Jeremiah 5:12

5:12 “These people have denied what the Lord says. ¹ 

They have said, ‘That is not so! ² 

No harm will come to us.

We will not experience war and famine. ³ 

Jeremiah 10:3

10:3 For the religion ⁴  of these people is worthless.

They cut down a tree in the forest,

and a craftsman makes it into an idol with his tools. ⁵ 

Jeremiah 10:10

10:10 The Lord is the only true God.

He is the living God and the everlasting King.

When he shows his anger the earth shakes.

None of the nations can stand up to his fury.

Jeremiah 10:16

10:16 The Lord, who is the inheritance ⁶  of Jacob’s descendants, ⁷  is not like them.

He is the one who created everything.

And the people of Israel are those he claims as his own. ⁸ 

He is known as the Lord who rules over all.” ⁹ 

Jeremiah 18:4

18:4 Now and then ¹⁰  there would be something wrong ¹¹  with the pot he was molding from the clay ¹²  with his hands. So he would rework ¹³  the clay into another kind of pot as he saw fit. ¹⁴ 

Jeremiah 25:31

25:31 The sounds of battle ¹⁵  will resound to the ends of the earth.

For the Lord will bring charges against the nations. ¹⁶ 

He will pass judgment on all humankind

and will hand the wicked over to be killed in war.’ ¹⁷ 

The Lord so affirms it! ¹⁸ 

Jeremiah 37:2

37:2 Neither he nor the officials who served him nor the people of Judah paid any attention to what the Lord said through the prophet Jeremiah. ¹⁹ 

Jeremiah 41:7

41:7 But as soon as they were inside the city, Ishmael son of Nethaniah and the men who were with him slaughtered them and threw their bodies ²⁰  in a cistern.

Jeremiah 51:6

51:6 Get out of Babylonia quickly, you foreign people. ²¹ 

Flee to save your lives.

Do not let yourselves be killed because of her sins.

For it is time for the Lord to wreak his revenge.

He will pay Babylonia ²²  back for what she has done. ²³ 

Jeremiah 51:19

51:19 The Lord, who is the portion of the descendants of Jacob, is not like them.

For he is the one who created everything,

including the people of Israel whom he claims as his own. ²⁴ 

He is known as the Lord who rules over all. ²⁵ 

[5:12]  ¹ tn Heb “have denied the Lord.” The words “What…says” are implicit in what follows.

[5:12]  ² tn Or “he will do nothing”; Heb “Not he [or it]!”

[5:12]  ³ tn Heb “we will not see the sword and famine.”

[10:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “statutes.” According to BDB 350 s.v. חֻקָּה 2.b it refers to the firmly established customs or practices of the pagan nations. Compare the usage in Lev 20:23; 2 Kgs 17:8. Here it is essentially equivalent to דֶּרֶךְ (derekh) in v. 1, which has already been translated “religious practices.”

[10:3]  ⁵ sn This passage is dripping with sarcasm. It begins by talking about the “statutes” of the pagan peoples as a “vapor” using a singular copula and singular predicate. Then it suppresses the subject, the idol, as though it were too horrible to mention, using only the predications about it. The last two lines read literally: “[it is] a tree which one cuts down from the forest; the work of the hands of a craftsman with his chisel.”

[10:16]  ⁷ tn The words “The Lord who is” are not in the text. They are supplied in the translation for clarity. For the significance of the words that follow them see the study note that follows.

[10:16]  ⁸ tn Heb “The Portion of Jacob.” “Descendants” is implied, and is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[10:16]  ⁹ tn Heb “And Israel is the tribe of his possession.”

[10:16]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies is his name.”

[18:4]  ¹⁰ tn The verbs here denote repeated action. They are the Hebrew perfect with the vav (ו) consecutive. The text then reads somewhat literally, “Whenever the vessel he was molding…was ruined, he would remold…” For this construction see Joüon 2:393-94 §118.n and 2:628-29 §167.b, and compare the usage in Amos 4:7-8.

