2:22 You can try to wash away your guilt with a strong detergent.
You can use as much soap as you want.
But the stain of your guilt is still there for me to see,” 1
says the Lord God. 2
2:25 Do not chase after other gods until your shoes wear out
and your throats become dry. 3
But you say, ‘It is useless for you to try and stop me
because I love those foreign gods 4 and want to pursue them!’
2:34 Even your clothes are stained with
the lifeblood of the poor who had not done anything wrong;
you did not catch them breaking into your homes. 5
Yet, in spite of all these things you have done, 6
4:7 Like a lion that has come up from its lair 7
the one who destroys nations has set out from his home base. 8
He is coming out to lay your land waste.
Your cities will become ruins and lie uninhabited.
22:22 My judgment will carry off all your leaders like a storm wind! 16
Your allies will go into captivity.
Then you will certainly 17 be disgraced and put to shame
because of all the wickedness you have done.
31:7 Moreover, 22 the Lord says,
“Sing for joy for the descendants of Jacob.
Utter glad shouts for that foremost of the nations. 23
Make your praises heard. 24
Then say, ‘Lord, rescue your people.
Deliver those of Israel who remain alive.’ 25
31:16 The Lord says to her, 26
“Stop crying! Do not shed any more tears! 27
For your heartfelt repentance 28 will be rewarded.
Your children will return from the land of the enemy.
I, the Lord, affirm it! 29
38:23 “All your wives and your children will be turned over to the Babylonians. 33 You yourself will not escape from them but will be captured by the 34 king of Babylon. This city will be burned down.” 35
46:12 The nations will hear of your devastating defeat. 37
your cries of distress will echo throughout the earth.
In the panic of their flight one soldier will trip over another
and both of them will fall down defeated.” 38
48:7 “Moab, you trust in the things you do and in your riches.
So you too will be conquered.
Your god Chemosh 39 will go into exile 40
along with his priests and his officials.
48:18 Come down from your place of honor;
sit on the dry ground, 41 you who live in Dibon. 42
For the one who will destroy Moab will attack you;
he will destroy your fortifications.
50:14 “Take up your battle positions all around Babylon,
all you soldiers who are armed with bows. 43
Shoot 44 all your arrows at her! Do not hold any back! 45
For she has sinned against the Lord.
51:13 “You who live along the rivers of Babylon, 46
the time of your end has come.
You who are rich in plundered treasure,
it is time for your lives to be cut off. 47
1 tn Heb “Even if you wash with natron/lye, and use much soap, your sin is a stain before me.”
2 tn Heb “Lord Yahweh.” For an explanation of this title see the study notes on 1:6.
3 tn Heb “Refrain your feet from being bare and your throat from being dry/thirsty.”
4 tn Heb “It is useless! No!” For this idiom, see Jer 18:12; NEB “No; I am desperate.”
5 tn The words “for example” are implicit and are supplied in the translation for clarification. This is only one example of why their death was not legitimate.
sn Killing a thief caught in the act of breaking and entering into a person’s home was pardonable under the law of Moses, cf. Exod 22:2.
6 tn KJV and ASV read this line with 2:34. The ASV makes little sense and the KJV again erroneously reads the archaic second person feminine singular perfect as first person common singular. All the modern English versions and commentaries take this line with 2:35.
7 tn Heb “A lion has left its lair.” The metaphor is turned into a simile for clarification. The word translated “lair” has also been understood to refer to a hiding place. However, it appears to be cognate in meaning to the word translated “lair” in Ps 10:9; Jer 25:38, a word which also refers to the abode of the
8 tn Heb “his place.”
9 tn Heb “Do not carry any loads out of your houses on the Sabbath day and do not do any work.” Translating literally might give the wrong impression that they were not to work at all. The phrase “on the Sabbath day” is, of course, intended to qualify both prohibitions.
10 tn Heb “But sanctify [or set apart as sacred] the Sabbath day.” The idea of setting it apart as something sacred to the
11 tn Heb “fathers.”
12 tn Heb “all who live in your house.” This included his family and his servants.
13 sn As a member of the priesthood and the protector of order in the temple, Pashhur was undoubtedly one of those who promulgated the deceptive belief that the
14 tn Heb “who sits on David’s throne.”
15 tn Heb “Hear the word of the
16 tn Heb “A wind will shepherd away all your shepherds.” The figures have all been interpreted in the translation for the sake of clarity. For the use of the word “wind” as a metaphor or simile for God’s judgment (using the enemy forces) see 4:11-12; 13:24; 18:17. For the use of the word “shepherd” to refer to rulers/leaders 2:8; 10:21; and 23:1-4. For the use of the word “shepherd away” in the sense of carry off/drive away see BDB 945 s.v. רָעָה 2.d and compare Job 20:26. There is an obvious wordplay involved in two different senses of the word “shepherd,” one referring to their leaders and one referring to the loss of those leaders by the wind driving them off. There may even be a further play involving the word “wickedness” which comes from a word having the same consonants. If the oracles in this section are chronologically ordered this threat was fulfilled in 597
17 tn The use of the Hebrew particle כִּי (ki) is intensive here and probably also at the beginning of the last line of v. 21. (See BDB 472 s.v. כִּי 1.e.)
18 tn The words “Don’t listen to them” have been repeated from v. 9a to pick up the causal connection between v. 9a and v. 10 that is formally introduced by a causal particle in v. 10 in the original text.
