Jeremiah 43:11

43:11 He will come and attack Egypt. Those who are destined to die of disease will die of disease. Those who are destined to be carried off into exile will be carried off into exile. Those who are destined to die in war will die in war. ¹ 

Jeremiah 15:2

15:2 If they ask you, ‘Where should we go?’ tell them the Lord says this:

“Those who are destined to die of disease will go to death by disease.

Those who are destined to die in war will go to death in war.

Those who are destined to die of starvation will go to death by starvation.

Those who are destined to go into exile will go into exile.” ² 

Jeremiah 25:31

25:31 The sounds of battle ³  will resound to the ends of the earth.

For the Lord will bring charges against the nations. ⁴ 

He will pass judgment on all humankind

and will hand the wicked over to be killed in war.’ ⁵ 

The Lord so affirms it! ⁶ 

Jeremiah 49:13

49:13 For I solemnly swear,” ⁷  says the Lord, “that Bozrah ⁸  will become a pile of ruins. It will become an object of horror and ridicule, an example to be used in curses. ⁹  All the towns around it will lie in ruins forever.”

Jeremiah 15:9

15:9 The mother who had seven children ¹⁰  will grow faint.

All the breath will go out of her. ¹¹ 

Her pride and joy will be taken from her in the prime of their life.

It will seem as if the sun had set while it was still day. ¹² 

She will suffer shame and humiliation. ¹³ 

I will cause any of them who are still left alive

to be killed in war by the onslaughts of their enemies,” ¹⁴ 

says the Lord.

Jeremiah 36:30

36:30 So the Lord says concerning King Jehoiakim of Judah, “None of his line will occupy the throne of David. ¹⁵  His dead body will be thrown out to be exposed to scorching heat by day and frost by night. ¹⁶ 

[43:11]  ¹ tn As in 15:2 the Hebrew is very brief and staccato-like: “those to death to death, and those to captivity to captivity, and those to the sword to the sword.” As in 15:2 most commentaries and English versions assume that the word “death” refers to death by disease. See the translator’s note on 15:2 and compare also 18:21 where the sword is distinctly connected with “war” or “battle” and is distinct from “killed by death [i.e., disease].”

[15:2]  ² tn It is difficult to render the rhetorical force of this passage in meaningful English. The text answers the question “Where should we go?” with four brief staccato-like expressions with a play on the preposition “to”: Heb “Who to the death, to the death and who to the sword, to the sword and who to the starvation, to the starvation and who to the captivity, to the captivity.” The word “death” here is commonly understood to be a poetic substitute for “plague” because of the standard trio of sword, famine, and plague (see, e.g., 14:12 and the notes there). This is likely here and in 18:21. For further support see W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah (Hermeneia), 1:440. The nuance “starvation” rather than “famine” has been chosen in the translation because the referents here are all things that accompany war.

[25:31]  ³ tn For the use of this word see Amos 2:2; Hos 10:14; Ps 74:23. See also the usage in Isa 66:6 which is very similar to the metaphorical usage here.

[25:31]  ⁴ tn Heb “the Lord has a lawsuit against the nations.” For usage of the term see Hos 4:1; Mic 6:2, and compare the usage of the related verb in Jer 2:9; 12:1.

[25:31]  ⁵ tn Heb “give the wicked over to the sword.”

[25:31]  ⁶ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[49:13]  ⁴ tn Heb “I swear by myself.” See 22:5 and the study note there.

[49:13]  ⁵ sn Bozrah appears to have been the chief city in Edom, its capital city (see its parallelism with Edom in Isa 34:6; 63:1; Jer 49:22). The reference to “its towns” (translated here “all the towns around it”) could then be a reference to all the towns in Edom. It was located about twenty-five miles southeast of the southern end of the Dead Sea apparently in the district of Teman (see the parallelism in Amos 1:12).

[49:13]  ⁶ tn See the study note on 24:9 for the rendering of this term.

[15:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “who gave birth to seven.”

[15:9]  ⁶ tn The meaning of this line is debated. Some understand this line to mean “she has breathed out her life” (cf., e.g., BDB 656 s.v. נָפַח and 656 s.v. ֶנפֶשׁ 1.c). However, as several commentaries have noted (e.g., W. McKane, Jeremiah [ICC], 1:341; J. Bright, Jeremiah [AB], 109) it makes little sense to talk about her suffering shame and embarrassment if she has breathed her last. Both the Greek and Latin versions understand “soul” not as the object but as the subject and the idea being one of fainting under despair. This idea seems likely in light of the parallelism. Bright suggests the phrase means either “she gasped out her breath” or “her throat gasped.” The former is more likely. One might also render “she fainted dead away,” but that idiom might not be familiar to all readers.

[15:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “Her sun went down while it was still day.”

[15:9]  ⁸ sn She has lost her position of honor and the source of her pride. For the concepts here see 1 Sam 2:5.

[15:9]  ⁹ tn Heb “I will deliver those of them that survive to the sword before their enemies.” The referent of “them” is ambiguous. Does it refer to the children of the widow (nearer context) or the people themselves (more remote context, v. 7)? Perhaps it was meant to include both. Verse seven spoke of the destruction of the people and the killing off of the children.

[36:30]  ⁶ sn This prophesy was not “totally” fulfilled because his son Jehoiachin (Jeconiah) did occupy the throne for three months (2 Kgs 23:8). However, his rule was negligible and after his capitulation and exile to Babylon, he himself was promised that neither he nor his successors would occupy the throne of David (cf. Jer 22:30; and see the study notes on 22:24, 30).

[36:30]  ⁷ sn Compare the more poetic prophecy in Jer 22:18-19 and see the study note on 22:19.