Jeremiah 5:16

5:16 All of its soldiers are strong and mighty. ¹ 

Their arrows will send you to your grave. ² 

Jeremiah 13:13

13:13 Then ³  tell them, ‘The Lord says, “I will soon fill all the people who live in this land with stupor. ⁴  I will also fill the kings from David’s dynasty, ⁵  the priests, the prophets, and the citizens of Jerusalem with stupor. ⁶ 

Jeremiah 15:12

15:12 Can you people who are like iron and bronze

break that iron fist from the north? ⁷ 

Jeremiah 19:3

19:3 Say, ‘Listen to what the Lord says, you kings of Judah and citizens of Jerusalem! ⁸  The Lord God of Israel who rules over all ⁹  says, “I will bring a disaster on this place ¹⁰  that will make the ears of everyone who hears about it ring! ¹¹ 

Jeremiah 21:12

21:12 O royal family descended from David. ¹² 

The Lord says:

‘See to it that people each day ¹³  are judged fairly. ¹⁴ 

Deliver those who have been robbed from those ¹⁵  who oppress them.

Otherwise, my wrath will blaze out against you.

It will burn like a fire that cannot be put out

because of the evil that you have done. ¹⁶ 

Jeremiah 25:30

25:30 “Then, Jeremiah, ¹⁷  make the following prophecy ¹⁸  against them:

‘Like a lion about to attack, ¹⁹  the Lord will roar from the heights of heaven;

from his holy dwelling on high he will roar loudly.

He will roar mightily against his land. ²⁰ 

He will shout in triumph like those stomping juice from the grapes ²¹ 

against all those who live on the earth.

Jeremiah 29:5

29:5 ‘Build houses and settle down. Plant gardens and eat what they produce.

Jeremiah 42:17

42:17 All the people who are determined to go and settle in Egypt will die from war, starvation, or disease. No one will survive or escape the disaster I will bring on them.’

Jeremiah 51:46

51:46 Do not lose your courage or become afraid

because of the reports that are heard in the land.

For a report will come in one year.

Another report will follow it in the next.

There will be violence in the land

with ruler fighting against ruler.”

[5:16]  ¹ tn Heb “All of them are mighty warriors.”

[5:16]  ² tn Heb “his quiver [is] an open grave.” The order of the lines has been reversed to make the transition from “nation” to “their arrows” easier.

[13:13]  ³ tn The Greek version is likely right in interpreting the construction of two perfects preceded by the conjunction as contingent or consequential here, i.e., “and when they say…then say.” See GKC 494 §159.g. However, to render literally would create a long sentence. Hence, the words “will probably” have been supplied in v. 12 in the translation to set up the contingency/consequential sequence in the English sentences.

[13:13]  ⁴ sn It is probably impossible to convey in a simple translation all the subtle nuances that are wrapped up in the words of this judgment speech. The word translated “stupor” here is literally “drunkenness” but the word has in the context an undoubted intended double reference. It refers first to the drunken like stupor of confusion on the part of leaders and citizens of the land which will cause them to clash with one another. But it also probably refers to the reeling under God’s wrath that results from this (cf. Jer 25:15-29, especially vv. 15-16). Moreover there is still the subtle little play on wine jars. The people are like the wine jars which were supposed to be filled with wine. They were to be a special people to bring glory to God but they had become corrupt. Hence, like wine jars they would be smashed against one another and broken to pieces (v. 14). All of this, both “fill them with the stupor of confusion” and “make them reel under God’s wrath,” cannot be conveyed in one translation.

[13:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “who sit on David’s throne.”

[13:13]  ⁶ tn In Hebrew this is all one long sentence with one verb governing compound objects. It is broken up here in conformity with English style.

[15:12]  ⁵ tn Or “Can iron and bronze break iron from the north?” The question is rhetorical and expects a negative answer. The translation and meaning of this verse are debated. See note for further details. The two main difficulties here involve the relation of words to one another and the obscure allusion to iron from the north. To translate “literally” is difficult since one does not know whether “iron” is subject of “break” or object of an impersonal verb. Likewise, the dangling “and bronze” fits poorly with either understanding. Options: “Can iron break iron from the north and bronze?” Or “Can one break iron, even iron from the north and bronze.” This last is commonly opted for by translators and interpreters, but why add “and bronze” at the end? And what does “iron from the north” refer to? A long history of interpretation relates it to the foe from the north (see already 1:14; 4:6; 6:1; 13:20). The translation follows the lead of NRSV and takes “and bronze” as a compound subject. I have no ready parallels for this syntax but the reference to “from the north” and the comparison to the stubbornness of the unrepentant people to bronze and iron in 6:28 suggests a possible figurative allusion. There is no evidence in the Bible that Israel knew about a special kind of steel like iron from the Black Sea mentioned in later Greek sources. The word “fist” is supplied in the translation to try to give some hint that it refers to a hostile force.

[19:3]  ⁷ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[19:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.”

[19:3]  ⁹ sn Careful comparison of the use of this term throughout this passage and comparison with 7:31-33 which is parallel to several verses in this passage will show that the reference is to the Valley of Ben Hinnom which will become a Valley of Slaughter (see v. 6 and 7:32).

[19:3]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “which everyone who hears it [or about it] his ears will ring.” This is proverbial for a tremendous disaster. See 1 Sam 3:11; 2 Kgs 21:12 for similar prophecies.

[21:12]  ⁹ tn Heb “house of David.” This is essentially equivalent to the royal court in v. 11.

[21:12]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “to the morning” = “morning by morning” or “each morning.” See Isa 33:2 and Amos 4:4 for parallel usage.

[21:12]  ¹¹ sn The kings of Israel and Judah were responsible for justice. See Pss 122:5. The king himself was the final court of appeals judging from the incident of David with the wise woman of Tekoa (2 Sam 14), Solomon and the two prostitutes (1 Kgs 3:16-28), and Absalom’s attempts to win the hearts of the people of Israel by interfering with due process (2 Sam 15:2-4). How the system was designed to operate may be seen from 2 Chr 19:4-11.

[21:12]  ¹² tn Heb “from the hand [or power] of.”

[21:12]  ¹³ tn Heb “Lest my wrath go out like fire and burn with no one to put it out because of the evil of your deeds.”

[25:30]  ¹¹ tn The word “Jeremiah” is not in the text. It is supplied in the translation to make clear who is being addressed.

[25:30]  ¹² tn Heb “Prophesy against them all these words.”

[25:30]  ¹³ tn The words “like a lion about to attack” are not in the text but are implicit in the metaphor. The explicit comparison of the Lord to a lion is made at the end of the passage in v. 38. The words are supplied in the translation here for clarity.

[25:30]  ¹⁴ sn The word used here (Heb “his habitation”) refers to the land of Canaan which the Lord chose to make his earthly dwelling (Exod 15:13) and which was the dwelling place of his chosen people (Jer 10:25; Isa 32:18). Judgment would begin at the “house of God” (v. 29; 1 Pet 4:17) but would extend to the rest of the earth (v. 29).

[25:30]  ¹⁵ sn The metaphor shifts from God as a lion to God as a mighty warrior (Jer 20:11; Isa 42:13; Zeph 3:17) shouting in triumph over his foes. Within the metaphor is a simile where the warrior is compared to a person stomping on grapes to remove the juice from them in the making of wine. The figure will be invoked later in a battle scene where the sounds of joy in the grape harvest are replaced by the sounds of joy of the enemy soldiers (Jer 48:33). The picture is drawn in more gory detail in Isa 63:1-6.