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 9:1

9:1 (8:23) ⁴  I wish that my head were a well full of water ⁵ 

and my eyes were a fountain full of tears!

If they were, I could cry day and night

for those of my dear people ⁶  who have been killed.

Jeremiah 9:15

9:15 So then, listen to what I, the Lord God of Israel who rules over all, ⁷  say. ⁸  ‘I will make these people eat the bitter food of suffering and drink the poison water of judgment. ⁹ 

Jeremiah 10:13

10:13 When his voice thunders, ¹⁰  the heavenly ocean roars.

He makes the clouds rise from the far-off horizons. ¹¹ 

He makes the lightning flash out in the midst of the rain.

He unleashes the wind from the places where he stores it. ¹² 

Jeremiah 13:1

An Object Lesson from Ruined Linen Shorts

13:1 The Lord said to me, “Go and buy some linen shorts ¹³  and put them on. ¹⁴  Do not put them in water.” ¹⁵ 

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?” ¹⁶ 

Jeremiah 17:13

17:13 You are the one in whom Israel may find hope. ¹⁷ 

All who leave you will suffer shame.

Those who turn away from you ¹⁸  will be consigned to the nether world. ¹⁹ 

For they have rejected you, the Lord, the fountain of life. ²⁰ 

Jeremiah 41:12

41:12 So they took all their troops and went to fight against Ishmael son of Nethaniah. They caught up with him near the large pool ²¹  at Gibeon.

Jeremiah 46:8

46:8 Egypt rises like the Nile,

like its streams turbulent at flood stage.

Egypt says, ‘I will arise and cover the earth.

I will destroy cities and the people who inhabit them.’

Jeremiah 51:16

51:16 When his voice thunders, the waters in the heavens roar.

He makes the clouds rise from the far-off horizons.

He makes the lightning flash out in the midst of the rain.

He unleashes the wind from the places where he stores it.

Jeremiah 51:55

51:55 For the Lord is ready to destroy Babylon,

and put an end to her loud noise.

Their waves ²²  will roar like turbulent ²³  waters.

They will make a deafening noise. ²⁴ 

[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.”

[9:1]  ⁴ sn Beginning with 9:1, the verse numbers through 9:26 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 9:1 ET = 8:23 HT, 9:2 ET = 9:1 HT, 9:3 ET = 9:2 HT, etc., through 9:26 ET = 9:25 HT. Beginning with 10:1 the verse numbers in the ET and HT are again the same.

[9:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “I wish that my head were water.”

[9:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “daughter of my people.” For the translation given here see 4:11 and the note on the phrase “dear people” there.

[9:15]  ⁷ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.”

[9:15]  ⁸ tn Heb “Therefore, thus says the Lord…” The person is shifted from third to first to better conform with English style.

[9:15]  ⁹ tn Heb “I will feed this people wormwood and make them drink poison water.” “Wormwood” and “poison water” are not to be understood literally here but are symbolic of judgment and suffering. See, e.g., BDB 542 s.v. לַעֲנָה.

[10:13]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “At the voice of his giving.” The idiom “to give the voice” is often used for thunder (cf. BDB 679 s.v. נָתַן Qal.1.x).

[10:13]  ¹¹ tn Heb “from the ends of the earth.”

[10:13]  ¹² tn Heb “he brings out the winds from his storehouses.”

[13:1]  ¹³ tn The term here (אֵזוֹר, ’ezor) has been rendered in various ways: “girdle” (KJV, ASV), “waistband” (NASB), “waistcloth” (RSV), “sash” (NKJV), “belt” (NIV, NCV, NLT), and “loincloth” (NAB, NRSV, NJPS, REB). The latter is more accurate according to J. M. Myers, “Dress and Ornaments,” IDB 1:870, and W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah (Hermeneia), 1:399. It was a short, skirt-like garment reaching from the waist to the knees and worn next to the body (cf. v. 9). The modern equivalent is “shorts” as in TEV/GNB, CEV.

[13:1]  ¹⁴ 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, IDB, “Loins,” 3:149.

[13:1]  ¹⁵ tn Or “Do not ever put them in water,” i.e., “Do not even wash them.”

[15:18]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Will you be to me like a deceptive (brook), like waters which do not last [or are not reliable].”

[17:13]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “O glorious throne, O high place from the beginning, O hope of Israel, O Lord.” Commentators and translators generally understand these four lines (which are three in the Hebrew original) as two predications, one eulogizing the temple and the other eulogizing God. However, that does not fit the context very well and does not take into account the nature of Jeremiah’s doxology in Jeremiah 16:19-20 (and compare also 10:6-7). There the doxology is context motivated, focused on God, and calls on relevant attributes in the form of metaphorical epithets. That fits nicely here as well. For the relevant parallel passages see the study note.

[17:13]  ²⁰ tc The translation is based on an emendation suggested in W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah (Hermeneia), 1:500, n. b-b. The emendation involves following the reading preferred by the Masoretes (the Qere) and understanding the preposition with the following word as a corruption of the suffix on it. Thus the present translation reads וּסוּרֶיךָ אֶרֶץ (usurekha ’erets) instead of וּסוּרַי בָּאֶרֶץ (usuray ba’erets, “and those who leave me will be written in the earth”), a reading which is highly improbable since all the other pronouns are second singular.

[17:13]  ²¹ tn Or “to the world of the dead.” An alternative interpretation is: “will be as though their names were written in the dust”; Heb “will be written in the dust.” The translation follows the nuance of “earth” listed in HALOT 88 s.v. אֶרֶץ 4 and found in Jonah 2:6 (2:7 HT); Job 10:21-22. For the nuance of “enrolling, registering among the number” for the verb translated here “consign” see BDB 507 s.v. כָּתַב Qal.3 and 508 s.v. Niph.2 and compare usage in Ezek 13:9 and Ps 69:28 (69:29 HT).

[17:13]  ²² tn Heb “The fountain of living water.” For an earlier use of this metaphor and the explanation of it see Jer 2:13 and the notes there. There does not appear to be any way to retain this metaphor in the text without explaining it. In the earlier text the context would show that literal water was not involved. Here it might still be assumed that the Lord merely gives life-giving water.

[41:12]  ²² tn Heb “the many [or great] waters.” This is generally identified with the pool of Gibeon mentioned in 2 Sam 2:13.

[51:55]  ²⁵ tn The antecedent of the third masculine plural pronominal suffix is not entirely clear. It probably refers back to the “destroyers” mentioned in v. 53 as the agents of God’s judgment on Babylon.

[51:55]  ²⁶ tn Or “mighty waters.”

[51:55]  ²⁷ tn Heb “and the noise of their sound will be given,”