Yeremia 3:11

3:11 Then the Lord said to me, “Under the circumstances, wayward Israel could even be considered less guilty than unfaithful Judah. ¹ 

Yeremia 6:3

6:3 Kings will come against it with their armies. ² 

They will encamp in siege all around it. ³ 

Each of them will devastate the portion assigned to him. ⁴ 

Yeremia 9:23

9:23 ⁵ The Lord says,

“Wise people should not boast that they are wise.

Powerful people should not boast that they are powerful. ⁶ 

Rich people should not boast that they are rich. ⁷ 

Yeremia 35:9

35:9 We have not built any houses to live in. We do not own any vineyards, fields, or crops.

Yeremia 36:19

36:19 Then the officials said to Baruch, “You and Jeremiah must go and hide. You must not let anyone know where you are.” ⁸ 

¹ tn Heb “Wayward Israel has proven herself to be more righteous than unfaithful Judah.”

sn A comparison is drawn here between the greater culpability of Judah, who has had the advantage of seeing how God disciplined her sister nation for having sinned and yet ignored the warning and committed the same sin, and the culpability of Israel who had no such advantage.

² tn Heb “Shepherds and their flocks will come against it.” Rulers are often depicted as shepherds; see BDB 945 s.v. רָעָה 1.d(2) (cf. Jer 12:10). The translation of this verse attempts to clarify the point of this extended metaphor.

³ tn Heb “They will thrust [= pitch] tents around it.” The shepherd imagery has a surprisingly ominous tone. The beautiful pasture filled with shepherds grazing their sheep is in reality a city under siege from an attacking enemy.

⁴ tn Heb “They will graze each one his portion.” For the use of the verb “graze” to mean “strip” or “devastate” see BDB 945 s.v. רָעָה 2.c. For a similar use of the word normally meaning “hand” to mean portion compare 2 Sam 19:43 (19:44 HT).

sn There is a wordplay involving “sound…in Tekoa” mentioned in the study note on “destruction” in v. 1. The Hebrew verb “they will pitch” is from the same root as the word translated “sound” (taqÿ’u [תִּקְעוּ] here and tiq’u [תִּקְעוּ] in v. 1).

⁵ sn It is not always clear why verses were placed in their present position in the editorial process of collecting Jeremiah’s sermons and the words the Lord spoke to him (see Jer 36:4, 32 for reference to two of these collections). Here it is probable that vv. 23-26 were added as a further answer to the question raised in v. 12.

⁶ tn Or “Strong people should not brag that they are strong.”

⁷ tn Heb “…in their wisdom…in their power…in their riches.”

⁸ tn The verbs here are both direct imperatives but it sounds awkward to say “You and Jeremiah, go and hide” in contemporary English. The same force is accomplished by phrasing the statement as strong advice.