Yeremia 6:12

6:12 Their houses will be turned over to others

as will their fields and their wives.

For I will unleash my power ¹ 

against those who live in this land,”

says the Lord.

Yeremia 7:30

7:30 The Lord says, “I have rejected them because ²  the people of Judah have done what I consider evil. ³  They have set up their disgusting idols in the temple ⁴  which I have claimed for my own ⁵  and have defiled it.

Yeremia 11:6

11:6 The Lord said to me, “Announce all the following words in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem: ‘Listen to the terms of my covenant with you ⁶  and carry them out!

Yeremia 11:12

11:12 Then those living in the towns of Judah and in Jerusalem will ⁷  go and cry out for help to the gods to whom they have been sacrificing. However, those gods will by no means ⁸  be able to save them when disaster strikes them.

Yeremia 11:21

11:21 Then the Lord told me about ⁹  some men from Anathoth ¹⁰  who were threatening to kill me. ¹¹  They had threatened, ¹²  “Stop prophesying in the name of the Lord or we will kill you!” ¹³ 

Yeremia 13:14

13:14 And I will smash them like wine bottles against one another, children and parents alike. ¹⁴  I will not show any pity, mercy, or compassion. Nothing will keep me from destroying them,’ ¹⁵  says the Lord.”

Yeremia 15:5

15:5 The Lord cried out, ¹⁶ 

“Who in the world ¹⁷  will have pity on you, Jerusalem?

Who will grieve over you?

Who will stop long enough ¹⁸ 

to inquire about how you are doing? ¹⁹ 

Yeremia 16:3

16:3 For I, the Lord, tell you what will happen to ²⁰  the children who are born here in this land and to the men and women who are their mothers and fathers. ²¹ 

Yeremia 18:17

18:17 I will scatter them before their enemies

like dust blowing in front of a burning east wind.

I will turn my back on them and not look favorably on them ²² 

when disaster strikes them.”

Yeremia 20:16

20:16 May that man be like the cities ²³ 

that the Lord destroyed without showing any mercy.

May he hear a cry of distress in the morning

and a battle cry at noon.

Yeremia 23:34

23:34 I will punish any prophet, priest, or other person who says “The Lord’s message is burdensome.” ²⁴  I will punish both that person and his whole family.’” ²⁵ 

Yeremia 24:5-6

24:5 “I, the Lord, the God of Israel, say: ‘The exiles whom I sent away from here to the land of Babylon ²⁶  are like those good figs. I consider them to be good. 24:6 I will look after their welfare ²⁷  and will restore them to this land. There I will build them up and will not tear them down. I will plant them firmly in the land ²⁸  and will not uproot them. ²⁹ 

Yeremia 25:15

Judah and the Nations Will Experience God’s Wrath

25:15 So ³⁰  the Lord, the God of Israel, spoke to me in a vision. ³¹  “Take this cup from my hand. It is filled with the wine of my wrath. ³²  Take it and make the nations to whom I send you drink it.

Yeremia 26:16

26:16 Then the officials and all the people rendered their verdict to the priests and the prophets. They said, ³³  “This man should not be condemned to die. ³⁴  For he has spoken to us under the authority of the Lord our God.” ³⁵ 

Yeremia 27:12

27:12 I told King Zedekiah of Judah the same thing. I said, ³⁶  “Submit ³⁷  to the yoke of servitude to ³⁸  the king of Babylon. Be subject to him and his people. Then you will continue to live.

Yeremia 29:19

29:19 For they have not paid attention to what I said to them through my servants the prophets whom I sent to them over and over again,’ ³⁹  says the Lord. ⁴⁰  ‘And you exiles ⁴¹  have not paid any attention to them either,’ says the Lord. ⁴² 

Yeremia 29:25

29:25 that the Lord God of Israel who rules over all ⁴³  has a message for him. ⁴⁴  Tell him, ⁴⁵  ‘On your own initiative ⁴⁶  you sent a letter ⁴⁷  to the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah ⁴⁸  and to all the other priests and to all the people in Jerusalem. ⁴⁹  In your letter you said to Zephaniah, ⁵⁰ 

Yeremia 33:26

33:26 Just as surely as I have done this, so surely will I never reject the descendants of Jacob. Nor will I ever refuse to choose one of my servant David’s descendants to rule over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Indeed, ⁵¹  I will restore them ⁵²  and show mercy to them.”

