Yeremia 4:8

4:8 So put on sackcloth!

Mourn and wail, saying,

‘The fierce anger of the Lord

has not turned away from us!’” ¹ 

Yeremia 4:20

4:20 I see ²  one destruction after another taking place,

so that the whole land lies in ruins.

I see our ³  tents suddenly destroyed,

their ⁴  curtains torn down in a mere instant. ⁵ 

Yeremia 4:26

4:26 I looked and saw that the fruitful land had become a desert

and that all of the cities had been laid in ruins.

The Lord had brought this all about

because of his blazing anger. ⁶ 

Yeremia 6:28

6:28 I reported, ⁷ 

“All of them are the most stubborn of rebels! ⁸ 

They are as hard as bronze or iron.

They go about telling lies.

They all deal corruptly.

Yeremia 7:11

7:11 Do you think this temple I have claimed as my own ⁹  is to be a hideout for robbers? ¹⁰  You had better take note! ¹¹  I have seen for myself what you have done! says the Lord.

Yeremia 8:5

8:5 Why, then, do these people of Jerusalem ¹² 

continually turn away from me in apostasy?

They hold fast to their deception. ¹³ 

They refuse to turn back to me. ¹⁴ 

Yeremia 9:11

9:11 The Lord said, ¹⁵ 

“I will make Jerusalem ¹⁶  a heap of ruins.

Jackals will make their home there. ¹⁷ 

I will destroy the towns of Judah

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

Yeremia 9:14

9:14 Instead they have followed the stubborn inclinations of their own hearts. They have paid allegiance to ¹⁸  the gods called Baal, ¹⁹  as their fathers ²⁰  taught them to do.

Yeremia 17:23

17:23 Your ancestors, ²¹  however, did not listen to me or pay any attention to me. They stubbornly refused ²²  to pay attention or to respond to any discipline.’

Yeremia 19:2

19:2 Go out to the part of the Hinnom Valley which is near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate. ²³  Announce there what I tell you. ²⁴ 

Yeremia 20:17

20:17 For he did not kill me before I came from the womb,

making my pregnant mother’s womb my grave forever. ²⁵ 

Yeremia 22:9

22:9 The answer will come back, “It is because they broke their covenant with the Lord their God and worshiped and served other gods.”

Yeremia 23:19

23:19 But just watch! ²⁶  The wrath of the Lord

will come like a storm! ²⁷ 

Like a raging storm it will rage down ²⁸ 

on the heads of those who are wicked.

Yeremia 23:26

23:26 Those prophets are just prophesying lies. They are prophesying the delusions of their own minds. ²⁹ 

Yeremia 23:39

23:39 So ³⁰  I will carry you far off ³¹  and throw you away. I will send both you and the city I gave to you and to your ancestors out of my sight. ³² 

Yeremia 25:2

25:2 So the prophet Jeremiah spoke to all the people of Judah and to all the people who were living in Jerusalem. ³³ 

Yeremia 25:36

25:36 Listen to the cries of anguish of the leaders.

Listen to the wails of the shepherds of the flocks.

They are wailing because the Lord

is about to destroy their lands. ³⁴ 

Yeremia 26:22

26:22 However, King Jehoiakim sent some men to Egypt, including Elnathan son of Achbor, ³⁵ 

Yeremia 26:24

26:24 However, Ahikam son of Shaphan ³⁶  used his influence to keep Jeremiah from being handed over and executed by the people. ³⁷ 

Yeremia 29:2

29:2 He sent it after King Jeconiah, the queen mother, the palace officials, ³⁸  the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen, and the metal workers had been exiled from Jerusalem. ³⁹ 

Yeremia 29:4

29:4 “The Lord God of Israel who rules over all ⁴⁰  says to all those he sent ⁴¹  into exile to Babylon from Jerusalem, ⁴² 

Yeremia 29:12

29:12 When you call out to me and come to me in prayer, ⁴³  I will hear your prayers. ⁴⁴ 

Yeremia 29:20

29:20 ‘So pay attention to what I, the Lord, have said, ⁴⁵  all you exiles whom I have sent to Babylon from Jerusalem.’

