Jeremiah 33:3

33:3 ‘Call on me in prayer and I will answer you. I will show you great and mysterious ¹  things which you still do not know about.’

Jeremiah 33:6

33:6 But I will most surely ²  heal the wounds of this city and restore it and its people to health. ³  I will show them abundant ⁴  peace and security.

Jeremiah 51:51

51:51 ‘We ⁵  are ashamed because we have been insulted. ⁶ 

Our faces show our disgrace. ⁷ 

For foreigners have invaded

the holy rooms ⁸  in the Lord’s temple.’

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¹ tn This passive participle or adjective is normally used to describe cities or walls as “fortified” or “inaccessible.” All the lexicons, however, agree in seeing it used here metaphorically of “secret” or “mysterious” things, things that Jeremiah could not know apart from the Lord’s revelation. G. L. Keown, P. J. Scalise, and T. G. Smothers (Jeremiah 26-52 [WBC], 170) make the interesting observation that the word is used here in a context in which the fortifications of Jerusalem are about to fall to the Babylonians; the fortified things in God’s secret counsel fall through answer to prayer.

² tn Heb “Behold I am healing.” For the usage of the particle “behold” indicating certainty see the translator’s note on 1:6. These are the great and hidden things that the Lord promised to reveal. The statements in v. 5 have been somewhat introductory. See the usage of הִנְנִי (hinni) after the introductory “Thus says the Lord” in Jer 32:28, 37.

³ sn Compare Jer 30:17. Jerusalem is again being personified and her political and spiritual well-being are again in view.

⁴ tn The meaning and text of this word is questioned by KBL 749 s.v. עֲתֶרֶת. However, KBL also emends both occurrences of the verb from which BDB 801 s.v. עֲתֶרֶת derives this noun. BDB is more likely correct in seeing this and the usage of the verb in Prov 27:6; Ezek 35:13 as Aramaic loan words from a root meaning to be rich (equivalent to the Hebrew עָשַׁר, ’ashar).

⁵ sn The exiles lament the way they have been humiliated.

⁶ tn Heb “we have heard an insult.”

⁷ tn Heb “disgrace covers our face.”

⁸ tn Or “holy places, sanctuaries.”