Jeremiah 4:9

4:9 “When this happens,” ¹  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.”

Jeremiah 8:1

8:1 The Lord says, “When that time comes, ²  the bones of the kings of Judah and its leaders, the bones of the priests and prophets and of all the other people who lived in Jerusalem will be dug up from their graves.

Jeremiah 25:34

25:34 Wail and cry out in anguish, you rulers!

Roll in the dust, you who shepherd flocks of people! ³ 

The time for you to be slaughtered has come.

You will lie scattered and fallen like broken pieces of fine pottery. ⁴ 

Jeremiah 26:10-12

26:10 However, some of the officials ⁵  of Judah heard about what was happening ⁶  and they rushed up to the Lord’s temple from the royal palace. They set up court ⁷  at the entrance of the New Gate of the Lord’s temple. ⁸  26:11 Then the priests and the prophets made their charges before the officials and all the people. They said, ⁹  “This man should be condemned to die ¹⁰  because he prophesied against this city. You have heard him do so ¹¹  with your own ears.”

26:12 Then Jeremiah made his defense before all the officials and all the people. ¹²  “The Lord sent me to prophesy everything you have heard me say against this temple and against this city.

Jeremiah 26:16

26:16 Then the officials and all the people rendered their verdict to the priests and the prophets. They said, ¹³  “This man should not be condemned to die. ¹⁴  For he has spoken to us under the authority of the Lord our God.” ¹⁵ 

Jeremiah 34:10

34:10 All the people and their leaders had agreed to this. They had agreed to free their male and female slaves and not keep them enslaved any longer. They originally complied with the covenant and freed them. ¹⁶ 

Jeremiah 34:21

34:21 I will also hand King Zedekiah of Judah and his officials over to their enemies who want to kill them. I will hand them over to the army of the king of Babylon, even though they have temporarily withdrawn from attacking you. ¹⁷ 

Jeremiah 36:21

36:21 The king sent Jehudi to get the scroll. He went and got it from the room of Elishama, the royal secretary. Then he himself ¹⁸  read it to the king and all the officials who were standing around him.

Jeremiah 38:27

38:27 All the officials did indeed come and question Jeremiah. ¹⁹  He told them exactly what the king had instructed him to say. ²⁰  They stopped questioning him any further because no one had actually heard their conversation. ²¹ 

Jeremiah 46:18

46:18 I the King, whose name is the Lord who rules over all, ²²  swear this:

I swear as surely as I live that ²³  a conqueror is coming.

He will be as imposing as Mount Tabor is among the mountains,

as Mount Carmel is against the backdrop of the sea. ²⁴ 

Jeremiah 46:25

46:25 The Lord God of Israel who rules over all ²⁵  says, “I will punish Amon, the god of Thebes. ²⁶  I will punish Egypt, its gods, and its kings. I will punish Pharaoh and all who trust in him. ²⁷ 

Jeremiah 49:3

49:3 Wail, you people in Heshbon, because Ai in Ammon is destroyed.

Cry out in anguish, you people in the villages surrounding ²⁸  Rabbah.

Put on sackcloth and cry out in mourning.

Run about covered with gashes. ²⁹ 

For your god Milcom will go into exile

along with his priests and officials. ³⁰ 

[4:9]  ¹ tn Heb “In that day.”

[8:1]  ² tn Heb “At that time.”

[25:34]  ³ tn Heb “Wail and cry out, you shepherds. Roll in the dust, you leaders of the flock.” The terms have been reversed to explain the figure.

[25:34]  ⁴ tn The meaning of this line is debated. The Greek version does not have the words “lie scattered” and it reads the words “like broken pieces of fine pottery” (Heb “like choice vessels”; כִּכְלִי חֶמְדָּה, kikhli khemdah) as “like choice rams” (כְּאֵילֵי חֶמְדָּה, kÿ’ele khemdah); i.e., “the days have been completed for you to be slaughtered and you will fall like choice rams.” The reading of the Greek version fits the context better, but is probably secondary for that very reason. The word translated “lie scattered” (תְּפוֹצָה, tÿfotsah) occurs nowhere else and the switch to the simile of “choice vessels” is rather abrupt. However, this section has been characterized by switching metaphors. The key to the interpretation and translation here is the consequential nature of the verbal actions involved. “Fall” does not merely refer to the action but the effect, i.e., “lie fallen” (cf. BDB 657 s.v. נָפַל 7 and compare Judg 3:25; 1 Sam 31:8). Though the noun translated “lie scattered” does not occur elsewhere, the verb does. It is quite commonly used of dispersing people and that has led many to see that as the reference here. The word, however, can be used of scattering other things like seed (Isa 28:25), arrows (2 Sam 22:15; metaphorical for lightning), etc. Here it follows “slaughtered” and refers to their dead bodies. The simile (Heb “ fallen like choice vessels”) is elliptical, referring to “broken pieces” of choice vessels. In this sense the simile fits in perfectly with v. 33.

[26:10]  ⁴ sn These officials of Judah were officials from the royal court. They may have included some of the officials mentioned in Jer 36:12-25. They would have been concerned about any possible “illegal” proceedings going on in the temple.

[26:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “these things.”

[26:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “they sat” or “they took their seats.” However, the context is one of judicial trial.

[26:10]  ⁷ tn The translation follows many Hebrew mss and ancient versions in reading the word “house” (= temple) here. The majority of Hebrew mss do not have this word. It is, however, implicit in the construction “the New Gate of the Lord.”