Yeremia 30:23

30:23 Just watch! The wrath of the Lord

will come like a storm.

Like a raging storm it will rage down

on the heads of those who are wicked.

Yeremia 32:7

32:7 ‘Hanamel, the son of your uncle Shallum, will come to you soon. He will say to you, “Buy my field at Anathoth because you are entitled ⁴⁶  as my closest relative to buy it.”’ ⁴⁷ 

Yeremia 33:17

33:17 For I, the Lord, promise: “David will never lack a successor to occupy ⁴⁸  the throne over the nation of Israel. ⁴⁹ 

Yeremia 35:10

35:10 We have lived in tents. We have obeyed our ancestor Jonadab and done exactly as he commanded us. ⁵⁰ 

Yeremia 35:16

35:16 Yes, ⁵¹  the descendants of Jonadab son of Rechab have carried out the orders that their ancestor gave them. But you people ⁵²  have not obeyed me!

Yeremia 35:19

35:19 So the Lord God of Israel who rules over all says, ‘Jonadab son of Rechab will never lack a male descendant to serve me.’” ⁵³ 

Yeremia 39:13

39:13 So Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard, Nebushazban, who was a chief officer, Nergal-Sharezer, who was a high official, ⁵⁴  and all the other officers of the king of Babylon

Yeremia 41:17

41:17 They set out to go to Egypt to get away from the Babylonians, ⁵⁵  but stopped at Geruth Kimham ⁵⁶  near Bethlehem. ⁵⁷ 

Yeremia 42:9

42:9 Then Jeremiah said to them, “You sent me to the Lord God of Israel to make your request known to him. Here is what he says to you: ⁵⁸ 

Yeremia 43:4

43:4 So Johanan son of Kareah, all the army officers, and all the rest of the people did not obey the Lord’s command to stay in the land.

Yeremia 46:8

46:8 Egypt rises like the Nile,

like its streams turbulent at flood stage.

Egypt says, ‘I will arise and cover the earth.

I will destroy cities and the people who inhabit them.’

Yeremia 47:6

47:6 How long will you cry out, ⁵⁹  ‘Oh, sword of the Lord,

how long will it be before you stop killing? ⁶⁰ 

Go back into your sheath!

Stay there and rest!’ ⁶¹ 

Yeremia 48:26

48:26 “Moab has vaunted itself against me.

So make him drunk with the wine of my wrath ⁶² 

until he splashes ⁶³  around in his own vomit,

until others treat him as a laughingstock.

Yeremia 48:46

48:46 Moab, you are doomed! ⁶⁴ 

You people who worship Chemosh will be destroyed.

Your sons will be taken away captive.

Your daughters will be carried away into exile. ⁶⁵ 

Yeremia 50:23

50:23 Babylon hammered the whole world to pieces.

But see how that ‘hammer’ has been broken and shattered! ⁶⁶ 

See what an object of horror

Babylon has become among the nations!

Yeremia 50:27

50:27 Kill all her soldiers! ⁶⁷ 

Let them be slaughtered! ⁶⁸ 

They are doomed, ⁶⁹  for their day of reckoning ⁷⁰  has come,

the time for them to be punished.”

Yeremia 51:55

51:55 For the Lord is ready to destroy Babylon,

and put an end to her loud noise.

Their waves ⁷¹  will roar like turbulent ⁷²  waters.

They will make a deafening noise. ⁷³ 

Yeremia 52:27

52:27 The king of Babylon ordered them to be executed ⁷⁴  at Riblah in the territory of Hamath.

So Judah was taken into exile away from its land.

[4:8]  ¹ tn Or “wail because the fierce anger of the Lord has not turned away from us.” The translation does not need to assume a shift in speaker as the alternate reading does.

[4:20]  ² tn The words, “I see” are not in the text here or at the beginning of the third line. They are supplied in the translation to show that this is Jeremiah’s vision of what will happen as a result of the invasion announced in 4:5-9, 11-17a.

