Yeremia 3:19

3:19 “I thought to myself, ¹ 

‘Oh what a joy it would be for me to treat you like a son! ² 

What a joy it would be for me to give ³  you a pleasant land,

the most beautiful piece of property there is in all the world!’ ⁴ 

I thought you would call me, ‘Father’ ⁵ 

and would never cease being loyal to me. ⁶ 

Yeremia 9:12

9:12 I said, ⁷ 

“Who is wise enough to understand why this has happened? ⁸ 

Who has a word from the Lord that can explain it? ⁹ 

Why does the land lie in ruins?

Why is it as scorched as a desert through which no one travels?”

Yeremia 11:5

11:5 Then I will keep the promise I swore on oath to your ancestors to give them a land flowing with milk and honey.” ¹⁰  That is the very land that you still live in today.’” ¹¹  And I responded, “Amen! Let it be so, ¹²  Lord!”

Yeremia 14:15

14:15 I did not send those prophets, though they claim to be prophesying in my name. They may be saying, ‘No war or famine will happen in this land.’ But I, the Lord, say this about ¹³  them: ‘War and starvation will kill those prophets.’ ¹⁴ 

Yeremia 16:14

16:14 Yet ¹⁵  I, the Lord, say: ¹⁶  “A new time will certainly come. ¹⁷  People now affirm their oaths with ‘I swear as surely as the Lord lives who delivered the people of Israel out of Egypt.’

Yeremia 23:5

23:5 “I, the Lord, promise ¹⁸  that a new time will certainly come ¹⁹ 

when I will raise up for them a righteous branch, ²⁰  a descendant of David.

He will rule over them with wisdom and understanding ²¹ 

and will do what is just and right in the land. ²² 

Yeremia 25:12

25:12 “‘But when the seventy years are over, I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation ²³  for their sins. I will make the land of Babylon ²⁴  an everlasting ruin. ²⁵  I, the Lord, affirm it! ²⁶ 

Yeremia 32:37

32:37 ‘I will certainly regather my people from all the countries where I will have exiled ²⁷  them in my anger, fury, and great wrath. I will bring them back to this place and allow them to live here in safety.

Yeremia 35:11

35:11 But when King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon invaded the land we said, ‘Let’s get up and go to Jerusalem ²⁸  to get away from the Babylonian ²⁹  and Aramean armies.’ That is why we are staying here in Jerusalem.”

Yeremia 37:7

37:7 “The Lord God of Israel says, ‘Give a message to the king of Judah who sent you to ask me to help him. ³⁰  Tell him, “The army of Pharaoh that was on its way to help you will go back home to Egypt. ³¹ 

Yeremia 44:21

44:21 “The Lord did indeed remember and call to mind what you did! He remembered the sacrifices you and your ancestors, your kings, your leaders, and all the rest of the people of the land offered to other gods ³²  in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. ³³ 

Yeremia 50:45

50:45 So listen to what I, the Lord, have planned against Babylon,

what I intend to do to the people who inhabit the land of Babylonia. ³⁴ 

Their little ones will be dragged off.

I will completely destroy their land because of what they have done.

[3:19]  ¹ tn Heb “I, myself, said.” See note on “I thought that she might come back to me” in 3:7.

[3:19]  ² tn Heb “How I would place you among the sons.” Israel appears to be addressed here contextually as the Lord’s wife (see the next verse). The pronouns of address in the first two lines are second feminine singular as are the readings of the two verbs preferred by the Masoretes (the Qere readings) in the third and fourth lines. The verbs that are written in the text in the third and fourth lines (the Kethib readings) are second masculine plural as is the verb describing Israel’s treachery in the next verse.

[3:19]  sn The imagery here appears to be that of treating the wife as an equal heir with the sons and of giving her the best piece of property.

[3:19]  ³ tn The words “What a joy it would be for me to” are not in the Hebrew text but are implied in the parallel structure.

[3:19]  ⁴ tn Heb “the most beautiful heritage among the nations.”

[3:19]  ⁵ tn Heb “my father.”

[3:19]  ⁶ tn Heb “turn back from [following] after me.”

[9:12]  ⁷ tn The words, “I said” are not in the text. It is not clear that a shift in speaker has taken place. However, the words of the verse are very unlikely to be a continuation of the Lord’s threat. It is generally assumed that these are the words of Jeremiah and that a dialogue is going on between him and the Lord in vv. 9-14. That assumption is accepted here.

[9:12]  ⁸ tn Heb “Who is the wise man that he may understand this?”

[9:12]  ⁹ tn Heb “And [who is the man] to whom the mouth of the Lord has spoken that he may explain it?”

[11:5]  ¹⁰ tn The phrase “a land flowing with milk and honey” is very familiar to readers in the Jewish and Christian traditions as a proverbial description of the agricultural and pastoral abundance of the land of Israel. However, it may not mean too much to readers outside those traditions; an equivalent expression would be “a land of fertile fields and fine pastures.” E. W. Bullinger (Figures of Speech, 626) identifies this as a figure of speech called synecdoche where the species is put for the genus, “a region…abounding with pasture and fruits of all kinds.”

[11:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “‘a land flowing with milk and honey,’ as at this day.” However, the literal reading is too elliptical and would lead to confusion.

[11:5]  ¹² tn The words “Let it be so” are not in the text; they are an explanation of the significance of the term “Amen” for those who may not be part of the Christian or Jewish tradition.

[11:5]  sn The word amen is found at the end of each of the curses in Deut 27 where the people express their agreement with the appropriateness of the curse for the offense mentioned.

[14:15]  ¹³ tn Heb “Thus says the Lord about.” The first person construction has been used in the translation for better English style.

