5:5 I will go to the leaders 1
and speak with them.
Surely they know what the Lord demands. 2
Surely they know what their God requires of them.” 3
Yet all of them, too, have rejected his authority
and refuse to submit to him. 4
12:3 But you, Lord, know all about me.
You watch me and test my devotion to you. 5
Drag these wicked men away like sheep to be slaughtered!
Appoint a time when they will be killed! 6
23:9 Here is what the Lord says concerning the false prophets: 9
My heart and my mind are deeply disturbed.
I tremble all over. 10
I am like a drunk person,
like a person who has had too much wine, 11
because of the way the Lord
and his holy word are being mistreated. 12
31:10 Hear what the Lord has to say, O nations.
Proclaim it in the faraway lands along the sea.
Say, “The one who scattered Israel will regather them.
He will watch over his people like a shepherd watches over his flock.”
51:12 Give the signal to attack Babylon’s wall! 13
Bring more guards! 14
Post them all around the city! 15
Put men in ambush! 16
For the Lord will do what he has planned.
He will do what he said he would do to the people of Babylon. 17
1 tn Or “people in power”; Heb “the great ones.”
2 tn Heb “the way of the
3 tn Heb “the judgment [or ordinance] of their God.”
4 tn Heb “have broken the yoke and torn off the yoke ropes.” Compare Jer 2:20 and the note there.
5 tn Heb “You,
sn Jeremiah appears to be complaining like Job that God cares nothing about the prosperity of the wicked, but watches his every move. The reverse ought to be true. Jeremiah shouldn’t be suffering the onslaughts of his fellow countrymen as he is. The wicked who are prospering should be experiencing punishment.
6 tn Heb “set aside for them a day of killing.”
7 tn Heb “There will come from the cities of Judah and from the environs of Jerusalem and from…those bringing…incense and those bringing thank offerings.” This sentence has been restructured from a long complex original to conform to contemporary English style.
8 sn Jeremiah has already had a good deal to say about the false prophets and their fate. See 2:8, 26; 5:13, 31; 14:13-15. Here he parallels the condemnation of the wicked prophets and their fate (23:9-40) with that of the wicked kings (21:11-22:30).
9 tn The word “false” is not in the text, but it is clear from the context that these are whom the sayings are directed against. The words “Here is what the
10 tn Heb “My heart is crushed within me. My bones tremble.” It has already been noted several times that the “heart” in ancient Hebrew psychology was the intellectual and volitional center of the person, the kidneys were the emotional center, and the bones the locus of strength and also the subject of joy, distress, and sorrow. Here Jeremiah is speaking of his distress of heart and mind in modern psychology, a distress that leads him to trembling of body which he compares to that of a drunken person staggering around under the influence of wine.
11 tn Heb “wine has passed over him.”
12 tn Heb “wine because of the
sn The way the
13 tn Heb “Raise a banner against the walls of Babylon.”
14 tn Heb “Strengthen the watch.”
15 tn Heb “Station the guards.”
16 tn Heb “Prepare ambushes.”
sn The commands are here addressed to the kings of the Medes to fully blockade the city by posting watchmen and setting men in ambush to prevent people from escaping from the city (cf. 2 Kgs 25:4).
17 tn Heb “For the