[4:20]  ³ tn Heb “my.” This is probably not a reference to Jeremiah’s own tents since he foresees the destruction of the whole land. Jeremiah so identifies with the plight of his people that he sees the destruction of their tents as though they were his very own. It would probably lead to confusion to translate literally and it is not uncommon in Hebrew laments for the community or its representative to speak of the community as an “I.” See for example the interchange between first singular and first plural pronouns in Ps 44:4-8.

[4:20]  ⁴ tn Heb “my.”

[4:20]  ⁵ tn It is not altogether clear what Jeremiah intends by the use of this metaphor. In all likelihood he means that the defenses of Israel’s cities and towns have offered no more resistance than nomads’ tents. However, in light of the fact that the word “tent” came to be used generically for a person’s home (cf. 1 Kgs 8:66; 12:16), it is possible that Jeremiah is here referring to the destruction of their homes and the resultant feeling of homelessness and loss of even elementary protection. Given the lack of certainty the present translation is rather literal here.

[4:26]  ⁶ tn Heb “because of the Lord, because of his blazing anger.”

[6:28]  ⁷ tn These words are not in the text but are supplied in the translation for clarity. Some takes these words to be the continuation of the Lord’s commission of Jeremiah to the task of testing them. However, since this is the evaluation, the task appears to be complete. The words are better to be taken as Jeremiah’s report after he has completed the task.

[6:28]  ⁸ tn Or “arch rebels,” or “hardened rebels.” Literally “rebels of rebels.”

[7:11]  ⁹ 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.

[7:11]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Is this house…a den/cave of robbers in your eyes?”

[7:11]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Behold!”

[8:5]  ¹² tc The text is quite commonly emended, changing שׁוֹבְבָה הָעָם (shovÿvah ha’am) to שׁוֹבָב הָעָם (shovav ha’am) and omitting יְרוּשָׁלַםִ (yÿrushalaim); this is due to the anomaly of a feminine singular verb with a masculine singular subject and the fact that the word “Jerusalem” is absent from one Hebrew ms and the LXX. However, it is possible that this is a case where the noun “Jerusalem” is a defining apposition to the word “these people,” an apposition which GKC 425 §131.k calls “permutation.” In this case the verb could be attracted to the appositional noun and there would be no reason to emend the text. The MT is undoubtedly the harder reading and is for that reason to be preferred.

[8:5]  map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[8:5]  ¹³ tn Or “to their allegiance to false gods,” or “to their false professions of loyalty”; Heb “to deceit.” Either “to their mistaken beliefs” or “to their allegiance to false gods” would fit the preceding context. The former is more comprehensive than the latter and was chosen for that reason.

[8:5]  ¹⁴ sn There is a continuing play on the same root word used in the preceding verse. Here the words “turn away from me,” “apostasy,” and “turn back to me” are all forms from the root that was translated “go the wrong way” and “turn around” in v. 4. The intended effect is to contrast Judah’s recalcitrant apostasy with the usual tendency to try and correct one’s mistakes.

[9:11]  ¹⁵ 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]  ¹⁶ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[9:11]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “a heap of ruins, a haunt for jackals.”

[9:14]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “they have gone/followed after.” See the translator’s note at 2:5 for the idiom.

[9:14]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the Baals,” referring either to the pagan gods called “Baals” or the images of Baal (so NLT).

[9:14]  ²⁰ tn Or “forefathers,” or “ancestors.” Here the referent could be the immediate parents or, by their example, more distant ancestors.

[17:23]  ²¹ tn Heb “They.” The antecedent is spelled out to avoid any possible confusion.

[17:23]  ²² tn Heb “They hardened [or made stiff] their neck so as not to.”

