Yeremia 3:10
Konteks3:10 In spite of all this, 1 Israel’s sister, unfaithful Judah, has not turned back to me with any sincerity; she has only pretended to do so,” 2 says the Lord.
Yeremia 3:21
Konteks3:21 “A noise is heard on the hilltops.
It is the sound of the people of Israel crying and pleading to their gods.
Indeed they have followed sinful ways; 3
they have forgotten to be true to the Lord their God. 4
Yeremia 4:2
Konteks4:2 You must be truthful, honest and upright
when you take an oath saying, ‘As surely as the Lord lives!’ 5
If you do, 6 the nations will pray to be as blessed by him as you are
and will make him the object of their boasting.” 7
Yeremia 5:31
Konteks5:31 The prophets prophesy lies.
The priests exercise power by their own authority. 8
And my people love to have it this way.
But they will not be able to help you when the time of judgment comes! 9
Yeremia 6:29
Konteks6:29 The fiery bellows of judgment burn fiercely.
But there is too much dross to be removed. 10
The process of refining them has proved useless. 11
The wicked have not been purged.
Yeremia 7:24
Konteks7:24 But they did not listen to me or pay any attention to me. They followed the stubborn inclinations of their own wicked hearts. They acted worse and worse instead of better. 12
Yeremia 8:9
Konteks8:9 Your wise men will be put to shame.
They will be dumbfounded and be brought to judgment. 13
Since they have rejected the word of the Lord,
what wisdom do they really have?
Yeremia 9:2
Konteks9:2 (9:1) I wish I had a lodging place in the desert
where I could spend some time like a weary traveler. 14
Then I would desert my people
and walk away from them
because they are all unfaithful to God,
a congregation 15 of people that has been disloyal to him. 16
Yeremia 9:7
Konteks9:7 Therefore the Lord who rules over all says, 17
“I will now purify them in the fires of affliction 18 and test them.
The wickedness of my dear people 19 has left me no choice.
What else can I do? 20
Yeremia 9:9
Konteks9:9 I will certainly punish them for doing such things!” says the Lord.
“I will certainly bring retribution on such a nation as this!” 21
Yeremia 16:12
Konteks16:12 And you have acted even more wickedly than your ancestors! Each one of you has followed the stubborn inclinations of your own wicked heart and not obeyed me. 22
Yeremia 17:3
Konteks17:3 and on the mountains and in the fields. 23
I will give your wealth and all your treasures away as plunder.
I will give it away as the price 24 for the sins you have committed throughout your land.
Yeremia 18:12
Konteks18:12 But they just keep saying, ‘We do not care what you say! 25 We will do whatever we want to do! We will continue to behave wickedly and stubbornly!’” 26
Yeremia 23:38
Konteks23:38 But just suppose you continue to say, ‘The message of the Lord is burdensome.’ Here is what the Lord says will happen: ‘I sent word to you that you must not say, “The Lord’s message is burdensome.” But you used the words “The Lord’s message is burdensome” anyway.
Yeremia 42:21
Konteks42:21 This day 27 I have told you what he said. 28 But you do not want to obey the Lord by doing what he sent me to tell you. 29
Yeremia 49:24
Konteks49:24 The people of Damascus will lose heart and turn to flee.
Panic will grip them.
Pain and anguish will seize them
like a woman in labor.
Yeremia 50:31
Konteks50:31 “Listen! I am opposed to you, you proud city,” 30
says the Lord God who rules over all. 31
“Indeed, 32 your day of reckoning 33 has come,
the time when I will punish you. 34
Yeremia 51:2-3
Konteks51:2 I will send people to winnow Babylonia like a wind blowing away chaff. 35
They will winnow her and strip her land bare. 36
This will happen when 37 they come against her from every direction,
when it is time to destroy her. 38
51:3 Do not give her archers time to string their bows
or to put on their coats of armor. 39
Do not spare any of her young men.
Completely destroy 40 her whole army.
Yeremia 51:35
Konteks51:35 The person who lives in Zion says,
“May Babylon pay for the violence done to me and to my relatives.”
Jerusalem says,
“May those living in Babylonia pay for the bloodshed of my people.” 41
[3:10] 1 tn Heb “And even in all this.”
[3:10] 2 tn Heb “ has not turned back to me with all her heart but only in falsehood.”
[3:21] 3 tn Heb “A sound is heard on the hilltops, the weeping of the supplication of the children of Israel because [or indeed] they have perverted their way.” At issue here is whether the supplication is made to Yahweh in repentance because of what they have done or whether it is supplication to the pagan gods which is evidence of their perverted ways. The reference in this verse to the hilltops where idolatry was practiced according to 3:2 and the reference to Israel’s unfaithfulness in the preceding verse make the latter more likely. For the asseverative use of the Hebrew particle (here rendered “indeed”) where the particle retains some of the explicative nuance; cf. BDB 472-73 s.v. כִּי 1.e and 3.c.
