Jeremiah 40:13

Ishmael Murders Gedaliah and Carries the Judeans at Mizpah off as Captives

40:13 Johanan and all the officers of the troops that had been hiding in the open country came to Gedaliah at Mizpah.

Jeremiah 46:22

46:22 Egypt will run away, hissing like a snake, ¹ 

as the enemy comes marching up in force.

They will come against her with axes

as if they were woodsmen chopping down trees.

Jeremiah 49:9

49:9 If grape pickers came to pick your grapes,

would they not leave a few grapes behind? ² 

If robbers came at night,

would they not pillage only what they needed? ³ 

Jeremiah 51:10

51:10 The exiles from Judah will say, ⁴ 

‘The Lord has brought about a great deliverance for us! ⁵ 

Come on, let’s go and proclaim in Zion

what the Lord our God has done!’

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 14:3

14:3 The leading men of the cities send their servants for water.

They go to the cisterns, ⁶  but they do not find any water there.

They return with their containers ⁷  empty.

Disappointed and dismayed, they bury their faces in their hands. ⁸ 

Jeremiah 50:5

50:5 They will ask the way to Zion;

they will turn their faces toward it.

They will come ⁹  and bind themselves to the Lord

in a lasting covenant that will never be forgotten. ¹⁰ 

Jeremiah 50:26

50:26 Come from far away and attack Babylonia! ¹¹ 

Open up the places where she stores her grain!

Pile her up in ruins! ¹²  Destroy her completely! ¹³ 

Do not leave anyone alive! ¹⁴ 

Jeremiah 51:51

51:51 ‘We ¹⁵  are ashamed because we have been insulted. ¹⁶ 

Our faces show our disgrace. ¹⁷ 

For foreigners have invaded

the holy rooms ¹⁸  in the Lord’s temple.’

Jeremiah 12:12

12:12 A destructive army ¹⁹  will come marching

over the hilltops in the desert.

For the Lord will use them as his destructive weapon ²⁰ 

against ²¹  everyone from one end of the land to the other.

No one will be safe. ²² 

Jeremiah 27:18

27:18 I also told them, ²³  “If they are really prophets and the Lord is speaking to them, ²⁴  let them pray earnestly to the Lord who rules over all. ²⁵  Let them plead with him not to let the valuable articles that are still left in the Lord’s temple, in the royal palace, and in Jerusalem be taken away ²⁶  to Babylon.

Jeremiah 32:24

32:24 Even now siege ramps have been built up around the city ²⁷  in order to capture it. War, ²⁸  starvation, and disease are sure to make the city fall into the hands of the Babylonians ²⁹  who are attacking it. ³⁰  Lord, ³¹  you threatened that this would happen. Now you can see that it is already taking place. ³² 

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. ³³ 

Jeremiah 35:11

35:11 But when King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon invaded the land we said, ‘Let’s get up and go to Jerusalem ³⁴  to get away from the Babylonian ³⁵  and Aramean armies.’ That is why we are staying here in Jerusalem.”

Jeremiah 41:6

41:6 Ishmael son of Nethaniah went out from Mizpah to meet them. He was pretending to cry ³⁶  as he walked along. When he met them, he said to them, “Come with me to meet Gedaliah son of Ahikam.” ³⁷ 

[46:22]  ¹ tn Or “Egypt will rustle away like a snake”; Heb “her sound goes like the snake,” or “her sound [is] like the snake [when] it goes.” The meaning of the simile is debated. Some see a reference to the impotent hiss of a fleeing serpent (F. B. Huey, Jeremiah, Lamentations [NAC], 382), others the sound of a serpent stealthily crawling away when it is disturbed (H. Freedman, Jeremiah [SoBB], 297-98). The translation follows the former interpretation because of the irony involved.