[19:2]  ²³ sn The exact location of the Potsherd Gate is unknown since it is nowhere else mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. It is sometimes identified with the Dung Gate mentioned in Neh 2:13; 3:13-14; 12:31 on the basis of the Jerusalem Targum. It is probably called “Potsherd Gate” because that is where the potter threw out the broken pieces of pottery which were no longer of use to him. The Valley of Ben Hinnom has already been mentioned in 7:31-32 in connection with the illicit religious practices, including child sacrifice, which took place there. The Valley of Ben Hinnom (or sometimes Valley of Hinnom) runs along the west and south sides of Jerusalem.

[19:2]  ²⁴ tn Heb “the words that I will speak to you.”

[20:17]  ²⁵ tn Heb “because he did not kill me from the womb so my mother might be to me for my grave and her womb eternally pregnant.” The sentence structure has been modified and the word “womb” moved from the last line to the next to the last line for English stylistic purposes and greater clarity.

[23:19]  ²⁶ tn Heb “Behold!”

[23:19]  ²⁷ tn The syntax of this line has generally been misunderstood, sometimes to the point that some want to delete the word wrath. Both here and in 30:23 where these same words occur the word “anger” stands not as an accusative of attendant circumstance but an apposition, giving the intended referent to the figure. Comparison should be made with Jer 25:15 where “this wrath” is appositional to “the cup of wine” (cf. GKC 425 §131.k).

[23:19]  ²⁸ tn The translation is deliberate, intending to reflect the repetition of the Hebrew root which is “swirl/swirling.”

[23:26]  ²⁹ sn See the parallel passage in Jer 14:13-15.

[23:39]  ³⁰ tn The translation of v. 38 and the first part of v. 39 represents the restructuring of a long and complex Hebrew sentence: Heb “But if you say, ‘The burden of the Lord,’ therefore this is what the Lord says, ‘Because you said this word, “The burden of the Lord,” even though I sent unto saying, “you shall not say, ‘The burden of the Lord,’ therefore…” The first “therefore” picks up the “if” (BDB 487 s.v. כֵּן 3.d) and the second answer the “because” (BDB 774 s.v. יַעַן 1).

[23:39]  ³¹ tc The translation follows a few Hebrew mss and the major versions. The majority of Hebrew mss read “I will totally forget [or certainly forget] you.” In place of וְנָשִׁיתִי (vÿnashiti) a few Hebrew mss, LXX, Aquila, Symmachus, Syriac, and Vulgate read וְנָשָׂאתִי (vÿnasa’ti). Instead of the infinitive absolute נָשׁאֹ (nasho’) a number of Hebrew mss, Aquila, Symmachus, Syriac, and Vulgate read נָשׂאֹ (naso’). For the confusion of III א and III ה verbs presupposed by the miswriting of the Hebrew text see GKC 216 §75.qq and compare the forms of נָבָא (nava’) in Jer 26:9 and 1 Sam 10:6. While the verb “forget” would not be totally inappropriate here it does not fit the concept of “throwing away from my presence” as well as “pick up” does. For the verb נָשָׂא (nasa’) meaning “carry you off” compare the usage in 1 Kgs 15:22; 18:12 (and see BDB 671 s.v. נָשָׂא 3.b). Many see the nuance “pick you up” carrying through on the wordplay in v. 33. While that may be appropriate for the repetition of the verb “throw away” (נָטַשׁ, natash) that follows, it does not seem as appropriate for the use of the infinitive absolute that follows the verb which expresses some kind of forcefulness (see GKC 343 §113.q).

[23:39]  ³² tn Heb “throw you and the city that I gave you and your fathers out of my presence.” The English sentences have been broken down to conform to contemporary English style.

[25:2]  ³³ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[25:36]  ³⁴ tn Heb “their pastures,” i.e., the place where they “shepherd” their “flocks.” The verb tenses in this section are not as clear as in the preceding. The participle in this verse is followed by a vav consecutive perfect like the imperatives in v. 34. The verbs in v. 38 are perfects but they can be and probably should be understood as prophetic like the perfect in v. 31 (נְתָנָם, nÿtanam) which is surrounded by imperfects, participles, and vav consecutive perfects.

