Jeremiah 2:12

2:12 Be amazed at this, O heavens! ¹ 

Be shocked and utterly dumbfounded,”

says the Lord.

Jeremiah 5:11

5:11 For the nations of Israel and Judah ² 

have been very unfaithful to me,”

says the Lord.

Jeremiah 5:18

5:18 Yet even then ³  I will not completely destroy you,” says the Lord.

Jeremiah 6:30

6:30 They are regarded as ‘rejected silver’ ⁴ 

because the Lord rejects them.”

Jeremiah 10:1

The Lord, not Idols, is the Only Worthy Object of Worship

10:1 You people of Israel, ⁵  listen to what the Lord has to say to you.

Jeremiah 13:5

13:5 So I went and buried them at Perath ⁶  as the Lord had ordered me to do.

Jeremiah 14:11

Judgment for Believing the Misleading Lies of the False Prophets

14:11 Then the Lord said to me, “Do not pray for good to come to these people! ⁷ 

Jeremiah 18:19

18:19 Then I said, ⁸ 

“Lord, pay attention to me.

Listen to what my enemies are saying. ⁹ 

Jeremiah 23:38

23:38 But just suppose you continue to say, ‘The message of the Lord is burdensome.’ Here is what the Lord says will happen: ‘I sent word to you that you must not say, “The Lord’s message is burdensome.” But you used the words “The Lord’s message is burdensome” anyway.

Jeremiah 25:8

25:8 “Therefore, the Lord who rules over all ¹⁰  says, ‘You have not listened to what I said. ¹¹ 

Jeremiah 25:37

25:37 Their peaceful dwelling places will be laid waste ¹² 

by the fierce anger of the Lord. ¹³ 

Jeremiah 29:15

29:15 “You say, ‘The Lord has raised up prophets of good news ¹⁴  for us here in Babylon.’

Jeremiah 30:4

Israel and Judah Will Be Delivered after a Time of Deep Distress

30:4 So here is what the Lord has to say about Israel and Judah. ¹⁵ 

Jeremiah 35:1

Judah’s Unfaithfulness Contrasted with the Rechabites’ Faithfulness

35:1 The Lord spoke to Jeremiah when Jehoiakim ¹⁶  son of Josiah was ruling over Judah. ¹⁷ 

Jeremiah 37:6

37:6 The Lord gave the prophet Jeremiah a message for them. He told him to tell them, ¹⁸ 

Jeremiah 43:7

43:7 They went on to Egypt ¹⁹  because they refused to obey the Lord, and came to Tahpanhes. ²⁰ 

Jeremiah 44:16

44:16 “We will not listen to what you claim the Lord has spoken to us! ²¹ 

Jeremiah 45:2

45:2 “The Lord God of Israel has a message for you, Baruch.

Jeremiah 46:13

The Lord Predicts that Nebuchadnezzar Will Attack and Plunder Egypt

46:13 The Lord spoke to the prophet Jeremiah about Nebuchadnezzar coming to attack the land of Egypt. ²² 

Jeremiah 47:1

Judgment on the Philistine Cities

47:1 The Lord spoke to the prophet Jeremiah ²³  about the Philistines before Pharaoh attacked Gaza. ²⁴ 

Jeremiah 49:6

49:6 Yet in days to come

I will reverse Ammon’s ill fortune.” ²⁵ 

says the Lord. ²⁶ 

Jeremiah 49:39--50:1

49:39 “Yet in days to come

I will reverse Elam’s ill fortune.” ²⁷ 

says the Lord. ²⁸ 

Judgment Against Babylon

50:1 The Lord spoke concerning Babylon and the land of Babylonia ²⁹  through the prophet Jeremiah. ³⁰ 

Jeremiah 50:10

50:10 Babylonia ³¹  will be plundered.

Those who plunder it will take all they want,”

says the Lord. ³² 

Jeremiah 52:2

52:2 He did what displeased the Lord ³³  just as Jehoiakim had done.

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¹ sn In earlier literature the heavens (and the earth) were called on to witness Israel’s commitment to the covenant (Deut 30:12) and were called to serve as witnesses to Israel’s fidelity or infidelity to it (Isa 1:2; Mic 6:1).

² tn Heb “the house of Israel and the house of Judah.”

³ tn Heb “in those days.”

⁴ tn This translation is intended to reflect the wordplay in the Hebrew text where the same root word is repeated in the two lines.

⁵ tn Heb “house of Israel.”

⁶ tc The translation reads בִּפְרָתָה (bifratah) with 4QJer^a as noted in W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah (Hermeneia), 1:393 instead of בִּפְרָת (bifrat) in the MT.

⁷ tn Heb “on behalf of these people for benefit.”

⁸ tn The words “Then I said” are not in the text. They are supplied in the translation for clarity to show that Jeremiah turns from description of the peoples’ plots to his address to God to deal with the plotters.

