Jeremiah 44:2

44:2 “The Lord God of Israel who rules over all ¹  says, ‘You have seen all the disaster I brought on Jerusalem ²  and all the towns of Judah. Indeed, they now lie in ruins and are deserted. ³ 

Jeremiah 44:6

44:6 So my anger and my wrath were poured out and burned like a fire through the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem. That is why they have become the desolate ruins that they are today.’

Jeremiah 44:12

44:12 I will see to it that all the Judean remnant that was determined to go ⁴  and live in the land of Egypt will be destroyed. Here in the land of Egypt they will fall in battle ⁵  or perish from starvation. People of every class ⁶  will die in war or from starvation. They will become an object of horror and ridicule, an example of those who have been cursed and that people use in pronouncing a curse. ⁷ 

Jeremiah 18:16

18:16 So their land will become an object of horror. ⁸ 

People will forever hiss out their scorn over it.

All who pass that way will be filled with horror

and will shake their heads in derision. ⁹ 

Jeremiah 24:9

24:9 I will bring such disaster on them that all the kingdoms of the earth will be horrified. I will make them an object of reproach, a proverbial example of disaster. I will make them an object of ridicule, an example to be used in curses. ¹⁰  That is how they will be remembered wherever I banish them. ¹¹ 

Jeremiah 25:11

25:11 This whole area ¹²  will become a desolate wasteland. These nations will be subject to the king of Babylon for seventy years.’ ¹³ 

Jeremiah 25:18

25:18 I made Jerusalem ¹⁴  and the cities of Judah, its kings and its officials drink it. ¹⁵  I did it so Judah would become a ruin. I did it so Judah, its kings, and its officials would become an object ¹⁶  of horror and of hissing scorn, an example used in curses. ¹⁷  Such is already becoming the case! ¹⁸ 

Jeremiah 25:38

25:38 The Lord is like a lion who has left his lair. ¹⁹ 

So their lands will certainly ²⁰  be laid waste

by the warfare of the oppressive nation ²¹ 

and by the fierce anger of the Lord.”

Jeremiah 26:6

26:6 If you do not obey me, ²²  then I will do to this temple what I did to Shiloh. ²³  And I will make this city an example to be used in curses by people from all the nations on the earth.’”

Jeremiah 29:19

29:19 For they have not paid attention to what I said to them through my servants the prophets whom I sent to them over and over again,’ ²⁴  says the Lord. ²⁵  ‘And you exiles ²⁶  have not paid any attention to them either,’ says the Lord. ²⁷ 

Jeremiah 29:1

Jeremiah’s Letter to the Exiles

29:1 The prophet Jeremiah sent a letter to the exiles Nebuchadnezzar had carried off from Jerusalem ²⁸  to Babylon. It was addressed to the elders who were left among the exiles, to the priests, to the prophets, and to all the other people who were exiled in Babylon. ²⁹ 

Jeremiah 9:7-8

9:7 Therefore the Lord who rules over all says, ³⁰ 

“I will now purify them in the fires of affliction ³¹  and test them.

The wickedness of my dear people ³²  has left me no choice.

What else can I do? ³³ 

9:8 Their tongues are like deadly arrows. ³⁴ 

They are always telling lies. ³⁵ 

Friendly words for their neighbors come from their mouths.

But their minds are thinking up ways to trap them. ³⁶ 

Lamentations 2:15-16

ס (Samek)

2:15 All who passed by on the road

clapped their hands to mock you. ³⁷ 

They sneered and shook their heads

at Daughter Jerusalem.

“Ha! Is this the city they called ³⁸ 

‘The perfection of beauty, ³⁹ 

the source of joy of the whole earth!’?” ⁴⁰ 

פ (Pe)

2:16 All your enemies

gloated over you. ⁴¹ 

They sneered and gnashed their teeth;

they said, “We have destroyed ⁴²  her!

Ha! We have waited a long time for this day.

We have lived to see it!” ⁴³ 

Daniel 9:12

9:12 He has carried out his threats ⁴⁴  against us and our rulers ⁴⁵  who were over ⁴⁶  us by bringing great calamity on us – what has happened to Jerusalem has never been equaled under all heaven!

[44:2]  ¹ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.” Compare 7:3 and see the study note on 2:19 for explanation and translation of this title.

[44:2]  ² map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[44:2]  ³ tn Heb “Behold, they are in ruins this day and there is no one living in them.”