Yeremia 34:9-11

34:9 Everyone was supposed to free their male and female Hebrew slaves. No one was supposed to keep a fellow Judean enslaved. ⁵³  34:10 All the people and their leaders had agreed to this. They had agreed to free their male and female slaves and not keep them enslaved any longer. They originally complied with the covenant and freed them. ⁵⁴  34:11 But later ⁵⁵  they had changed their minds. They had taken back their male and female slaves that they had freed and forced them to be slaves again. ⁵⁶ 

Yeremia 39:9

39:9 Then Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard, ⁵⁷  took captive the rest of the people who were left in the city. He carried them off to Babylon along with the people who had deserted to him. ⁵⁸ 

Yeremia 42:13

42:13 “You must not disobey the Lord your God by saying, ‘We will not stay in this land.’

Yeremia 42:19

42:19 “The Lord has told you people who remain in Judah, ‘Do not go to Egypt.’ Be very sure of this: I warn you ⁵⁹  here and now. ⁶⁰ 

Yeremia 42:22

42:22 So now be very sure of this: You will die from war, starvation, or disease in the place where you want to go and live.”

Yeremia 43:9

43:9 “Take some large stones ⁶¹  and bury them in the mortar of the clay pavement ⁶²  at the entrance of Pharaoh’s residence ⁶³  here in Tahpanhes. Do it while the people of Judah present there are watching. ⁶⁴ 

Yeremia 44:27

44:27 I will indeed ⁶⁵  see to it that disaster, not prosperity, happens to them. ⁶⁶  All the people of Judah who are in the land of Egypt will die in war or from starvation until not one of them is left.

Yeremia 46:5

46:5 What do I see?” ⁶⁷  says the Lord. ⁶⁸ 

“The soldiers ⁶⁹  are terrified.

They are retreating.

They have been defeated.

They are overcome with terror; ⁷⁰ 

they desert quickly

without looking back.

Yeremia 46:25

46:25 The Lord God of Israel who rules over all ⁷¹  says, “I will punish Amon, the god of Thebes. ⁷²  I will punish Egypt, its gods, and its kings. I will punish Pharaoh and all who trust in him. ⁷³ 

Yeremia 48:18

48:18 Come down from your place of honor;

sit on the dry ground, ⁷⁴  you who live in Dibon. ⁷⁵ 

For the one who will destroy Moab will attack you;

he will destroy your fortifications.

Yeremia 48:33

48:33 Joy and gladness will disappear

from the fruitful land of Moab. ⁷⁶ 

I will stop the flow of wine from the winepresses.

No one will stomp on the grapes there and shout for joy. ⁷⁷ 

The shouts there will be shouts of soldiers,

not the shouts of those making wine. ⁷⁸ 

Yeremia 49:29

49:29 Their tents and their flocks will be taken away.

Their tent curtains, equipment, and camels will be carried off.

People will shout ⁷⁹  to them,

‘Terror is all around you!’” ⁸⁰ 

Yeremia 51:56

51:56 For a destroyer is attacking Babylon. ⁸¹ 

Her warriors will be captured;

their bows will be broken. ⁸² 

For the Lord is a God who punishes; ⁸³ 

he pays back in full. ⁸⁴ 

[6:12]  ¹ tn Heb “I will reach out my hand.” This figure involves both comparing God to a person (anthropomorphism) and substitution (metonymy) where hand is put for the actions or exertions of the hand. A common use of “hand” is for the exertion of power or strength (cf. BDB 290 s.v. יָד 2 and 289-90 s.v. יָד 1.e(2); cf. Deut 34:12; Ps 78:42; Jer 16:21).

[7:30]  ² tn The words “I have rejected them” are not in the Hebrew text, which merely says “because.” These words are supplied in the translation to show more clearly the connection to the preceding.

[7:30]  ³ tn Heb “have done the evil in my eyes.”

