Yeremia 4:15-20
Konteks4:15 For messengers are coming, heralding disaster,
from the city of Dan and from the hills of Ephraim. 1
‘Announce to the surrounding nations, 3
“The enemy is coming!” 4
Proclaim this message 5 to Jerusalem:
“Those who besiege cities 6 are coming from a distant land.
They are ready to raise the battle cry against 7 the towns in Judah.”’
4:17 They will surround Jerusalem 8
like men guarding a field 9
because they have rebelled against me,”
says the Lord.
4:18 “The way you have lived and the things you have done 10
will bring this on you.
This is the punishment you deserve, and it will be painful indeed. 11
The pain will be so bad it will pierce your heart.” 12
“Oh, the feeling in the pit of my stomach! 14
I writhe in anguish.
Oh, the pain in my heart! 15
My heart pounds within me.
I cannot keep silent.
For I hear the sound of the trumpet; 16
the sound of the battle cry pierces my soul! 17
4:20 I see 18 one destruction after another taking place,
so that the whole land lies in ruins.
I see our 19 tents suddenly destroyed,
their 20 curtains torn down in a mere instant. 21
Yeremia 6:23-24
Konteks6:23 Its soldiers are armed with bows and spears.
They are cruel and show no mercy.
They sound like the roaring sea
as they ride forth on their horses.
Lined up in formation like men going into battle
to attack you, Daughter Zion.’” 22
6:24 The people cry out, 23 “We have heard reports about them!
We have become helpless with fear! 24
Anguish grips us,
agony like that of a woman giving birth to a baby!
Yeremia 8:19
Konteks8:19 I hear my dear people 25 crying out 26
throughout the length and breadth of the land. 27
They are crying, ‘Is the Lord no longer in Zion?
Is her divine King 28 no longer there?’”
The Lord answers, 29
“Why then do they provoke me to anger with their images,
with their worthless foreign idols?” 30
Yeremia 9:19
Konteks9:19 For the sound of wailing is soon to be heard in Zion.
They will wail, 31 ‘We are utterly ruined! 32 We are completely disgraced!
For our houses have been torn down
and we must leave our land.’” 33
Yeremia 25:36
Konteks25:36 Listen to the cries of anguish of the leaders.
Listen to the wails of the shepherds of the flocks.
They are wailing because the Lord
is about to destroy their lands. 34
Yeremia 31:15-16
Konteks31:15 The Lord says,
“A sound is heard in Ramah, 35
a sound of crying in bitter grief.
It is the sound of Rachel weeping for her children
and refusing to be comforted, because her children are gone.” 36
31:16 The Lord says to her, 37
“Stop crying! Do not shed any more tears! 38
For your heartfelt repentance 39 will be rewarded.
Your children will return from the land of the enemy.
I, the Lord, affirm it! 40
[4:15] 1 tn Heb “For a voice declaring from Dan and making heard disaster from the hills of Ephraim.”
[4:16] 2 tn The words “They are saying” are not in the text but are implicit in the connection and are supplied in the translation for clarification.
[4:16] 3 tn The word “surrounding” is not in the text but is implicit and is supplied in the translation for clarification.
[4:16] 4 tc Or “Here they come!” Heb “Look!” or “Behold!” Or “Announce to the surrounding nations, indeed [or yes] proclaim to Jerusalem, ‘Besiegers…’” The text is very elliptical here. Some of the modern English versions appear to be emending the text from הִנֵּה (hinneh, “behold”) to either הֵנָּה (hennah, “these things”; so NEB), or הַזֶּה (hazzeh, “this”; so NIV). The solution proposed here is as old as the LXX which reads, “Behold, they have come.”
[4:16] 5 tn The words, “this message,” are not in the text but are supplied in the translation to make the introduction of the quote easier.
[4:16] 6 tn Heb “Besiegers.” For the use of this verb to refer to besieging a city compare Isa 1:8.
[4:16] 7 tn Heb “They have raised their voices against.” The verb here, a vav (ו) consecutive with an imperfect, continues the nuance of the preceding participle “are coming.”
[4:17] 8 tn Heb “will surround her.” The antecedent is Jerusalem in the preceding verse. The referent is again made explicit in the translation to avoid any possible lack of clarity. The verb form here is a form of the verb that emphasizes the fact as being as good as done (i.e., it is a prophetic perfect).
[4:17] 9 sn There is some irony involved in the choice of the simile since the men guarding a field were there to keep thieves from getting in and stealing the crops. Here the besiegers are guarding the city to keep people from getting out.
[4:18] 10 tn Heb “Your way and your deeds.”
[4:18] 11 tn Heb “How bitter!”
[4:18] 12 tn Heb “Indeed, it reaches to your heart.” The subject must be the pain alluded to in the last half of the preceding line; the verb is masculine, agreeing with the adjective translated “painful.” The only other possible antecedent “punishment” is feminine.
[4:19] 13 tn The words “I said” are not in the text. They are used to mark the shift from the
[4:19] 14 tn Heb “My bowels! My bowels!”
[4:19] 15 tn Heb “the walls of my heart!”
[4:19] 16 tn Heb “ram’s horn,” but the modern equivalent is “trumpet” and is more readily understandable.
