Jeremiah 4:30

4:30 And you, Zion, city doomed to destruction, ¹ 

you accomplish nothing ²  by wearing a beautiful dress, ³ 

decking yourself out in jewels of gold,

and putting on eye shadow! ⁴ 

You are making yourself beautiful for nothing.

Your lovers spurn you.

They want to kill you. ⁵ 

Jeremiah 14:19

14:19 Then I said,

“Lord, ⁶  have you completely rejected the nation of Judah?

Do you despise ⁷  the city of Zion?

Why have you struck us with such force

that we are beyond recovery? ⁸ 

We hope for peace, but nothing good has come of it.

We hope for a time of relief from our troubles, but experience terror. ⁹ 

Jeremiah 32:24

32:24 Even now siege ramps have been built up around the city ¹⁰  in order to capture it. War, ¹¹  starvation, and disease are sure to make the city fall into the hands of the Babylonians ¹²  who are attacking it. ¹³  Lord, ¹⁴  you threatened that this would happen. Now you can see that it is already taking place. ¹⁵ 

Jeremiah 45:5

45:5 Are you looking for great things for yourself? Do not look for such things. For I, the Lord, affirm ¹⁶  that I am about to bring disaster on all humanity. ¹⁷  But I will allow you to escape with your life ¹⁸  wherever you go.”’”

Jeremiah 47:2

47:2 “Look! Enemies are gathering in the north like water rising in a river. ¹⁹ 

They will be like an overflowing stream.

They will overwhelm the whole country and everything in it like a flood.

They will overwhelm the cities and their inhabitants.

People will cry out in alarm.

Everyone living in the country will cry out in pain.

Jeremiah 50:9

50:9 For I will rouse into action and bring against Babylon

a host of mighty nations ²⁰  from the land of the north.

They will set up their battle lines against her.

They will come from the north and capture her. ²¹ 

Their arrows will be like a skilled soldier ²² 

who does not return from the battle empty-handed. ²³ 

[4:30]  ¹ tn Heb “And you that are doomed to destruction.” The referent is supplied from the following context and the fact that Zion/Jerusalem represents the leadership which was continually making overtures to foreign nations for help.

[4:30]  ² tn Heb “What are you accomplishing…?” The rhetorical question assumes a negative answer, made clear by the translation in the indicative.

[4:30]  ³ tn Heb “clothing yourself in scarlet.”

[4:30]  ⁴ tn Heb “enlarging your eyes with antimony.” Antimony was a black powder used by women as eyeliner to make their eyes look larger.

[4:30]  ⁵ tn Heb “they seek your life.”

[14:19]  ⁶ tn The words, “Then I said, ‘Lord” are not in the Hebrew text. It is obvious from the context that the Lord is addressee. The question of the identity of the speaker is the same as that raised in vv. 7-9 and the arguments set forth there are applicable here as well. Jeremiah is here identifying with the people and doing what they refuse to do, i.e., confess their sins and express their trust in him.

[14:19]  ⁷ tn Heb “does your soul despise.” Here as in many places the word “soul” stands as part for whole for the person himself emphasizing emotional and volitional aspects of the person. However, in contemporary English one does not regularly speak of the “soul” in contexts such as this but of the person.

[14:19]  ⁸ tn Heb “Why have you struck us and there is no healing for us.” The statement involves poetic exaggeration (hyperbole) for rhetorical effect.

[14:19]  ⁹ tn Heb “[We hope] for a time of healing but behold terror.”

[32:24]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Siege ramps have come up to the city to capture it.”

[32:24]  ¹² tn Heb “sword.”

[32:24]  ¹³ tn Heb “The Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for further explanation.

[32:24]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “And the city has been given into the hands of the Chaldeans who are fighting against it because of the sword, starvation, and disease.” The verb “has been given” is one of those perfects that view the action as good as done (the perfect of certainty or prophetic perfect).

[32:24]  ¹⁵ tn The word “Lord” is not in the text but is supplied in the translation as a reminder that it is he who is being addressed.

[32:24]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “And what you said has happened and behold you see it.”

[45:5]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “oracle of the Lord.”

[45:5]  ¹⁷ sn Compare Jer 25:31, 33. The reference here to universal judgment also forms a nice transition to the judgments on the nations that follow in Jer 46-51 which may be another reason for the placement of this chapter here, out of its normal chronological order (see also the study note on v. 1).

[45:5]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “I will give you your life for a spoil.” For this idiom see the translator’s note on 21:9 and compare the usage in 21:9; 38:2; 39:18.

[47:2]  ²¹ tn Heb “Behold! Waters are rising from the north.” The metaphor of enemy armies compared to overflowing water is seen also in Isa 8:8-9 (Assyria) and 46:7-8 (Egypt). Here it refers to the foe from the north (Jer 1:14; 4:6; etc) which is specifically identified with Babylon in Jer 25. The metaphor has been turned into a simile in the translation to help the average reader identify that a figure is involved and to hint at the referent.

[50:9]  ²⁶ sn Some of these are named in Jer 51:27-28.

[50:9]  ²⁷ tn Heb “She will be captured from there (i.e., from the north).”

[50:9]  ²⁸ tc Read Heb ַָמשְׂכִּיל (moskil) with a number of Hebrew mss and some of the versions in place of מַשְׁכִּיל (mashkil, “one who kills children”) with the majority of Hebrew mss and some of the versions. See BHS note d for the details.

[50:9]  ²⁹ tn Or more freely, “Their arrows will be as successful at hitting their mark // as a skilled soldier always returns from battle with plunder.”