[18:4]  ¹¹ sn Something was wrong with the clay – either there was a lump in it, or it was too moist or not moist enough, or it had some other imperfection. In any case the vessel was “ruined” or “spoiled” or defective in the eyes of the potter. This same verb has been used of the linen shorts that were “ruined” and hence were “good for nothing” in Jer 13:7. The nature of the clay and how it responded to the potter’s hand determined the kind of vessel that he made of it. He did not throw the clay away. This is the basis for the application in vv. 7-10 to any nation and to the nation of Israel in particular vv. 10-17.

[18:4]  ¹² tn The usage of the preposition בְּ (bet) to introduce the material from which something is made in Exod 38:8 and 1 Kgs 15:22 should lay to rest the rather forced construction that some (like J. Bright, Jeremiah [AB], 121) put on the variant כַּחֹמֶר (kakhomer) found in a few Hebrew mss. Bright renders that phrase as an elliptical “as clay sometimes will.” The phrase is missing from the Greek version.

[18:4]  ¹³ tn Heb “he would turn and work.” This is an example of hendiadys where one of the two verbs joined by “and” becomes the adverbial modifier of the other. The verb “turn” is very common in this construction (see BDB 998 s.v. שׁוּב Qal.8 for references).

[18:4]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “as it was right in his eyes to do [or work it].” For this idiom see Judg 14:3, 7; 1 Sam 18:20, 26; 2 Sam 17:4.

[25:31]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ 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]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “give the wicked over to the sword.”

[25:31]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[37:2]  ¹⁶ sn These two verses (37:1-2) are introductory to chs. 37–38 and are intended to characterize Zedekiah and his regime as disobedient just like Jehoiakim and his regime had been (Jer 36:27; cf. 2 Kgs 24:19-20). This characterization is important because Zedekiah is portrayed in the incidents that follow in 37–38 as seeking the Lord’s help or seeking a word from the Lord. However though he did send to inquire of Jeremiah three times, he did not pay attention to the warnings that he received in reply and was ultimately responsible for the fall of Jerusalem (Jer 39). As elsewhere in the book of Jeremiah, Jeconiah’s reign is passed over in silence because it was negligible and because Jeremiah did not wish to legitimize the hopes that many in Israel and Babylon had in his returning from exile and resuming rule over Judah (see further the study notes on 22:24, 30 and 33:30).

[41:7]  ¹⁹ tn The words “and threw their bodies” result from the significant use of the preposition אֶל (’el, so GKC 384 §119.gg and BDB 39 s.v. אֶל 1). Hence the suggestion in BHS (fn a) that the Syriac and two Greek mss are reading a different text is not really a textual issue but a translational one; the versions are supplying the words for stylistic purposes as has been done here.

[51:6]  ²² tn The words “you foreign people” are not in the text and many think the referent is the exiles of Judah. While this is clearly the case in v. 45 the referent seems broader here where the context speaks of every man going to his own country (v. 9).

[51:6]  ²³ tn Heb “her.”

[51:6]  ²⁴ tn Heb “paying to her a recompense [i.e., a payment in kind].”

[51:19]  ²⁵ tn Heb “For he is the former of all [things] and the tribe of his inheritance.” This is the major exception to the verbatim repetition of 10:12-16 in 51:15-19. The word “Israel” appears before “the tribe of his inheritance” in 10:16. It is also found in a number of Hebrew mss, in the Lucianic recension of the LXX (the Greek version), the Aramaic Targums, and the Latin Vulgate. Most English versions and many commentaries assume it here. However, it is easier to explain why the word is added in a few of the versions and some Hebrew than to explain why it was left out. It is probable that the word is not original here because the addressees are different and the function of this hymnic piece is slightly different (see the study note on the next line for details). Here it makes good sense to understand that the Lord is being called the creator of the special tribe of people he claims as his own property (see the study note on the first line of 10:16).

[51:19]  ²⁶ sn With the major exception discussed in the translator’s note on the preceding line vv. 15-19 are a verbatim repetition of 10:12-16 with a few minor variations in spelling. There the passage was at the end of a section in which the Lord was addressing the Judeans and trying to convince them that the worship of idols was vain – the idols were impotent but he is all powerful. Here the passage follows a solemn oath by the Lord who rules over all and is apparently directed to the Babylonians, emphasizing the power of the Lord to carry out his oath.