[4:19] 17 tc The translation reflects a different division of the last two lines than that suggested by the Masoretes. The written text (the Kethib) reads “for the sound of the ram’s horn I have heard [or “you have heard,” if the form is understood as the old second feminine singular perfect] my soul” followed by “the battle cry” in the last line. The translation is based on taking “my soul” with the last line and understanding an elliptical expression “the battle cry [to] my soul.” Such an elliptical expression is in keeping with the elliptical nature of the exclamations at the beginning of the verse (cf. the literal translations of the first two lines of the verse in the notes on the words “stomach” and “heart”).
[4:20] 18 tn The words, “I see” are not in the text here or at the beginning of the third line. They are supplied in the translation to show that this is Jeremiah’s vision of what will happen as a result of the invasion announced in 4:5-9, 11-17a.
[4:20] 19 tn Heb “my.” This is probably not a reference to Jeremiah’s own tents since he foresees the destruction of the whole land. Jeremiah so identifies with the plight of his people that he sees the destruction of their tents as though they were his very own. It would probably lead to confusion to translate literally and it is not uncommon in Hebrew laments for the community or its representative to speak of the community as an “I.” See for example the interchange between first singular and first plural pronouns in Ps 44:4-8.
[4:20] 21 tn It is not altogether clear what Jeremiah intends by the use of this metaphor. In all likelihood he means that the defenses of Israel’s cities and towns have offered no more resistance than nomads’ tents. However, in light of the fact that the word “tent” came to be used generically for a person’s home (cf. 1 Kgs 8:66; 12:16), it is possible that Jeremiah is here referring to the destruction of their homes and the resultant feeling of homelessness and loss of even elementary protection. Given the lack of certainty the present translation is rather literal here.
[6:23] 22 sn Jerualem is personified as a young maiden helpless before enemy attackers.
[6:24] 23 tn These words are not in the text, but, from the context, someone other than God is speaking and is speaking for and to the people (either Jeremiah or the people themselves). These words are supplied in the translation for clarity.
[6:24] 24 tn Or “We have lost our strength to do battle”; Heb “Our hands hang limp [or helpless at our sides].” According to BDB 951 s.v. רָפָה Qal.2, this idiom is used figuratively for losing heart or energy. The best example of its figurative use of loss of strength or the feeling of helplessness is in Ezek 21:12 where it appears in the context of the heart (courage) melting, the spirit sinking, and the knees becoming like water. For other examples compare 2 Sam 4:1; Zeph 3:16. In Neh 6:9 it is used literally of the builders “dropping their hands from the work” out of fear. The words “with fear” are supplied in the translation because they are implicit in the context.
[8:19] 25 tn Heb “daughter of my people.” For the translation given here see 4:11 and the note on the phrase “dear people” there.
[8:19] 26 tn Heb “Behold the voice of the crying of the daughter of my people.”
[8:19] 27 tn Heb “Land of distances, i.e., of wide extent.” For parallel usage cf. Isa 33:17.
[8:19] 28 tn Heb “her King” but this might be misunderstood by some to refer to the Davidic ruler even with the capitalization.
[8:19] 29 tn The words, “The
[8:19] 30 sn The people’s cry and the
[9:19] 31 tn The words “They will wail” are not in the text. They are supplied in the translation to make clear that this is the wailing that will be heard.
[9:19] sn The destruction is still in the future, but it is presented graphically as though it had already taken place.
[9:19] 32 tn Heb “How we are ruined!”
[9:19] 33 tn The order of these two lines has been reversed for English stylistic reasons. The text reads in Hebrew “because we have left our land because they have thrown down our dwellings.” The two clauses offer parallel reasons for the cries “How ruined we are! [How] we are greatly disgraced!” But the first line must contain a prophetic perfect (because the lament comes from Jerusalem) and the second a perfect referring to a destruction that is itself future. This seems the only way to render the verse that would not be misleading.
[25:36] 34 tn Heb “their pastures,” i.e., the place where they “shepherd” their “flocks.” The verb tenses in this section are not as clear as in the preceding. The participle in this verse is followed by a vav consecutive perfect like the imperatives in v. 34. The verbs in v. 38 are perfects but they can be and probably should be understood as prophetic like the perfect in v. 31 (נְתָנָם, nÿtanam) which is surrounded by imperfects, participles, and vav consecutive perfects.
[25:36] sn Jer 25:36-38 shifts to the future as though the action were already accomplished or going on. It is the sound that Jeremiah hears in his “prophetic ears” of something that has begun (v. 29) but will find its culmination in the future (vv. 13, 16, 27, 30-35).
[31:15] 35 sn Ramah is a town in Benjamin approximately five miles (8 km) north of Jerusalem. It was on the road between Bethel and Bethlehem. Traditionally, Rachel’s tomb was located near there at a place called Zelzah (1 Sam 10:2). Rachel was the mother of Joseph and Benjamin and was very concerned about having children because she was barren (Gen 30:1-2) and went to great lengths to have them (Gen 30:3, 14-15, 22-24). She was the grandmother of Ephraim and Manasseh which were two of the major tribes in northern Israel. Here Rachel is viewed metaphorically as weeping for her “children,” the descendants of Ephraim and Manasseh, who had been carried away into captivity in 722
[31:15] 36 tn Or “gone into exile” (cf. v. 16), though some English versions take this as meaning “dead” (e.g., NCV, CEV, NLT), presumably in light of Matt 2:18.
[31:16] 37 tn The words “to her” are not in the text but are implicit from the context. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.
[31:16] 38 tn Heb “Refrain your voice from crying and your eyes from tears.”
[31:16] 39 tn Heb “your work.” Contextually her “work” refers to her weeping and refusing to be comforted, that is, signs of genuine repentance (v. 15).