[3:21] 4 tn Heb “have forgotten the
[4:2] 5 tn Heb “If you [= you must, see the translator’s note on the word “do” later in this verse] swear/take an oath, ‘As the
[4:2] 6 tn 4:1-2a consists of a number of “if” clauses, two of which are formally introduced by the Hebrew particle אִם (’im) while the others are introduced by the conjunction “and,” followed by a conjunction (“and” = “then”) with a perfect in 4:2b which introduces the consequence. The translation “You must…. If you do,” was chosen to avoid a long and complicated sentence.
[4:2] 7 tn Heb “bless themselves in him and make their boasts in him.”
[5:31] 8 tn Heb “they shall rule at their hands.” Since the word “hand” can be used figuratively for authority or mean “side” and the pronoun “them” can refer to the priests themselves or the prophets, the following translations have also been suggested: “the priests rule under their [the prophets’] directions,” or “the priests rule in league with them [the prophets].” From the rest of the book it would appear that the prophets did not exercise authority over the priests nor did they exercise the same authority over the people that the priests did. Hence it probably mean “by their own hand/power/authority.”
[5:31] 9 tn Heb “But what will you do at its end?” The rhetorical question implies a negative answer: “Nothing!”
[6:29] 10 tn Heb “The bellows blow fiercely; the lead is consumed by the fire.” The translation tries to clarify a metaphor involving ancient metallurgy. In the ancient refining process lead was added as a flux to remove impurities from silver ore in the process of oxidizing the lead. Jeremiah says that the lead has been used up and the impurities have not been removed. The translation is based on the recognition of an otherwise unused verb root meaning “blow” (נָחַר [nakhar]; cf. BDB 1123 s.v. I חָרַר and HALOT 651 s.v. נָחַר) and the Masoretes’ suggestion that the consonants מאשׁתם be read מֵאֵשׁ תַּם (me’esh tam) rather than as מֵאֶשָּׁתָם (me’eshatam, “from their fire”) from an otherwise unattested noun אֶשָּׁה (’eshah).
[6:29] 11 tn Heb “The refiner refines them in vain.”
[7:24] 12 tn Or “They went backward and not forward”; Heb “They were to the backward and not to the forward.” The two phrases used here appear nowhere else in the Bible and the latter preposition plus adverb elsewhere is used temporally meaning “formerly” or “previously.” The translation follows the proposal of J. Bright, Jeremiah (AB), 57. Another option is “they turned their backs to me, not their faces,” understanding the line as a variant of a line in 2:27.
[8:9] 13 tn Heb “be trapped.” However, the word “trapped” generally carries with it the connotation of divine judgment. See BDB 540 s.v. לָכַד Niph.2, and compare usage in Jer 6:11 for support. The verbs in the first two lines are again the form of the Hebrew verb that emphasizes that the action is as good as done (Hebrew prophetic perfects).
[9:2] 14 tn Heb “I wish I had in the desert a lodging place [inn, or place to spend the night] for travelers.”
[9:2] 15 tn Or “bunch,” but this loses the irony; the word is used for the solemn assemblies at the religious feasts.
[9:2] 16 tn Heb “they are all adulterers, a congregation of unfaithful people.” However, spiritual adultery is, of course, meant, not literal adultery. So the literal translation would be misleading.
[9:7] 17 tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.”
[9:7] sn For the significance of this title see the notes at 2:19 and 7:3.
[9:7] 18 tn Heb “I will refine/purify them.” The words “in the fires of affliction” are supplied in the translation to give clarity to the metaphor.
[9:7] 19 tn Heb “daughter of my people.” For the translation given here see 4:11 and the note on the phrase “dear people” there.
[9:7] 20 tc Heb “For how else shall I deal because of the wickedness of the daughter of my people.” The MT does not have the word “wickedness.” The word, however, is read in the Greek version. This is probably a case of a word dropping out because of its similarities to the consonants preceding or following it (i.e., haplography). The word “wickedness” (רַעַת, ra’at) has dropped out before the words “my dear people” (בַּת־עַמִּי, bat-’ammi). The causal nuance which is normal for מִפְּנֵי (mippÿne) does not make sense without some word like this, and the combination of רַעַת מִפְּנֵי (mippÿne ra’at) does occur in Jer 7:12 and one very like it occurs in Jer 26:3.
[9:9] 21 tn Heb “Should I not punish them…? Should I not bring retribution…?” The rhetorical questions function as emphatic declarations.
[9:9] sn See 5:9, 29. This is somewhat of a refrain at the end of a catalog of Judah’s sins.
[16:12] 22 sn For the argumentation here compare Jer 7:23-26.
[17:3] 23 tc This reading follows some of the ancient versions. The MT reads, “hills. My mountain in the open field [alluding to Jerusalem] and your wealth…I will give.” The vocalization of the noun plus pronoun and the unusual form of the expression to allude to Jerusalem calls into question the originality of the MT. The MT reads הֲרָרִי (harari) which combines the suffix for a singular noun with a pointing of the noun in the plural, a form which would be without parallel (compare the forms in Ps 30:8 for the singular noun with suffix and Deut 8:9 for the plural noun with suffix). Likewise, Jerusalem was not “in the open field.” For a similar expression compare Jer 13:27.
