Jeremiah 6:18-30

6:18 So the Lord said, ¹ 

“Hear, you nations!

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

6:19 Hear this, you peoples of the earth: ³ 

‘Take note! ⁴  I am about to bring disaster on these people.

It will come as punishment for their scheming. ⁵ 

For they have paid no attention to what I have said, ⁶ 

and they have rejected my law.

6:20 I take no delight ⁷  when they offer up to me ⁸ 

frankincense that comes from Sheba

or sweet-smelling cane imported from a faraway land.

I cannot accept the burnt offerings they bring me.

I get no pleasure from the sacrifices they offer to me.’ ⁹ 

6:21 So, this is what the Lord says:

‘I will assuredly ¹⁰  make these people stumble to their doom. ¹¹ 

Parents and children will stumble and fall to their destruction. ¹² 

Friends and neighbors will die.’

6:22 “This is what the Lord says:

‘Beware! An army ¹³  is coming from a land in the north.

A mighty nation is stirring into action in faraway parts of the earth.

6:23 Its soldiers are armed with bows and spears.

They are cruel and show no mercy.

They sound like the roaring sea

as they ride forth on their horses.

Lined up in formation like men going into battle

to attack you, Daughter Zion.’” ¹⁴ 

6:24 The people cry out, ¹⁵  “We have heard reports about them!

We have become helpless with fear! ¹⁶ 

Anguish grips us,

agony like that of a woman giving birth to a baby!

6:25 Do not go out into the countryside.

Do not travel on the roads.

For the enemy is there with sword in hand. ¹⁷ 

They are spreading terror everywhere.” ¹⁸ 

6:26 So I said, ¹⁹  “Oh, my dear people, ²⁰  put on sackcloth

and roll in ashes.

Mourn with painful sobs

as though you had lost your only child.

For any moment now ²¹  that destructive army ²² 

will come against us.”

6:27 The Lord said to me, ²³ 

“I have made you like a metal assayer

to test my people like ore. ²⁴ 

You are to observe them

and evaluate how they behave.” ²⁵ 

6:28 I reported, ²⁶ 

“All of them are the most stubborn of rebels! ²⁷ 

They are as hard as bronze or iron.

They go about telling lies.

They all deal corruptly.

6:29 The fiery bellows of judgment burn fiercely.

But there is too much dross to be removed. ²⁸ 

The process of refining them has proved useless. ²⁹ 

The wicked have not been purged.

6:30 They are regarded as ‘rejected silver’ ³⁰ 

because the Lord rejects them.”

[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.

[6:19]  ³ tn Heb “earth.”

[6:19]  ⁴ tn Heb “Behold!”

[6:19]  ⁵ tn Heb “disaster on these people, the fruit of their schemes.”

[6:19]  ⁶ tn Heb “my word.”

[6:20]  ⁷ tn Heb “To what purpose is it to me?” The question is rhetorical and expects a negative answer.

[6:20]  ⁸ tn The words “when they offer up to me” are not in the text but are implicit from the following context. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[6:20]  ⁹ tn Heb “Your burnt offerings are not acceptable and your sacrifices are not pleasing to me.” “The shift from “your” to “their” is an example of the figure of speech (apostrophe) where the speaker turns from talking about someone to addressing him/her directly. Though common in Hebrew style, it is not common in English. The shift to the third person in the translation is an accommodation to English style.

[6:21]  ¹⁰ tn This is an attempt to render the Hebrew particle rendered “behold” joined to the first person pronoun.

[6:21]  ¹¹ tn Heb “I will put stumbling blocks in front of these people.” In this context the stumbling blocks are the invading armies.

[6:21]  ¹² tn The words “and fall to their destruction” are implicit in the metaphor and are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[6:22]  ¹³ tn Heb “people.”

[6:23]  ¹⁴ sn Jerualem is personified as a young maiden helpless before enemy attackers.

[6:24]  ¹⁵ tn These words are not in the text, but, from the context, someone other than God is speaking and is speaking for and to the people (either Jeremiah or the people themselves). These words are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[6:24]  ¹⁶ tn Or “We have lost our strength to do battle”; Heb “Our hands hang limp [or helpless at our sides].” According to BDB 951 s.v. רָפָה Qal.2, this idiom is used figuratively for losing heart or energy. The best example of its figurative use of loss of strength or the feeling of helplessness is in Ezek 21:12 where it appears in the context of the heart (courage) melting, the spirit sinking, and the knees becoming like water. For other examples compare 2 Sam 4:1; Zeph 3:16. In Neh 6:9 it is used literally of the builders “dropping their hands from the work” out of fear. The words “with fear” are supplied in the translation because they are implicit in the context.

[6:25]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “For the enemy has a sword.”

[6:25]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “Terror is all around!”

[6:26]  ¹⁹ tn These words are not in the text but are implicit from the context.

[6:26]  ²⁰ tn Heb “daughter of my people.” For the translation given here see 4:11 and the translator’s note there.

[6:26]  ²¹ tn Heb “suddenly.”

[6:26]  ²² tn Heb “the destroyer.”

[6:27]  ²³ 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]  ²⁴ 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]  ²⁵ tn Heb “test their way.”

[6:28]  ²⁶ tn These words are not in the text but are supplied in the translation for clarity. Some takes these words to be the continuation of the Lord’s commission of Jeremiah to the task of testing them. However, since this is the evaluation, the task appears to be complete. The words are better to be taken as Jeremiah’s report after he has completed the task.

[6:28]  ²⁷ tn Or “arch rebels,” or “hardened rebels.” Literally “rebels of rebels.”

[6:29]  ²⁸ tn Heb “The bellows blow fiercely; the lead is consumed by the fire.” The translation tries to clarify a metaphor involving ancient metallurgy. In the ancient refining process lead was added as a flux to remove impurities from silver ore in the process of oxidizing the lead. Jeremiah says that the lead has been used up and the impurities have not been removed. The translation is based on the recognition of an otherwise unused verb root meaning “blow” (נָחַר [nakhar]; cf. BDB 1123 s.v. I חָרַר and HALOT 651 s.v. נָחַר) and the Masoretes’ suggestion that the consonants מאשׁתם be read מֵאֵשׁ תַּם (me’esh tam) rather than as מֵאֶשָּׁתָם (me’eshatam, “from their fire”) from an otherwise unattested noun אֶשָּׁה (’eshah).

[6:29]  ²⁹ tn Heb “The refiner refines them in vain.”

[6:30]  ³⁰ tn This translation is intended to reflect the wordplay in the Hebrew text where the same root word is repeated in the two lines.