Jeremiah 5:3

5:3 Lord, I know you look for faithfulness. ¹ 

But even when you punish these people, they feel no remorse. ² 

Even when you nearly destroy them, they refuse to be corrected.

They have become as hardheaded as a rock. ³ 

They refuse to change their ways. ⁴ 

Jeremiah 7:14

7:14 So I will destroy this temple which I have claimed as my own, ⁵  this temple that you are trusting to protect you. I will destroy this place that I gave to you and your ancestors, ⁶  just like I destroyed Shiloh. ⁷ 

Jeremiah 13:21

13:21 What will you say ⁸  when the Lord ⁹  appoints as rulers over you those allies

that you, yourself, had actually prepared as such? ¹⁰ 

Then anguish and agony will grip you

like that of a woman giving birth to a baby. ¹¹ 

Jeremiah 23:3

23:3 Then I myself will regather those of my people ¹²  who are still alive from all the countries where I have driven them. I will bring them back to their homeland. ¹³  They will greatly increase in number.

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 27:4

27:4 Charge them to give their masters a message from me. Tell them, ‘The Lord God of Israel who rules over all ¹⁹  says to give your masters this message. ²⁰ 

Jeremiah 27:15

27:15 For I, the Lord, affirm ²¹  that I did not send them. They are prophesying lies to you. If you ²²  listen to them, I will drive you and the prophets who are prophesying lies out of the land and you will all die in exile.” ²³ 

Jeremiah 27:22

27:22 He has said, ‘They will be carried off to Babylon. They will remain there until it is time for me to show consideration for them again. ²⁴  Then I will bring them back and restore them to this place.’ I, the Lord, affirm this!” ²⁵ 

Jeremiah 32:33

32:33 They have turned away from me instead of turning to me. ²⁶  I tried over and over again ²⁷  to instruct them, but they did not listen and respond to correction. ²⁸ 

Jeremiah 32:43

32:43 You and your people ²⁹  are saying that this land will become desolate, uninhabited by either people or animals. You are saying that it will be handed over to the Babylonians. ³⁰  But fields ³¹  will again be bought in this land. ³² 

Jeremiah 36:19

36:19 Then the officials said to Baruch, “You and Jeremiah must go and hide. You must not let anyone know where you are.” ³³ 

Jeremiah 44:3

44:3 This happened because of the wickedness the people living there did. ³⁴  They made me angry ³⁵  by worshiping and offering sacrifice to ³⁶  other gods whom neither they nor you nor your ancestors ³⁷  previously knew. ³⁸ 

[5:3]  ¹ tn Heb “O Lord, are your eyes not to faithfulness?” The question is rhetorical and expects a positive answer.

[5:3]  ² tn Commentaries and lexicons debate the meaning of the verb here. The MT is pointed as though from a verb meaning “to writhe in anguish or contrition” (חוּל [khul]; see, e.g., BDB 297 s.v. חוּל 2.c), but some commentaries and lexicons repoint the text as though from a verb meaning “to be sick,” thus “to feel pain” (חָלָה [khalah]; see, e.g., HALOT 304 s.v. חָלָה 3). The former appears more appropriate to the context.

[5:3]  ³ tn Heb “They made their faces as hard as a rock.”

[5:3]  ⁴ tn Or “to repent”; Heb “to turn back.”

[7:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “over which my name is called.” For this nuance of this idiom cf. BDB 896 s.v. קָרָא Niph.2.d(4) and see the usage in 2 Sam 12:28.

[7:14]  ⁶ tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 22, 25, 26).

[7:14]  ⁷ tn Heb “I will do to this house which I…in which you put…and to this place which…as I did to Shiloh.”

[13:21]  ⁹ tn Or perhaps more rhetorically equivalent, “Will you not be surprised?”

[13:21]  ¹⁰ tn The words “The Lord” are not in the text. Some commentators make the enemy the subject, but they are spoken of as “them.”

