Jeremiah 6:7

6:7 As a well continually pours out fresh water

so it continually pours out wicked deeds. ¹ 

Sounds of violence and destruction echo throughout it. ² 

All I see are sick and wounded people.’ ³ 

Jeremiah 15:18

15:18 Why must I continually suffer such painful anguish?

Why must I endure the sting of their insults like an incurable wound?

Will you let me down when I need you

like a brook one goes to for water, but that cannot be relied on?” ⁴ 

Jeremiah 19:8

19:8 I will make this city an object of horror, a thing to be hissed at. All who pass by it will be filled with horror and will hiss out their scorn ⁵  because of all the disasters that have happened to it. ⁶ 

Jeremiah 30:14

30:14 All your allies have abandoned you. ⁷ 

They no longer have any concern for you.

For I have attacked you like an enemy would.

I have chastened you cruelly.

For your wickedness is so great

and your sin is so much. ⁸ 

Jeremiah 30:17

30:17 Yes, ⁹  I will restore you to health.

I will heal your wounds.

I, the Lord, affirm it! ¹⁰ 

For you have been called an outcast,

Zion, whom no one cares for.”

Jeremiah 50:13

50:13 After I vent my wrath on it Babylon will be uninhabited. ¹¹ 

It will be totally desolate.

All who pass by will be filled with horror and will hiss out their scorn

because of all the disasters that have happened to it. ¹² 

[6:7]  ¹ tc Heb “As a well makes cool/fresh its water, she makes cool/fresh her wickedness.” The translation follows the reading proposed by the Masoretes (Qere) which reads a rare form of the word “well” (בַּיִר [bayir] for בְּאֵר [bÿ’er]) in place of the form written in the text (Kethib, בּוֹר [bor]), which means “cistern.” The latter noun is masculine and the pronoun “its” is feminine. If indeed בַּיִר (bayir) is a byform of בְּאֵר (be’er), which is feminine, it would agree in gender with the pronoun. It also forms a more appropriate comparison since cisterns do not hold fresh water.

[6:7]  ² tn Heb “Violence and destruction are heard in it.”

[6:7]  ³ tn Heb “Sickness and wound are continually before my face.”

[15:18]  ⁴ tn Heb “Will you be to me like a deceptive (brook), like waters which do not last [or are not reliable].”

[19:8]  ⁷ sn See 18:16 and the study note there.

[19:8]  ⁸ tn Heb “all its smitings.” This word has been used several times for the metaphorical “wounds” that Israel has suffered as a result of the blows from its enemies. See, e.g., 14:17. It is used in the Hebrew Bible of scourging, both literally and metaphorically (cf. Deut 25:3; Isa 10:26), and of slaughter and defeat (1 Sam 4:10; Josh 10:20). Here it refers to the results of the crushing blows at the hands of her enemies which has made her the object of scorn.

[30:14]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “forgotten you.”

[30:14]  ¹¹ tn Heb “attacked you like…with the chastening of a cruel one because of the greatness of your iniquity [and because] your sins are many.” The sentence has been broken down to conform to contemporary English style and better poetic scansion.

[30:17]  ¹³ tn Again the particle כִּי (ki) appears to be intensive rather than causal. Compare the translator’s note on v. 12. It is possible that it has an adversative sense as an implicit contrast with v. 13 which expresses these concepts in the negative (cf. BDB 474 s.v. כִּי 3.e for this use in statements which are contextually closer to one another).

[30:17]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[50:13]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “From [or Because of] the wrath of the Lord it will be uninhabited.” The causal connection is spelled out more clearly and actively and the first person has been used because the speaker is the Lord. The referent “it” has been spelled out clearly from the later occurrence in the verse, “all who pass by Babylon.”

[50:13]  ¹⁷ sn Compare Jer 49:17 and the study note there and see also the study notes on 18:16 and 19:8.