Jeremiah 4:6-9

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 

4:7 Like a lion that has come up from its lair ³ 

the one who destroys nations has set out from his home base. ⁴ 

He is coming out to lay your land waste.

Your cities will become ruins and lie uninhabited.

4:8 So put on sackcloth!

Mourn and wail, saying,

‘The fierce anger of the Lord

has not turned away from us!’” ⁵ 

4:9 “When this happens,” ⁶  says the Lord,

“the king and his officials will lose their courage.

The priests will be struck with horror,

and the prophets will be speechless in astonishment.”

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

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

[4:7]  ³ tn Heb “A lion has left its lair.” The metaphor is turned into a simile for clarification. The word translated “lair” has also been understood to refer to a hiding place. However, it appears to be cognate in meaning to the word translated “lair” in Ps 10:9; Jer 25:38, a word which also refers to the abode of the Lord in Ps 76:3.

[4:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “his place.”

[4:8]  ⁵ tn Or “wail because the fierce anger of the Lord has not turned away from us.” The translation does not need to assume a shift in speaker as the alternate reading does.

[4:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “In that day.”