[25:36]  sn Jer 25:36-38 shifts to the future as though the action were already accomplished or going on. It is the sound that Jeremiah hears in his “prophetic ears” of something that has begun (v. 29) but will find its culmination in the future (vv. 13, 16, 27, 30-35).

[26:22]  ³⁵ sn Elnathan son of Achbor was one of the officials who urged Jeremiah and Baruch to hide after they heard Jeremiah’s prophecies read before them (Jer 36:11-19). He was also one of the officials who urged Jehoiakim not to burn the scroll containing Jeremiah’s prophecies (Jer 36:25). He may have been Jehoiakim’s father-in-law (2 Kgs 24:6, 8).

[26:24]  ³⁶ sn Ahikam son of Shaphan was an official during the reign of Jehoiakim’s father, Josiah (2 Kgs 22:12, 14). He was also the father of Gedaliah who became governor of Judah after the fall of Jerusalem (Jer 40:5). The particle at the beginning of the verse is meant to contrast the actions of this man with the actions of Jehoiakim. The impression created by this verse is that it took more than just the royal officials’ opinion and the elders’ warnings to keep the priests and prophets from swaying popular opinion to put Jeremiah to death.

[26:24]  ³⁷ tn Heb “Nevertheless, the hand of Ahikam son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah so that he would not be given (even more literally, ‘so as not to give him’) into the hand of the people to kill him.” “Hand” is often used for “aid,” “support,” “influence,” “power,” “control.”

[29:2]  ³⁸ tn This term is often mistakenly understood to refer to a “eunuch.” It is clear, however, in Gen 39:1 that “eunuchs” could be married. On the other hand it is clear from Isa 59:3-5 that some who bore this title could not have children. In this period, it is possible that the persons who bore this title were high officials like the rab saris who was a high official in the Babylonian court (cf. Jer 39:3, 13; 52:25). For further references see HALOT 727 s.v. סָרִיס 1.c.

[29:2]  ³⁹ sn See 2 Kgs 24:14-16 and compare the study note on Jer 24:1.

[29:4]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.”

[29:4]  sn See study notes on 2:19 and 7:3 for the explanation of this title.

[29:4]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “I sent.” This sentence exhibits a rapid switch in person, here from the third person to the first. Such switches are common to Hebrew poetry and prophecy (cf. GKC 462 §144.p). Contemporary English, however, does not exhibit such rapid switches and it creates confusion for the careful reader. Such switches have regularly been avoided in the translation.

[29:4]  sn Elsewhere Nebuchadnezzar is seen as the one who carried them into exile (cf. 27:20; 29:1). Here and in v. 14 the Lord is seen as the one who sends them into exile. The Lord is the ultimate cause and Nebuchadnezzar is his agent or servant (cf. 25:9; 27:6 and notes).

[29:4]  ⁴² map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[29:12]  ⁴³ tn Heb “come and pray to me.” This is an example of verbal hendiadys where two verb formally joined by “and” convey a main concept with the second verb functioning as an adverbial qualifier.

[29:12]  ⁴⁴ tn Or “You will call out to me and come to me in prayer and I will hear your prayers.” The verbs are vav consecutive perfects and can be taken either as unconditional futures or as contingent futures. See GKC 337 §112.kk and 494 §159.g and compare the usage in Gen 44:22 for the use of the vav consecutive perfects in contingent futures. The conditional clause in the middle of 29:13 and the deuteronomic theology reflected in both Deut 30:1-5 and 1 Kgs 8:46-48 suggest that the verbs are continent futures here. For the same demand for wholehearted seeking in these contexts which presuppose exile see especially Deut 30:2, 1 Kgs 8:48.

[29:20]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “pay attention to the word of the Lord.” However, the Lord is speaking in the words just previous to this and in the words which follow (“whom I have sent”). This is another example of the shift from third person referent to first person which is common in Hebrew poetry and prophecy but is not common in English style. The person has been adjusted in the translation to avoid confusion.

[32:7]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “your right.” The term מִשְׁפָּט (mishpat) here and in v. 8 refers to legal entitlement for the option to purchase a property (BDB 1049 s.v. מִשְׁפָּט 5; cf. Deut 21:17).

