Yeremia 9:21

9:21 ‘Death has climbed in ¹  through our windows.

It has entered into our fortified houses.

It has taken away our children who play in the streets.

It has taken away our young men who gather in the city squares.’

Yeremia 26:12

26:12 Then Jeremiah made his defense before all the officials and all the people. ²  “The Lord sent me to prophesy everything you have heard me say against this temple and against this city.

Yeremia 45:1

Baruch is Rebuked but also Comforted

45:1 The prophet Jeremiah spoke to Baruch son of Neriah while he was writing down in a scroll the words that Jeremiah spoke to him. ³  This happened in the fourth year that Jehoiakim son of Josiah was ruling over Judah. ⁴ 

Yeremia 49:33

49:33 “Hazor will become a permanent wasteland,

a place where only jackals live. ⁵ 

No one will live there.

No human being will settle in it.” ⁶ 

Yeremia 51:39

51:39 When their appetites are all stirred up, ⁷ 

I will set out a banquet for them.

I will make them drunk

so that they will pass out, ⁸ 

they will fall asleep forever,

they will never wake up,” ⁹ 

says the Lord. ¹⁰ 

[9:21]  ¹ sn Here Death is personified (treated as though it were a person). Some have seen as possible background to this lament an allusion to Mesopotamian mythology where the demon Lamastu climbs in through the windows of houses and over their walls to kill children and babies.

[26:12]  ² tn Heb “Jeremiah said to all the leaders and all the people….” See the note on the word “said” in the preceding verse.

[45:1]  ³ sn It is unclear whether this refers to the first scroll (36:4) or the second (36:32). Perhaps from the reactions of Baruch this refers to the second scroll which was written after he had seen how the leaders had responded to the first (36:19). Baruch was from a well-placed family; his grandfather, Mahseiah (32:12) had been governor of Jerusalem under Josiah (2 Chr 34:8) and his brother was a high-ranking official in Zedekiah’s court (Jer 51:59). He himself appears to have had some personal aspirations that he could see were being or going to be jeopardized (v. 5). The passage is both a rebuke to Baruch and an encouragement that his life will be spared wherever he goes. This latter promise is perhaps the reason that the passage is placed where it is, i.e., after the seemingly universal threat of destruction of all who have gone to Egypt in Jer 44.

[45:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “[This is] the word/message which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Baruch son of Neriah when he wrote these words on a scroll from the mouth of Jeremiah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, saying.”

[49:33]  ⁵ sn Compare Jer 9:11.

[49:33]  ⁶ sn Compare Jer 49:18 and 50:40 where the same thing is said about Edom and Babylon.

[51:39]  ⁷ tn Heb “When they are hot.”

[51:39]  ⁸ tc The translation follows the suggestion of KBL 707 s.v. עָלַז and a number of modern commentaries (e.g., Bright, J. A. Thompson, and W. L. Holladay) in reading יְעֻלְּפוּ (ye’ullÿfu) for יַעֲלֹזוּ (ya’alozu) in the sense of “swoon away” or “grow faint” (see KBL 710 s.v. עָלַף Pual). That appears to be the verb that the LXX (the Greek version) was reading when they translated καρωθῶσιν (karwqwsin, “they will be stupefied”). For parallel usage KBL cites Isa 51:20. This fits the context much better than “they will exult” in the Hebrew text.

[51:39]  ⁹ sn The central figure here is the figure of the cup of the Lord’s wrath (cf. 25:15-29, especially v. 26). Here the Babylonians have been made to drink so deeply of it that they fall into a drunken sleep from which they will never wake up (i.e., they die, death being compared to sleep [cf. Ps 13:3 (13:4 HT); 76:5 (76:6 HT); 90:5]). Compare the usage in Jer 51:57 for this same figure.

[51:39]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”