[17:3] 24 tc Or “I will give away your wealth, all your treasures, and your places of worship…” The translation follows the emendation suggested in the footnote in BHS, reading בִּמְחִיר (bimkhir) in place of בָּמֹתֶיךָ (bamotekha). The forms are graphically very close and one could explain the origin of either from the other. The parallel in 15:13-14 reads לֹא בִּמְחִיר (lo’ bimkhir). The text here may be a deliberate play on that one. The emended text makes decidedly better sense contextually than the MT unless some sardonic reference to their idolatry is intended.
[18:12] 25 tn Heb “It is useless!” See the same expression in a similar context in Jer 2:25.
[18:12] 26 tn Heb “We will follow our own plans and do each one according to the stubbornness of his own wicked heart.”
[18:12] sn This has been the consistent pattern of their behavior. See 7:24; 9:13; 13:10; 16:12.
[42:21] 28 tn The words “what he said” are not in the text but are implicit and seem necessary for clarity.
[42:21] 29 tn Heb “But you have not hearkened to the voice of [idiomatic for “obeyed” see BDB 1034 s.v. שָׁמַע Qal.1.m] the
[50:31] 30 tn Heb “Behold, I am against you, proud one.” The word “city” is not in the text but it is generally agreed that the word is being used as a personification of the city which had “proudly defied” the
[50:31] 31 tn Heb “oracle of the Lord Yahweh of armies.” For the rendering of this title and an explanation of its significance see the study note on 2:19.
[50:31] 32 tn The particle כִּי (ki) is probably asseverative here (so J. A. Thompson, Jeremiah [NICOT], 739, n. 13, and cf. BDB 472 s.v. כִּי 1.e for other examples). This has been a common use of this particle in the book of Jeremiah.
[50:31] 33 tn The words “of reckoning” are not in the text but are implicit from the context. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.
[51:2] 35 tn Or “I will send foreign people against Babylonia.” The translation follows the reading of the Greek recensions of Aquila and Symmachus and the Latin version (the Vulgate). That reading is accepted by the majority of modern commentaries and several of the modern versions (e.g., NRSV, REB, NAB, and God’s Word). It fits better with the verb that follows it than the reading of the Hebrew text and the rest of the versions. The difference in the two readings is again only the difference in vocalization, the Hebrew text reading זָרִים (zarim) and the versions cited reading זֹרִים (zorim). If the Hebrew text is followed, there is a wordplay between the two words, “foreigners” and “winnow.” The words “like a wind blowing away chaff” have been supplied in the translation to clarify for the reader what “winnow” means.
[51:2] sn Winnowing involved throwing a mixture of grain and chaff (or straw) into the air and letting the wind blow away the lighter chaff, leaving the grain to fall on the ground. Since God considered all the Babylonians chaff, they would all be “blown away.”
[51:2] 36 tn Or “They will strip her land bare like a wind blowing away chaff.” The alternate translation would be necessary if one were to adopt the alternate reading of the first line (the reading of the Hebrew text). The explanation of “winnow” would then be necessary in the second line. The verb translated “strip…bare” means literally “to empty out” (see BDB 132 s.v. בָּקַק Polel). It has been used in 19:7 in the Qal of “making void” Judah’s plans in a wordplay on the word for “bottle.” See the study note on 19:7 for further details.
[51:2] 37 tn This assumes that the particle כִּי (ki) is temporal (cf. BDB 473 s.v. כִּי 2.a). This is the interpretation adopted also by NRSV and G. L. Keown, P. J. Scalise, T. G. Smothers, Jeremiah 26-52 (WBC), 349. J. Bright (Jeremiah [AB], 345) and J. A. Thompson (Jeremiah [NICOT], 747, n. 3) interpret it as asseverative or emphatic, “Truly, indeed.” Many of the modern English versions merely ignore it. Reading it as temporal makes it unnecessary to emend the following verb as Bright and Thompson do (from הָיוּ [hayu] to יִהְיוּ [yihyu]).
[51:2] 38 tn Heb “in the day of disaster.”
[51:3] 39 tc The text and consequent meaning of these first two lines are uncertain. Literally the Masoretic reads “against let him string let him string the one who strings his bow and against let him raise himself up in his coat of armor.” This makes absolutely no sense and the ancient versions and Hebrew
[51:3] 40 sn For the concept underlying this word see the study note on “utterly destroy” in Jer 25:9 and compare the usage in 50:21, 26.
[51:35] 41 tn Heb “‘The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon,’ says the one living in Zion. ‘My blood be upon those living in Chaldea,’ says Jerusalem.” For the usage of the genitive here in the phrase “violence done to me and my relatives” see GKC 414 §128.a (a construct governing two objects) and IBHS 303 §16.4d (an objective genitive). For the nuance of “pay” in the sense of retribution see BDB 756 s.v. עַל 7.a(b) and compare the usage in Judg 9:24. For the use of שְׁאֵר (shÿ’er) in the sense of “relatives” see BDB 985 s.v. שְׁאֵר 2 and compare NJPS. For the use of “blood” in this idiom see BDB 197 s.v. דָּם 2.k and compare the usage in 2 Sam 4:11; Ezek 3:18, 20. The lines have been reversed for better English style.