[7:30]  ⁴ sn Compare, e.g., 2 Kgs 21:3, 5, 7; 23:4, 6; Ezek 8:3, 5, 10-12, 16. Manasseh had desecrated the temple by building altars, cult symbols, and idols in it. Josiah had purged the temple of these pagan elements. But it is obvious from both Jeremiah and Ezekiel that they had been replaced shortly after Josiah’s death. They were a primary cause of Judah’s guilt and punishment (see beside this passage, 19:5; 32:34-35).

[7:30]  ⁵ tn Heb “the house which is called by my name.” Cf. 7:10, 11, 14 and see the translator’s note 7:10 for the explanation for this rendering.

[11:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “the terms of this covenant.” However, this was a separate message and the ambiguity of “this” could still cause some confusion.

[11:12]  ⁷ tn Heb “Then the towns of Judah and those living in Jerusalem will…”

[11:12]  ⁸ 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.

[11:21]  ⁹ tn Heb “Therefore thus says the Lord.” This phrase is anticipatory of the same phrase at the beginning of v. 22 and is introductory to what the Lord says about them. The translation seeks to show the connection of the “therefore” which is sometimes rather loose (cf. BDB 487 s.v. כֵּן 3.d[b]) with the actual response which is not given until v. 22.

[11:21]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the men of Anathoth.” However, this does not involve all of the people, only the conspirators. The literal might lead to confusion later since v. 21 mentions that there will not be any of them left alive. However, it is known from Ezra 2:23 that there were survivors.

[11:21]  ¹¹ tc The MT reads the 2nd person masculine singular suffix “your life,” but LXX reflects an alternative reading of the 1st person common singular suffix “my life.”

[11:21]  ¹² tn Heb “who were seeking my life, saying…” The sentence is broken up in conformity with contemporary English style.

[11:21]  ¹³ tn Heb “or you will die by our hand.”

[13:14]  ¹⁴ tn Or “children along with their parents”; Heb “fathers and children together.”

[13:14]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “I will not show…so as not to destroy them.”

[15:5]  ¹⁶ tn The words “The Lord cried out” are not in the text. However, they are necessary to show the shift in address between speaking to Jeremiah in vv. 1-4 about the people and addressing Jerusalem in vv. 5-6 and the shift back to the address to Jeremiah in vv. 7-9. The words “oracle of the Lord” are, moreover, found at the beginning of v. 6.

[15:5]  ¹⁷ tn The words, “in the world” are not in the text but are the translator’s way of trying to indicate that this rhetorical question expects a negative answer.

[15:5]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “turn aside.”

[15:5]  ¹⁹ tn Or “about your well-being”; Heb “about your welfare” (שָׁלוֹם, shalom).

[16:3]  ²⁰ tn Heb “For thus says the Lord concerning…”

[16:3]  ²¹ tn Heb “Thus says the Lord concerning the sons and daughters who are born in the place and concerning their mothers who give them birth and their fathers who fathered them in this land.”

[18:17]  ²² tc Heb “I will show them [my] back and not [my] face.” This reading follows the suggestion of some of the versions and some of the Masoretes. The MT reads “I will look on their back and not on their faces.”

[18:17]  sn To “turn the back” is universally recognized as a symbol of rejection. The turning of the face toward one is the subject of the beautiful Aaronic blessing in Num 6:24-26.

[20:16]  ²³ sn The cities alluded to are Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities of the Jordan plain which had become proverbial for their wickedness and for the destruction that the Lord brought on them because of it. See Isa 1:9-10; 13:19; Jer 23:14; 49:18.

[23:34]  ²⁴ tn Heb “burden of the Lord.”

[23:34]  ²⁵ tn Heb “And the prophet or the priest or the people [common person] who says, ‘The burden of the Lord,” I will visit upon [= punish] that man and his house.” This is an example of the Hebrew construction call nominative absolute or casus pendens (cf. GKC 458 §143.d).

[24:5]  ²⁶ tn Heb “the land of the Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4.

[24:6]  ²⁷ tn Heb “I will set my eyes upon them for good.” For the nuance of “good” see Jer 21:10; Amos 9:4 (in these cases the opposite of harm; see BDB 375 s.v. טוֹבָה 1).