[14:15]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who are prophesying in my name and I did not send them [= whom I did not send] and they are saying [= who are saying], ‘Sword and famine…’, by sword and famine those prophets will be killed.” This sentence has been restructured to conform to contemporary English style.

[14:15]  sn The rhetoric of the passage is again sustained by an emphatic word order which contrasts what they say will not happen to the land, “war and famine,” with the punishment that the Lord will inflict on them, i.e., “war and starvation [or famine].”

[16:14]  ¹⁵ tn The particle translated here “Yet” (לָכֵן, lakhen) is regularly translated “So” or “Therefore” and introduces a consequence. However, in a few cases it introduces a contrasting set of conditions. Compare its use in Judg 11:8; Jer 48:12; 49:2; 51:52; and Hos 2:14 (2:16 HT).

[16:14]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.” The Lord has been speaking; the first person has been utilized in translation to avoid a shift which might create confusion.

[16:14]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Behold the days are coming.”

[23:5]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[23:5]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “Behold the days are coming.”

[23:5]  ²⁰ tn Heb “a righteous sprig to David” or “a righteous shoot” (NAB).

[23:5]  sn This passage and the parallel in Jer 33:15 are part of a growing number of prayers and prophecies regarding an ideal ruler to come forth from the Davidic line who will bring the justice, security, and well-being that the continuing line of Davidic rulers did not. Though there were periodic kings like Josiah who did fulfill the ideals set forth in Jer 22:3 (see Jer 22:15), by and large they were more like Jehoiakim who did not (see Jer 22:13). Hence the Lord brought to an end the Davidic rule. The potential for the ideal, however, remained because of God’s promise to David (2 Sam 7:16). The Davidic line became like a tree which was cut down, leaving only a stump. But from that stump God would bring forth a “shoot,” a “sprig” which would fulfill the ideals of kingship. See Isa 11:1-6 and Zech 3:8, 6:12 for this metaphor and compare Dan 4:14-15, 23, 26 for a different but related use of the metaphor.

[23:5]  ²¹ tn Heb “he will reign as king and act wisely.” This is another example of the use of two verbs joined by “and” where one becomes the adverbial modifier of the other (hendiadys). For the nuance of the verb “act wisely” rather than “prosper” see Amos 5:13; Ps 2:10 (cf. BDB 968 s.v. שָׂכַל Hiph.5).

[23:5]  ²² sn This has been the constant emphasis in this section. See 22:3 for the demand, 22:15 for its fulfillment, and 22:13 for its abuse. The ideal king would follow in the footsteps of his illustrious ancestor David (2 Sam 8:15) who set this forth as an ideal for his dynasty (2 Sam 23:3) and prayed for it to be true of his son Solomon (Ps 72:1-2).

[25:12]  ²³ tn Heb “that nation.”

[25:12]  ²⁴ tn Heb “the land of the Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for the use of the term “Chaldeans.”

[25:12]  ²⁵ tn Heb “I will visit upon the king of Babylon and upon that nation, oracle of the Lord, their iniquity even upon the land of the Chaldeans and I will make it everlasting ruins.” The sentence has been restructured to avoid ambiguity and to conform the style more to contemporary English.

[25:12]  sn Compare Isa 13:19-22 and Jer 50:39-40.

[25:12]  ²⁶ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[32:37]  ²⁷ tn The verb here should be interpreted as a future perfect; though some of the people have already been exiled (in 605 and 597 b.c.), some have not yet been exiled at the time this prophesy is given (see study note on v. 1 for the date). However, contemporary English style does not regularly use the future perfect, choosing instead to use the simple future or the simple perfect as the present translation has done here.

[35:11]  ²⁸ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[35:11]  ²⁹ tn Heb “Chaldean.” For explanation see the study note on 21:4.

[37:7]  ³⁰ tn Or “to ask me what will happen.” The dominant usage of the verb דָּרַשׁ (darash) is to “inquire” in the sense of gaining information about what will happen (cf., e.g., 1 Kgs 14:5; 2 Kgs 8:8; 22:7-8) but it is also used in the sense of “seeking help” from (cf., e.g., Isa 31:1; 2 Chr 16:12; 20:3). The latter nuance appears appropriate in Jer 20:2 where Zedekiah is hoping for some miraculous intervention. That nuance also appears appropriate here where Zedekiah has sent messengers to ask Jeremiah to intercede on their behalf. However, it is also possible that the intent of both verbs is to find out from God whether the Egyptian mission will succeed and more permanent relief from the siege will be had.

[37:7]  ³¹ tn Heb “will go back to its land, Egypt.”

[44:21]  ³² tn The words “to other gods” are not in the text but are implicit from the context (cf. v. 17). They are supplied in the translation for clarity. It was not the act of sacrifice that was wrong but the recipient.

[44:21]  ³³ tn Heb “The sacrifices which you sacrificed in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, you and your fathers, your kings and your leaders and the people of the land, did not the Lord remember them and [did they not] come into his mind?” The question is again rhetorical and expects a positive answer. So it is rendered here as an affirmative statement for the sake of clarity and simplicity. An attempt has been made to shorten the long Hebrew sentence to better conform with contemporary English style.

[50:45]  ³⁴ tn The words “of Babylonia” are not in the text but are implicit from the context. They have been supplied in the translation to clarify the referent.

[50:45]  sn The verbs in vv. 22-25 are all descriptive of the present, but all of this is really to take place in the future. Hebrew poetry has a way of rendering future actions as though they were already accomplished. The poetry of this section makes it difficult, however, to render the verbs as future as the present translation has regularly done.