Jeremiah 4:3

4:3 Yes, ¹  the Lord has this to say

to the people of Judah and Jerusalem:

“Like a farmer breaking up hard unplowed ground,

you must break your rebellious will and make a new beginning;

just as a farmer must clear away thorns lest the seed is wasted,

you must get rid of the sin that is ruining your lives. ² 

Jeremiah 4:16

4:16 They are saying, ³ 

‘Announce to the surrounding nations, ⁴ 

“The enemy is coming!” ⁵ 

Proclaim this message ⁶  to Jerusalem:

“Those who besiege cities ⁷  are coming from a distant land.

They are ready to raise the battle cry against ⁸  the towns in Judah.”’

Jeremiah 9:11

9:11 The Lord said, ⁹ 

“I will make Jerusalem ¹⁰  a heap of ruins.

Jackals will make their home there. ¹¹ 

I will destroy the towns of Judah

so that no one will be able to live in them.”

Jeremiah 15:5

15:5 The Lord cried out, ¹² 

“Who in the world ¹³  will have pity on you, Jerusalem?

Who will grieve over you?

Who will stop long enough ¹⁴ 

to inquire about how you are doing? ¹⁵ 

Jeremiah 17:20

17:20 As you stand in those places ¹⁶  announce, ‘Listen, all you people who pass through these gates. Listen, all you kings of Judah, all you people of Judah and all you citizens of Jerusalem. Listen to what the Lord says. ¹⁷ 

Jeremiah 29:4

29:4 “The Lord God of Israel who rules over all ¹⁸  says to all those he sent ¹⁹  into exile to Babylon from Jerusalem, ²⁰ 

Jeremiah 34:19

34:19 I will punish the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the court officials, ²¹  the priests, and all the other people of the land who passed between the pieces of the calf. ²² 

Jeremiah 44:13

44:13 I will punish those who live in the land of Egypt with war, starvation, and disease just as I punished Jerusalem.

Jeremiah 51:50

51:50 You who have escaped the sword, ²³ 

go, do not delay. ²⁴ 

Remember the Lord in a faraway land.

Think about Jerusalem. ²⁵ 

Jeremiah 52:13

52:13 He burned down the Lord’s temple, the royal palace, and all the houses in Jerusalem, including every large house.

[4:3]  ¹ tn The Hebrew particle is obviously asseverative here since a causal connection appears to make little sense.

[4:3]  ² tn Heb “Plow up your unplowed ground and do not sow among the thorns.” The translation is an attempt to bring out the force of a metaphor. The idea seems to be that they are to plow over the thorns and make the ground ready for the seeds which will produce a new crop where none had been produced before.

[4:16]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn The word “surrounding” is not in the text but is implicit and is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[4:16]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ tn Heb “Besiegers.” For the use of this verb to refer to besieging a city compare Isa 1:8.

[4:16]  ⁸ 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.”

[9:11]  ⁵ tn The words “the Lord said” are not in the text, but it is obvious from the content that he is the speaker. These words are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[9:11]  ⁶ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[9:11]  ⁷ tn Heb “a heap of ruins, a haunt for jackals.”

[15:5]  ⁷ tn The words “The Lord cried out” are not in the text. However, they are necessary to show the shift in address between speaking to Jeremiah in vv. 1-4 about the people and addressing Jerusalem in vv. 5-6 and the shift back to the address to Jeremiah in vv. 7-9. The words “oracle of the Lord” are, moreover, found at the beginning of v. 6.

[15:5]  ⁸ tn The words, “in the world” are not in the text but are the translator’s way of trying to indicate that this rhetorical question expects a negative answer.

[15:5]  ⁹ tn Heb “turn aside.”

[15:5]  ¹⁰ tn Or “about your well-being”; Heb “about your welfare” (שָׁלוֹם, shalom).

[17:20]  ⁹ tn The words “As you stand there” are not in the text but are implicit in the connection. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[17:20]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Listen to the word of the Lord, kings of Judah…Jerusalem who enter through these gates.” This sentence has been restructured to avoid a long complex English sentence and to put “Listen to what the Lord says” closer to the content of what he says.

[29:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.”

[29:4]  ¹² tn Heb “I sent.” This sentence exhibits a rapid switch in person, here from the third person to the first. Such switches are common to Hebrew poetry and prophecy (cf. GKC 462 §144.p). Contemporary English, however, does not exhibit such rapid switches and it creates confusion for the careful reader. Such switches have regularly been avoided in the translation.

[29:4]  ¹³ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[34:19]  ¹³ tn For the rendering of this term see the translator’s note on 29:2.

[34:19]  ¹⁴ tn This verse is not actually a sentence in the Hebrew original but is a prepositioned object to the verb in v. 20, “I will hand them over.” This construction is called casus pendens in the older grammars and is used to call attention to a subject or object (cf. GKC 458 §143.d and compare the usage in 33:24). The same nondescript “I will punish” which was used to resolve the complex sentence in the previous verse has been chosen to introduce the objects here before the more specific “I will hand them over” in the next verse.

[51:50]  ¹⁵ sn God’s exiled people are told to leave doomed Babylon (see v. 45).

[51:50]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “don’t stand.”

[51:50]  ¹⁷ 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.