[32:7]  ⁴⁷ sn Underlying this request are the laws of redemption of property spelled out in Lev 25:25-34 and illustrated in Ruth 4:3-4. Under these laws, if a property owner became impoverished and had to sell his land, the nearest male relative had the right and duty to buy it so that it would not pass out of the use of the extended family. The land, however, would not actually belong to Jeremiah because in the year of Jubilee it reverted to its original owner. All Jeremiah was actually buying was the right to use it (Lev 25:13-17). Buying the field, thus, did not make any sense (thus Jeremiah’s complaint in v. 25) other than the fact that the Lord intended to use Jeremiah’s act as a symbol of a restored future in the land.

[33:17]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “a man shall not be cut off to David [i.e., belonging to the Davidic line] sitting on the throne of the house of Israel.”

[33:17]  ⁴⁹ sn It should be noted once again that the reference is to all Israel, not just to Judah (cf. Jer 23:5-6; 30:9).

[35:10]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “We have obeyed and done according to all which our ancestor Jonadab commanded us.”

[35:16]  ⁵¹ tn This is an attempt to represent the particle כִּי (ki) which is probably not really intensive here (cf. BDB 472 s.v. כִּי 1.e) but is one of those causal uses of כִּי that BDB discusses on 473-74 s.v. כִּי 3.c where the cause is really the failure of the people of Judah and Jerusalem to listen/obey. I.e., the causal particle is at the beginning of the sentence so as not to interrupt the contrast drawn.

[35:16]  ⁵² tn Heb “this people.” However, the speech is addressed to the people of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem, so the second person is retained in English. In addition to the stylistic difference that Hebrew exhibits in the rapid shift between persons (second to third and third to second, which have repeatedly been noted and documented from GKC 462 §144.p) there may be a subtle rhetorical reason for the shift here. The shift from direct address to indirect address which characterizes this verse and the next may reflect the Lord’s rejection of the people he is addressing. A similar shift takes place in Wisdom’s address to the simple minded, fools, and mockers in Prov 1:28-32 after the direct address of 1:22-27.

[35:19]  ⁵³ tn Heb “There shall not be cut to Jonadab son of Rechab a man standing before me all the days.” For the first part of this idiom see 33:17-18 where it is applied to David always having a descendant to occupy the throne and the Levites will always have priests to offer up sacrifices. For the latter part of the idiom “to stand before” referring to service see BDB 764 s.v. עָמַד 1.e and compare the usage in 1 Kgs 1:2; 2 Kgs 3:14; Jer 15:19; Deut 10:8. As comparison with those passages will show, it refers to attending on, or serving a superior, a king, or the Lord. It is used of both prophets (e.g., 1 Kgs 17:1) and priests (e.g., Deut 10:8) serving the Lord. Its most common use is to refer to priestly service. The nature of the service is not further defined in this case, though several of the commentaries point out a Mishnaic tradition that the Rechabites later were given the function of bringing wood for the altar.

[39:13]  ⁵⁴ tn See the translator’s notes on 39:3, 9 for the names and titles here.

[41:17]  ⁵⁵ tn Heb “Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for explanation.

[41:17]  ⁵⁶ sn Geruth Kimham is nowhere else mentioned in the Bible and its precise location is unknown. Many commentators relate the second part of the name to the name of the son of David’s benefactor when he fled from Absalom (2 Sam 19:38-39) and see this as a reference to an estate that David assigned this son as reward for his father’s largess. Gibeon was about six miles northwest of Jerusalem and Benjamin is approximately the same distance southwest of it. Hence, the people mentioned here had not traveled all that far.

[41:17]  ⁵⁷ map For location see Map5 B1; Map7 E2; Map8 E2; Map10 B4.

[42:9]  ⁵⁸ tn Heb “Thus says the Lord God of Israel to whom you sent me to present your petition before him, ‘…’” The sentence has been restructured to cut down on the length of the introduction leading in to the long quote.

