Jeremiah 4:6

4:6 Raise a signal flag that tells people to go to Zion. ¹ 

Run for safety! Do not delay!

For I am about to bring disaster out of the north.

It will bring great destruction. ² 

Jeremiah 6:1

The Destruction of Jerusalem Depicted

6:1 “Run for safety, people of Benjamin!

Get out of Jerusalem! ³ 

Sound the trumpet ⁴  in Tekoa!

Light the signal fires at Beth Hakkerem!

For disaster lurks ⁵  out of the north;

it will bring great destruction. ⁶ 

Jeremiah 6:22

6:22 “This is what the Lord says:

‘Beware! An army ⁷  is coming from a land in the north.

A mighty nation is stirring into action in faraway parts of the earth.

Jeremiah 10:22

10:22 Listen! News is coming even now. ⁸ 

The rumble of a great army is heard approaching ⁹  from a land in the north. ¹⁰ 

It is coming to turn the towns of Judah into rubble,

places where only jackals live.

Jeremiah 31:8

31:8 Then I will reply, ¹¹  ‘I will bring them back from the land of the north.

I will gather them in from the distant parts of the earth.

Blind and lame people will come with them,

so will pregnant women and women about to give birth.

A vast throng of people will come back here.

Jeremiah 46:20

46:20 Egypt is like a beautiful young cow.

But northern armies will attack her like swarms of stinging flies. ¹² 

Jeremiah 50:9

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

a host of mighty nations ¹³  from the land of the north.

They will set up their battle lines against her.

They will come from the north and capture her. ¹⁴ 

Their arrows will be like a skilled soldier ¹⁵ 

who does not return from the battle empty-handed. ¹⁶ 

Jeremiah 50:41

50:41 “Look! An army is about to come from the north.

A mighty nation and many kings ¹⁷  are stirring into action

in faraway parts of the earth.

Isaiah 41:25

41:25 I have stirred up one out of the north ¹⁸  and he advances,

one from the eastern horizon who prays in my name. ¹⁹ 

He steps on ²⁰  rulers as if they were clay,

like a potter treading the clay.

Ezekiel 1:4

1:4 As I watched, I noticed ²¹  a windstorm ²²  coming from the north – an enormous cloud, with lightning flashing, ²³  such that bright light ²⁴  rimmed it and came from ²⁵  it like glowing amber ²⁶  from the middle of a fire.

[4:6]  ¹ tn Heb “Raise up a signal toward Zion.”

[4:6]  ² tn Heb “out of the north, even great destruction.”

[6:1]  ³ tn Heb “Flee for safety, people of Benjamin, out of the midst of Jerusalem.”

[6:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “ram’s horn,” but the modern equivalent is “trumpet” and is more readily understandable.

[6:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “leans down” or “looks down.” This verb personifies destruction leaning/looking down from its window in the sky, ready to attack.

[6:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “[It will be] a severe fracture.” The nation is pictured as a limb being fractured.

[6:22]  ⁷ tn Heb “people.”

[10:22]  ⁸ tn Heb “The sound of a report, behold, it is coming.”

[10:22]  ⁹ tn Heb “ coming, even a great quaking.”

[10:22]  ¹⁰ sn Compare Jer 6:22.

[31:8]  ¹¹ tn The words “And I will reply” are not in the text but the words vv. 8-9 appear to be the answer to the petition at the end of v. 7. These words are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[46:20]  ¹² tn Heb “Egypt is a beautiful heifer. A gadfly from the north will come against her.”
The metaphors have been turned into similes for the sake of clarity. The exact meaning of the word translated “stinging fly” is uncertain due to the fact that it occurs nowhere else in Hebrew literature. For a discussion of the meaning of the word which probably refers to the “gadfly,” which bites and annoys livestock, see W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah (Hermeneia), 2:331, who also suggests, probably correctly, that the word is a collective referring to swarms of such insects (cf. the singular אַרְבֶּה [’arbeh] in v. 23 which always refers to swarms of locusts). The translation presupposes the emendation of the second בָּא (ba’) to בָּהּ (bah) with a number of Hebrew mss and a number of the versions (cf. BHS, fn b).

[50:9]  ¹³ sn Some of these are named in Jer 51:27-28.

[50:9]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “She will be captured from there (i.e., from the north).”

[50:9]  ¹⁵ 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]  ¹⁶ tn Or more freely, “Their arrows will be as successful at hitting their mark // as a skilled soldier always returns from battle with plunder.”

[50:41]  ¹⁷ sn A mighty nation and many kings is an allusion to the Medo-Persian empire and the vassal kings who provided forces for the Medo-Persian armies.

[41:25]  ¹⁸ sn That is, Cyrus the Persian. See the note at v. 2.

[41:25]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “[one] from the rising of the sun [who] calls in my name.”

[41:25]  ²⁰ tn The Hebrew text has וְיָבֹא (vÿyavo’, “and he comes”), but this is likely a corruption of an original וַיָּבָס (vayyavas), from בּוּס (bus, “step on”).

[1:4]  ²¹ tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.

[1:4]  ²² sn Storms are often associated with appearances of God (see Nah 1:3; Ps 18:12). In some passages, the “storm” (סְעָרָה, sÿ’arah) may be a whirlwind (Job 38:1, 2 Kgs 2:1).

[1:4]  ²³ tn Heb “fire taking hold of itself,” perhaps repeatedly. The phrase occurs elsewhere only in Exod 9:24 in association with a hailstorm. The LXX interprets the phrase as fire flashing like lightning, but it is possibly a self-sustaining blaze of divine origin. The LXX also reverses the order of the descriptors, i.e., “light went around it and fire flashed like lightning within it.”

[1:4]  ²⁴ tn Or “radiance.” The term also occurs in 1:27b.

[1:4]  ²⁵ tc Or “was in it”; cf. LXX ἐν τῷ μέσῳ αὐτοῦ (en tw mesw autou, “in its midst”).

[1:4]  ²⁶ tn The LXX translates חַשְׁמַל (khashmal) with the word ἤλεκτρον (hlektron, “electrum”; so NAB), an alloy of silver and gold, perhaps envisioning a comparison to the glow of molten metal.