[49:9]  ¹ tn The translation of this verse is generally based on the parallels in Obad 5. There the second line has a ה interrogative in front of it. The question can still be assumed because questions can be asked in Hebrew without a formal marker (cf. GKC 473 §150.a and BDB 519 s.v. לֹא 1.a[e] and compare usage in 2 Kgs 5:26).

[49:9]  ² tn The tense and nuance of the verb translated “pillage” are both different than the verb in Obad 5. There the verb is the imperfect of גָּנַב (ganav, “to steal”). Here the verb is the perfect of a verb which means to “ruin” or “spoil.” The English versions and commentaries, however, almost all render the verb here in much the same way as in Obad 5. The nuance must mean they only “ruin, destroy” (by stealing) only as much as they need (Heb “their sufficiency”), and the verb is used as metonymical substitute, effect for cause. The perfect must be some kind of a future perfect; “would they not have destroyed only…” The negative question is carried over by ellipsis from the preceding lines.

[51:10]  ¹ tn The words “The exiles from Judah will say” are not in the text but are implicit from the words that follow. They are supplied in the translation to clearly identify for the reader the referent of “us.”

[51:10]  ² tn There is some difference of opinion as to the best way to render the Hebrew expression here. Literally it means “brought forth our righteousnesses.” BDB 842 s.v. צְדָקָה 7.b interprets this of the “righteous acts” of the people of Judah and compares the usage in Isa 64:6; Ezek 3:20; 18:24; 33:13. However, Judah’s acts of righteousness (or more simply, their righteousness) was scarcely revealed in their deliverance. Most of the English versions and commentaries refer to “vindication” i.e., that the Lord has exonerated or proven Israel’s claims to be true. However, that would require more explanation than the idea of “deliverance” which is a perfectly legitimate usage of the term (cf. BDB 842 s.v. צְדָקָה 6.a and compare the usage in Isa 46:13; 51:6, 8; 56:1). The present translation interprets the plural form here as a plural of intensity or amplification (GKC 397-98 §124.e) and the suffix as a genitive of advantage (IBHS 147 §9.5.2e). This interpretation is also reflected in REB and God’s Word.

[14:3]  ¹ tn Though the concept of “cisterns” is probably not familiar to some readers, it would be a mistake to translate this word as “well.” Wells have continual sources of water. Cisterns were pits dug in the ground and lined with plaster to hold rain water. The drought had exhausted all the water in the cisterns.

[14:3]  ² tn The word “containers” is a generic word in Hebrew = “vessels.” It would probably in this case involve water “jars” or “jugs.” But since in contemporary English one would normally associate those terms with smaller vessels, “containers” may be safer.

[14:3]  ³ tn Heb “they cover their heads.” Some of the English versions have gone wrong here because of the “normal” use of the words translated here “disappointed” and “dismayed.” They are regularly translated “ashamed” and “disgraced, humiliated, dismayed” elsewhere (see e.g., Jer 22:22); they are somewhat synonymous terms which are often parallel or combined. The key here, however, is the expression “they cover their heads” which is used in 2 Sam 15:30 for the expression of grief. Moreover, the word translated here “disappointed” (בּוֹשׁ, bosh) is used that way several times. See for example Jer 12:13 and consult examples in BDB 101 s.v. בּוֹשׁ Qal.2. A very similar context with the same figure is found in Jer 2:36-37.

[50:5]  ¹ tc The translation here assumes that the Hebrew בֹּאוּ (bo’u; a Qal imperative masculine plural) should be read בָּאוּ (ba’u; a Qal perfect third plural). This reading is presupposed by the Greek version of Aquila, the Latin version, and the Targum (see BHS note a, which mistakenly assumes that the form must be imperfect).

[50:5]  ² sn See Jer 32:40 and the study note there for the nature of this lasting agreement.