[42:9]  sn Their “request” is that Jeremiah would tell them where to go and what to do (v. 3).

[47:6]  ⁵⁹ tn The words “How long will you cry out” are not in the text but some such introduction seems necessary because the rest of the speech assumes a personal subject.

[47:6]  ⁶⁰ tn Heb “before you are quiet/at rest.”

[47:6]  ⁶¹ sn The passage is highly figurative. The sword of the Lord, which is itself a figure of the destructive agency of the enemy armies, is here addressed as a person and is encouraged in rhetorical questions (the questions are designed to dissuade) to “be quiet,” “be at rest,” “be silent,” all of which is designed to get the Lord to call off the destruction against the Philistines.

[48:26]  ⁶² tn Heb “Make him drunk because he has magnified himself against the Lord.” The first person has again been adopted for consistency within a speech of the Lord. Almost all of the commentaries relate the figure of drunkenness to the figure of drinking the cup of God’s wrath spelled out in Jer 25 where reference is made at one point to the nations drinking, staggering, vomiting, and falling (25:27 and see G. L. Keown, P. J. Scalise, T. G. Smothers, Jeremiah 26-52 [WBC], 316, for a full list of references to this figure including this passage and 49:12-13; 51:6-10, 39, 57).

[48:26]  ⁶³ tn The meaning of this word is uncertain. It is usually used of clapping the hands or the thigh in helpless anger or disgust. Hence J. Bright (Jeremiah [AB], 321) paraphrases “shall vomit helplessly.” HALOT 722 s.v. II סָפַק relates this to an Aramaic word and see a homonym meaning “vomit” or “spew out.” The translation is that of BDB 706 s.v. סָפַק Qal.3, “splash (fall with a splash),” from the same root that refers to slapping or clapping the thigh.

[48:46]  ⁶⁴ tn Heb “Woe to you, Moab.” For the usage of this expression see 4:13, 31; 13:17 and the translator’s note on 4:13 and 10:19.

[48:46]  ⁶⁵ tn Heb “Your sons will be taken away into captivity, your daughters into exile.”

[50:23]  ⁶⁶ tn Heb “How broken and shattered is the hammer of all the earth!” The “hammer” is a metaphor for Babylon who was God’s war club to shatter the nations and destroy kingdoms just like Assyria is represented in Isa 10:5 as a rod and a war club. Some readers, however, might not pick up on the metaphor or identify the referent, so the translation has incorporated an identification of the metaphor and the referent within it. “See how” and “See what” are an attempt to capture the nuance of the Hebrew particle אֵיךְ (’ekh) which here expresses an exclamation of satisfaction in a taunt song (cf. BDB 32 s.v. אֵיךְ 2 and compare usage in Isa 14:4, 12; Jer 50:23).

[50:27]  ⁶⁷ tn Heb “Kill all her young bulls.” Commentators are almost universally agreed that the reference to “young bulls” is figurative here for the princes and warriors (cf. BDB 831 s.v. פַּר 2.f, which compares Isa 34:7 and Ezek 39:18). This is virtually certain because of the reference to the time coming for them to be punished; this would scarcely fit literal bulls. For the verb rendered “kill” here see the translator’s note on v. 21.

[50:27]  ⁶⁸ tn Heb “Let them go down to the slaughter.”

[50:27]  ⁶⁹ tn Or “How terrible it will be for them”; Heb “Woe to them.” See the study note on 22:13 and compare the usage in 23:1; 48:1.

[50:27]  ⁷⁰ tn The words “of reckoning” are not in the text but are implicit from the context. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[51:55]  ⁷¹ tn The antecedent of the third masculine plural pronominal suffix is not entirely clear. It probably refers back to the “destroyers” mentioned in v. 53 as the agents of God’s judgment on Babylon.

[51:55]  ⁷² tn Or “mighty waters.”

[51:55]  ⁷³ tn Heb “and the noise of their sound will be given,”

[52:27]  ⁷⁴ tn Heb “struck them down and killed them.”