⁹ tn Heb “the voice of my adversaries.”

sn Jeremiah’s prayers against the unjust treatment of his enemies here and elsewhere (see 11:18-20; 12:1-4; 15:15-18; 17:14-18) have many of the elements of the prayers of the innocent in the book of Psalms: an invocation of the Lord as just judge, a lament about unjust attacks, an appeal to innocence, and a cry for vindication which often calls for the Lord to pay back in kind those who unjustly attack the petitioner. See for examples Pss 5, 7, 17, 54 among many others.

¹⁰ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.”

sn See the study note on 2:19 for an explanation of this title.

¹¹ tn Heb “You have not listened to my words.”

¹² tn For this meaning of the verb used here see HALOT 217 s.v. דָּמַם Nif. Elsewhere it refers to people dying (see, e.g., Jer 49:26; 50:30) hence some see a reference to “lifeless.”

¹³ tn Heb “because of the burning anger of the Lord.”

¹⁴ tn The words “of good news” are not in the text but are implicit from the context. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

¹⁵ tn Heb “And these are the words/things that the Lord speaks concerning Israel and Judah.”

¹⁶ sn The introductory statement here shows that this incident is earlier than those in Jer 32–34 which all take place in the reign of Zedekiah. Jehoiakim ruled from 609/8 b.c. until 598/97 b.c. and his brother Zedekiah followed him after a brief reign of three months by Jehoiakim’s son who was captured by Nebuchadnezzar and taken to Babylon. Zedekiah ruled from 598/7 b.c. until the kingdom fell in 587/86. The position of this chapter is out of chronological order emphasizing the theme of covenant infidelity (Jer 34; 35:12-17) versus the faithfulness to his commands that God expected from Israel as illustrated by the Rechabites’ faithfulness to the commands of their progenitor. This is thus another one of those symbolic acts in Jeremiah which have significance to the message of the book (compare Jer 13, 19). This incident likely took place during the time that people living in the countryside like the Rechabites were forced to take shelter in the fortified cities because of the raiding parties that Nebuchadnezzar had sent against Jehoiakim after he had rebelled against him in 603 b.c. (compare v. 11 and Jer 4:5 with 2 Kgs 24:1-2).

¹⁷ tn Heb “The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the days of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, saying.”

¹⁸ tn Heb “And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying.”

¹⁹ sn This had been their intention all along (41:17). Though they consulted the Lord and promised to do what he told them whether they agreed with it or not (42:5-6), it is clear that they had no intention of doing so. Jeremiah could see that (42:19-22). They refused to believe that the Lord had really said what Jeremiah told them (43:4) and feared reprisal from the Babylonians more than any potential destruction from the Lord (43:3).

²⁰ sn Tahpanhes was an important fortress city on the northern border of Egypt in the northeastern Nile delta. It is generally equated with the Greek city of Daphne. It has already been mentioned in 2:16 in conjunction with Memphis (the Hebrew name is “Noph”) as a source of soldiers who did violence to the Israelites in the past.

²¹ tn Heb “the word [or message] you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord.” For an explanation of the rendering of “in the name of the Lord” see the study notes on 10:25 and 23:27.

²² tn Heb “The word which the Lord spoke to the prophet Jeremiah about the coming of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to attack the land of Egypt.”

sn Though there is much debate in the commentaries regarding the dating and reference of this prophecy, it most likely refers to a time shortly after 604 b.c. when Nebuchadnezzar followed up his successful battle against Necho at Carchemish with a campaign into the Philistine plain which resulted in the conquest and sacking of Ashkelon. Nebuchadnezzar now stood poised on the border of Egypt to invade it. See J. A. Thompson, Jeremiah (NICOT), 691, and for a fuller discussion including the other main options see G. L. Keown, P. J. Scalise, T. G. Smothers, Jeremiah 26-52 (WBC), 287-88.

²³ tn Heb “That which came [as] the word of the Lord to Jeremiah.” For this same construction see 14:1; 46:1 and see the translator’s note at 14:1 for explanation.

²⁴ sn The precise dating of this prophecy is uncertain. Several proposals have been suggested, the most likely of which is that the prophecy was delivered in 609 b.c. in conjunction with Pharaoh Necho’s advance into Palestine to aid the Assyrians. That was the same year that Josiah was killed by Necho at the battle of Megiddo and four years before Necho was defeated by Nebuchadnezzar, the foe from the north. The prophecy presupposes that Ashkelon is still in existence (v. 5) hence it must be before 604 b.c. For a fairly complete discussion of the options see G. L. Keown, P. J. Scalise, T. G. Smothers, Jeremiah 26-52 (WBC), 299-300.

²⁵ tn See Jer 29:14; 30:3 and the translator’s note on 29:14 for the idiom used here.

²⁶ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

²⁷ tn See Jer 29:14; 30:3 and the translator’s note on 29:14 for the idiom used here.

sn See a similar note on the reversal of Moab’s fortunes in Jer 48:47 and compare also 46:26 for a future restoration of Egypt.

²⁸ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

²⁹ tn Heb “the land of the Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for explanation.

³⁰ tn Heb “The word which the Lord spoke concerning Babylon, concerning the land of the Chaldeans by the hand of Jeremiah the prophet.”

³¹ tn Heb “The land of the Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for explanation.

³² tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

³³ tn Heb “what was evil in the eyes of the Lord.”