Yeremia 4:18

4:18 “The way you have lived and the things you have done ¹ 

will bring this on you.

This is the punishment you deserve, and it will be painful indeed. ² 

The pain will be so bad it will pierce your heart.” ³ 

Yeremia 5:13

5:13 The prophets will prove to be full of wind. ⁴ 

The Lord has not spoken through them. ⁵ 

So, let what they say happen to them.’”

Yeremia 6:28

6:28 I reported, ⁶ 

“All of them are the most stubborn of rebels! ⁷ 

They are as hard as bronze or iron.

They go about telling lies.

They all deal corruptly.

Yeremia 7:5

7:5 You must change ⁸  the way you have been living and do what is right. You must treat one another fairly. ⁹ 

Yeremia 15:18

15:18 Why must I continually suffer such painful anguish?

Why must I endure the sting of their insults like an incurable wound?

Will you let me down when I need you

like a brook one goes to for water, but that cannot be relied on?” ¹⁰ 

Yeremia 36:8

36:8 So Baruch son of Neriah did exactly what the prophet Jeremiah had told him to do. He read what the Lord had said from the scroll in the temple of the Lord. ¹¹ 

Yeremia 40:16

40:16 But Gedaliah son of Ahikam said to Johanan son of Kareah, “Do not do that ¹²  because what you are saying about Ishmael is not true.” ¹³ 

Yeremia 41:11

Johanan Rescues the People Ishmael Had Carried Off

41:11 Johanan son of Kareah and all the army officers who were with him heard about all the atrocities ¹⁴  that Ishmael son of Nethaniah had committed.

Yeremia 48:30

48:30 I, the Lord, affirm that ¹⁵  I know how arrogant they are.

But their pride is ill-founded.

Their boastings will prove to be false. ¹⁶ 

Yeremia 50:43

50:43 The king of Babylon will become paralyzed with fear ¹⁷ 

when he hears news of their coming. ¹⁸ 

Anguish will grip him,

agony like that of a woman giving birth to a baby. ¹⁹ 

Yeremia 51:10

51:10 The exiles from Judah will say, ²⁰ 

‘The Lord has brought about a great deliverance for us! ²¹ 

Come on, let’s go and proclaim in Zion

what the Lord our God has done!’

[4:18]  ¹ tn Heb “Your way and your deeds.”

[4:18]  ² tn Heb “How bitter!”

[4:18]  ³ 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.

[5:13]  ⁴ tn Heb “will be wind.”

[5:13]  sn There is a wordplay on the Hebrew word translated “wind” (רוּחַ, ruakh) which also means “spirit.” The prophets spoke by inspiration of the Spirit of the Lord (cf., e.g., 2 Chr 20:14); hence the prophet was sometimes called “the man of the spirit” (cf. Hos 9:7). The people were claiming that the prophets were speaking lies and hence were full of wind, not the Spirit.

[5:13]  ⁵ tc Heb “the word is not in them.” The MT has a highly unusual form here, the Piel perfect with the definite article (הַדִּבֵּר, haddibber). It is undoubtedly best to read with the LXX (Greek version) and one Hebrew ms the article on the noun (הַדָּבָר, haddavar).

[6:28]  ⁶ tn These words are not in the text but are supplied in the translation for clarity. Some takes these words to be the continuation of the Lord’s commission of Jeremiah to the task of testing them. However, since this is the evaluation, the task appears to be complete. The words are better to be taken as Jeremiah’s report after he has completed the task.

[6:28]  ⁷ tn Or “arch rebels,” or “hardened rebels.” Literally “rebels of rebels.”

[7:5]  ⁸ tn The infinitive absolute precedes the finite verb for emphasis.

[7:5]  ⁹ tn Heb “you must do justice between a person and his fellow/neighbor.” The infinitive absolute precedes the finite verb for emphasis.

[15:18]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Will you be to me like a deceptive (brook), like waters which do not last [or are not reliable].”

