Jeremiah 7:31

7:31 They have also built places of worship ¹  in a place called Topheth ²  in the Valley of Ben Hinnom so that they can sacrifice their sons and daughters by fire. That is something I never commanded them to do! Indeed, it never even entered my mind to command such a thing! ³ 

Jeremiah 19:5

19:5 They have built places here ⁴  for worship of the god Baal so that they could sacrifice their children as burnt offerings to him in the fire. Such sacrifices ⁵  are something I never commanded them to make! They are something I never told them to do! Indeed, such a thing never even entered my mind!

Jeremiah 32:29

32:29 The Babylonian soldiers ⁶  that are attacking this city will break into it and set it on fire. They will burn it down along with the houses where people have made me angry by offering sacrifices to the god Baal and by pouring out drink offerings to other gods on their rooftops. ⁷ 

Jeremiah 34:2

34:2 The Lord God of Israel told Jeremiah ⁸  to go and give King Zedekiah of Judah a message. He told Jeremiah ⁹  to tell him, “The Lord says, ‘I am going to ¹⁰  hand this city over to the king of Babylon and he will burn it down.

Jeremiah 34:22

34:22 For I, the Lord, affirm that ¹¹  I will soon give the order and bring them back to this city. They will fight against it and capture it and burn it down. I will also make the towns of Judah desolate so that there will be no one living in them.”’”

Jeremiah 36:32

36:32 Then Jeremiah got another scroll and gave it to the scribe Baruch son of Neriah. As Jeremiah dictated, Baruch wrote on this scroll everything that had been on the scroll that King Jehoiakim of Judah burned in the fire. They also added on this scroll several other messages of the same kind. ¹² 

Jeremiah 37:10

37:10 For even if you were to defeat all the Babylonian forces ¹³  fighting against you so badly that only wounded men were left lying in their tents, they would get up and burn this city down.”’” ¹⁴ 

Jeremiah 38:17

38:17 Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “The Lord, the God who rules over all, the God of Israel, ¹⁵  says, ‘You must surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon. If you do, your life will be spared ¹⁶  and this city will not be burned down. Indeed, you and your whole family will be spared.

Jeremiah 38:23

38:23 “All your wives and your children will be turned over to the Babylonians. ¹⁷  You yourself will not escape from them but will be captured by the ¹⁸  king of Babylon. This city will be burned down.” ¹⁹ 

Jeremiah 49:2

49:2 Because you did that,

I, the Lord, affirm that ²⁰  a time is coming

when I will make Rabbah, the capital city of Ammon,

hear the sound of the battle cry.

It will become a mound covered with ruins. ²¹ 

Its villages will be burned to the ground. ²² 

Then Israel will take back its land

from those who took their land from them.

I, the Lord, affirm it! ²³ 

Jeremiah 51:58

51:58 This is what the Lord who rules over all ²⁴  says,

“Babylon’s thick wall ²⁵  will be completely demolished. ²⁶ 

Her high gates will be set on fire.

The peoples strive for what does not satisfy. ²⁷ 

The nations grow weary trying to get what will be destroyed.” ²⁸ 

[7:31]  ¹ tn Heb “high places.”

[7:31]  ² tn Heb “the high places of [or in] Topheth.”

[7:31]  ³ tn Heb “It never entered my heart.” The words “to command such a thing” do not appear in the Hebrew but are added for the sake of clarity.

[19:5]  ⁴ tn The word “here” is not in the text. However, it is implicit from the rest of the context. It is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[19:5]  ⁵ tn The words “such sacrifices” are not in the text. The text merely says “to burn their children in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal which I did not command.” The command obviously refers not to the qualification “to Baal” but to burning the children in the fire as burnt offerings. The words are supplied in the translation to avoid a possible confusion that the reference is to sacrifices to Baal. Likewise the words should not be translated so literally that they leave the impression that God never said anything about sacrificing their children to other gods. The fact is he did. See Lev 18:21; Deut 12:30; 18:10.

[32:29]  ⁷ tn Heb “The Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for further explanation.

[32:29]  ⁸ sn Compare Jer 19:13.

