6:10 I answered, 1
“Who would listen
if I spoke to them and warned them? 2
Their ears are so closed 3
that they cannot hear!
Indeed, 4 what the Lord says is offensive to them.
They do not like it at all. 5
12:1 Lord, you have always been fair
whenever I have complained to you. 6
However, I would like to speak with you about the disposition of justice. 7
Why are wicked people successful? 8
Why do all dishonest people have such easy lives?
15:1 Then the Lord said to me, “Even if Moses and Samuel stood before me pleading for 9 these people, I would not feel pity for them! 10 Get them away from me! Tell them to go away! 11
30:14 All your allies have abandoned you. 14
They no longer have any concern for you.
For I have attacked you like an enemy would.
I have chastened you cruelly.
For your wickedness is so great
and your sin is so much. 15
49:4 Why do you brag about your great power?
Your power is ebbing away, 20 you rebellious people of Ammon, 21
who trust in your riches and say,
‘Who would dare to attack us?’
1 tn These words are not in the text but are supplied in the translation for clarity.
2 tn Or “To whom shall I speak? To whom shall I give warning? Who will listen?” Heb “Unto whom shall I speak and give warning that they may listen?”
3 tn Heb “are uncircumcised.”
4 tn Heb “Behold!”
5 tn Heb “They do not take pleasure in it.”
6 tn Or “
7 tn Heb “judgments” or “matters of justice.” For the nuance of “complain to,” “fair,” “disposition of justice” assumed here, see BDB 936 s.v. רִיב Qal.4 (cf. Judg 21:22); BDB 843 s.v. צַדִּיק 1.d (cf. Ps 7:12; 11:7); BDB 1049 s.v. מִשְׁפָּט 1.f (cf. Isa 26:8; Ps 10:5; Ezek 7:27).
8 tn Heb “Why does the way [= course of life] of the wicked prosper?”
9 tn The words “pleading for” have been supplied in the translation to explain the idiom (a metonymy). For parallel usage see BDB 763 s.v. עָמַד Qal.1.a and compare usage in Gen 19:27, Deut 4:10.
sn Moses and Samuel were well-known for their successful intercession on behalf of Israel. See Ps 99:6-8 and see, e.g., Exod 32:11-14, 30-34; 1 Sam 7:5-9. The
10 tn Heb “my soul would not be toward them.” For the usage of “soul” presupposed here see BDB 660 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ 6 in the light of the complaints and petitions in Jeremiah’s prayer in 14:19, 21.
11 tn Heb “Send them away from my presence and let them go away.”
12 tn Heb “Make good your ways and your actions.” For the same expression see 7:3, 5; 18:11.
13 tn For the idiom and translation of terms involved here see 18:8 and the translator’s note there.
sn The
14 tn Heb “forgotten you.”
15 tn Heb “attacked you like…with the chastening of a cruel one because of the greatness of your iniquity [and because] your sins are many.” The sentence has been broken down to conform to contemporary English style and better poetic scansion.
16 tn Heb “all the army of the Chaldeans.” For the rendering “Babylonian” in place of Chaldean see the study note on 21:4.
17 tn The length and complexity of this English sentence violates the more simple style that has been used to conform such sentences to contemporary English style. However, there does not seem to be any alternative that would enable a simpler style and still retain the causal and conditional connections that give this sentence the rhetorical force that it has in the original. The condition is, of course, purely hypothetical and the consequence a poetic exaggeration. The intent is to assure Zedekiah that there is absolutely no hope of the city being spared.
18 tn Heb “the Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for explanation.
19 tn The translation is intended to reflect the emphasizing infinitive absolute before the finite verb.
20 tn Or “Why do you brag about your valleys, about the fruitfulness of your valleys.” The meaning of the first two lines of this verse are uncertain primarily due to the ambiguity of the expression זָב עִמְקֵךְ (zav ’imqekh). The form זָב (zav) is either a Qal perfect or Qal participle of a verb meaning flow. It is common in the expression “a land flowing with milk and honey” and is also common to refer to the seminal discharge or discharge of blood which makes a man or woman unclean. BDB 264 s.v. זוּב Qal.2 sees it as an abbreviation of the idea of “flowing with milk and honey” and sees it as referring to the fertility of Ammon’s valley. However, there are no other examples of such an ellipsis. Several of the modern English versions and commentaries have taken the word עֵמֶק (’emeq) not as a reference to a valley but to the homonym cited in the note on 47:5 and see the reference here to the flowing away of Ammon’s strength. That interpretation is followed here. Instead of explaining the plural ending on עֲמָקִים (’amaqim) as being an enclitic ם (mem) as others who follow this interpretation (e.g., J. Bright, Jeremiah [AB], 325), the present translation understands the plural as a plural of amplification (cf. GKC 397-98 §124.e and compare the noun “might” in Isa 40:26).
21 tn Heb “apostate daughter.” This same term is applied to Israel in Jer 31:22 but seems inappropriate here to Ammon because she had never been loyal to the