Jeremiah 6:11

6:11 I am as full of anger as you are, Lord, ¹ 

I am tired of trying to hold it in.”

The Lord answered, ² 

“Vent it, then, ³  on the children who play in the street

and on the young men who are gathered together.

Husbands and wives are to be included, ⁴ 

as well as the old and those who are advanced in years.

Jeremiah 8:19

8:19 I hear my dear people ⁵  crying out ⁶ 

throughout the length and breadth of the land. ⁷ 

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

Is her divine King ⁸  no longer there?’”

The Lord answers, ⁹ 

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

with their worthless foreign idols?” ¹⁰ 

Jeremiah 10:25

10:25 Vent your anger on the nations that do not acknowledge you. ¹¹ 

Vent it on the peoples ¹²  who do not worship you. ¹³ 

For they have destroyed the people of Jacob. ¹⁴ 

They have completely destroyed them ¹⁵ 

and left their homeland in utter ruin.

Jeremiah 17:4

17:4 You will lose your hold on the land ¹⁶ 

which I gave to you as a permanent possession.

I will make you serve your enemies in a land that you know nothing about.

For you have made my anger burn like a fire that will never be put out.” ¹⁷ 

Jeremiah 33:5

33:5 ‘The defenders of the city will go out and fight with the Babylonians. ¹⁸  But they will only fill those houses and buildings with the dead bodies of the people that I will kill in my anger and my wrath. ¹⁹  That will happen because I have decided to turn my back on ²⁰  this city on account of the wicked things they have done. ²¹ 

Jeremiah 49:37

49:37 I will make the people of Elam terrified of their enemies,

who are seeking to kill them.

I will vent my fierce anger

and bring disaster upon them,” ²²  says the Lord. ²³ 

“I will send armies chasing after them ²⁴ 

until I have completely destroyed them.

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¹ tn Heb “I am full of the wrath of the Lord.”

² tn These words are not in the text but are implicit from the words that follow. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

³ tn Heb “Pour it out.”

⁴ tn Heb “are to be captured.”

⁵ tn Heb “daughter of my people.” For the translation given here see 4:11 and the note on the phrase “dear people” there.

⁶ tn Heb “Behold the voice of the crying of the daughter of my people.”

⁷ tn Heb “Land of distances, i.e., of wide extent.” For parallel usage cf. Isa 33:17.

⁸ tn Heb “her King” but this might be misunderstood by some to refer to the Davidic ruler even with the capitalization.

⁹ tn 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.”

¹⁰ sn 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.

¹¹ tn Heb “know you.” For this use of the word “know” (יָדַע, yada’) see the note on 9:3.

¹² tn Heb “tribes/clans.”

¹³ tn Heb “who do not call on your name.” The idiom “to call on your name” (directed to God) refers to prayer (mainly) and praise. See 1 Kgs 18:24-26 and Ps 116:13, 17. Here “calling on your name” is parallel to “acknowledging you.” In many locations in the OT “name” is equivalent to the person. In the OT, the “name” reflected the person’s character (cf. Gen 27:36; 1 Sam 25:25) or his reputation (Gen 11:4; 2 Sam 8:13). To speak in a person’s name was to act as his representative or carry his authority (1 Sam 25:9; 1 Kgs 21:8). To call someone’s name over something was to claim it for one’s own (2 Sam 12:28).

¹⁴ tn Heb “have devoured Jacob.”

¹⁵ tn Or “have almost completely destroyed them”; Heb “they have devoured them and consumed them.” The figure of hyperbole is used here; elsewhere Jeremiah and God refer to the fact that they will not be completely consumed. See for example 4:27; 5:10, 18.

¹⁶ tc Or “Through your own fault you will lose the land…” As W. McKane (Jeremiah [ICC], 1:386) notes the ancient versions do not appear to be reading וּבְךָ (uvÿkha) as in the MT but possibly לְבַדְּךָ (lÿvaddÿkha; see BHS fn). The translation follows the suggestion in BHS fn that יָדְךָ (yadÿkha, literally “your hand”) be read for MT וּבְךָ. This has the advantage of fitting the idiom of this verb with “hand” in Deut 15:2 (see also v. 3 there). The Hebrew text thus reads “You will release your hand from your heritage.”

