Yeremia 9:15

9:15 So then, listen to what I, the Lord God of Israel who rules over all, ¹  say. ²  ‘I will make these people eat the bitter food of suffering and drink the poison water of judgment. ³ 

Yeremia 10:24

10:24 Correct us, Lord, but only in due measure. ⁴ 

Do not punish us in anger or you will reduce us to nothing. ⁵ 

Yeremia 23:15

23:15 So then I, the Lord who rules over all, ⁶ 

have something to say concerning the prophets of Jerusalem: ⁷ 

‘I will make these prophets eat the bitter food of suffering

and drink the poison water of judgment. ⁸ 

For the prophets of Jerusalem are the reason ⁹ 

that ungodliness ¹⁰  has spread throughout the land.’”

[9:15]  ¹ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.”

[9:15]  sn See the study notes on 2:9 and 7:3.

[9:15]  ² tn Heb “Therefore, thus says the Lord…” The person is shifted from third to first to better conform with English style.

[9:15]  ³ tn Heb “I will feed this people wormwood and make them drink poison water.” “Wormwood” and “poison water” are not to be understood literally here but are symbolic of judgment and suffering. See, e.g., BDB 542 s.v. לַעֲנָה.

[10:24]  ⁴ tn Heb “with justice.”

[10:24]  ⁵ tn The words, “to almost nothing” are not in the text. They are implicit from the general context and are supplied by almost all English versions.

[23:15]  ⁶ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.”

[23:15]  sn See the study note on 2:19 for explanation of this title.

[23:15]  ⁷ tn Heb “Therefore, thus says the Lord…concerning the prophets.” The person is shifted to better conform with English style and the word “of Jerusalem” is supplied in the translation to avoid the possible misunderstanding that the judgment applies to the prophets of Samaria who had already been judged long before.

[23:15]  ⁸ tn Heb “I will feed this people wormwood and make them drink poison water.” For these same words of judgment on another group see 9:15 (9:14 HT). “Wormwood” and “poison water” are not to be understood literally here but are symbolic of judgment and suffering. See, e.g., BDB 542 s.v. לַעֲנָה.

[23:15]  ⁹ tn The compound preposition מֵאֵת (me’et) expresses source or origin (see BDB 86 s.v. אֵת 4.c). Context shows that the origin is in their false prophesying which encourages people in their evil behavior.

[23:15]  ¹⁰ sn A word that derives from this same Hebrew word is used in v. 11 at the beginning of the Lord’s criticism of the prophet and priest. This is a common rhetorical device for bracketing material that belongs together. The criticism has, however, focused on the false prophets and the judgment due them.