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 6:19

6:19 Hear this, you peoples of the earth: ⁶ 

‘Take note! ⁷  I am about to bring disaster on these people.

It will come as punishment for their scheming. ⁸ 

For they have paid no attention to what I have said, ⁹ 

and they have rejected my law.

Jeremiah 31:37

31:37 The Lord says, “I will not reject all the descendants of Israel

because of all that they have done. ¹⁰ 

That could only happen if the heavens above could be measured

or the foundations of the earth below could all be explored,” ¹¹ 

says the Lord. ¹² 

Jeremiah 33:24

33:24 “You have surely noticed what these people are saying, haven’t you? They are saying, ¹³  ‘The Lord has rejected the two families of Israel and Judah ¹⁴  that he chose.’ So they have little regard that my people will ever again be a nation. ¹⁵ 

Jeremiah 33:26

33:26 Just as surely as I have done this, so surely will I never reject the descendants of Jacob. Nor will I ever refuse to choose one of my servant David’s descendants to rule over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Indeed, ¹⁶  I will restore them ¹⁷  and show mercy to them.”

[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.”

[6:19]  ⁶ tn Heb “earth.”

[6:19]  ⁷ tn Heb “Behold!”

[6:19]  ⁸ tn Heb “disaster on these people, the fruit of their schemes.”

[6:19]  ⁹ tn Heb “my word.”

[31:37]  ¹¹ sn This answers Jeremiah’s question in 14:19.

[31:37]  ¹² tn Heb “If the heavens above could be measured or the foundations of the earth below be explored, then also I could reject all the seed of Israel for all they have done.”

[31:37]  ¹³ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[33:24]  ¹⁶ 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]  ¹⁷ 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]  ¹⁸ 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).

[33:26]  ²¹ tn The Hebrew particle כִּי (ki) is probably intensive here as it has been on a number of occasions in the book of Jeremiah (see BDB 472 s.v. כִּי 1.e for the category).

[33:26]  ²² tn Or “I will make them prosperous once again,” or “I will bring them back from captivity.”