[24:6]  ²⁸ tn The words “There” and “firmly in the land” are not in the text but are implicit from the connection and the metaphor. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[24:6]  ²⁹ sn For these terms see Jer 1:10.

[25:15]  ³⁰ tn This is an attempt to render the Hebrew particle כִּי (ki) which is probably being used in the sense that BDB 473-74 s.v. כִּי 3.c notes, i.e., the causal connection is somewhat loose, related here to the prophecies against the nations. “So” seems to be the most appropriate way to represent this.

[25:15]  ³¹ tn Heb “Thus said the Lord, the God of Israel, to me.” It is generally understood that the communication is visionary. God does not have a “hand” and the action of going to the nations and making them drink of the cup are scarcely literal. The words are supplied in the translation to show the figurative nature of this passage.

[25:15]  ³² sn “Drinking from the cup of wrath” is a common figure to represent being punished by God. Isaiah had used it earlier to refer to the punishment which Judah was to suffer and from which God would deliver her (Isa 51:17, 22) and Jeremiah’s contemporary Habakkuk uses it of Babylon “pouring out its wrath” on the nations and in turn being forced to drink the bitter cup herself (Hab 2:15-16). In Jer 51:7 the Lord will identify Babylon as the cup which makes the nations stagger. In v. 16 drinking from the cup will be identified with the sword (i.e., wars) that the Lord will send against the nations. Babylon is also to be identified as the sword (cf. Jer 51:20-23). What is being alluded to here in highly figurative language is the judgment that the Lord will wreak on the nations listed here through the Babylonians. The prophecy given here in symbolical form is thus an expansion of the one in vv. 9-11.

[26:16]  ³³ tn Heb “Then the officials and all the people said to the priests and the prophets…”

[26:16]  ³⁴ sn Contrast v. 11.

[26:16]  ³⁵ tn Heb “For in the name of the Lord our God he has spoken to us.” The emphasis is on “in the name of…”

[26:16]  sn The priests and false prophets claimed that they were speaking in the Lord’s name (i.e., as his representatives and with his authority [see 1 Sam 25:9; 1 Kgs 21:8 and cf. the study note on Jer 23:27]) and felt that Jeremiah’s claims to be doing so were false (see v. 9). Jeremiah (and the Lord) charged that the opposite was the case (cf. 14:14-15; 23:21). The officials and the people, at least at this time, accepted his claims that the Lord had sent him (vv. 12, 15).

[27:12]  ³⁶ tn Heb “I spoke to Zedekiah…according to all these words, saying.”

[27:12]  ³⁷ sn The verbs in this verse are all plural. They are addressed to Zedekiah and his royal advisers (compare 22:2).

[27:12]  ³⁸ tn Heb “put their necks in the yoke of.” See the study note on v. 2 for the figure.

[29:19]  ³⁹ tn See the translator’s note on 7:13 for an explanation of this idiom.

[29:19]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[29:19]  ⁴¹ tn The word “exiles” is not in the text. It is supplied in the translation to clarify the referent of “you.”

[29:19]  ⁴² tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[29:25]  ⁴³ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.”

[29:25]  sn See study notes on 2:19 and 7:3 for the explanation of this title.

[29:25]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “Tell Shemaiah the Nehelamite, ‘Thus says Yahweh of armies the God of Israel….” The indirect quotation is used in the translation to avoid the complexity of embedding a quotation within a quotation.