[44:12]  ⁴ tn Heb “they set their face to go.” Compare 44:11 and 42:14 and see the translator’s note at 42:15.

[44:12]  ⁵ tn Heb “fall by the sword.”

[44:12]  ⁶ tn Or “All of them without distinction,” or “All of them from the least important to the most important”; Heb “From the least to the greatest.” See the translator’s note on 42:1 for the meaning of this idiom.

[44:12]  ⁷ tn See the study note on 24:9 and the usage in 29:22 for the meaning and significance of this last phrase.

[18:16]  ⁸ tn There may be a deliberate double meaning involved here. The word translated here “an object of horror” refers both to destruction (cf. 2:15; 4:17) and the horror or dismay that accompanies it (cf. 5:30; 8:21). The fact that there is no conjunction or preposition in front of the noun “hissing” that follows this suggests that the reaction is in view here, not the cause.

[18:16]  ⁹ tn Heb “an object of lasting hissing. All who pass that way will be appalled and shake their head.”

[24:9]  ¹⁰ tn Or “an object of reproach in peoples’ proverbs…an object of ridicule in people’s curses.” The alternate translation treats the two pairs which are introduced without vavs (ו) but are joined by vavs as examples of hendiadys. This is very possible here but the chain does not contain this pairing in 25:18; 29:18.

[24:9]  ¹¹ tn Heb “I will make them for a terror for disaster to all the kingdoms of the earth, for a reproach and for a proverb, for a taunt and a curse in all the places which I banish them there.” The complex Hebrew sentence has been broken down into equivalent shorter sentences to conform more with contemporary English style.

[25:11]  ¹² tn Heb “All this land.”

[25:11]  ¹³ sn It should be noted that the text says that the nations will be subject to the king of Babylon for seventy years, not that they will lie desolate for seventy years. Though several proposals have been made for dating this period, many ignore this fact. This most likely refers to the period beginning with Nebuchadnezzar’s defeat of Pharaoh Necho at Carchemish in 605 b.c. and the beginning of his rule over Babylon. At this time Babylon became the dominant force in the area and continued to be so until the fall of Babylon in 538 b.c. More particularly Judah became a vassal state (cf. Jer 46:2; 2 Kgs 24:1) in 605 b.c. and was allowed to return to her homeland in 538 when Cyrus issued his edict allowing all the nations exiled by Babylon to return to their homelands. (See 2 Chr 36:21 and Ezra 1:2-4; the application there is made to Judah but the decree of Cyrus was broader.)

[25:18]  ¹⁴ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[25:18]  ¹⁵ tn The words “I made” and “drink it” are not in the text. The text from v. 18 to v. 26 contains a list of the nations that Jeremiah “made drink it.” The words are supplied in the translation here and at the beginning of v. 19 for the sake of clarity. See also the note on v. 26.

[25:18]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “in order to make them a ruin, an object of…” The sentence is broken up and the antecedents are made specific for the sake of clarity and English style.

[25:18]  ¹⁷ tn See the study note on 24:9 for explanation.

[25:18]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “as it is today.” This phrase would obviously be more appropriate after all these things had happened as is the case in 44:6, 23 where the verbs referring to these conditions are past. Some see this phrase as a marginal gloss added after the tragedies of 597 b.c. or 586 b.c. However, it may refer here to the beginning stages where Judah has already suffered the loss of Josiah, of its freedom, of some of its temple treasures, and of some of its leaders (Dan 1:1-3. The different date for Jehoiakim there is due to the different method of counting the king’s first year; the third year there is the same as the fourth year in 25:1).

[25:38]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “Like a lion he has left his lair.”

[25:38]  ²⁰ tn This is a way of rendering the Hebrew particle כִּי (ki) which is probably here for emphasis rather than indicating cause (see BDB 473 s.v. כִּי 1.e and compare usage in Jer 22:22).

[25:38]  ²¹ tc Heb “by the sword of the oppressors.” The reading here follows a number of Hebrew mss and the Greek version. The majority of Hebrew mss read “the anger of the oppressor.” The reading “the sword of the oppressors” is supported also by the parallel use of this phrase in Jer 46:16; 50:16. The error in the MT may be explained by confusion with the following line which has the same beginning combination (מִפְּנֵי חֲרוֹן [mippÿne kharon] confused for מִפְּנֵי חֶרֶב [mippÿne kherev]). This reading is also supported by the Targum, the Aramaic paraphrase of the OT. According to BDB 413 s.v. יָנָה Qal the feminine singular participle (הַיּוֹנָה, hayyonah) is functioning as a collective in this idiom (see GKC 394 §122.s for this phenomenon).

