Jeremiah 7:32

7:32 So, watch out!” ¹  says the Lord. “The time will soon come when people will no longer call those places Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom. But they will call that valley ²  the Valley of Slaughter and they will bury so many people in Topheth they will run out of room. ³ 

Jeremiah 15:9

15:9 The mother who had seven children ⁴  will grow faint.

All the breath will go out of her. ⁵ 

Her pride and joy will be taken from her in the prime of their life.

It will seem as if the sun had set while it was still day. ⁶ 

She will suffer shame and humiliation. ⁷ 

I will cause any of them who are still left alive

to be killed in war by the onslaughts of their enemies,” ⁸ 

says the Lord.

Jeremiah 24:8

24:8 “I, the Lord, also solemnly assert: ‘King Zedekiah of Judah, his officials, and the people who remain in Jerusalem ⁹  or who have gone to live in Egypt are like those bad figs. I consider them to be just like those bad figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten. ¹⁰ 

Jeremiah 31:32-33

31:32 It will not be like the old ¹¹  covenant that I made with their ancestors ¹²  when I delivered them ¹³  from Egypt. For they violated that covenant, even though I was like a faithful husband to them,” ¹⁴  says the Lord. ¹⁵  31:33 “But I will make a new covenant with the whole nation of Israel ¹⁶  after I plant them back in the land,” ¹⁷  says the Lord. ¹⁸  “I will ¹⁹  put my law within them ²⁰  and write it on their hearts and minds. ²¹  I will be their God and they will be my people. ²² 

Jeremiah 44:7

44:7 “So now the Lord, the God who rules over all, the God of Israel, ²³  asks, ‘Why will you do such great harm to yourselves? Why should every man, woman, child, and baby of yours be destroyed from the midst of Judah? Why should you leave yourselves without a remnant?

Jeremiah 44:30

44:30 I, the Lord, promise that ²⁴  I will hand Pharaoh Hophra ²⁵  king of Egypt over to his enemies who are seeking to kill him. I will do that just as surely as I handed King Zedekiah of Judah over to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, his enemy who was seeking to kill him.’”

Jeremiah 49:16

49:16 The terror you inspire in others ²⁶ 

and the arrogance of your heart have deceived you.

You may make your home in the clefts of the rocks;

you may occupy the highest places in the hills. ²⁷ 

But even if you made your home where the eagles nest,

I would bring you down from there,”

says the Lord.

Jeremiah 49:37

49:37 I will make the people of Elam terrified of their enemies,

who are seeking to kill them.

I will vent my fierce anger

and bring disaster upon them,” ²⁸  says the Lord. ²⁹ 

“I will send armies chasing after them ³⁰ 

until I have completely destroyed them.

[7:32]  ¹ tn Heb “Therefore, behold!”

[7:32]  ² tn Heb “it will no longer be said ‘Topheth’ or ‘the Valley of Ben Hinnom’ but ‘the valley of slaughter.’

[7:32]  ³ tn Heb “And they will bury in Topheth so there is not room.”

[15:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “who gave birth to seven.”

[15:9]  ⁵ tn The meaning of this line is debated. Some understand this line to mean “she has breathed out her life” (cf., e.g., BDB 656 s.v. נָפַח and 656 s.v. ֶנפֶשׁ 1.c). However, as several commentaries have noted (e.g., W. McKane, Jeremiah [ICC], 1:341; J. Bright, Jeremiah [AB], 109) it makes little sense to talk about her suffering shame and embarrassment if she has breathed her last. Both the Greek and Latin versions understand “soul” not as the object but as the subject and the idea being one of fainting under despair. This idea seems likely in light of the parallelism. Bright suggests the phrase means either “she gasped out her breath” or “her throat gasped.” The former is more likely. One might also render “she fainted dead away,” but that idiom might not be familiar to all readers.

[15:9]  ⁶ tn Heb “Her sun went down while it was still day.”

[15:9]  ⁷ sn She has lost her position of honor and the source of her pride. For the concepts here see 1 Sam 2:5.

[15:9]  ⁸ tn Heb “I will deliver those of them that survive to the sword before their enemies.” The referent of “them” is ambiguous. Does it refer to the children of the widow (nearer context) or the people themselves (more remote context, v. 7)? Perhaps it was meant to include both. Verse seven spoke of the destruction of the people and the killing off of the children.