[29:25]  ⁴⁵ sn Jer 29:24-32 are concerned with Jeremiah’s interaction with a false prophet named Shemaiah. The narrative in this section is not in strict chronological order and is somewhat elliptical. It begins with a report of a message that Jeremiah appears to have delivered directly to Shemaiah and refers to a letter that Shemaiah sent to the priest Zephaniah encouraging him to reprimand Jeremiah for what Shemaiah considered treasonous words in his letter to the exiles (vv. 24-28; compare v. 28 with v. 5). However, Jeremiah is in Jerusalem and Shemaiah is in Babylon. The address must then be part of a second letter Jeremiah sent to Babylon. Following this the narrative refers to Zephaniah reading Shemaiah’s letter to Jeremiah and Jeremiah sending a further letter to the captives in Babylon (vv. 29-32). This is probably not a third letter but part of the same letter in which Jeremiah reprimands Shemaiah for sending his letter to Zephaniah (vv. 25-28; the same letter referred to in v. 29). The order of events thus is: Jeremiah sent a letter to the captives counseling them to settle down in Babylon (vv. 1-23). Shemaiah sent a letter to Zephaniah asking him to reprimand Jeremiah (vv. 26-28). After Zephaniah read that letter to Jeremiah (v. 29), Jeremiah wrote a further letter to Babylon reprimanding him (vv. 25-28, 31) and pronouncing judgment on him (v. 32). The elliptical nature of the narrative is reflected in the fact that vv. 25-27 are part of a long causal sentence which sets forth an accusation but has no corresponding main clause or announcement of judgment. This kind of construction involves a rhetorical figure (called aposiopesis) where what is begun is not finished for various rhetorical reasons. Here the sentence that is broken off is part of an announcement of judgment which is not picked up until v. 32 after a further (though related) accusation (v. 31b).

[29:25]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “In your [own] name.” See the study note on 23:27 for the significance of this idiom.

[29:25]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “letters.” Though GKC 397 §124.b, n. 1 denies it, this is probably a case of the plural of extension. For a similar usage see Isa 37:14 where the plural “letters” is referred to later as an “it.” Even if there were other “letters,” the focus is on the letter to Zephaniah.

[29:25]  ⁴⁸ sn According to Jer 52:24 and 2 Kgs 25:18 Zephaniah son of Maaseiah was second in command to the high priest. He was the high ranking priest who was sent along with a civic official to inquire of the Lord’s will from Jeremiah by Zedekiah on two separate occasions (Jer 21:1; 37:3).

[29:25]  ⁴⁹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[29:25]  ⁵⁰ tn The words “In your letter you said to Zephaniah” are not in the text: Heb “you sent a letter to…, saying.” The sentence has been broken up to conform better to contemporary English style and these words have been supplied in the translation to make the transition to the address to Zephaniah in vv. 26-28.

[33:26]  ⁵¹ tn The Hebrew particle כִּי (ki) is probably intensive here as it has been on a number of occasions in the book of Jeremiah (see BDB 472 s.v. כִּי 1.e for the category).

[33:26]  ⁵² tn Or “I will make them prosperous once again,” or “I will bring them back from captivity.”

[33:26]  sn For the meaning of this idiom see the translator’s note on Jer 29:14 and compare the usage in 29:14; 30:3, 18; 31:23; 32:44; 33:7, 11. This has been the emphasis on this section which is called by some commentators “The Book of Consolation.” Jeremiah’s emphasis up until chapters 30-33 had been on judgment but he was also called to be the prophet of restoration (cf. Jer 1:10). Promises of restoration though rare up to this point have, however, occurred on occasion (see, e.g., Jer 3:18; 23:5-7; 24:6-7; 29:10-14).

[34:9]  ⁵³ tn Heb “after King Zedekiah made a covenant…to proclaim liberty to them [the slaves mentioned in the next verse] so that each would send away free his male slave and his female slave, the Hebrew man and the Hebrew woman, so that a man would not hold them in bondage, namely a Judean, his brother [this latter phrase is explicative of “them” because it repeats the preposition in front of “them”].” The complex Hebrew syntax has been broken down into shorter English sentences but an attempt has been made to retain the proper subordinations.

[34:9]  sn Through economic necessity some of the poorer people of the land had on occasion to sell themselves or their children to wealthier Hebrew landowners. The terms of their servitude were strictly regulated under Hebrew law (cf. Exod 21:2-11; Lev 25:39-55; Deut 15:12-18). In brief, no Hebrew was to serve a fellow Hebrew for any longer than six years. In the seventh year he or she was to go free. The period could even be shortened if the year of jubilee intervened since all debts were to be canceled, freedom restored, and indentured property returned in that year. Some see the covenant here coming in conjunction with such a jubilee year since it involved the freedom of all slaves regardless of how long they had served. Others see this covenant as paralleling an old Babylonian practice of a king declaring liberty for slaves and canceling all debts generally at the beginning of his reign (but also at other significant times within it) in order to ingratiate himself with his subjects.