¹⁷ tc A few Hebrew mss and two Greek mss read “a fire is kindled in my anger” (reading קָדְחָה, qodkha) as in 15:14 in place of “you have kindled a fire in my anger” (reading קָדַחְתֶּם, qadakhtem) in the majority of Hebrew mss and versions. The variant may be explained on the basis of harmonization with the parallel passage.

tn Heb “you have started a fire in my anger which will burn forever.”

¹⁸ tn Heb “The Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for further explanation.

¹⁹ sn This refers to the tearing down of buildings within the city to strengthen the wall or to fill gaps in it which had been broken down by the Babylonian battering rams. For a parallel to this during the siege of Sennacherib in the time of Hezekiah see Isa 22:10; 2 Chr 32:5. These torn-down buildings were also used as burial mounds for those who died in the fighting or through starvation and disease during the siege. The siege prohibited them from taking the bodies outside the city for burial and leaving them in their houses or in the streets would have defiled them.

²⁰ tn Heb “Because I have hidden my face from.” The modern equivalent for this gesture of rejection is “to turn the back on.” See Ps 13:1 for comparable usage. The perfect is to be interpreted as a perfect of resolve (cf. IBHS 488-89 §30.5.1d and compare the usage in Ruth 4:3).

²¹ tn The translation and meaning of vv. 4-5 are somewhat uncertain. The translation and precise meaning of vv. 4-5 are uncertain at a number of points due to some difficult syntactical constructions and some debate about the text and meaning of several words. The text reads more literally, “33:4 For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the houses of this city and concerning the houses of the kings of Judah which have been torn down on account the siege ramps and the sword 33:5 going to fight the Chaldeans and to fill them with the dead bodies of the men whom I have killed in my anger and in my wrath and on account of all whose wickedness I have hidden my face from this city.” There are two difficult syntactical forms (1) the participle at the beginning of v. 5 “going [or those going] to fight” (בָּאִים, ba’im) and (2) the infinitive plus suffix that introduces the next clause “and to fill them” (וּלְמַלְאָם, ulÿmal’am). The translation has interpreted the former as a verbal use of the participle with an indefinite subject “they” (= the defenders of Jerusalem who have torn down the buildings; cf. GKC 460-61 §144.i for this point of grammar). The conjunction plus preposition plus infinitive construct has been interpreted as equivalent to a finite verb (cf. IBHS 611 §36.3.2a, i.e., “and they will fill them [the houses and buildings of v. 4]”). Adopting the Greek text of these two verses would produce a smoother reading. It reads “For thus says the Lord concerning the houses of this city and concerning the houses of the kings of Judah which have been pulled down for mounds and fortifications to fight against the Chaldeans and to fill it [should be “them”] with the corpses of men whom I smote in my anger and my wrath and I turned away my face from them [rather than from “this city” of the Hebrew text] for all their wickedness: Behold I will…” The Greek does not have the problem with the participle because it has seen it as part of a word meaning fortification. This also eliminates the problem with the infinitive because it is interpreted as parallel with “to fight.” I.e., the defenders used these torn-down buildings for defensive fortifications and for burial places. It would be tempting to follow this reading. However, there is no graphically close form for “fortification” that would explain how the more difficult בָּאִים הֶחָרֶב (hekharev ba’im) of the Hebrew text arose and there is doubt whether סֹלְלוֹת (solÿlot) can refer to a defense mound. W. L. Holladay (Jeremiah [Hermeneia], 2:221, 225) has suggested reading הַחֲרַכִּים (hakharakim) in place of הֶחָרֶב (hekharev) in the technical sense of “crenels,” the gaps between the raised portion on top of the wall (which raised portion he calls “merlons” and equates with סֹלְלוֹת, solÿlot). He does not, however, further suggest seeing בָּאִים (ba’im) as part of this corrupted form, choosing to see it rather as a gloss. His emendation and interpretation, however, have been justly criticized as violating the usage of both סֹלְלוֹת which is elsewhere “siege mound” and חֲרַכִּים (kharakim) which elsewhere refers only to the latticed opening of a window (Song 2:9). Until a more acceptable explanation of how the difficult Hebrew text could have arisen from the Greek, the Hebrew should be retained, though it is admittedly awkward. G. L. Keown, P. J. Scalise, and T. G. Smothers (Jeremiah 26-52 [WBC], 166, 172) have perhaps the best discussion of the issues and the options involved here.

²² tn Heb “I will bring disaster upon them, even my fierce anger.”

²³ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

²⁴ tn Heb “I will send the sword after them.”