Jeremiah 4:7

4:7 Like a lion that has come up from its lair ¹ 

the one who destroys nations has set out from his home base. ² 

He is coming out to lay your land waste.

Your cities will become ruins and lie uninhabited.

Jeremiah 4:29

4:29 At the sound of the approaching horsemen and archers

the people of every town will flee.

Some of them will hide in the thickets.

Others will climb up among the rocks.

All the cities will be deserted.

No one will remain in them.

Jeremiah 9:11

9:11 The Lord said, ³ 

“I will make Jerusalem ⁴  a heap of ruins.

Jackals will make their home there. ⁵ 

I will destroy the towns of Judah

so that no one will be able to live in them.”

Jeremiah 46:19

46:19 Pack your bags for exile,

you inhabitants of poor dear Egypt. ⁶ 

For Memphis will be laid waste.

It will lie in ruins ⁷  and be uninhabited.

Jeremiah 49:31

49:31 The Lord says, ⁸  “Army of Babylon, ⁹  go and attack

a nation that lives in peace and security.

They have no gates or walls to protect them. ¹⁰ 

They live all alone.

Jeremiah 51:29

51:29 The earth will tremble and writhe in agony. ¹¹ 

For the Lord will carry out his plan.

He plans to make the land of Babylonia ¹² 

a wasteland where no one lives. ¹³ 

[4:7]  ¹ 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]  ² tn Heb “his place.”

[9:11]  ³ tn The words “the Lord said” are not in the text, but it is obvious from the content that he is the speaker. These words are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[9:11]  ⁴ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[9:11]  ⁵ tn Heb “a heap of ruins, a haunt for jackals.”

[46:19]  ⁵ tn Heb “inhabitants of daughter Egypt.” Like the phrase “daughter Zion,” “daughter Egypt” is a poetic personification of the land, here perhaps to stress the idea of defenselessness.

[46:19]  ⁶ tn For the verb here see HALOT 675 s.v. II נָצָה Nif and compare the usage in Jer 4:7; 9:11 and 2 Kgs 19:25. BDB derives the verb from יָצַת (so BDB 428 s.v. יָצַת Niph meaning “kindle, burn”) but still give it the meaning “desolate” here and in 2:15 and 9:11.

[49:31]  ⁷ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[49:31]  ⁸ tn The words “Army of Babylon” are not in the text but are implicit from the context. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[49:31]  ⁹ tn Heb “no gates and no bar,” i.e., “that lives securely without gates or bars.” The phrase is used by the figure of species for genus (synecdoche) to refer to the fact that they have no defenses, i.e., no walls, gates, or bars on the gates. The figure has been interpreted in the translation for the benefit of the average reader.

[51:29]  ⁹ sn The figure here is common in the poetic tradition of the Lord going forth to do battle against his foes and the earth’s reaction to it is compared to a person trembling with fear and writhing in agony, agony like that of a woman in labor (cf. Judg 5:4; Nah 1:2-5; Hab 3:1-15 [especially v. 6]).

[51:29]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “For the plans of the Lord have been carried out to make the land of Babylon…” The passive has been turned into an active and the sentence broken up to better conform with contemporary English style. For the meaning of the verb קוּם (qum) in the sense used here see BDB 878 s.v. קוּם 7.g and compare the usage in Prov 19:21 and Isa 46:10.

[51:29]  ¹¹ tn The verbs in this verse and v. 30 are all in the past tense in Hebrew, in the tense that views the action as already as good as done (the Hebrew prophetic perfect). The verb in v. 31a, however, is imperfect, viewing the action as future; the perfects that follow are all dependent on that future. Verse 33 looks forward to a time when Babylon will be harvested and trampled like grain on the threshing floor and the imperatives imply a time in the future. Hence the present translation has rendered all the verbs in vv. 29-30 as future.