[34:10]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “And they complied, [that is] all the leaders and all the people who entered into the covenant that they would each let his male slave and his female slave go free so as not to hold them in bondage any longer; they complied and they let [them] go.” The verb “they complied” (Heb “they hearkened”) is repeated at the end after the lengthy description of the subject. This is characteristic of Hebrew style. The translation has resolved the complex sentence by making the relative clauses modifying the subject independent sentences describing the situational background before mentioning the main focus, “they had complied and let them go.”

[34:11]  ⁵⁵ sn Most commentators are agreed that the incident referred to here occurred during the period of relief from the siege provided by the Babylonians going off to fight against the Egyptians who were apparently coming to Zedekiah’s aid (compare vv. 21-22 with 37:5, 7). The freeing of the slaves had occurred earlier, under the crisis of the siege while the people were more responsive to the Lord due to the threat of destruction (cf. v. 15).

[34:11]  ⁵⁶ tn Heb “they had brought them into subjection for male and female slaves.” However, the qualification of “male and female” is already clear from the preceding and is unnecessary to the English sentence.

[39:9]  ⁵⁷ tn For the meaning of this phrase see BDB 371 s.v. טַבָּח 2 and compare the usage in Gen 39:1.

[39:9]  ⁵⁸ tc The translation is based on an emendation of the text which leaves out “the rest of the people who were left” as a double writing of the same phrase at the beginning of the verse. Some commentators emend the phrase “the rest of the people who were left” (הַנִּשְׁאָרִים וְאֶת יֶתֶר הָעָם, hannish’arim vÿ’et yeter ha’am) to read “the rest of the craftsmen who were left” (וְאֶת יֶתֶר הָאָמוֹן הַנִּשְׁאָרִים, vÿ’et yeter ha’amon hannish’arim) on the basis of the parallel in Jer 52:15 (which does not have הַנִּשְׁאָרִים, hannish’arim). However, it is easier to explain the phrase as a dittography of the phrase at the beginning (which is exactly the same except הָעִיר [ha’ir] follows it). The text is redundant because it refers twice to the same group of people. The Hebrew text reads: “And the rest of the people who were left in the city and the deserters who had deserted to him and the rest of the people Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, carried into exile to Babylon.” The text has also been divided up to create two shorter sentences to better conform with contemporary English style.

[42:19]  ⁵⁹ tn Heb “Know for certain that I warn you…” The idea of “for certain” is intended to reflect the emphatic use of the infinitive absolute before the volitive use of the imperfect (see IBHS 587-88 §35.3.1h and 509 §31.5b). The substitution “of this:” for “that” has been made to shorten the sentence in conformity with contemporary English style.

[42:19]  ⁶⁰ tn Heb “today.”

[43:9]  ⁶¹ tn Heb “Take some large stones in your hands.”

[43:9]  ⁶² tn The meaning of the expression “mortar of the clay pavement” is uncertain. The noun translated “mortar” occurs only here and the etymology is debated. Both BDB 572 s.v. מֶלֶט and KBL 529 s.v. מֶלֶט give the meaning “mortar.” The noun translated “clay pavement” is elsewhere used of a “brick mold.” Here BDB 527 s.v. מַלְבֵּן 2 gives “quadrangle” and KBL 527 s.v. מַלְבֵּן 2 gives “terrace of bricks.” HALOT 558 s.v. מֶלֶט and מַלְבֵּן 2 give “loamy soil” for both words, seeing the second noun as a dittography or gloss of the first (see also note c in BHS).

[43:9]  ⁶³ sn All the commentaries point out that this was not Pharaoh’s (main) palace but a governor’s residence or other government building that Pharaoh occupied when he was in Tahpanhes.

[43:9]  ⁶⁴ tn Heb “in Tahpanhes in the eyes of the men of Judah.”

[44:27]  ⁶⁵ tn Heb “Behold I.” For the use of this particle see the translator’s note on 1:6. Here it announces the reality of a fact.

[44:27]  ⁶⁶ tn Heb “Behold, I am watching over them for evil/disaster/harm not for good/prosperity/ blessing.” See a parallel usage in 31:28.

