Jeremiah 16:4

16:4 They will die of deadly diseases. No one will mourn for them. They will not be buried. Their dead bodies will lie like manure spread on the ground. They will be killed in war or die of starvation. Their corpses will be food for the birds and wild animals.

Jeremiah 19:11

19:11 Tell them the Lord who rules over all says, 1  ‘I will do just as Jeremiah has done. 2  I will smash this nation and this city as though it were a potter’s vessel which is broken beyond repair. 3  The dead will be buried here in Topheth until there is no more room to bury them.’ 4 

Jeremiah 25:33

25:33 Those who have been killed by the Lord at that time

will be scattered from one end of the earth to the other.

They will not be mourned over, gathered up, or buried. 5 

Their dead bodies will lie scattered over the ground like manure.

Jeremiah 43:10

43:10 Then tell them, 6  ‘The Lord God of Israel who rules over all 7  says, “I will bring 8  my servant 9  King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. I will set his throne over these stones which I 10  have buried. He will pitch his royal tent 11  over them.

1 tn Heb “Thus says Yahweh of armies.” For this title see the study note on 2:19. The translation attempts to avoid the confusion of embedding quotes within quotes by reducing this one to an indirect quote.

2 tn The adverb “Thus” or “Like this” normally points back to something previously mentioned. See, e.g., Exod 29:35; Num 11:15; 15:11; Deut 25:9.

3 tn Heb “Like this I will break this people and this city, just as one breaks the vessel of a potter which is not able to be repaired.”

4 sn See Jer 7:22-23 for parallels.

5 sn The intent here is to emphasize the large quantity of those who are killed – there will be too many to insure proper mourning rites and proper burial.

6 sn This is another of those symbolic prophecies of Jeremiah which involved an action and an explanation. Compare Jer 19, 27.

7 tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.” Compare 7:3 and see the study note on 2:19 for explanation of the translation and significance of this title.

8 tn Heb “send and take/fetch.”

9 sn See the study note on Jer 25:9 for the use of this epithet for foreign rulers. The term emphasizes God’s sovereignty over history.

10 tn The Greek version reads the verbs in this sentence as third person, “he will set,” and second person, “you have buried.” This fits the context better but it is difficult to explain how the Hebrew could have arisen from this smoother reading. The figure of substitution (metonymy of cause for effect) is probably involved: “I will have him set” and “I have had you bury.” The effect of these substitutions is to emphasize the sovereignty of God.

11 tn The meaning of this word is uncertain. The word here (שַׁפְרִירוֹ [shafriro] Qere, שַׁפְרוּרוֹ [shafruro] Kethib) occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible. According to the lexicons it refers to either the carpet for his throne or the canopy over it. See, e.g., HALOT 1510 s.v. שַׁפְרִיר.