[34:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “told him”; the referent (Jeremiah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[34:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “told him”; the referent (Jeremiah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[34:2]  ¹² tn Heb 34:1 “The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord…saying, ‘Thus says the Lord God of Israel, “Go and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, “I am going to….”’”’” The translation has tried to avoid some of the confusion that is created by embedding quotations within quotations by using indirect quotation in some instances; the conceptualization is the same but the style is simpler.

[34:22]  ¹³ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[36:32]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “And he wrote upon it from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the scroll which Jehoiakim king of Judah burned in the fire. And many words like these were added to them besides [or further].” The translation uses the more active form in the last line because of the tendency in contemporary English style to avoid the passive. It also uses the words “everything” for “all the words” and “messages” for “words” because those are legitimate usages of these phrases, and they avoid the mistaken impression that Jeremiah repeated verbatim the words on the former scroll or repeated verbatim the messages that he had delivered during the course of the preceding twenty-three years.

[37:10]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “all the army of the Chaldeans.” For the rendering “Babylonian” in place of Chaldean see the study note on 21:4.

[37:10]  ²⁰ tn The length and complexity of this English sentence violates the more simple style that has been used to conform such sentences to contemporary English style. However, there does not seem to be any alternative that would enable a simpler style and still retain the causal and conditional connections that give this sentence the rhetorical force that it has in the original. The condition is, of course, purely hypothetical and the consequence a poetic exaggeration. The intent is to assure Zedekiah that there is absolutely no hope of the city being spared.

[38:17]  ²² tn Heb “Yahweh, the God of armies, the God of Israel.” Compare 7:3 and 35:17 and see the study note on 2:19.

[38:17]  ²³ tn Heb “Your life/soul will live.” The quote is a long condition-consequence sentence with compound consequential clauses. It reads, “If you will only go out to the officers of the king of Babylon, your soul [= you yourself; BDB 660 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ 4.a] will live and this city will not be burned with fire and you and your household will live.” The sentence has been broken down and restructured to better conform with contemporary English style. The infinitive absolute in the condition emphasizes the one condition, i.e., going out or surrendering (cf. Joüon 2:423 §123.g, and compare usage in Exod 15:26). For the idiom “go out to” = “surrender to” see the full idiom in 21:9 “go out and fall over to” which is condensed in 38:2 to “go out to.” The expression here is the same as in 38:2.

[38:23]  ²⁵ tn Heb “Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for explanation.

[38:23]  ²⁶ tn Heb “you yourself will not escape from their hand but will be seized by [caught in] the hand of the king of Babylon.” Neither use of “hand” is natural to the English idiom.

[38:23]  ²⁷ tc This translation follows the reading of the Greek version and a few Hebrew mss. The majority of the Hebrew mss read “and you will burn down this city.” This reading is accepted by the majority of modern commentaries and English versions. Few of the commentaries, however, bother to explain the fact that the particle אֶת (’et), which normally marks the accusative object, is functioning here as the subject. For this point of grammar see BDB 85 s.v. I אֵת 1.b. Or this may be another case where אֵת introduces a new subject (see BDB 85 s.v. אֵת 3.α and see usage in 27:8; 36:22).

[49:2]  ²⁸ tn Heb “oracle of the Lord.”

[49:2]  ²⁹ tn Heb “a desolate tel.” For the explanation of what a “tel” is see the study note on 30:18.

[49:2]  ³⁰ tn Heb “Its daughters will be burned with fire.” For the use of the word “daughters” to refer to the villages surrounding a larger city see BDB 123 s.v. I בַּת 4 and compare the usage in Judg 1:27.

[49:2]  ³¹ tn Heb “says the Lord.” The first person is used to maintain the first person address throughout.

[51:58]  ³¹ sn See the note at Jer 2:19.

[51:58]  ³² tn The text has the plural “walls,” but many Hebrew mss read the singular “wall,” which is also supported by the ancient Greek version. The modifying adjective “thick” is singular as well.

[51:58]  ³³ tn The infinitive absolute emphasizes the following finite verb. Another option is to translate, “will certainly be demolished.”

[51:58]  ³⁴ tn Heb “for what is empty.”

[51:58]  ³⁵ tn Heb “and the nations for fire, and they grow weary.”