4:12 No, 1 a wind too strong for that will come at my bidding.
Yes, even now I, myself, am calling down judgment on them.’ 2
5:12 “These people have denied what the Lord says. 3
They have said, ‘That is not so! 4
No harm will come to us.
We will not experience war and famine. 5
6:3 Kings will come against it with their armies. 6
They will encamp in siege all around it. 7
Each of them will devastate the portion assigned to him. 8
8:15 We hoped for good fortune, but nothing good has come of it.
We hoped for a time of relief, but instead we experience terror. 9
17:15 Listen to what they are saying to me. 10
They are saying, “Where are the things the Lord threatens us with?
Come on! Let’s see them happen!” 11
20:18 Why did I ever come forth from my mother’s womb?
All I experience is trouble and grief,
and I spend my days in shame. 12
30:23 Just watch! The wrath of the Lord
will come like a storm.
Like a raging storm it will rage down
on the heads of those who are wicked.
31:6 Yes, a time is coming
when watchmen 13 will call out on the mountains of Ephraim,
“Come! Let us go to Zion
to worship the Lord our God!”’” 14
33:14 “I, the Lord, affirm: 15 ‘The time will certainly come when I will fulfill my gracious promise concerning the nations of Israel and Judah. 16
48:47 Yet in days to come
I will reverse Moab’s ill fortune.” 21
says the Lord. 22
The judgment against Moab ends here.
50:27 Kill all her soldiers! 23
Let them be slaughtered! 24
They are doomed, 25 for their day of reckoning 26 has come,
the time for them to be punished.”
50:41 “Look! An army is about to come from the north.
A mighty nation and many kings 27 are stirring into action
in faraway parts of the earth.
51:52 Yes, but the time will certainly come,” 28 says the Lord, 29
“when I will punish her idols.
Throughout her land the mortally wounded will groan.
1 tn The word “No” is not in the text but is carried over from the connection with the preceding line “not for…”
2 tn Heb “will speak judgments against them.”
3 tn Heb “have denied the
4 tn Or “he will do nothing”; Heb “Not he [or it]!”
5 tn Heb “we will not see the sword and famine.”
6 tn Heb “Shepherds and their flocks will come against it.” Rulers are often depicted as shepherds; see BDB 945 s.v. רָעָה 1.d(2) (cf. Jer 12:10). The translation of this verse attempts to clarify the point of this extended metaphor.
7 tn Heb “They will thrust [= pitch] tents around it.” The shepherd imagery has a surprisingly ominous tone. The beautiful pasture filled with shepherds grazing their sheep is in reality a city under siege from an attacking enemy.
8 tn Heb “They will graze each one his portion.” For the use of the verb “graze” to mean “strip” or “devastate” see BDB 945 s.v. רָעָה 2.c. For a similar use of the word normally meaning “hand” to mean portion compare 2 Sam 19:43 (19:44 HT).
sn There is a wordplay involving “sound…in Tekoa” mentioned in the study note on “destruction” in v. 1. The Hebrew verb “they will pitch” is from the same root as the word translated “sound” (taqÿ’u [תִּקְעוּ] here and tiq’u [תִּקְעוּ] in v. 1).
9 tn Heb “[We hoped] for a time of healing but behold terror.”
10 tn Heb “Behold, they are saying to me.”
11 tn Heb “Where is the word of the
12 tn Heb “Why did I come forth from the womb to see [= so that I might see] trouble and grief and that my days might be consumed in shame.”
13 sn Watchmen were stationed at vantage points to pass on warning of coming attack (Jer 6:17; Ezek 33:2, 6) or to spread the news of victory (Isa 52:8). Here reference is made to the watchmen who signaled the special times of the year such as the new moon and festival times when Israel was to go to Jerusalem to worship. Reference is not made to these in the Hebrew Bible but there is a good deal of instruction regarding them in the later Babylonian Talmud.
14 sn Not only will Israel and Judah be reunited under one ruler (cf. 23:5-6), but they will share a unified place and practice of worship once again in contrast to Israel using the illicit places of worship, illicit priesthood, and illicit feasts instituted by Jeroboam (1 Kgs 12:26-31) and continued until the downfall of Samaria in 722
15 tn Heb “Oracle of the
16 sn This refers at the very least to the promises of Jer 23:5-6, 7-8; 30:3; 31:27, 31 where the same formula “The time will certainly come (Heb “Behold the days are coming”)” occurs. Reference may also be to the promises through the earlier prophets of what is alluded to here, i.e., the restoration of Israel and Judah under a Davidic ruler and the revival of the offerings (cf. Hos 1:10-11; 3:4-5; Amos 9:11-12; Isa 11:1-5, 10-16; Jer 30:9, 21 for the former and Jer 31:14; 33:11 for the latter).
17 tn Heb “the house of the Rechabites.” “House” is used here in terms of “household” or “family” (cf. BDB 109 s.v. בַּיִת 5.a, b).
sn Nothing is known about the Rechabite community other than what is said about them in this chapter. From vv. 7-8 it appears that they were a nomadic tribe that had resisted settling down and taking up farming. They had also agreed to abstain from drinking wine. Most scholars agree in equating the Jonadab son of Rechab mentioned as the leader who had instituted these strictures as the same Jonadab who assisted Jehu in his religious purge of Baalism following the reign of Ahab (2 Kgs 10:15, 23-24). If this is the case, the Rechabites followed these same rules for almost 250 years because Jehu’s purge of Baalism and the beginning of his reign was in 841
18 sn This refers to one of the rooms built on the outside of the temple that were used as living quarters for the priests and for storage rooms (cf. Neh 13:4-5; 1 Kgs 6:5; 1 Chr 28:12; 2 Chr 31:11 and compare Ezek 41:1-14).
19 sn This statement anticipates v. 15. Verses 3-4 are parenthetical to the narrative thread which is picked up in v. 5. They provide background information necessary for understanding the situation at the time the delegation comes to Jeremiah.
20 tn The words “as he pleased” are not in the text but are implicit in the idiom both in Hebrew and in English. They have been supplied in the translation for clarity and the sake of English idiom.
21 tn See 29:14; 30:3 and the translator’s note on 29:14 for the idiom used here.
22 tn Heb “Oracle of the
23 tn Heb “Kill all her young bulls.” Commentators are almost universally agreed that the reference to “young bulls” is figurative here for the princes and warriors (cf. BDB 831 s.v. פַּר 2.f, which compares Isa 34:7 and Ezek 39:18). This is virtually certain because of the reference to the time coming for them to be punished; this would scarcely fit literal bulls. For the verb rendered “kill” here see the translator’s note on v. 21.
24 tn Heb “Let them go down to the slaughter.”
25 tn Or “How terrible it will be for them”; Heb “Woe to them.” See the study note on 22:13 and compare the usage in 23:1; 48:1.
26 tn The words “of reckoning” are not in the text but are implicit from the context. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.
27 sn A mighty nation and many kings is an allusion to the Medo-Persian empire and the vassal kings who provided forces for the Medo-Persian armies.
28 tn Heb “that being so, look, days are approaching.” Here לָכֵן (lakhen) introduces the Lord’s response to the people’s lament (v. 51). It has the force of “yes, but” or “that may be true.” See Judg 11:8 and BDB 486-87 s.v. כֵּן 3.d.
29 tn Heb “Oracle of the