[24:8]  ⁷ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[24:8]  ⁸ tn Heb “Like the bad figs which cannot be eaten from badness [= because they are so bad] surely [emphatic כִּי, ki] so I regard Zedekiah, king of Judah, and his officials and the remnant of Jerusalem which remains in this land and those who are living in Egypt.” The sentence has been restructured in the translation to conform more to contemporary English style. For the use of נָתַן (natan) meaning “regard” or “treat like” see BDB 681 s.v. נָתַן 3.c and compare the usage in Ezek 28:6;Gen 42:30.

[31:32]  ¹⁰ tn The word “old” is not in the text but is implicit in the use of the word “new.” It is supplied in the translation for greater clarity.

[31:32]  ¹¹ tn Heb “fathers.”

[31:32]  ¹² tn Heb “when I took them by the hand and led them out.”

[31:32]  ¹³ tn Or “I was their master.” See the study note on 3:14.

[31:32]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[31:33]  ¹³ tn Heb “with the house of Israel.” All commentators agree that the term here refers to both the whole nation which was divided into the house of Israel and the house of Judah in v. 30.

[31:33]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “after those days.” Commentators are generally agreed that this refers to the return from exile and the repopulation of the land referred to in vv. 27-28 and not to something subsequent to the time mentioned in v. 30. This is the sequencing that is also presupposed in other new covenant passages such as Deut 30:1-6; Ezek 11:17-20; 36:24-28.

[31:33]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[31:33]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “‘But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after these days:’ says the Lord, ‘I will….’” The sentence has been reworded and restructured to avoid the awkwardness of the original style.

[31:33]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “in their inward parts.” The Hebrew word here refers to the seat of the thoughts, emotions, and decisions (Jer 9:8 [9:7 HT]). It is essentially synonymous with “heart” in Hebrew psychological terms.

[31:33]  ¹⁸ tn The words “and minds” is not in the text but is supplied in the translation to bring the English psychology more into line with the Hebrew where the “heart” is the center both of knowing/thinking/reflecting and deciding/willing.

[31:33]  ¹⁹ sn Compare Jer 24:7; 30:22; 31:1 and see the study note on 30:2.

[44:7]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Yahweh, the God of armies, the God of Israel.” Compare 35:17; 38:17 and for the title “God of armies” see the study note on 2:19.

[44:30]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “Thus says the Lord, ‘Behold I will hand…’” The first person and indirect quote have been chosen because the Lord is already identified as the speaker and the indirect quote eliminates an extra level of embedded quotes.

[44:30]  ²⁰ sn Hophra ruled over Egypt from 589-570 b.c. He was the Pharaoh who incited Zedekiah to rebel against Nebuchadnezzar and whose army proved ineffective in providing any long-term relief to Jerusalem when it was under siege (see Jer 37 and especially the study note on 37:5). He was assassinated following a power struggle with a court official who had earlier saved him from a rebellion of his own troops and had ruled as co-regent with him.

[49:16]  ²² tn The meaning of this Hebrew word (תִּפְלֶצֶת, tifletset) is uncertain because it occurs only here. However, it is related to a verb root that refers to the shaking of the pillars (of the earth) in Job 9:6 and a noun (מִפְלֶצֶת, mifletset) that refers to “horror” or “shuddering” used in Job 21:6; Isa 21:4; Ezek 7:18; Ps 55:6. This is the nuance that is accepted by BDB, KBL, HAL and a majority of the modern English versions. The suffix is an objective genitive. The fact that the following verb is masculine singular suggests that the text here (הִשִּׁיא אֹתָךְ, hishi’ ’otakh) is in error for הִשִּׁיאָתָךְ (hishi’atakh; so G. L. Keown, P. J. Scalise, T. G. Smothers, Jeremiah 26-52 [WBC], 327, n. 16.a).

[49:16]  ²³ tn The Hebrew text of the first four lines reads: “Your terror [= the terror you inspire] has deceived you, [and] the arrogance of your heart, you who dwell in the clefts of the rock, who occupy the heights of the hill.” The sentence is broken up and restructured to better conform with English style.

[49:37]  ²⁵ tn Heb “I will bring disaster upon them, even my fierce anger.”

[49:37]  ²⁶ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[49:37]  ²⁷ tn Heb “I will send the sword after them.”