[15:18]  sn Jeremiah is speaking of the stream beds or wadis which fill with water after the spring rains but often dry up in the summer time. A fuller picture is painted in Job 6:14-21. This contrasts with the earlier metaphor that God had used of himself in Jer 2:13.

[36:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “And Baruch son of Neriah did according to all that the prophet Jeremiah commanded him with regard to reading from the scroll the words of the Lord in the temple of the Lord.” The sentence has been broken down and the modifiers placed where they belong to better conform to contemporary English style.

[40:16]  ¹² tn Heb “this thing.”

[40:16]  ¹³ tn Heb “is false” or “is a lie.”

[41:11]  ¹⁴ tn Or “crimes,” or “evil things”; Heb “the evil.”

[48:30]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[48:30]  ¹⁶ tn The meaning of this verse is somewhat uncertain: Heb “I know, oracle of the Lord,/ his arrogance and [that it is?] not true; // his boastings accomplish that which is not true.” Several of the modern English versions and commentaries redivide the verse and read something like, “I know his insolence…his boastings are false; his deeds are false (NRSV, REB).” However, the word translated “deeds” in the last line is a verb in the third person plural and can only have as its logical grammatical subject the word “boastings.” The adjective כֵּן (ken) + the negative לֹא (lo’) is evidently repeated here and applied to two different subjects “arrogance” and “boasting” to emphasize that Moab’s arrogant boasts will prove “untrue” (Cf. HALOT 459 s.v. II כֵּן 2.c for the meaning “untrue” for both this passage and the parallel one in Isa 16:6). There is some difference of opinion about the identification of the “I” in this verse. Most commentators see it as referring to the prophet. However, F. B. Huey (Jeremiah, Lamentations [NAC], 395) is probably correct in seeing it as referring to the Lord. He points to the fact that the “I” in vv. 33, 35, 38 can only refer to God. The “I know” in v. 30 also clearly has the Lord as its subject. There are other cases in the book of Jeremiah where the Lord expresses his lament over the fate of a people (cf. 14:1-6, 17-18).

[50:43]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “his hands will drop/hang limp.” For the meaning of this idiom see the translator’s note on 6:24.

[50:43]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “The king of Babylon hears report of them and his hands hang limp.” The verbs are translated as future because the passage is prophetic and the verbs may be interpreted as prophetic perfects (the action viewed as if it were as good as done). In the parallel passage in 6:24 the verbs could be understood as present perfects because the passage could be viewed as in the present. Here it is future.

[50:43]  ¹⁹ sn Compare Jer 6:22-24 where almost the same exact words as 50:41-43 are applied to the people of Judah. The repetition of prophecies here and in the following verses emphasizes the talionic nature of God’s punishment of Babylon; as they have done to others, so it will be done to them (cf. 25:14; 50:15).

[51:10]  ²⁰ tn The words “The exiles from Judah will say” are not in the text but are implicit from the words that follow. They are supplied in the translation to clearly identify for the reader the referent of “us.”

[51:10]  ²¹ tn There is some difference of opinion as to the best way to render the Hebrew expression here. Literally it means “brought forth our righteousnesses.” BDB 842 s.v. צְדָקָה 7.b interprets this of the “righteous acts” of the people of Judah and compares the usage in Isa 64:6; Ezek 3:20; 18:24; 33:13. However, Judah’s acts of righteousness (or more simply, their righteousness) was scarcely revealed in their deliverance. Most of the English versions and commentaries refer to “vindication” i.e., that the Lord has exonerated or proven Israel’s claims to be true. However, that would require more explanation than the idea of “deliverance” which is a perfectly legitimate usage of the term (cf. BDB 842 s.v. צְדָקָה 6.a and compare the usage in Isa 46:13; 51:6, 8; 56:1). The present translation interprets the plural form here as a plural of intensity or amplification (GKC 397-98 §124.e) and the suffix as a genitive of advantage (IBHS 147 §9.5.2e). This interpretation is also reflected in REB and God’s Word.