Jeremiah 4:19

4:19 I said,¹

“Oh, the feeling in the pit of my stomach!²

I writhe in anguish.

Oh, the pain in my heart!³

My heart pounds within me.

I cannot keep silent.

For I hear the sound of the trumpet;⁴

the sound of the battle cry pierces my soul!⁵

Jeremiah 4:31

4:31 In fact,⁶ I hear a cry like that of a woman in labor,

a cry of anguish like that of a woman giving birth to her first baby.

It is the cry of Daughter Zion⁷ gasping for breath,

reaching out for help,⁸ saying, “I am done in!⁹

My life is ebbing away before these murderers!”

Jeremiah 6:19

6:19 Hear this, you peoples of the earth:¹⁰

‘Take note!¹¹ I am about to bring disaster on these people.

It will come as punishment for their scheming.¹²

For they have paid no attention to what I have said,¹³

and they have rejected my law.

Jeremiah 8:19

8:19 I hear my dear people¹⁴ crying out¹⁵

throughout the length and breadth of the land.¹⁶

They are crying, ‘Is the Lord no longer in Zion?

Is her divine King¹⁷ no longer there?’”

The Lord answers,¹⁸

“Why then do they provoke me to anger with their images,

with their worthless foreign idols?”¹⁹

Jeremiah 26:15

26:15 But you should take careful note of this: If you put me to death, you will bring on yourselves and this city and those who live in it the guilt of murdering an innocent man. For the Lord has sent me to speak all this where you can hear it. That is the truth!”²⁰

Jeremiah 33:9

33:9 All the nations will hear about all the good things which I will do to them. This city will bring me fame, honor, and praise before them for the joy that I bring it. The nations will tremble in awe at all the peace and prosperity that I will provide for it.’²¹

Jeremiah 36:3

36:3 Perhaps when the people of Judah hear about all the disaster I intend to bring on them, they will all stop doing the evil things they have been doing.²² If they do, I will forgive their sins and the wicked things they have done.”²³

Jeremiah 36:6

36:6 So you go there the next time all the people of Judah come in from their towns to fast²⁴ in the Lord’s temple. Read out loud where all of them can hear you what I told you the Lord said, which you wrote in the scroll.²⁵

Jeremiah 36:10

36:10 At that time Baruch went into the temple of the Lord. He stood in the entrance of the room of Gemariah the son of Shaphan who had been the royal secretary.²⁶ That room was in the upper court²⁷ near the entrance of the New Gate.²⁸ There, where all the people could hear him, he read from the scroll what Jeremiah had said.²⁹

Jeremiah 38:25

38:25 The officials may hear that I have talked with you. They may come to you and say, ‘Tell us what you said to the king and what the king said to you.³⁰ Do not hide anything from us. If you do, we will kill you.’³¹

¹tn The words “I said” are not in the text. They are used to mark the shift from the Lord’s promise of judgment to Jeremiah’s lament concerning it.

²tn Heb “My bowels! My bowels!”

³tn Heb “the walls of my heart!”

⁴tn Heb “ram’s horn,” but the modern equivalent is “trumpet” and is more readily understandable.

⁵tc The translation reflects a different division of the last two lines than that suggested by the Masoretes. The written text (the Kethib) reads “for the sound of the ram’s horn I have heard [or “you have heard,” if the form is understood as the old second feminine singular perfect] my soul” followed by “the battle cry” in the last line. The translation is based on taking “my soul” with the last line and understanding an elliptical expression “the battle cry [to] my soul.” Such an elliptical expression is in keeping with the elliptical nature of the exclamations at the beginning of the verse (cf. the literal translations of the first two lines of the verse in the notes on the words “stomach” and “heart”).

⁶tn The particle כִּי (ki) is more likely asseverative here than causal.

⁷sn Jerusalem is personified as a helpless maiden.

⁸tn Heb “spreading out her hands.” The idea of asking or pleading for help is implicit in the figure.

⁹tn Heb “Woe, now to me!” See the translator’s note on 4:13 for the usage of “Woe to…”

¹⁰tn Heb “earth.”

¹¹tn Heb “Behold!”

¹²tn Heb “disaster on these people, the fruit of their schemes.”

¹³tn Heb “my word.”

¹⁴tn Heb “daughter of my people.” For the translation given here see 4:11 and the note on the phrase “dear people” there.

¹⁵tn Heb “Behold the voice of the crying of the daughter of my people.”

¹⁶tn Heb “Land of distances, i.e., of wide extent.” For parallel usage cf. Isa 33:17.