[26:11]  ⁵ tn Heb “the priests and prophets said to the leaders and the people….” The long sentence has been broken up to conform better with contemporary English style and the situational context is reflected in “laid their charges.”

[26:11]  ⁶ tn Heb “a sentence of death to this man.”

[26:11]  ⁷ tn Heb “it.”

[26:12]  ⁶ tn Heb “Jeremiah said to all the leaders and all the people….” See the note on the word “said” in the preceding verse.

[26:16]  ⁷ tn Heb “Then the officials and all the people said to the priests and the prophets…”

[26:16]  ⁸ sn Contrast v. 11.

[26:16]  ⁹ tn Heb “For in the name of the Lord our God he has spoken to us.” The emphasis is on “in the name of…”

[34:10]  ⁸ tn Heb “And they complied, [that is] all the leaders and all the people who entered into the covenant that they would each let his male slave and his female slave go free so as not to hold them in bondage any longer; they complied and they let [them] go.” The verb “they complied” (Heb “they hearkened”) is repeated at the end after the lengthy description of the subject. This is characteristic of Hebrew style. The translation has resolved the complex sentence by making the relative clauses modifying the subject independent sentences describing the situational background before mentioning the main focus, “they had complied and let them go.”

[34:21]  ⁹ tn Heb “And Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials I will give into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their lives and into the hands of the army of the king of Babylon which has gone up from against them.” The last two “and into the hand” phrases are each giving further explication of “their enemies” (the conjunction is explicative [cf. BDB 252 s.v. וְ 1.b]). The sentence has been broken down into shorter English sentences in conformity with contemporary English style.

[36:21]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and Jehudi read it.” However, Jehudi has been the subject of the preceding; so it would be awkward in English to use the personal subject. The translation has chosen to bring out the idea that Jehudi himself read it by using the reflexive.

[38:27]  ¹¹ tn Heb “All the officials came to Jeremiah and questioned him.”

[38:27]  ¹² tn Heb “And he reported to them according to all these words which the king had commanded.”

[38:27]  ¹³ tn Heb “And they were silent from him because the word/matter [i.e., the conversation between Jeremiah and the king] had not been heard.” According to BDB 578 s.v. מִן 1.a the preposition “from” is significant in this construction, implying a verb of motion. I.e., “they were [fell] silent [and turned away] from him.”

[46:18]  ¹² tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.” For the significance of this title see the note at 2:19.

[46:18]  ¹³ tn Heb “As I live, oracle of the King, whose….” The indirect quote has been chosen to create a smoother English sentence and avoid embedding a quote within a quote.

[46:18]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “Like Tabor among the mountains and like Carmel by the sea he will come.” The addition of “conqueror” and “imposing” are implicit from the context and from the metaphor. They have been supplied in the translation to give the reader some idea of the meaning of the verse.

[46:25]  ¹³ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.” For the significance of this title see the note at 2:19.

[46:25]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “Amon of No.”

[46:25]  ¹⁵ tc Heb “Behold I will punish Amon of No and Pharaoh and Egypt and its gods and its kings and Pharaoh and all who trust in him.” There appears to be a copyist slip involving a double writing of וְעַל־פַּרְעֹה (vÿ’al-par’oh). The present translation has followed the suggestion of BHS and deleted the first one since the second is necessary for the syntactical connection, “Pharaoh and all who trust in him.”

[49:3]  ¹⁴ tn Or “you women of Rabbah”; Heb “daughters of Rabbah.” It is difficult to tell whether the word “daughters” is used here in the same sense that it has in v. 2 (see the translator’s note there) or in the literal sense of “daughters.” The former has been preferred because the cities themselves (e.g., Heshbon) are called to wail in the earlier part of the verse and the term “daughters” has been used in the previous verse of the surrounding villages.

[49:3]  ¹⁵ tc Or “Run back and forth inside the walls of your towns.” Or “slash yourselves with gashes.” The meaning of this line is uncertain. The Hebrew text reads “run back and forth among the walls.” The word “run back and forth” is generally taken as a Hitpolel of a verb that means to “go about” in the Qal and to “go back and forth” in the Polel (cf. BDB 1002 s.v. I שׁוּט). The noun that follows in the Hebrew means “wall, hedge” and is quite commonly modified by the noun צֹאן (tso’n, “sheep”) referring to sheepfolds (cf., e.g., Num 32:36; 1 Sam 24:3). But the phrase “run back and forth among the sheepfolds” yields little meaning here. In Ps 89:40 (89:41 HT) the word “wall” is used in parallelism with fortified cities and refers to the walls of the city. That is the sense that is assumed in one of the alternate translations with the words “of your towns” being supplied in the translation for clarification. However, that figure is a little odd in a context which speaks of mourning rites. Hence, some emend the word “walls” (גְּדֵרוֹת, gÿderot) to “gashes” (גְּדֻדוֹת, gÿdudot), a word that has occurred in a similar context in Jer 48:37. That would involve only the common confusion of ר and ד. That is the reading adopted here and fits the context nicely. NRSV appears to go one step further and read the verb as a Hitpolel from a root that is otherwise used only as a noun to mean “whip” or “scourge.” NRSV reads “slash yourselves with whips” which also makes excellent sense in the context but is not supported by any parallel use of the verb.

[49:3]  ¹⁶ sn Compare Jer 48:7 and the study note there.