Yeremia 2:25

2:25 Do not chase after other gods until your shoes wear out

and your throats become dry. ¹ 

But you say, ‘It is useless for you to try and stop me

because I love those foreign gods ²  and want to pursue them!’

Yeremia 2:37

2:37 Moreover, you will come away from Egypt

with your hands covering your faces in sorrow and shame ³ 

because the Lord will not allow your reliance on them to be successful

and you will not gain any help from them. ⁴ 

Yeremia 7:14

7:14 So I will destroy this temple which I have claimed as my own, ⁵  this temple that you are trusting to protect you. I will destroy this place that I gave to you and your ancestors, ⁶  just like I destroyed Shiloh. ⁷ 

Yeremia 7:27

7:27 Then the Lord said to me, ⁸  “When you tell them all this, they will not listen to you. When you call out to them, they will not respond to you.

Yeremia 18:12

18:12 But they just keep saying, ‘We do not care what you say! ⁹  We will do whatever we want to do! We will continue to behave wickedly and stubbornly!’” ¹⁰ 

Yeremia 39:18

39:18 I will certainly save you. You will not fall victim to violence. ¹¹  You will escape with your life ¹²  because you trust in me. I, the Lord, affirm it!”’” ¹³ 

Yeremia 46:25

46:25 The Lord God of Israel who rules over all ¹⁴  says, “I will punish Amon, the god of Thebes. ¹⁵  I will punish Egypt, its gods, and its kings. I will punish Pharaoh and all who trust in him. ¹⁶ 

Yeremia 48:7

48:7 “Moab, you trust in the things you do and in your riches.

So you too will be conquered.

Your god Chemosh ¹⁷  will go into exile ¹⁸ 

along with his priests and his officials.

Yeremia 49:4

49:4 Why do you brag about your great power?

Your power is ebbing away, ¹⁹  you rebellious people of Ammon, ²⁰ 

who trust in your riches and say,

‘Who would dare to attack us?’

[2:25]  ¹ tn Heb “Refrain your feet from being bare and your throat from being dry/thirsty.”

[2:25]  ² tn Heb “It is useless! No!” For this idiom, see Jer 18:12; NEB “No; I am desperate.”

[2:37]  ³ tn Heb “with your hands on your head.” For the picture here see 2 Sam 13:19.

[2:37]  ⁴ tn Heb “The Lord has rejected those you trust in; you will not prosper by/from them.”

[7:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “over which my name is called.” For this nuance of this idiom cf. BDB 896 s.v. קָרָא Niph.2.d(4) and see the usage in 2 Sam 12:28.

[7:14]  ⁶ tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 22, 25, 26).

[7:14]  ⁷ tn Heb “I will do to this house which I…in which you put…and to this place which…as I did to Shiloh.”

[7:27]  ⁸ tn The words, “Then the Lord said to me” are not in the text but are implicit in the shift from the second and third person plural pronouns in vv. 21-26 and the second singular in this verse. The words are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[18:12]  ⁹ tn Heb “It is useless!” See the same expression in a similar context in Jer 2:25.

[18:12]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “We will follow our own plans and do each one according to the stubbornness of his own wicked heart.”

[18:12]  sn This has been the consistent pattern of their behavior. See 7:24; 9:13; 13:10; 16:12.

[39:18]  ¹¹ sn Heb “you will not fall by the sword.” In the context this would include death in battle and execution as a prisoner of war.

[39:18]  ¹² tn Heb “your life will be to you for spoil.” For the meaning of this idiom see the study note on 21:9 and compare the usage in 21:9; 38:2; 45:4.

[39:18]  ¹³ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[46:25]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.” For the significance of this title see the note at 2:19.

[46:25]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Amon of No.”

[46:25]  sn The Egyptian city called No (נֹא, no’) in Hebrew was Thebes. It is located about 400 miles (666 km) south of modern-day Cairo. It was the capital of Upper or southern Egypt and the center for the worship of the God Amon who became the state god of Egypt. Thebes is perhaps best known today for the magnificent temples at Karnak and Luxor on the east bank of the Nile.

[46:25]  ¹⁶ tc Heb “Behold I will punish Amon of No and Pharaoh and Egypt and its gods and its kings and Pharaoh and all who trust in him.” There appears to be a copyist slip involving a double writing of וְעַל־פַּרְעֹה (vÿ’al-par’oh). The present translation has followed the suggestion of BHS and deleted the first one since the second is necessary for the syntactical connection, “Pharaoh and all who trust in him.”

[48:7]  ¹⁷ sn Chemosh was the national god of Moab (see also Numb 21:29). Child sacrifice appears to have been a part of his worship (2 Kgs 3:27). Solomon built a high place in Jerusalem for him (1 Kgs 11:7), and he appears to have been worshiped in Israel until Josiah tore that high place down (2 Kgs 23:13).

[48:7]  ¹⁸ sn The practice of carrying off the gods of captive nations has already been mentioned in the study note on 43:12. See also Isa 46:1-2 noted there.

[49:4]  ¹⁹ tn Or “Why do you brag about your valleys, about the fruitfulness of your valleys.” The meaning of the first two lines of this verse are uncertain primarily due to the ambiguity of the expression זָב עִמְקֵךְ (zav ’imqekh). The form זָב (zav) is either a Qal perfect or Qal participle of a verb meaning flow. It is common in the expression “a land flowing with milk and honey” and is also common to refer to the seminal discharge or discharge of blood which makes a man or woman unclean. BDB 264 s.v. זוּב Qal.2 sees it as an abbreviation of the idea of “flowing with milk and honey” and sees it as referring to the fertility of Ammon’s valley. However, there are no other examples of such an ellipsis. Several of the modern English versions and commentaries have taken the word עֵמֶק (’emeq) not as a reference to a valley but to the homonym cited in the note on 47:5 and see the reference here to the flowing away of Ammon’s strength. That interpretation is followed here. Instead of explaining the plural ending on עֲמָקִים (’amaqim) as being an enclitic ם (mem) as others who follow this interpretation (e.g., J. Bright, Jeremiah [AB], 325), the present translation understands the plural as a plural of amplification (cf. GKC 397-98 §124.e and compare the noun “might” in Isa 40:26).

[49:4]  ²⁰ tn Heb “apostate daughter.” This same term is applied to Israel in Jer 31:22 but seems inappropriate here to Ammon because she had never been loyal to the Lord and could not hence be called “apostate.” However, if it is used of the fact that she rebelled against the Lord’s servant, Nebuchadnezzar, it might be appropriate (cf. Jer 27:6, 8). Hence the term “rebellious” is used in the translation to represent it. The word “daughter” is again a personification of the land (cf. BDB 123 s.v. בַּת 3) and is here translated “people of Ammon” to make it easier for the modern reader to identify the referent.