Yeremia 18:3

18:3 So I went down to the potter’s house and found him working ¹  at his wheel. ² 

Yeremia 22:1

22:1 The Lord told me, ³  “Go down ⁴  to the palace of the king of Judah. Give him a message from me there. ⁵ 

Yeremia 25:16

25:16 When they have drunk it, they will stagger to and fro ⁶  and act insane. For I will send wars sweeping through them.” ⁷ 

Yeremia 29:5

29:5 ‘Build houses and settle down. Plant gardens and eat what they produce.

Yeremia 44:12

44:12 I will see to it that all the Judean remnant that was determined to go ⁸  and live in the land of Egypt will be destroyed. Here in the land of Egypt they will fall in battle ⁹  or perish from starvation. People of every class ¹⁰  will die in war or from starvation. They will become an object of horror and ridicule, an example of those who have been cursed and that people use in pronouncing a curse. ¹¹ 

Yeremia 46:17

46:17 There at home they will say, ‘Pharaoh king of Egypt is just a big noise! ¹² 

He has let the most opportune moment pass by.’ ¹³ 

Yeremia 48:21

48:21 “Judgment will come on the cities on the high plain: ¹⁴  on Holon, Jahzah, and Mephaath,

Yeremia 49:39

49:39 “Yet in days to come

I will reverse Elam’s ill fortune.” ¹⁵ 

says the Lord. ¹⁶ 

Yeremia 51:54

51:54 Cries of anguish will come from Babylon,

the sound of great destruction from the land of the Babylonians.

[18:3]  ¹ tn Heb “And behold he was working.”

[18:3]  ² sn At his wheel (Heb “at the two stones”). The Hebrew expression is very descriptive of the construction of a potter’s wheel which consisted of two stones joined by a horizontal shaft. The potter rotated the wheel with his feet on the lower wheel and worked the clay with his hands on the upper. For a picture of a potter working at his wheel see I. Ben-Dor, “Potter’s Wheel,” IDB 3:846. See also the discussion regarding the making of pottery in J. L. Kelso, “Pottery,” IDB 3:846-53.

[22:1]  ³ tn The word “me “ is not in the text. It is, however, implicit and is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[22:1]  ⁴ sn The allusion here is to going down from the temple to the palace which was on a lower eminence. See 36:12 in its context.

[22:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “And speak there this word:” The translation is intended to eliminate an awkward and lengthy sentence.

[25:16]  ⁶ tn There is some debate about the meaning of the verb here. Both BDB 172 s.v. גָּעַשׁ Hithpo and KBL 191 s.v. גָּעַשׁ Hitpol interpret this of the back and forth movement of staggering. HALOT 192 s.v. גָּעַשׁ Hitpo interprets it as vomiting. The word is used elsewhere of the up and down movement of the mountains (2 Sam 22:8) and the up and down movement of the rolling waves of the Nile (Jer 46:7, 8). The fact that a different verb is used in v. 27 for vomiting would appear to argue against it referring to vomiting (contra W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah [Hermeneia], 1:674; it is “they” that do this not their stomachs).

[25:16]  ⁷ tn Heb “because of the sword that I will send among them.” Here, as often elsewhere in Jeremiah, the sword is figurative for warfare which brings death. See, e.g., 15:2. The causal particle here is found in verbal locutions where it is the cause of emotional states or action. Hence there are really two “agents” which produce the effects of “staggering” and “acting insane,” the cup filled with God’s wrath and the sword. The sword is the “more literal” and the actual agent by which the first agent’s action is carried out.

[44:12]  ⁸ tn Heb “they set their face to go.” Compare 44:11 and 42:14 and see the translator’s note at 42:15.

[44:12]  ⁹ tn Heb “fall by the sword.”

[44:12]  ¹⁰ tn Or “All of them without distinction,” or “All of them from the least important to the most important”; Heb “From the least to the greatest.” See the translator’s note on 42:1 for the meaning of this idiom.

[44:12]  ¹¹ tn See the study note on 24:9 and the usage in 29:22 for the meaning and significance of this last phrase.

[44:12]  sn See Jer 42:18 for parallel usage.

[46:17]  ¹² tn Heb “is a noise.” The addition of “just a big” is contextually motivated and is supplied in the translation to suggest the idea of sarcasm. The reference is probably to his boast in v. 8.

[46:17]  ¹³ tn Heb “he has let the appointed time pass him by.” It is unclear what is meant by the reference to “appointed time” other than the fact that Pharaoh has missed his opportunity to do what he claimed to be able to do. The Greek text is again different here. It reads “Call the name of Pharaoh Necho king of Egypt Saon esbeie moed,” reading קִרְאוּ שֵׁם (qir’u shem) for קָרְאוּ שָׁם (qor’u) and transliterating the last line.

[48:21]  ¹⁴ sn See the study note on Jer 48:8 for reference to this tableland or high plain that lay between the Arnon and Heshbon.

[49:39]  ¹⁵ tn See Jer 29:14; 30:3 and the translator’s note on 29:14 for the idiom used here.

[49:39]  sn See a similar note on the reversal of Moab’s fortunes in Jer 48:47 and compare also 46:26 for a future restoration of Egypt.

[49:39]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”