[46:5]  ⁶⁷ tn Heb “Why do I see?” The rendering is that of J. A. Thompson (Jeremiah [NICOT], 685, 88) and J. Bright (Jeremiah [AB], 301; TEV; NIV). The question is not asking for information but is expressing surprise or wonder (see E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 951).

[46:5]  sn The passage takes an unexpected turn at v. 5. After ironically summoning the Egyptian army to battle, the Lord rhetorically expresses his surprise that they are so completely routed and defeated.

[46:5]  ⁶⁸ tn Heb “oracle of the Lord.” This phrase, which is part of a messenger formula (i.e., that the words that are spoken are from him), are actually at the end of the verse. They have been put here for better poetic balance and to better identify the “I.”

[46:5]  ⁶⁹ tn Heb “Their soldiers.” These words are actually at the midpoint of the stanza as the subject of the third of the five verbs. However, as G. L. Keown, P. J. Scalise, and T. G. Smothers (Jeremiah 26-52 [WBC], 291) note, this is the subject of all five verbs “are terrified,” “are retreating,” “have been defeated,” “have run away,” and “have not looked back.” The subject is put at the front to avoid an unidentified “they.”

[46:5]  ⁷⁰ tn Heb “terror is all around.”

[46:25]  ⁷¹ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.” For the significance of this title see the note at 2:19.

[46:25]  ⁷² 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]  ⁷³ 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.”

[48:18]  ⁷⁴ tn Heb “sit in thirst.” The abstract “thirst” is put for the concrete, i.e., thirsty or parched ground (cf. Deut 8:19; Isa 35:7; Ps 107:33) for the concrete. There is no need to emend to “filth” (צֹאָה [tso’ah] for צָמָא [tsama’]) as is sometimes suggested.

[48:18]  ⁷⁵ tn Heb “inhabitant of Daughter Dibon.” “Daughter” is used here as often in Jeremiah for the personification of a city, a country, or its inhabitants. The word “inhabitant” is to be understood as a collective as also in v. 19.

[48:18]  sn Dibon was an important fortified city located on the “King’s Highway,” the main north-south road in Transjordan. It was the site at which the Moabite Stone was found in 1868 and was one of the cities mentioned on it. It was four miles north of the Arnon River and thirteen miles east of the Dead Sea. It was one of the main cities on the northern plateau and had been conquered from Sihon and allotted to the tribe of Reuben (Josh 13:17).

[48:33]  ⁷⁶ tn Heb “from the garden land, even from the land of Moab.” Comparison with the parallel passage in Isa 16:10 and the translation of the Greek text here (which has only “the land of Moab”) suggest that the second phrase is appositional to the first.

[48:33]  ⁷⁷ tn Heb “no one will tread [the grapes] with shout of joy.”

[48:33]  ⁷⁸ tn Heb “shouts will not be shouts.” The text has been expanded contextually to explain that the shouts of those treading grapes in winepresses will come to an end (v. 33a-d) and be replaced by the shouts of the soldiers who trample down the vineyards (v. 32e-f). Compare 25:30 and 51:41 for the idea.

[49:29]  ⁷⁹ tn Or “Let their tents…be taken….Let their tent…be carried…. Let people shout….”

[49:29]  ⁸⁰ sn This expression is a favorite theme in the book of Jeremiah. It describes the terrors of war awaiting the people of Judah and Jerusalem (6:25), the Egyptians at Carchemish (46:5), and here the Kedarites.

[51:56]  ⁸¹ tn Heb “for a destroyer is coming against her, against Babylon.”

[51:56]  ⁸² tn The Piel form (which would be intransitive here, see GKC 142 §52.k) should probably be emended to Qal.

[51:56]  ⁸³ tn Or “God of retribution.”

[51:56]  ⁸⁴ tn The infinitive absolute emphasizes the following finite verb. Another option is to translate, “he certainly pays one back.” The translation assumes that the imperfect verbal form here describes the Lord’s characteristic actions. Another option is to take it as referring specifically to his judgment on Babylon, in which case one should translate, “he will pay (Babylon) back in full.”