Jeremiah 6:11

6:11 I am as full of anger as you are, Lord, ¹ 

I am tired of trying to hold it in.”

The Lord answered, ² 

“Vent it, then, ³  on the children who play in the street

and on the young men who are gathered together.

Husbands and wives are to be included, ⁴ 

as well as the old and those who are advanced in years.

Jeremiah 8:19

8:19 I hear my dear people ⁵  crying out ⁶ 

throughout the length and breadth of the land. ⁷ 

They are crying, ‘Is the Lord no longer in Zion?

Is her divine King ⁸  no longer there?’”

The Lord answers, ⁹ 

“Why then do they provoke me to anger with their images,

with their worthless foreign idols?” ¹⁰ 

Jeremiah 14:19

14:19 Then I said,

“Lord, ¹¹  have you completely rejected the nation of Judah?

Do you despise ¹²  the city of Zion?

Why have you struck us with such force

that we are beyond recovery? ¹³ 

We hope for peace, but nothing good has come of it.

We hope for a time of relief from our troubles, but experience terror. ¹⁴ 

Jeremiah 19:4

19:4 I will do so because these people ¹⁵  have rejected me and have defiled ¹⁶  this place. They have offered sacrifices in it to other gods which neither they nor their ancestors ¹⁷  nor the kings of Judah knew anything about. They have filled it with the blood of innocent children. ¹⁸ 

Jeremiah 19:11

19:11 Tell them the Lord who rules over all says, ¹⁹  ‘I will do just as Jeremiah has done. ²⁰  I will smash this nation and this city as though it were a potter’s vessel which is broken beyond repair. ²¹  The dead will be buried here in Topheth until there is no more room to bury them.’ ²² 

Jeremiah 20:5

20:5 I will hand over all the wealth of this city to their enemies. I will hand over to them all the fruits of the labor of the people of this city and all their prized possessions, as well as all the treasures of the kings of Judah. Their enemies will seize it all as plunder ²³  and carry it off to Babylon.

Jeremiah 21:4

21:4 that the Lord, the God of Israel, says, ²⁴  ‘The forces at your disposal ²⁵  are now outside the walls fighting against King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and the Babylonians ²⁶  who have you under siege. I will gather those forces back inside the city. ²⁷ 

Jeremiah 25:29

25:29 For take note, I am already beginning to bring disaster on the city that I call my own. ²⁸  So how can you possibly avoid being punished? ²⁹  You will not go unpunished! For I am proclaiming war against all who live on the earth. I, the Lord who rules over all, ³⁰  affirm it!’ ³¹ 

Jeremiah 31:8

31:8 Then I will reply, ³²  ‘I will bring them back from the land of the north.

I will gather them in from the distant parts of the earth.

Blind and lame people will come with them,

so will pregnant women and women about to give birth.

A vast throng of people will come back here.

Jeremiah 31:12

31:12 They will come and shout for joy on Mount Zion.

They will be radiant with joy ³³  over the good things the Lord provides,

the grain, the fresh wine, the olive oil,

the young sheep and calves he has given to them.

They will be like a well-watered garden

and will not grow faint or weary any more.

Jeremiah 31:23

Judah Will Be Restored

31:23 The Lord God of Israel who rules over all ³⁴  says,

“I will restore the people of Judah to their land and to their towns.

When I do, they will again say ³⁵  of Jerusalem, ³⁶ 

‘May the Lord bless you, you holy mountain,

the place where righteousness dwells.’ ³⁷ 

Jeremiah 33:9

33:9 All the nations will hear about all the good things which I will do to them. This city will bring me fame, honor, and praise before them for the joy that I bring it. The nations will tremble in awe at all the peace and prosperity that I will provide for it.’ ³⁸ 

[6:11]  ¹ tn Heb “I am full of the wrath of the Lord.”

[6:11]  ² tn These words are not in the text but are implicit from the words that follow. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[6:11]  ³ tn Heb “Pour it out.”

[6:11]  ⁴ tn Heb “are to be captured.”

[8:19]  ⁵ tn Heb “daughter of my people.” For the translation given here see 4:11 and the note on the phrase “dear people” there.

[8:19]  ⁶ tn Heb “Behold the voice of the crying of the daughter of my people.”

[8:19]  ⁷ tn Heb “Land of distances, i.e., of wide extent.” For parallel usage cf. Isa 33:17.

[8:19]  ⁸ tn Heb “her King” but this might be misunderstood by some to refer to the Davidic ruler even with the capitalization.

[8:19]  ⁹ tn The words, “The Lord would answer” are not in the text but are implicit from the words that follow. They are supplied in the translation for clarity. Another option would be to add “And I can just hear the Lord reply.”

[8:19]  ¹⁰ sn The people’s cry and the Lord’s interruption reflect the same argument that was set forth in the preceding chapter. They have misguided confidence that the Lord is with them regardless of their actions and he responds that their actions have provoked him to the point of judging them. See especially 7:4 and 7:30.

[14:19]  ⁹ tn The words, “Then I said, ‘Lord” are not in the Hebrew text. It is obvious from the context that the Lord is addressee. The question of the identity of the speaker is the same as that raised in vv. 7-9 and the arguments set forth there are applicable here as well. Jeremiah is here identifying with the people and doing what they refuse to do, i.e., confess their sins and express their trust in him.

[14:19]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “does your soul despise.” Here as in many places the word “soul” stands as part for whole for the person himself emphasizing emotional and volitional aspects of the person. However, in contemporary English one does not regularly speak of the “soul” in contexts such as this but of the person.

[14:19]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Why have you struck us and there is no healing for us.” The statement involves poetic exaggeration (hyperbole) for rhetorical effect.

[14:19]  ¹² tn Heb “[We hope] for a time of healing but behold terror.”

