Yeremia 8:14

Jeremiah Laments over the Coming Destruction

8:14 The people say, ¹ 

“Why are we just sitting here?

Let us gather together inside the fortified cities. ² 

Let us at least die there fighting, ³ 

since the Lord our God has condemned us to die.

He has condemned us to drink the poison waters of judgment ⁴ 

because we have sinned against him. ⁵ 

Yeremia 14:10

14:10 Then the Lord spoke about these people. ⁶ 

“They truly ⁷  love to go astray.

They cannot keep from running away from me. ⁸ 

So I am not pleased with them.

I will now call to mind ⁹  the wrongs they have done ¹⁰ 

and punish them for their sins.”

Yeremia 16:15

16:15 But in that time they will affirm them with ‘I swear as surely as the Lord lives who delivered the people of Israel from the land of the north and from all the other lands where he had banished them.’ At that time I will bring them back to the land I gave their ancestors.” ¹¹ 

Yeremia 25:3

25:3 “For the last twenty-three years, from the thirteenth year that Josiah son of Amon was ruling in Judah ¹²  until now, the Lord has been speaking to me. I told you over and over again ¹³  what he said. ¹⁴  But you would not listen.

Yeremia 33:24

33:24 “You have surely noticed what these people are saying, haven’t you? They are saying, ¹⁵  ‘The Lord has rejected the two families of Israel and Judah ¹⁶  that he chose.’ So they have little regard that my people will ever again be a nation. ¹⁷ 

Yeremia 42:4-5

42:4 The prophet Jeremiah answered them, “Agreed! ¹⁸  I will indeed pray to the Lord your God as you have asked. I will tell you everything the Lord replies in response to you. ¹⁹  I will not keep anything back from you.” 42:5 They answered Jeremiah, “May the Lord be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not do just as ²⁰  the Lord sends you to tell us to do.

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 ²¹  in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. ²² 

[8:14]  ¹ tn The words “The people say” are not in the text but are implicit in the shift of speakers between vv. 4-13 and vv. 14-16. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[8:14]  ² tn Heb “Gather together and let us enter into the fortified cities.”

[8:14]  ³ tn Heb “Let us die there.” The words “at least” and “fighting” are intended to bring out the contrast of passive surrender to death in the open country and active resistance to the death implicit in the context.

[8:14]  ⁴ tn The words “of judgment” are not in the text but are intended to show that “poison water” is not literal but figurative of judgment at the hands of God through the agency of the enemy mentioned in v. 16.

[8:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “against the Lord.” The switch is for the sake of smoothness in English.

[14:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “Thus said the Lord concerning this people.”

[14:10]  sn The Lord answers indirectly, speaking neither to Jeremiah directly nor to the people. Instead of an oracle of deliverance which was hoped for (cf. 2 Chr 20:14-17; Pss 12:5 [12:6 HT]; 60:6-8 [60:8-10 HT]) there is an oracle of doom.

[14:10]  ⁷ tn It is difficult to be certain how the particle כֵּן (ken, usually used for “thus, so”) is to be rendered here. BDB 485 s.v. כֵּן 1.b says that the force sometimes has to be elicited from the general context and points back to the line of v. 9. IHBS 666 §39.3.4e states that when there is no specific comparative clause preceding a general comparison is intended. They point to Judg 5:31 as a parallel. Ps 127:2 may also be an example if כִּי (ki) is not to be read (cf. BHS fn). “Truly” seemed the best way to render this idea in contemporary English.

[14:10]  ⁸ tn Heb “They do not restrain their feet.” The idea of “away from me” is implicit in the context and is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[14:10]  ⁹ tn Heb “remember.”

[14:10]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “their iniquities.”

[16:15]  ¹¹ tn These two verses which constitute one long sentence with compound, complex subordinations has been broken up for sake of English style. It reads, “Therefore, behold the days are coming, says the Lord [Heb ‘oracle of the Lord’] and it will not be said any longer, ‘By the life of the Lord who…Egypt’ but ‘by the life of the Lord who…’ and I will bring them back….”

[25:3]  ¹² sn The year referred to would be 627 b.c. The same year is referred to in 1:2 in reference to his call to be a prophet.

[25:3]  ¹³ tn For the idiom involved here see the notes at 7:13 and 11:7.

[25:3]  ¹⁴ tn The words “what he said” are not in the text but are implicit. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[33:24]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Have you not seen what this people have said, saying.” The question is rhetorical and expects a positive answer. The sentence has been broken in two to better conform with contemporary English style.

[33:24]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “The two families which the Lord chose, he has rejected them.” This is an example of an object prepositioned before the verb and resumed by a redundant pronoun to throw emphasis of focus on it (called casus pendens in the grammars; cf. GKC 458 §143.d). Some commentators identify the “two families” as those of David and Levi mentioned in the previous verses, and some identify them as the families of the Israelites and of David mentioned in the next verse. However, the next clause in this verse and the emphasis on the restoration and regathering of Israel and Judah in this section (cf. 33:7, 14) show that the reference is to Israel and Judah (see also 30:3, 4; 31:27, 31 and 3:18).

[33:24]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and my people [i.e., Israel and Judah] they disdain [or look down on] from being again a nation before them.” The phrase “before them” refers to their estimation, their mental view (cf. BDB s.v. פָּנֶה II.4.a[g]). Hence it means they look with disdain on the people being a nation again (cf. BDB s.v. עוֹד 1.a[b] for the usage of עוֹד [’od] here).

[42:4]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “I have heard” = “I agree.” For this nuance of the verb see BDB 1034 s.v. שָׁמַע Qal.1.j and compare the usage in Gen 37:27 and Judg 11:17 listed there.

[42:4]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “all the word which the Lord will answer you.

[42:5]  ²⁰ tn Heb “do according to all the word which.”

[44:21]  ²¹ 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]  ²² 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.