Jeremiah 6:18

6:18 So the Lord said, ¹ 

“Hear, you nations!

Be witnesses and take note of what will happen to these people. ² 

Jeremiah 6:27

6:27 The Lord said to me, ³ 

“I have made you like a metal assayer

to test my people like ore. ⁴ 

You are to observe them

and evaluate how they behave.” ⁵ 

Jeremiah 13:2

13:2 So I bought the shorts as the Lord had told me to do ⁶  and put them on. ⁷ 

Jeremiah 18:2

18:2 “Go down at once ⁸  to the potter’s house. I will speak to you further there.” ⁹ 

Jeremiah 25:21

25:21 all the people of Edom, ¹⁰  Moab, ¹¹  Ammon; ¹² 

Jeremiah 29:5

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

[6:18]  ¹ tn These words are not in the text but are implicit from the flow of the context. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[6:18]  ² tn Heb “Know, congregation [or witness], what in [or against] them.” The meaning of this line is somewhat uncertain. The meaning of the noun of address in the second line (“witness,” rendered as an imperative in the translation, “Be witnesses”) is greatly debated. It is often taken as “congregation” but the lexicons and commentaries generally question the validity of reading that word since it is nowhere else applied to the nations. BDB 417 s.v. עֵדָה 3 says that the text is dubious. HALOT 747 s.v. I עֵדָה, 4 emends the text to דֵּעָה (de’ah). Several modern English versions (e.g., NIV, NCV, God’s Word) take it as the feminine singular noun “witness” (cf. BDB 729 s.v. II עֵדָה) and understand it as a collective. This solution is also proposed by J. A. Thompson (Jeremiah [NICOT], 259, n. 3) and appears to make the best sense in the context. The end of the line is very elliptical but is generally taken as either, “what I will do with/to them,” or “what is coming against them” (= “what will happen to them”) on the basis of the following context.

[6:27]  ³ tn These words are not in the text but are supplied in the translation for clarity. Note “I have appointed you.” Compare Jer 1:18.

[6:27]  ⁴ tn Heb “I have made you an assayer of my people, a tester [?].” The meaning of the words translated “assayer” (בָּחוֹן, bakhon) and “tester” (מִבְצָר, mivtsar) is uncertain. The word בָּחוֹן (bakhon) can mean “tower” (cf. BDB 103 s.v. בָּחוֹן; cf. Isa 23:13 for the only other use) or “assayer” (cf. BDB 103 s.v. בָּחוֹן). The latter would be the more expected nuance because of the other uses of nouns and verbs from this root. The word מִבְצָר (mivtsar) normally means “fortress” (cf. BDB 131 s.v. מִבְצָר), but most modern commentaries and lexicons deem that nuance inappropriate here. HALOT follows a proposal that the word is to be repointed to מְבַצֵּר (mÿvatser) and derived from a root בָּצַר (batsar) meaning “to test” (cf. HALOT 143 s.v. IV בָּצַר). That proposal makes the most sense in the context, but the root appears nowhere else in the OT.

[6:27]  ⁵ tn Heb “test their way.”

[13:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “according to the word of the Lord.”

[13:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “upon your loins.” The “loins” were the midriff of the body from the waist to the knees. For a further discussion including the figurative uses see R. C. Dentan, “Loins,” IDB 3:149-50.

[18:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “Get up and go down.” The first verb is not literal but is idiomatic for the initiation of an action. See 13:4, 6 for other occurrences of this idiom.

[18:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “And I will cause you to hear my word there.”

[25:21]  ⁹ sn See further Jer 49:7-22 for the judgment against Edom. Edom, Moab, and Ammon were east of Judah.

[25:21]  ¹⁰ sn See further Jer 48:1-47 for the judgment against Moab.

[25:21]  ¹¹ sn See further Jer 49:1-6 for the judgment against Ammon.