[26:6]  ²² tn 26:4-6 are all one long sentence containing a long condition with subordinate clauses (vv. 4-5) and a compound consequence in v. 6: Heb “If you will not obey me by walking in my law…by paying attention to the words of the prophets which…and you did not pay heed, then I will make…and I will make…” The sentence has been broken down in conformity to contemporary English style but an attempt has been made to reflect all the subordinations in the English translation.

[26:6]  ²³ sn See the study note on Jer 7:13.

[29:19]  ²⁴ tn See the translator’s note on 7:13 for an explanation of this idiom.

[29:19]  ²⁵ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[29:19]  ²⁶ tn The word “exiles” is not in the text. It is supplied in the translation to clarify the referent of “you.”

[29:19]  ²⁷ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[29:1]  ²⁸ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[29:1]  ²⁹ tn Jer 29:1-3 are all one long sentence in Hebrew containing a parenthetical insertion. The text reads “These are the words of the letter which the prophet Jeremiah sent to the elders…people whom Nebuchadnezzar had exiled from Jerusalem to Babylon after King Jeconiah…had gone from Jerusalem by the hand of Elasah…whom Zedekiah sent…saying, ‘Thus says the Lord…’” The sentence has been broken up for the sake of contemporary English style and clarity.

[9:7]  ³⁰ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.”

[9:7]  ³¹ tn Heb “I will refine/purify them.” The words “in the fires of affliction” are supplied in the translation to give clarity to the metaphor.

[9:7]  ³² tn Heb “daughter of my people.” For the translation given here see 4:11 and the note on the phrase “dear people” there.

[9:7]  ³³ tc Heb “For how else shall I deal because of the wickedness of the daughter of my people.” The MT does not have the word “wickedness.” The word, however, is read in the Greek version. This is probably a case of a word dropping out because of its similarities to the consonants preceding or following it (i.e., haplography). The word “wickedness” (רַעַת, ra’at) has dropped out before the words “my dear people” (בַּת־עַמִּי, bat-’ammi). The causal nuance which is normal for מִפְּנֵי (mippÿne) does not make sense without some word like this, and the combination of רַעַת מִפְּנֵי (mippÿne ra’at) does occur in Jer 7:12 and one very like it occurs in Jer 26:3.

[9:8]  ³⁴ tc This reading follows the Masoretic consonants (the Kethib, a Qal active participle from שָׁחַט, shakhat). The Masoretes preferred to read “a sharpened arrow” (the Qere, a Qal passive participle from the same root or a homonym, meaning “hammered, beaten”). See HALOT 1354 s.v. II שָׁחַט for discussion. The exact meaning of the word makes little difference to the meaning of the metaphor itself.

[9:8]  ³⁵ tn Heb “They speak deceit.”

[9:8]  ³⁶ tn Heb “With his mouth a person speaks peace to his neighbor, but in his heart he sets an ambush for him.”

[2:15]  ³⁷ tn Heb “clap their hands at you.” Clapping hands at someone was an expression of malicious glee, derision and mockery (Num 24:10; Job 27:23; Lam 2:15).

[2:15]  ³⁸ tn Heb “of which they said.”

[2:15]  ³⁹ tn Heb “perfection of beauty.” The noun יֹפִי (yofi, “beauty”) functions as a genitive of respect in relation to the preceding construct noun: Jerusalem was perfect in respect to its physical beauty.

[2:15]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “the joy of all the earth.” This is similar to statements found in Pss 48:2 and 50:2.

[2:16]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “they have opened wide their mouth against you.”

[2:16]  ⁴² tn Heb “We have swallowed!”

[2:16]  ⁴³ tn Heb “We have attained, we have seen!” The verbs מָצָאנוּ רָאִינוּ (matsa’nu ra’inu) form a verbal hendiadys in which the first retains its full verbal sense and the second functions as an object complement. It forms a Hebrew idiom that means something like, “We have lived to see it!” The three asyndetic 1st person common plural statements in 2:16 (“We waited, we destroyed, we saw!”) are spoken in an impassioned, staccato style reflecting the delight of the conquerors.

[9:12]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “he has fulfilled his word(s) which he spoke.”

[9:12]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “our judges.”

[9:12]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “who judged.”