Yeremia 4:5

Warning of Coming Judgment

4:5 The Lord said, ¹ 

“Announce ²  this in Judah and proclaim it in Jerusalem: ³ 

‘Sound the trumpet ⁴  throughout the land!’

Shout out loudly,

‘Gather together! Let us flee into the fortified cities!’

Yeremia 4:16

4:16 They are saying, ⁵ 

‘Announce to the surrounding nations, ⁶ 

“The enemy is coming!” ⁷ 

Proclaim this message ⁸  to Jerusalem:

“Those who besiege cities ⁹  are coming from a distant land.

They are ready to raise the battle cry against ¹⁰  the towns in Judah.”’

Yeremia 9:11

9:11 The Lord said, ¹¹ 

“I will make Jerusalem ¹²  a heap of ruins.

Jackals will make their home there. ¹³ 

I will destroy the towns of Judah

so that no one will be able to live in them.”

Yeremia 10:22

10:22 Listen! News is coming even now. ¹⁴ 

The rumble of a great army is heard approaching ¹⁵  from a land in the north. ¹⁶ 

It is coming to turn the towns of Judah into rubble,

places where only jackals live.

Yeremia 11:12

11:12 Then those living in the towns of Judah and in Jerusalem will ¹⁷  go and cry out for help to the gods to whom they have been sacrificing. However, those gods will by no means ¹⁸  be able to save them when disaster strikes them.

Yeremia 25:18

25:18 I made Jerusalem ¹⁹  and the cities of Judah, its kings and its officials drink it. ²⁰  I did it so Judah would become a ruin. I did it so Judah, its kings, and its officials would become an object ²¹  of horror and of hissing scorn, an example used in curses. ²²  Such is already becoming the case! ²³ 

[4:5]  ¹ tn The words “The Lord said” are not in the text, but it is obvious from v. 6 and v. 9 that he is the speaker. These words are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[4:5]  ² tn It is unclear who the addressees of the masculine plural imperatives are here. They may be the citizens of Jerusalem and Judah who are sounding the alarm to others. However, the first person reference to the Lord in v. 6 and Jeremiah’s response in v. 10 suggest that this is a word from the Lord that he is commanded to pass on to the citizens of Jerusalem and Judah. If the imperatives are not merely rhetorical plurals they may reflect the practice referred to in Jer 23:18, 22; Amos 3:7. A similar phenomenon also occurs in Jer 5:1 and also in Isa 40:1-2. This may also be the explanation for the plural imperatives in Jer 31:6. For further discussion see the translator’s note on Jer 5:1.

[4:5]  ³ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[4:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “ram’s horn,” but the modern equivalent is “trumpet” and is more readily understandable.

[4:16]  ⁵ tn The words “They are saying” are not in the text but are implicit in the connection and are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[4:16]  ⁶ tn The word “surrounding” is not in the text but is implicit and is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[4:16]  ⁷ tc Or “Here they come!” Heb “Look!” or “Behold!” Or “Announce to the surrounding nations, indeed [or yes] proclaim to Jerusalem, ‘Besiegers…’” The text is very elliptical here. Some of the modern English versions appear to be emending the text from הִנֵּה (hinneh, “behold”) to either הֵנָּה (hennah, “these things”; so NEB), or הַזֶּה (hazzeh, “this”; so NIV). The solution proposed here is as old as the LXX which reads, “Behold, they have come.”

[4:16]  ⁸ tn The words, “this message,” are not in the text but are supplied in the translation to make the introduction of the quote easier.

[4:16]  ⁹ tn Heb “Besiegers.” For the use of this verb to refer to besieging a city compare Isa 1:8.

[4:16]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “They have raised their voices against.” The verb here, a vav (ו) consecutive with an imperfect, continues the nuance of the preceding participle “are coming.”

[9:11]  ¹¹ tn The words “the Lord said” are not in the text, but it is obvious from the content that he is the speaker. These words are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[9:11]  ¹² map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[9:11]  ¹³ tn Heb “a heap of ruins, a haunt for jackals.”

[10:22]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “The sound of a report, behold, it is coming.”

[10:22]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “ coming, even a great quaking.”

[10:22]  ¹⁶ sn Compare Jer 6:22.

[11:12]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Then the towns of Judah and those living in Jerusalem will…”

[11:12]  ¹⁸ tn The Hebrew construction is emphatic involving the use of an infinitive of the verb before the verb itself (Heb “saving they will not save”). For this construction to give emphasis to an antithesis, cf. GKC 343 §113.p.

[25:18]  ¹⁹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[25:18]  ²⁰ tn The words “I made” and “drink it” are not in the text. The text from v. 18 to v. 26 contains a list of the nations that Jeremiah “made drink it.” The words are supplied in the translation here and at the beginning of v. 19 for the sake of clarity. See also the note on v. 26.

[25:18]  ²¹ tn Heb “in order to make them a ruin, an object of…” The sentence is broken up and the antecedents are made specific for the sake of clarity and English style.

[25:18]  ²² tn See the study note on 24:9 for explanation.

[25:18]  ²³ tn Heb “as it is today.” This phrase would obviously be more appropriate after all these things had happened as is the case in 44:6, 23 where the verbs referring to these conditions are past. Some see this phrase as a marginal gloss added after the tragedies of 597 b.c. or 586 b.c. However, it may refer here to the beginning stages where Judah has already suffered the loss of Josiah, of its freedom, of some of its temple treasures, and of some of its leaders (Dan 1:1-3. The different date for Jehoiakim there is due to the different method of counting the king’s first year; the third year there is the same as the fourth year in 25:1).