made cakes in her image and poured out drink offerings to her.” ²¹ 

Jeremiah 51:9

51:9 Foreigners living there will say, ²² 

‘We tried to heal her, but she could not be healed.

Let’s leave Babylonia ²³  and each go back to his own country.

For judgment on her will be vast in its proportions.

It will be like it is piled up to heaven, stacked up into the clouds.’ ²⁴ 

Jeremiah 51:16

51:16 When his voice thunders, the waters in the heavens roar.

He makes the clouds rise from the far-off horizons.

He makes the lightning flash out in the midst of the rain.

He unleashes the wind from the places where he stores it.

Jeremiah 51:48

51:48 Then heaven and earth and all that is in them

will sing for joy over Babylon.

For destroyers from the north will attack it,”

says the Lord. ²⁵ 

Jeremiah 51:53

51:53 Even if Babylon climbs high into the sky ²⁶ 

and fortifies her elevated stronghold, ²⁷ 

I will send destroyers against her,” ²⁸ 

says the Lord. ²⁹ 

[4:28]  ¹ sn The earth and the heavens are personified here and depicted in the act of mourning and wearing black clothes because of the destruction of the land of Israel.

[4:28]  ² tn Heb “has spoken and purposed.” This is an example of hendiadys where two verbs are joined by “and” but one is meant to serve as a modifier of the other.

[4:28]  ³ tn Heb “will not turn back from it.”

[8:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “its appointed time.” The translation is contextually motivated to avoid lack of clarity.

[8:7]  ⁵ tn There is debate in the commentaries and lexicons about the identification of some of these birds, particularly regarding the identification of the “swallow” which is more likely the “swift” and the “crane” which some identify with the “thrush.” For a discussion see the Bible encyclopedias and the UBS handbook Fauna and Flora of the Bible. The identity of the individual birds makes little difference to the point being made and “swallow” is more easily identifiable to the average reader than the “swift.”

[8:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “keep.” Ironically birds, which do not think, obey the laws of nature, but Israel does not obey the laws of God.

[8:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “do not know.” But here as elsewhere the word “know” is more than an intellectual matter. It is intended here to summarize both “know” and “follow” (Heb “observe”) in the preceding lines.

[8:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “the ordinance/requirement of the Lord.”

[10:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “Do not learn the way of the nations.” For this use of the word “ways” (דֶּרֶךְ, derekh) compare for example Jer 12:16 and Isa 2:6.

[10:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “signs.” The words “that occur” are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[10:13]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “At the voice of his giving.” The idiom “to give the voice” is often used for thunder (cf. BDB 679 s.v. נָתַן Qal.1.x).

[10:13]  ¹¹ tn Heb “from the ends of the earth.”

[10:13]  ¹² tn Heb “he brings out the winds from his storehouses.”

[23:24]  ¹³ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[23:24]  ¹⁴ tn The words “Don’t you know” are not in the text. They are a way of conveying the idea that the question which reads literally “Do I not fill heaven and earth?” expects a positive answer. They follow the pattern used at the beginning of the previous two questions and continue that thought. The words are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[23:24]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[33:25]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Thus says the Lord.” See the translator’s note at the beginning of v. 20 for the style adopted here. Here the promise is in v. 26 following the contrary to fact condition in v. 25. The Hebrew text of vv. 25-26 reads: “Thus says the Lord, “If I have not established my covenant with day and night [and] the laws/statutes of heaven and earth, also I could reject the seed of Jacob and David my servant from taking from his seed as rulers over the seed of Abraham…” The syntax of the original is a little awkward because it involves the verbs “establish” and “reject” governing two objects, the first governing two similar objects “my covenant” and “the regulations” and the second governing two dissimilar objects “the seed of Jacob” and “my servant David from taking [so as not to take].” The translation has sought to remove these awkward syntactical constructions and also break down the long complex original sentence in such a way as to retain its original intent, i.e., the guarantee of the continuance of the seed of Jacob and of the rule of a line of David’s descendants over them based on the fixed order of God’s creation decrees.

[34:20]  ¹⁹ sn See this same phrase in Jer 7:33; 16:4; 19:7.

[44:18]  ²² tn Heb “we have been consumed/destroyed by sword or by starvation.” The “we” cannot be taken literally here since they are still alive.

[44:19]  ²⁵ tc The words “And the women added” are not in the Hebrew text. They are, however, implicit in what is said. They are found in the Syriac version and in one recension of the Greek version. W. L. Holladay (Jeremiah [Hermeneia], 2:279, n. 19a) suggests that these words are missing from the Hebrew text because of haplography, i.e., that the scribe left out וַהַנָּשִׁים אָמְרוּ כִי (vahannashim ’omru khi) because his eye jumped from the ו at the beginning to the כִּי (ki) that introduced the temporal clause and left out everything in between. It is, however, just as likely, given the fact that there are several other examples of quotes which have not been formally introduced in the book of Jeremiah, that the words were not there and are supplied by these two ancient versions as a translator’s clarification.

[44:19]  ²⁶ tn Or “When we sacrificed and poured out drink offering to the Queen of Heaven and made cakes in her image, wasn’t it with the knowledge and approval of our husbands?” Heb “When we sacrificed to the Queen of Heaven and poured out drink offerings [for the use of לְ (lamed) + the infinitive construct to carry on the tense of the preceding verb see BDB 518 s.v. לְ 7.b(h)] to her, did we make cakes to make an image of her and pour out drink offerings apart from [i.e., “without the knowledge and consent of,” so BDB 116 s.v. בִּלְעֲדֵי b(a)] our husbands?” The question expects a positive answer and has been rendered as an affirmation in the translation. The long, complex Hebrew sentence has again been broken in two and restructured to better conform with contemporary English style.

[51:9]  ²⁸ tn The words “Foreigners living there will say” are not in the text but are implicit from the third line. These words are generally assumed by the commentaries and are explicitly added in TEV and NCV which are attempting to clarify the text for the average reader.

[51:9]  ²⁹ tn Heb “Leave/abandon her.” However, it is smoother in the English translation to make this verb equivalent to the cohortative that follows.

[51:9]  ³⁰ tn This is an admittedly very paraphrastic translation that tries to make the figurative nuance of the Hebrew original understandable for the average reader. The Hebrew text reads: “For her judgment [or punishment (cf. BDB 1078 s.v. מִשְׁפָּט 1.f) = ‘execution of judgment’] touches the heavens, and is lifted up as far as the clouds.” The figure of hyperbole or exaggeration is being used here to indicate the vastness of Babylon’s punishment which is the reason to escape (vv. 6, 9c). For this figure see Deut 1:28 in comparison with Num 13:28 and see also Deut 9:1. In both of the passages in Deut it refers to an exaggeration about the height of the walls of fortified cities. The figure also may be a play on Gen 11:4 where the nations gather in Babylon to build a tower that reaches to the skies. The present translation has interpreted the perfects here as prophetic because it has not happened yet or they would not be encouraging one another to leave and escape. For the idea here compare 50:16.

[51:48]  ³¹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[51:53]  ³⁴ tn Or “ascends [into] heaven.” Note the use of the phrase in Deut 30:12; 2 Kgs 2:11; and Amos 9:2.

[51:53]  ³⁵ tn Heb “and even if she fortifies her strong elevated place.”

[51:53]  ³⁶ tn Heb “from me destroyers will go against her.”

[51:53]  ³⁷ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”