[19:4]  ¹³ tn The text merely has “they.” But since a reference is made later to “they” and “their ancestors,” the referent must be to the people that the leaders of the people and leaders of the priests represent.

[19:4]  ¹⁴ sn Heb “have made this city foreign.” The verb here is one that is built off of the noun and adjective which relate to foreign nations. Comparison may be made to Jer 2:21 where the adjective refers to the strange, wild vine as opposed to the choice vine the Lord planted and to 5:19 and 8:19 where the noun is used of worshiping foreign gods. Israel through its false worship has “denationalized” itself in its relation to God.

[19:4]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “fathers.”

[19:4]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the blood of innocent ones.” This must be a reference to child sacrifice as explained in the next verse. Some have seen a reference to the sins of social injustice alluded to in 2 Kgs 21:16 and 24:4 but those are connected with the city itself. Hence the word children is supplied in the translation to make the referent explicit.

[19:11]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Thus says Yahweh of armies.” For this title see the study note on 2:19. The translation attempts to avoid the confusion of embedding quotes within quotes by reducing this one to an indirect quote.

[19:11]  ¹⁸ tn The adverb “Thus” or “Like this” normally points back to something previously mentioned. See, e.g., Exod 29:35; Num 11:15; 15:11; Deut 25:9.

[19:11]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “Like this I will break this people and this city, just as one breaks the vessel of a potter which is not able to be repaired.”

[19:11]  ²⁰ sn See Jer 7:22-23 for parallels.

[20:5]  ²¹ tn Heb “Take them [the goods, etc.] as plunder and seize them.”

[21:4]  ²⁵ tn Heb “Tell Zedekiah, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel.’” Using the indirect quote eliminates one level of embedded quotation and makes it easier for the reader to follow.

[21:4]  ²⁶ tn Heb “the weapons which are in your hand.” Weapons stands here by substitution for the soldiers who wield them.

[21:4]  ²⁷ sn The Babylonians (Heb “the Chaldeans”). The Chaldeans were a group of people in the country south of Babylon from which Nebuchadnezzar came. The Chaldean dynasty his father established became the name by which the Babylonians are regularly referred to in the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah’s contemporary Ezekiel uses both terms.

[21:4]  ²⁸ tn The structure of the Hebrew sentence of this verse is long and complex and has led to a great deal of confusion and misunderstanding. There are two primary points of confusion: 1) the relation of the phrase “outside the walls,” and 2) the antecedent of “them” in the last clause of the verse that reads in Hebrew: “I will gather them back into the midst of the city.” Most take the phrase “outside the walls” with “the Babylonians….” Some take it with “turn back/bring back” to mean “from outside….” However, the preposition “from” is part of the idiom for “outside….” The phrase goes with “fighting” as J. Bright (Jeremiah [AB], 215) notes and as NJPS suggests. The antecedent of “them” has sometimes been taken mistakenly to refer to the Babylonians. It refers rather to “the forces at your disposal” which is literally “the weapons which are in your hands.” This latter phrase is a figure involving substitution (called metonymy) as Bright also correctly notes. The whole sentence reads in Hebrew: “I will bring back the weapons of war which are in your hand with which you are fighting Nebuchadrezzar the King of Babylon and the Chaldeans who are besieging you outside your wall and I will gather them into the midst of the city.” The sentence has been restructured to better reflect the proper relationships and to make the sentence conform more to contemporary English style.

[25:29]  ²⁹ tn Heb “which is called by my name.” See translator’s note on 7:10 for support.

[25:29]  ³⁰ tn This is an example of a question without the formal introductory particle following a conjunctive vav introducing an opposition. (See Joüon 2:609 §161.a.) It is also an example of the use of the infinitive before the finite verb in a rhetorical question involving doubt or denial. (See Joüon 2:422-23 §123.f, and compare usage in Gen 37:8.)

[25:29]  ³¹ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.”

[25:29]  ³² tn Heb “Oracle of Yahweh of armies.”

[31:8]  ³³ tn The words “And I will reply” are not in the text but the words vv. 8-9 appear to be the answer to the petition at the end of v. 7. These words are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[31:12]  ³⁷ tn Reading a Qal perfect from the root II נָהַר (nahar; so KBL 509 s.v. and HALOT 639 s.v.) rather than I נָהַר (so BDB 625 s.v.).

[31:23]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.” See 7:3 and the study note of 2:19 for the rendering of this title and an explanation of its significance.

[31:23]  ⁴² tn Heb “They [i.e., people (the indefinite plural, GKC 460 §144.g)] will again say in the land of Judah and in its cities when I restore their fortunes.” For the meaning of the idiom “to restore the fortunes” see the translator’s note on 29:14.

[31:23]  ⁴³ tn The words “of Jerusalem” are not in the text but it is implicit in the titles that follow. They have been supplied in the translation for clarity to aid in identifying the referent.

[31:23]  ⁴⁴ sn The blessing pronounced on the city of Zion/Jerusalem by the restored exiles looks at the restoration of its once exalted state as the city known for its sanctity and its just dealing (see Isa 1:21 and Ps 122). This was a reversal of the state of Jerusalem in the time of Isaiah and Jeremiah where wickedness not righteousness characterized the inhabitants of the city (cf. Isa 1:21; Jer 4:14; 5:1; 13:27). The blessing here presupposes the rebuilding of the city of Jerusalem and the temple which gave the city its sanctity.

[33:9]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “And it [the city] will be to me for a name for joy and for praise and for honor before all the nations of the earth which will hear of all the good things which I will do for them and which will be in awe and tremble for all the good things and all the peace [or prosperity] which I will do for them.” The long complex Hebrew sentence has been broken down to better conform with contemporary English style.