Jeremiah 1:5

1:5 “Before I formed you in your mother’s womb¹ I chose you.²

Before you were born I set you apart.

I appointed you to be a prophet to the nations.”

Jeremiah 16:3

16:3 For I, the Lord, tell you what will happen to³ the children who are born here in this land and to the men and women who are their mothers and fathers.⁴

Jeremiah 22:26

22:26 I will force you and your mother who gave you birth into exile. You will be exiled to⁵ a country where neither of you were born, and you will both die there.

Jeremiah 50:12

50:12 But Babylonia will be put to great shame.

The land where you were born⁶ will be disgraced.

Indeed,⁷ Babylonia will become the least important of all nations.

It will become a dry and barren desert.

¹tn Heb “the womb.” The words “your mother’s” are implicit and are supplied in the translation for clarity.

²tn Heb “I knew you.” The parallelism here with “set you apart” and “appointed you” make clear that Jeremiah is speaking of his foreordination to be a prophet. For this same nuance of the Hebrew verb see Gen 18:19; Amos 3:2.

³tn Heb “For thus says the Lord concerning…”

⁴tn 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.”

⁵tn Heb “I will hurl you and your mother…into another land where…” The verb used here is very forceful. It is the verb used for Saul throwing a spear at David (1 Sam 18:11) and for the Lord unleashing a violent storm on the sea (Jonah 1:4). It is used both here and in v. 28 for the forceful exile of Jeconiah and his mother.

⁶tn Heb “Your mother will be utterly shamed, the one who gave you birth…” The word “mother” and the parallel term “the one who gave you birth” are used metaphorically for the land of Babylonia. For the figure compare the usage in Isa 50:1 (Judah) and Hos 2:2, 5 (2:4, 7 HT) and see BDB 52 s.v. אֵם 2 and 408 s.v. יָלַד Qal.2.c.

⁷tn Heb “Behold.” For the use of this particle see the translator’s note on 1:6.