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 5:15

5:15 The Lord says, ⁶  “Listen, ⁷  nation of Israel! ⁸ 

I am about to bring a nation from far away to attack you.

It will be a nation that was founded long ago

and has lasted for a long time.

It will be a nation whose language you will not know.

Its people will speak words that you will not be able to understand.

Jeremiah 5:19

5:19 “So then, Jeremiah, ⁹  when your people ¹⁰  ask, ‘Why has the Lord our God done all this to us?’ tell them, ‘It is because you rejected me and served foreign gods in your own land. So ¹¹  you must serve foreigners ¹²  in a land that does not belong to you.’

Jeremiah 8:6

8:6 I have listened to them very carefully, ¹³ 

but they do not speak honestly.

None of them regrets the evil he has done.

None of them says, “I have done wrong!” ¹⁴ 

All of them persist in their own wayward course ¹⁵ 

like a horse charging recklessly into battle.

Jeremiah 8:14

Jeremiah Laments over the Coming Destruction

8:14 The people say, ¹⁶ 

“Why are we just sitting here?

Let us gather together inside the fortified cities. ¹⁷ 

Let us at least die there fighting, ¹⁸ 

since the Lord our God has condemned us to die.

He has condemned us to drink the poison waters of judgment ¹⁹ 

because we have sinned against him. ²⁰ 

Jeremiah 9:12

9:12 I said, ²¹ 

“Who is wise enough to understand why this has happened? ²² 

Who has a word from the Lord that can explain it? ²³ 

Why does the land lie in ruins?

Why is it as scorched as a desert through which no one travels?”

Jeremiah 16:10

The Lord Promises Exile (But Also Restoration)

16:10 “When you tell these people about all this, ²⁴  they will undoubtedly ask you, ‘Why has the Lord threatened us with such great disaster? What wrong have we done? What sin have we done to offend the Lord our God?’

Jeremiah 24:3

24:3 The Lord said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” I answered, “I see figs. The good ones look very good. But the bad ones look very bad, so bad that they cannot be eaten.”

Jeremiah 33:24

33:24 “You have surely noticed what these people are saying, haven’t you? They are saying, ²⁵  ‘The Lord has rejected the two families of Israel and Judah ²⁶  that he chose.’ So they have little regard that my people will ever again be a nation. ²⁷ 

Jeremiah 38:25

38:25 The officials may hear that I have talked with you. They may come to you and say, ‘Tell us what you said to the king and what the king said to you. ²⁸  Do not hide anything from us. If you do, we will kill you.’ ²⁹ 

[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.”

[5:15]  ⁶ tn Heb “oracle of the Lord.”

[5:15]  ⁷ tn Heb “Behold!”

[5:15]  ⁸ tn Heb “house of Israel.”

[5:19]  ¹¹ tn The word, “Jeremiah,” is not in the text but the second person address in the second half of the verse is obviously to him. The word is supplied in the translation here for clarity.

[5:19]  ¹² tn The MT reads the second masculine plural; this is probably a case of attraction to the second masculine plural pronoun in the preceding line. An alternative would be to understand a shift from speaking first to the people in the first half of the verse and then speaking to Jeremiah in the second half where the verb is second masculine singular. E.g., “When you [people] say, “Why…?” then you, Jeremiah, tell them…”

[5:19]  ¹³ tn Heb “As you left me and…, so you will….” The translation was chosen so as to break up a rather long and complex sentence.

[5:19]  ¹⁴ sn This is probably a case of deliberate ambiguity (double entendre). The adjective “foreigners” is used for both foreign people (so Jer 30:8; 51:51) and foreign gods (so Jer 2:25; 3:13). See also Jer 16:13 for the idea of having to serve other gods in the lands of exile.

[8:6]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “I have paid attention and I have listened.” This is another case of two concepts being joined by “and” where one expresses the main idea and the other acts as an adverbial or adjectival modifier (a figure called hendiadys).

[8:6]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “What have I done?” The addition of the word “wrong” is implicit in the context and is supplied in the translation for clarity. The rhetorical question does not function as a denial of wrongdoing, but rather as contrite shock at one’s own wrongdoing. It is translated as a declaration for the sake of clarity.

[8:6]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “each one of them turns aside into their own running course.”

[8:14]  ²¹ tn The words “The people say” are not in the text but are implicit in the shift of speakers between vv. 4-13 and vv. 14-16. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[8:14]  ²² tn Heb “Gather together and let us enter into the fortified cities.”

[8:14]  ²³ tn Heb “Let us die there.” The words “at least” and “fighting” are intended to bring out the contrast of passive surrender to death in the open country and active resistance to the death implicit in the context.

[8:14]  ²⁴ tn The words “of judgment” are not in the text but are intended to show that “poison water” is not literal but figurative of judgment at the hands of God through the agency of the enemy mentioned in v. 16.

[8:14]  ²⁵ tn Heb “against the Lord.” The switch is for the sake of smoothness in English.

[9:12]  ²⁶ tn The words, “I said” are not in the text. It is not clear that a shift in speaker has taken place. However, the words of the verse are very unlikely to be a continuation of the Lord’s threat. It is generally assumed that these are the words of Jeremiah and that a dialogue is going on between him and the Lord in vv. 9-14. That assumption is accepted here.

[9:12]  ²⁷ tn Heb “Who is the wise man that he may understand this?”

[9:12]  ²⁸ tn Heb “And [who is the man] to whom the mouth of the Lord has spoken that he may explain it?”

[16:10]  ³¹ tn Heb “all these words/things.”

[33:24]  ³⁶ tn Heb “Have you not seen what this people have said, saying.” The question is rhetorical and expects a positive answer. The sentence has been broken in two to better conform with contemporary English style.

[33:24]  ³⁷ tn Heb “The two families which the Lord chose, he has rejected them.” This is an example of an object prepositioned before the verb and resumed by a redundant pronoun to throw emphasis of focus on it (called casus pendens in the grammars; cf. GKC 458 §143.d). Some commentators identify the “two families” as those of David and Levi mentioned in the previous verses, and some identify them as the families of the Israelites and of David mentioned in the next verse. However, the next clause in this verse and the emphasis on the restoration and regathering of Israel and Judah in this section (cf. 33:7, 14) show that the reference is to Israel and Judah (see also 30:3, 4; 31:27, 31 and 3:18).

[33:24]  ³⁸ tn Heb “and my people [i.e., Israel and Judah] they disdain [or look down on] from being again a nation before them.” The phrase “before them” refers to their estimation, their mental view (cf. BDB s.v. פָּנֶה II.4.a[g]). Hence it means they look with disdain on the people being a nation again (cf. BDB s.v. עוֹד 1.a[b] for the usage of עוֹד [’od] here).

[38:25]  ⁴¹ tn The phrase “and what the king said to you” is actually at the end of the verse, but most commentators see it as also under the governance of “tell us” and many commentaries and English versions move the clause forward for the sake of English style as has been done here.

[38:25]  ⁴² tn Or “lest we kill you”; Heb “and we will not kill you,” which as stated in the translator’s note on 37:20 introduces a negative purpose (or result) clause. See 37:20, 38:24 for parallel usage.