2:25 Do not chase after other gods until your shoes wear out
and your throats become dry. 1
But you say, ‘It is useless for you to try and stop me
because I love those foreign gods 2 and want to pursue them!’
11:21 Then the Lord told me about 6 some men from Anathoth 7 who were threatening to kill me. 8 They had threatened, 9 “Stop prophesying in the name of the Lord or we will kill you!” 10
15:5 The Lord cried out, 11
“Who in the world 12 will have pity on you, Jerusalem?
Who will grieve over you?
Who will stop long enough 13
to inquire about how you are doing? 14
23:22 But if they had stood in my inner circle, 18
they would have proclaimed my message to my people.
They would have caused my people to turn from their wicked ways
and stop doing the evil things they are doing.
31:16 The Lord says to her, 19
“Stop crying! Do not shed any more tears! 20
For your heartfelt repentance 21 will be rewarded.
Your children will return from the land of the enemy.
I, the Lord, affirm it! 22
47:6 How long will you cry out, 31 ‘Oh, sword of the Lord,
how long will it be before you stop killing? 32
Go back into your sheath!
Stay there and rest!’ 33
1 tn Heb “Refrain your feet from being bare and your throat from being dry/thirsty.”
2 tn Heb “It is useless! No!” For this idiom, see Jer 18:12; NEB “No; I am desperate.”
3 tn Heb “Stop trusting in lying words which say.”
4 tn The words “We are safe!” are not in the text but are supplied in the translation for clarity.
5 tn Heb “The temple of the
6 tn Heb “Therefore thus says the
7 tn Heb “the men of Anathoth.” However, this does not involve all of the people, only the conspirators. The literal might lead to confusion later since v. 21 mentions that there will not be any of them left alive. However, it is known from Ezra 2:23 that there were survivors.
8 tc The MT reads the 2nd person masculine singular suffix “your life,” but LXX reflects an alternative reading of the 1st person common singular suffix “my life.”
9 tn Heb “who were seeking my life, saying…” The sentence is broken up in conformity with contemporary English style.
10 tn Heb “or you will die by our hand.”
11 tn The words “The
12 tn The words, “in the world” are not in the text but are the translator’s way of trying to indicate that this rhetorical question expects a negative answer.
13 tn Heb “turn aside.”
14 tn Or “about your well-being”; Heb “about your welfare” (שָׁלוֹם, shalom).
15 tn The verb used here is often used of seeking information through a prophet (e.g., 2 Kgs 1:16; 8:8) and hence many translate “inquire of the
16 tn The dominant spelling of this name is actually Nebuchadrezzar which is closer to his Babylonian name Nebu kudduri uzzur. An alternate spelling which is found 6 times in the book of Jeremiah and 17 times elsewhere is Nebuchadnezzar which is the form of the name that is usually used in English versions.
sn Nebuchadnezzar was the second and greatest king of Babylon. He is known in the Bible both for his two conquests of Jerusalem in 597
17 tn Heb “Perhaps the
sn The miracles that they may have had in mind would have included the Exodus, the conquest of Jericho, the deliverance of Jehoshaphat (2 Chr 20:1-30), etc., but predominant in their minds was probably the deliverance of Jerusalem from Sennacherib in the times of Hezekiah (Isa 37:33-38).
18 tn Or “had been my confidant.” See the note on v. 18.
19 tn The words “to her” are not in the text but are implicit from the context. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.
20 tn Heb “Refrain your voice from crying and your eyes from tears.”
21 tn Heb “your work.” Contextually her “work” refers to her weeping and refusing to be comforted, that is, signs of genuine repentance (v. 15).
22 tn Heb “Oracle of the
23 tn Heb “an everlasting covenant.” For the rationale for the rendering “agreement” and the nature of the biblical covenants see the study note on 11:2.
sn For other references to the lasting (or everlasting) nature of the new covenant see Isa 55:3; 61:8; Jer 50:5; Ezek 16:60; 37:26. The new covenant appears to be similar to the ancient Near Eastern covenants of grants whereby a great king gave a loyal vassal a grant of land or dynastic dominion over a realm in perpetuity in recognition of past loyalty. The right to such was perpetual as long as the great king exercised dominion, but the actual enjoyment could be forfeited by individual members of the vassal’s dynasty. The best example of such an covenant in the OT is the Davidic covenant where the dynasty was given perpetual right to rule over Israel. Individual kings might be disciplined and their right to enjoy dominion taken away, but the dynasty still maintained the right to rule (see 2 Sam 23:5; Ps 89:26-37 and note especially 1 Kgs 11:23-39). The new covenant appears to be the renewal of God’s promise to Abraham to always be the God of his descendants and for his descendants to be his special people (Gen 17:7) something they appear to have forfeited by their disobedience (see Hos 1:9). However, under the new covenant he promises to never stop doing them good and grants them a new heart, a new spirit, the infusion of his own spirit, and the love and reverence necessary to keep from turning away from him. The new covenant is not based on their past loyalty but on his gracious forgiveness and his gifts.
24 tn Or “stop being gracious to them” or “stop blessing them with good”; Heb “turn back from them to do good to them.”
25 tn Or “I will make them want to fear and respect me so much that”; Heb “I will put the fear of me in their hearts.” However, as has been noted several times, “heart” in Hebrew is more the center of the volition (and intellect) than the center of emotions as it is in English. Both translations are intended to reflect the difference in psychology.
26 tn The words “never again” are not in the text but are implicit from the context and are supplied not only by this translation but by a number of others.
27 tn Heb “will turn each one from his wicked way.”
28 tn Heb “For great is the anger and the wrath which the
29 tn There appears to be a deliberate shift in the pronouns used in vv. 2-5. “You” refers to the people living in Egypt who are being addressed (v. 2) and to the people of present and past generations to whom the
30 tn Heb “They did not listen or incline their ear [= pay attention] by turning from their wickedness by not sacrificing to other gods.” The לְ (lamed) + the negative + the infinitive is again epexegetical. The sentence has been restructured and more idiomatic English expressions have been used to better conform with contemporary English style but an attempt has been made to retain the basic relationships of subordination.
31 tn The words “How long will you cry out” are not in the text but some such introduction seems necessary because the rest of the speech assumes a personal subject.
32 tn Heb “before you are quiet/at rest.”
33 sn The passage is highly figurative. The sword of the