¹⁷tn Heb “her King” but this might be misunderstood by some to refer to the Davidic ruler even with the capitalization.

¹⁸tn The words, “The Lord would answer” are not in the text but are implicit from the words that follow. They are supplied in the translation for clarity. Another option would be to add “And I can just hear the Lord reply.”

¹⁹sn The people’s cry and the Lord’s interruption reflect the same argument that was set forth in the preceding chapter. They have misguided confidence that the Lord is with them regardless of their actions and he responds that their actions have provoked him to the point of judging them. See especially 7:4 and 7:30.

²⁰tn Heb “For in truth the Lord has sent me to you to speak in your ears all these words/things.”

²¹tn Heb “And it [the city] will be to me for a name for joy and for praise and for honor before all the nations of the earth which will hear of all the good things which I will do for them and which will be in awe and tremble for all the good things and all the peace [or prosperity] which I will do for them.” The long complex Hebrew sentence has been broken down to better conform with contemporary English style.

²²tn Heb “will turn each one from his wicked way.”

²³tn Heb “their iniquity and their sin.”

sn The offer of withdrawal of punishment for sin is consistent with the principles of Jer 18:7-8 and the temple sermon delivered early in the reign of this king (cf. 26:1-3; 7:5-7).

²⁴sn Regular fast days were not a part of Israel’s religious calendar. Rather fast days were called on special occasions, i.e., in times of drought or a locust plague (Joel 1:14; 2:15), or during a military crisis (2 Chr 20:3), or after defeat in battle (1 Sam 31:13; 2 Sam 1:12). A fast day was likely chosen for the reading of the scroll because the people would be more mindful of the crisis they were in and be in more of a repentant mood. The events referred to in the study note on v. 1 would have provided the basis for Jeremiah’s anticipation of a fast day when the scroll could be read.

²⁵tn Heb “So you go and read from the scroll which you have written from my mouth the words of the Lord in the ears of the people in the house of the Lord on a fast day, and in that way [for the explanation of this rendering see below] you will be reading them in the ears of all Judah [= the people of Judah] who come from their towns [i.e., to the temple to fast].” Again the syntax of the original is awkward, separating several of the qualifying phrases from the word or phrase they are intended to modify. In most of the “literal” English versions the emphasis on “what the Lord said” tends to get lost and it looks like two separate groups are to be addressed rather than one. The intent of the phrase is to define who the people are who will hear; the וַ that introduces the clause is explicative (BDB 252 s.v. וַ 1.b) and the גַּם (gam) is used to emphasize the explicative “all Judah who come in from their towns” (cf. BDB 169 s.v. גַּם 2). If some force were to be given to the “literal” rendering of that particle here it would be “actually.” This is the group that is to be addressed according to v. 3. The complex Hebrew sentence has been restructured to include all the relevant information in more comprehensible and shorter English sentences.

²⁶sn Shaphan had been the royal secretary under Jehoiakim’s father’s rule. During the course of his official duties the book of the law had been discovered and he had read it and reported its contents to Josiah who instituted sweeping reforms on the basis of his obedience to it. (See 2 Kgs 22 and note especially vv. 3, 8, 10.) If the Shaphan mentioned in 26:14 is the same person as this, Gemariah would have been the brother of the man who spoke up on Jeremiah’s behalf when the priests and prophets sought to have him killed.

²⁷sn It is generally agreed that this is the same as the inner court mentioned in 1 Kgs 6:36; 7:12. It is called “upper” here because it stood above (cf. 1 Kgs 7:12) the outer court where all the people were standing.

²⁸sn The New Gate is the same gate where Jeremiah had been accused of falsely claiming the Lord’s authority for his “treasonous” prophecies according to 26:10-11. See the study note on 26:10 for more details about the location of this gate.

²⁹tn The syntax of the original is complicated due to all the qualifying terms: Heb “And Baruch read from the scroll the words of Jeremiah in the house of the Lord in (i.e., in the entrance of) the room of Gemariah son of Shaphan the scribe in the upper court at the entrance of the New Gate in the house of the Lord in the ears of all the people.” The sentence has been broken down and restructured to contain all the same information in shorter English sentences that better conform with contemporary English style.

³⁰tn The phrase “and what the king said to you” is actually at the end of the verse, but most commentators see it as also under the governance of “tell us” and many commentaries and English versions move the clause forward for the sake of English style as has been done here.

³¹tn Or “lest we kill you”; Heb “and we will not kill you,” which as stated in the translator’s note on 37:20 introduces a negative purpose (or result) clause. See 37:20, 38:24 for parallel usage.