Yeremia 5:18

5:18 Yet even then ¹  I will not completely destroy you,” says the Lord.

Yeremia 31:6

31:6 Yes, a time is coming

when watchmen ²  will call out on the mountains of Ephraim,

“Come! Let us go to Zion

to worship the Lord our God!”’” ³ 

Yeremia 51:8

51:8 But suddenly Babylonia will fall and be destroyed. ⁴ 

Cry out in mourning over it!

Get medicine for her wounds!

Perhaps she can be healed!

[5:18]  ¹ tn Heb “in those days.”

[31:6]  ² sn Watchmen were stationed at vantage points to pass on warning of coming attack (Jer 6:17; Ezek 33:2, 6) or to spread the news of victory (Isa 52:8). Here reference is made to the watchmen who signaled the special times of the year such as the new moon and festival times when Israel was to go to Jerusalem to worship. Reference is not made to these in the Hebrew Bible but there is a good deal of instruction regarding them in the later Babylonian Talmud.

[31:6]  ³ sn Not only will Israel and Judah be reunited under one ruler (cf. 23:5-6), but they will share a unified place and practice of worship once again in contrast to Israel using the illicit places of worship, illicit priesthood, and illicit feasts instituted by Jeroboam (1 Kgs 12:26-31) and continued until the downfall of Samaria in 722 b.c.

[51:8]  ⁴ tn The verbs in this verse and the following are all in the Hebrew perfect tense, a tense that often refers to a past action or a past action with present results. However, as the translator’s notes have indicated, the prophets use this tense to view the actions as if they were as good as done (the Hebrew prophetic perfect). The stance here is ideal, viewed as already accomplished.