Jeremiah 8:4

Willful Disregard of God Will Lead to Destruction

8:4 The Lord said to me, ¹ 

“Tell them, ‘The Lord says,

Do people not get back up when they fall down?

Do they not turn around when they go the wrong way? ² 

Jeremiah 22:7

22:7 I will send men against it to destroy it ³ 

with their axes and hatchets.

They will hack up its fine cedar panels and columns

and throw them into the fire.

Jeremiah 49:21

49:21 The people of the earth will quake when they hear of their downfall. ⁴ 

Their cries of anguish will be heard all the way to the Gulf of Aqaba. ⁵ 

Jeremiah 50:30

50:30 So her young men will fall in her city squares.

All her soldiers will be destroyed at that time,”

says the Lord. ⁶ 

Jeremiah 50:32

50:32 You will stumble and fall, you proud city;

no one will help you get up.

I will set fire to your towns;

it will burn up everything that surrounds you.” ⁷ 

Jeremiah 51:8

51:8 But suddenly Babylonia will fall and be destroyed. ⁸ 

Cry out in mourning over it!

Get medicine for her wounds!

Perhaps she can be healed!

[8:4]  ¹ tn The words “the Lord said to me” are not in the text but are implicit from the context. They are supplied in the translation to make clear who is speaking and who is being addressed.

[8:4]  ² sn There is a play on two different nuances of the same Hebrew word that means “turn” and “return,” “turn away” and “turn back.”

[22:7]  ³ sn Heb “I will sanctify destroyers against it.” If this is not an attenuated use of the term “sanctify” the traditions of Israel’s holy wars are being turned against her. See also 6:4. In Israel’s early wars in the wilderness and in the conquest, the Lord fought for her against the enemies (cf., e.g., Josh 10:11, 14, 42; 24:7; Judg 5:20; 1 Sam 7:10). Now he is going to fight against them (21:5, 13) and use the enemy as his instruments of destruction. For a similar picture of destruction in the temple see the lament in Ps 74:3-7.

[49:21]  ⁵ tn Heb “The earth will quake when at the sound of their downfall.” However, as in many other places “earth” stands here metonymically for the inhabitants or people of the earth (see E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 578-79, and compare usage in 2 Sam 15:23; Ps 66:4).

[49:21]  ⁶ tn Heb “the Red Sea,” of which the Gulf of Aqaba formed the northeastern arm. The land of Edom once reached this far according to 1 Kgs 9:26.

[50:30]  ⁷ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[50:32]  ⁹ tn Heb “And the proud one will fall and there will be no one to help him up. I will start a fire in his towns and it will consume all that surround him.” The personification continues but now the stance is indirect (third person) rather than direct (second person). It is easier for the modern reader who is not accustomed to such sudden shifts if the second person is maintained. The personification of the city (or nation) as masculine is a little unusual; normally cities and nations are personified as feminine, as daughters or mothers.

[51:8]  ¹¹ tn The verbs in this verse and the following are all in the Hebrew perfect tense, a tense that often refers to a past action or a past action with present results. However, as the translator’s notes have indicated, the prophets use this tense to view the actions as if they were as good as done (the Hebrew prophetic perfect). The stance here is ideal, viewed as already accomplished.