Yeremia 14:12

14:12 Even if they fast, I will not hear their cries for help. Even if they offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. ¹  Instead, I will kill them through wars, famines, and plagues.” ² 

Yeremia 21:9

21:9 Those who stay in this city will die in battle or of starvation or disease. Those who leave the city and surrender to the Babylonians who are besieging it will live. They will escape with their lives. ³ 

Yeremia 27:8

27:8 But suppose a nation or a kingdom will not be subject to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. Suppose it will not submit to the yoke of servitude to ⁴  him. I, the Lord, affirm that ⁵  I will punish that nation. I will use the king of Babylon to punish it ⁶  with war, ⁷  starvation, and disease until I have destroyed it. ⁸ 

Yeremia 27:13

27:13 There is no reason why you and your people should die in war ⁹  or from starvation or disease! ¹⁰  That’s what the Lord says will happen to any nation ¹¹  that will not be subject to the king of Babylon.

Yeremia 29:18

29:18 I will chase after them with war, ¹²  starvation, and disease. I will make all the kingdoms of the earth horrified at what happens to them. I will make them examples of those who are cursed, objects of horror, hissing scorn, and ridicule among all the nations where I exile them.

[14:12]  ¹ sn See 6:16-20 for parallels.

[14:12]  ² tn Heb “through sword, starvation, and plague.”

[14:12]  sn These were penalties (curses) that were to be imposed on Israel for failure to keep her covenant with God (cf. Lev 26:23-26). These three occur together fourteen other times in the book of Jeremiah.

[21:9]  ³ tn Heb “his life will be to him for spoil.”

[21:9]  sn Spoil was what was carried off by the victor (see, e.g., Judg 5:30). Those who surrendered to the Babylonians would lose their property, their freedom, and their citizenship but would at least escape with their lives. Jeremiah was branded a traitor for this counsel (cf. 38:4) but it was the way of wisdom since the Lord was firmly determined to destroy the city (cf. v. 10).

[27:8]  ⁴ tn Heb “put their necks in the yoke of.” See the study note on v. 2 for the figure.

[27:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “oracle of the Lord.”

[27:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “The nation and/or the kingdom which will not serve him, Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and which will not put its neck in the yoke of the king of Babylon, by sword, starvation, and disease I will punish [or more literally, “visit upon”] that nation, oracle of the Lord.” The long complex Hebrew sentence has been broken up in conformity with contemporary English style and the figures interpreted for the sake of clarity. The particle אֵת, the sign of the accusative, before “which will not put…” is a little unusual here. For its use to introduce a new topic (here a second relative clause) see BDB 85 s.v. אֵת 3.α.

[27:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “with/by the sword.”

[27:8]  ⁸ tc The verb translated “destroy” (תָּמַם, tamam) is usually intransitive in the stem of the verb used here. It is found in a transitive sense elsewhere only in Ps 64:7. BDB 1070 s.v. תָּמַם 7 emends both texts. In this case they recommend תִּתִּי (titi): “until I give them into his hand.” That reading is suggested by the texts of the Syriac and Targumic translations (see BHS fn c). The Greek translation supports reading the verb “destroy” but treats it as though it were intransitive “until they are destroyed by his hand” (reading תֻּמָּם [tummam]). The MT here is accepted as the more difficult reading and support is seen in the transitive use of the verb in Ps 64:7.

[27:8]  tn Heb “I will punish that nation until I have destroyed them [i.e., its people] by his hand.” “Hand” here refers to agency. Hence, “I will use him.”

[27:13]  ⁹ tn Heb “with/by the sword.”

[27:13]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Why should you and your people die…?” The rhetorical question expects the answer made explicit in the translation, “There is no reason!”

[27:13]  ¹¹ tn Heb “…disease according to what the Lord spoke concerning the nation that…”

[29:18]  ¹² tn Heb “with the sword.”