[13:21]  ¹¹ tn Or “to be rulers.” The translation of these two lines is somewhat uncertain. The sentence structure of these two lines raises problems in translation. The Hebrew text reads: “What will you do when he appoints over you [or punishes you (see BDB 823 s.v. פָּקַד Qal.B.2 for the former, Qal.A.3 for the latter)] and you, yourself, taught them over you friends [or chiefs (see BDB 48 s.v. I אַלּוּף 2 and Ps 55:13 for the former and BDB 49 s.v. II אַלּוּף and Exod 15:15 for the latter)] for a head.” The translation assumes that the clause “and you, yourself, taught them [= made them accustomed, i.e., “prepared”] [to be] over you” is parenthetical coming between the verb “appoint” and its object and object modifier (i.e., “appointed over you allies for rulers”). A quick check of other English versions will show how varied the translation of these lines has been. Most English versions seem to ignore the second “over you” after “you taught them.” Some rearrange the text to get what they think is a sensible meaning. For a fairly thorough treatment see W. McKane, Jeremiah (ICC), 1:308-10.

[13:21]  ¹² tn Heb “Will not pain [here = mental anguish] take hold of you like a woman giving birth.” The question is rhetorical expecting a positive answer.

[23:3]  ¹³ tn Heb “my sheep.”

[23:3]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “their fold.”

[25:18]  ¹⁷ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[25:18]  ¹⁸ 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]  ¹⁹ 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]  ²⁰ tn See the study note on 24:9 for explanation.

[25:18]  ²¹ 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).

[27:4]  ²¹ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.”

[27:4]  ²² tn Heb “Give them a charge to their masters saying, ‘Thus says Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel, “Thus you shall say unto your masters…”’” The sentence is broken up in conformity with contemporary English style.

[27:15]  ²⁵ tn Heb “oracle of the Lord.”

[27:15]  ²⁶ sn The verbs are again plural referring to the king and his royal advisers.

[27:15]  ²⁷ tn Heb “…drive you out and you will perish, you and the prophets who are prophesying lies.”

[27:22]  ²⁹ tn This verb is a little difficult to render here. The word is used in the sense of taking note of something and acting according to what is noticed. It is the word that has been translated several times throughout Jeremiah as “punish [someone].” It is also used in the opposite of sense of taking note and “show consideration for” (or “care for;” see, e.g., Ruth 1:6). Here the nuance is positive and is further clarified by the actions that follow, bringing them back and restoring them.

[27:22]  ³⁰ tn Heb “oracle of the Lord.”

[32:33]  ³³ tn Heb “they have turned [their] backs to me, not [their] faces.” Compare the same idiom in 2:27.

[32:33]  ³⁴ tn For the idiom involved here see the translator’s note on 7:13. The verb that introduces this clause is a Piel infinitive absolute which is functioning in place of the finite verb (see, e.g., GKC 346 §113.ff and compare usage in Jer 8:15; 14:19. This grammatical point means that the versions cited in BHS fn a may not be reading a different text after all, but may merely be interpreting the form as syntactically equivalent to a finite verb as the present translation has done.).

[32:33]  ³⁵ tn Heb “But they were not listening so as to accept correction.”

[32:43]  ³⁷ tn Heb “you.” However, the pronoun is plural and is addressed to more than just Jeremiah (v. 26). It includes Jeremiah and those who have accepted his prophecy of doom.

[32:43]  ³⁸ tn Heb “The Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for further explanation.

[32:43]  ³⁹ tn The noun is singular with the article, but it is a case of the generic singular (cf. GKC 406 §126.m).

[32:43]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “Fields will be bought in this land of which you [masc. pl.] are saying, ‘It will be desolate [a perfect of certainty or prophetic perfect] without man or beast; it will be given into the hand of the Chaldeans.’” The original sentence has been broken down to better conform to contemporary English style.

[36:19]  ⁴¹ tn The verbs here are both direct imperatives but it sounds awkward to say “You and Jeremiah, go and hide” in contemporary English. The same force is accomplished by phrasing the statement as strong advice.

[44:3]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “they.” The referent must be supplied from the preceding, i.e., Jerusalem and all the towns of Judah. “They” are those who have experienced the disaster and are distinct from those being addressed and their ancestors (44:3b).

[44:3]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “thus making me angry.” However, this is a good place to break the sentence to create a shorter sentence that is more in keeping with contemporary English style.

[44:3]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “by going to offer sacrifice in serving/worshiping.” The second לְ (lamed) + infinitive is epexegetical of the first (cf. IBHS 608-9 §36.2.3e).

[44:3]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 9, 10, 17, 21).

[44:3]  ⁴⁹ sn Compare Jer 19:4 for the same thought and see also 7:9.