3:5 You will not always be angry with me, will you?
You will not be mad at me forever, will you?’ 1
That is what you say,
but you continually do all the evil that you can.” 2
18:16 So their land will become an object of horror. 3
People will forever hiss out their scorn over it.
All who pass that way will be filled with horror
and will shake their heads in derision. 4
31:36 The Lord affirms, 5 “The descendants of Israel will not
cease forever to be a nation in my sight.
That could only happen if the fixed ordering of the heavenly lights
were to cease to operate before me.” 6
51:26 No one will use any of your stones as a cornerstone.
No one will use any of them in the foundation of his house.
For you will lie desolate forever,” 7
says the Lord. 8
51:39 When their appetites are all stirred up, 9
I will set out a banquet for them.
I will make them drunk
so that they will pass out, 10
they will fall asleep forever,
they will never wake up,” 11
says the Lord. 12
51:57 “I will make her officials and wise men drunk,
along with her governors, leaders, 13 and warriors.
They will fall asleep forever and never wake up,” 14
says the King whose name is the Lord who rules over all. 15
1 tn Heb “Will he keep angry forever? Will he maintain [it] to the end?” The questions are rhetorical and expect a negative answer. The change to direct address in the English translation is intended to ease the problem of the rapid transition, common in Hebrew style (but not in English), from second person direct address in the preceding lines to third person indirect address in these two lines. See GKC 462 §144.p.
2 tn Heb “You do the evil and you are able.” This is an example of hendiadys, meaning “You do all the evil that you are able to do.”
3 tn There may be a deliberate double meaning involved here. The word translated here “an object of horror” refers both to destruction (cf. 2:15; 4:17) and the horror or dismay that accompanies it (cf. 5:30; 8:21). The fact that there is no conjunction or preposition in front of the noun “hissing” that follows this suggests that the reaction is in view here, not the cause.
4 tn Heb “an object of lasting hissing. All who pass that way will be appalled and shake their head.”
sn The actions of “shaking of the head” and “hissing” were obviously gestures of scorn and derision. See Lam 2:15-16.
5 tn Heb “Oracle of the
6 tn Heb “‘If these fixed orderings were to fail to be present before me,’ oracle of the
7 tn This is a fairly literal translation of the original which reads “No one will take from you a stone for a cornerstone nor a stone for foundations.” There is no unanimity of opinion in the commentaries, many feeling that the figure of the burned mountain continues and others feeling that the figure here shifts to a burned city whose stones are so burned that they are useless to be used in building. The latter is the interpretation adopted here (see, e.g., F. B. Huey, Jeremiah, Lamentations [NAC], 423; W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah [Hermeneia], 2:426; NCV).
sn The figure here shifts to that of a burned-up city whose stones cannot be used for building. Babylon will become a permanent heap of ruins.
8 tn Heb “Oracle of the
9 tn Heb “When they are hot.”
10 tc The translation follows the suggestion of KBL 707 s.v. עָלַז and a number of modern commentaries (e.g., Bright, J. A. Thompson, and W. L. Holladay) in reading יְעֻלְּפוּ (ye’ullÿfu) for יַעֲלֹזוּ (ya’alozu) in the sense of “swoon away” or “grow faint” (see KBL 710 s.v. עָלַף Pual). That appears to be the verb that the LXX (the Greek version) was reading when they translated καρωθῶσιν (karwqwsin, “they will be stupefied”). For parallel usage KBL cites Isa 51:20. This fits the context much better than “they will exult” in the Hebrew text.
11 sn The central figure here is the figure of the cup of the
12 tn Heb “Oracle of the
13 sn For discussion of the terms “governors” and “leaders” see the note at Jer 51:23.
14 sn See the note at Jer 51:39.
15 tn For the title “Yahweh of armies” see the study note on Jer 2:19.