19 tn Heb “they are prophesying a lie.”
20 tn Heb “lies will result in your being taken far…” (לְמַעַן [lÿma’an] + infinitive). This is a rather clear case of the particle לְמַעַן introducing result (contra BDB 775 s.v. מַעַן note 1. There is no irony in this statement; it is a bold prediction).
21 tn The words “out of your country” are not in the text but are implicit in the meaning of the verb. The words “in exile” are also not in the text but are implicit in the context. These words have been supplied in the translation for clarity.
22 tn See the translator’s notes on 30:5, 12.
23 tn Heb “for the head/chief of the nations.” See BDB 911 s.v. רֹאשׁ 3.c and compare usage in Ps 18:44 referring to David as the “chief” or “foremost ruler” of the nations.
24 tn It is unclear who the addressees of the masculine plural imperatives are in this verse. Possibly they are the implied exiles who are viewed as in the process of returning and praying for their fellow countrymen.
25 tc Or “The
26 tn The words “to her” are not in the text but are implicit from the context. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.
27 tn Heb “Refrain your voice from crying and your eyes from tears.”
28 tn Heb “your work.” Contextually her “work” refers to her weeping and refusing to be comforted, that is, signs of genuine repentance (v. 15).
29 tn Heb “Oracle of the
30 sn The verb at the beginning of v. 15 and v. 16 are the same in the Hebrew. They had two changes of heart (Heb “you turned”), one that was pleasing to him (Heb “right in his eyes”) and one that showed they did not honor him (Heb “profaned [or belittled] his name”).
31 sn Heb “you profaned my name.” His name had been invoked in the oath confirming the covenant. Breaking the covenant involved taking his name in vain (cf. Exod 20:7; Deut 5:11; Jer 5:2). Hence the one who bore the name was not treated with the special honor and reverence due him (see the study note on 23:27 for the significance of “name” in the OT).
32 tn Heb “and you brought them into subjection to be to you for male and female slaves.” See the translator’s note on v. 11 for the same redundant repetition which is not carried over into the contemporary English sentence.
33 tn Heb “Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for explanation.
34 tn Heb “you yourself will not escape from their hand but will be seized by [caught in] the hand of the king of Babylon.” Neither use of “hand” is natural to the English idiom.
35 tc This translation follows the reading of the Greek version and a few Hebrew
36 tn Heb “his.” This should not be viewed as a textual error but as a distributive singular use of the suffix, i.e., the wives of each of the kings of Judah (cf. GKC 464 §145.l and compare the usage in Isa 2:8; Hos 4:8).
37 tn Heb “of your shame.” The “shame,” however, applies to the devastating defeat they will suffer.
38 tn The words “In the panic of their flight” and “defeated” are not in the text but are supplied in the translation to give clarity to the metaphor for the average reader. The verbs in this verse are all in the tense that emphasizes that the action is viewed as already having been accomplished (i.e., the Hebrew prophetic perfect). This is consistent with the vav consecutive perfects in v. 10 which look to the future.
39 sn Chemosh was the national god of Moab (see also Numb 21:29). Child sacrifice appears to have been a part of his worship (2 Kgs 3:27). Solomon built a high place in Jerusalem for him (1 Kgs 11:7), and he appears to have been worshiped in Israel until Josiah tore that high place down (2 Kgs 23:13).
40 sn The practice of carrying off the gods of captive nations has already been mentioned in the study note on 43:12. See also Isa 46:1-2 noted there.
41 tn Heb “sit in thirst.” The abstract “thirst” is put for the concrete, i.e., thirsty or parched ground (cf. Deut 8:19; Isa 35:7; Ps 107:33) for the concrete. There is no need to emend to “filth” (צֹאָה [tso’ah] for צָמָא [tsama’]) as is sometimes suggested.
42 tn Heb “inhabitant of Daughter Dibon.” “Daughter” is used here as often in Jeremiah for the personification of a city, a country, or its inhabitants. The word “inhabitant” is to be understood as a collective as also in v. 19.
sn Dibon was an important fortified city located on the “King’s Highway,” the main north-south road in Transjordan. It was the site at which the Moabite Stone was found in 1868 and was one of the cities mentioned on it. It was four miles north of the Arnon River and thirteen miles east of the Dead Sea. It was one of the main cities on the northern plateau and had been conquered from Sihon and allotted to the tribe of Reuben (Josh 13:17).
43 tn Heb “all you who draw the bow.”
44 tc The verb here should probably be read as a Qal imperative יְרוּ (yÿru) from יָרָה (yarah) with a few Hebrew
45 tn Heb “Shoot at her! Don’t save any arrows!”
46 sn Babylon was situated on the Euphrates River and was surrounded by canals (also called “rivers”).
47 tn Heb “You who live upon [or beside] many waters, rich in treasures, your end has come, the cubit of your cutting off.” The sentence has been restructured and paraphrased to provide clarity for the average reader. The meaning of the last phrase is debated. For a discussion of the two options see W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah (Hermeneia), 2:423. Most modern commentaries and English versions see an allusion to the figure in Isa 38:12 where the reference is to the end of life compared to a tapestry which is suddenly cut off from the loom. Hence, NRSV renders the last line as “the thread of your life is cut” and TEV renders “its thread of life is cut.” That idea is accepted also in HALOT 141 s.v. בצע Qal.1.