[50:26]  ¹ tn Heb “Come against her from the end.” There is a great deal of debate about the meaning of “from the end” (מִקֵּץ, miqqets). Some follow the suggestion of F. Giesebrecht in BDB 892 s.v. קָצֶה 3 and emend the text to מִקָּצֶה (miqqatseh) on the basis of the presumed parallel in Jer 51:31 which is interpreted as “on all sides,” i.e., “from every quarter/side.” However, the phrase does not mean that in Jer 51:31 but is used as it is elsewhere of “from one end to another,” i.e., in its entirety (so Gen 19:4). The only real parallel here is the use of the noun קֵץ (qets) with a suffix in Isa 37:24 referring to the remotest part, hence something like from the end (of the earth), i.e., from a far away place. The referent “her” has been clarified here to refer to Babylonia in case someone might not see the connection between v. 25d and v. 26.

[50:26]  ² tn Heb “Pile her up like heaps.” Many commentators understand the comparison to be to heaps of grain (compare usage of עֲרֵמָה (’aremah) in Hag 2:16; Neh 13:15; Ruth 3:7). However, BDB 790 s.v. עֲרֵמָה is more likely correct that this refers to heaps of ruins (compare the usage in Neh 4:2 [3:34 HT]).

[50:26]  ³ sn Compare Jer 50:21 and see the study note on 25:9.

[50:26]  ⁴ tn Heb “Do not let there be to her a remnant.” According to BDB 984 s.v. שְׁאֵרִית this refers to the last remnant of people, i.e., there won’t be any survivors. Compare the usage in Jer 11:23.

[51:51]  ¹ sn The exiles lament the way they have been humiliated.

[51:51]  ² tn Heb “we have heard an insult.”

[51:51]  ³ tn Heb “disgrace covers our face.”

[51:51]  ⁴ tn Or “holy places, sanctuaries.”

[12:12]  ¹ tn Heb “destroyers.”

[12:12]  ² tn Heb “It is the Lord’s consuming sword.”

[12:12]  ³ tn Heb “For a sword of the Lord will devour.” The sword is often symbolic for destructive forces of all kinds. Here and in Isa 34:6; Jer 47:6 it is symbolic of the enemy armies that the Lord uses to carry out destructive punishment against his enemies, hence the translation “his destructive weapon.” A similar figure is use in Isa 10:5 where the figure is more clearly identified; Assyria is the rod/club that the Lord will use to discipline unfaithful Israel.

[12:12]  ⁴ tn Heb “There is no peace to all flesh.”

[27:18]  ¹ tn The words “I also told them” are not in the text, but it is obvious from the fact that the Lord is spoken about in the third person in vv. 18, 19, 21 that he is not the speaker. This is part of Jeremiah’s own speech to the priests and the people (v. 16). These words are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[27:18]  ² tn Heb “the word of the Lord is with them.”

[27:18]  ³ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.”

[27:18]  ⁴ tn Heb “…speaking to them, let them entreat the Lord…so that the valuable articles…will not go to Babylon.” The long original sentence has been broken up for the sake of English style.

[32:24]  ¹ tn Heb “Siege ramps have come up to the city to capture it.”

[32:24]  ² tn Heb “sword.”

[32:24]  ³ tn Heb “The Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for further explanation.

[32:24]  ⁴ tn Heb “And the city has been given into the hands of the Chaldeans who are fighting against it because of the sword, starvation, and disease.” The verb “has been given” is one of those perfects that view the action as good as done (the perfect of certainty or prophetic perfect).

[32:24]  ⁵ tn The word “Lord” is not in the text but is supplied in the translation as a reminder that it is he who is being addressed.

[32:24]  ⁶ tn Heb “And what you said has happened and behold you see it.”

[34:10]  ¹ 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.”

[35:11]  ¹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[35:11]  ² tn Heb “Chaldean.” For explanation see the study note on 21:4.

[41:6]  ¹ tn Heb “he was weeping/crying.” The translation is intended to better reflect the situation.

[41:6]  ² tn Heb “Come to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam.” The words that are supplied in the translation are implicit to the situation and are added for clarity.