6:4 They will say, 1 ‘Prepare to do battle 2 against it!
Come on! Let’s attack it at noon!’
But later they will say, 3 ‘Oh, oh! Too bad! 4
The day is almost over
and the shadows of evening are getting long.
6:29 The fiery bellows of judgment burn fiercely.
But there is too much dross to be removed. 5
The process of refining them has proved useless. 6
The wicked have not been purged.
14:4 They are dismayed because the ground is cracked 7
because there has been no rain in the land.
The farmers, too, are dismayed
and bury their faces in their hands.
48:7 “Moab, you trust in the things you do and in your riches.
So you too will be conquered.
Your god Chemosh 8 will go into exile 9
along with his priests and his officials.
50:33 The Lord who rules over all 10 says,
“The people of Israel are oppressed.
So too are the people of Judah. 11
All those who took them captive are holding them prisoners.
They refuse to set them free.
50:39 Therefore desert creatures and jackals will live there.
Ostriches 12 will dwell in it too. 13
But no people will ever live there again.
No one will dwell there for all time to come. 14
1 tn These words are not in the text but are implicit in the connection. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.
2 tn Heb “Sanctify war.” This is probably an idiom from early Israel’s holy wars in which religious rites were to precede the battle.
3 tn These words are not in the text but are supplied in the translation for clarity. Some commentaries and English versions see these not as the words of the enemy but as those of the Israelites expressing their fear that the enemy will launch a night attack against them and further destroy them. The connection with the next verse, however, fits better with them if they are the words of the enemy.
4 tn Heb “Woe to us!” For the usage of this phrase see the translator’s note on 4:13. The usage of this particle here is a little exaggerated. They have lost the most advantageous time for attack but they are scarcely in a hopeless or doomed situation. The equivalent in English slang is “Bad news!”
5 tn Heb “The bellows blow fiercely; the lead is consumed by the fire.” The translation tries to clarify a metaphor involving ancient metallurgy. In the ancient refining process lead was added as a flux to remove impurities from silver ore in the process of oxidizing the lead. Jeremiah says that the lead has been used up and the impurities have not been removed. The translation is based on the recognition of an otherwise unused verb root meaning “blow” (נָחַר [nakhar]; cf. BDB 1123 s.v. I חָרַר and HALOT 651 s.v. נָחַר) and the Masoretes’ suggestion that the consonants מאשׁתם be read מֵאֵשׁ תַּם (me’esh tam) rather than as מֵאֶשָּׁתָם (me’eshatam, “from their fire”) from an otherwise unattested noun אֶשָּׁה (’eshah).
6 tn Heb “The refiner refines them in vain.”
7 tn For the use of the verb “is cracked” here see BDB 369 s.v. חָתַת Qal.1 and compare the usage in Jer 51:56 where it refers to broken bows. The form is a relative clause without relative pronoun (cf., GKC 486-87 §155.f). The sentence as a whole is related to the preceding through a particle meaning “because of” or “on account of.” Hence the subject and verb have been repeated to make the connection.
8 sn Chemosh was the national god of Moab (see also Numb 21:29). Child sacrifice appears to have been a part of his worship (2 Kgs 3:27). Solomon built a high place in Jerusalem for him (1 Kgs 11:7), and he appears to have been worshiped in Israel until Josiah tore that high place down (2 Kgs 23:13).
9 sn The practice of carrying off the gods of captive nations has already been mentioned in the study note on 43:12. See also Isa 46:1-2 noted there.
10 tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.” For an explanation of this title see the study note on 2:19.
11 tn Heb “Oppressed are the people of Israel and the people of Judah together,” i.e., both the people of Israel and Judah are oppressed. However, neither of these renderings is very poetic. The translation seeks to achieve the same meaning with better poetic expression.
12 tn The identification of this bird has been called into question by G. R. Driver, “Birds in the Old Testament,” PEQ 87 (1955): 137-38. He refers to this bird as an owl. That identification, however, is not reflected in any of the lexicons including the most recent, which still gives “ostrich” (HALOT 402 s.v. יַעֲנָה) as does W. S. McCullough, “Ostrich,” IDB 3:611. REB, NIV, NCV, and God’s Word all identify this bird as “owl/desert owl.”
13 tn Heb “Therefore desert creatures will live with jackals and ostriches will live in it.”
14 tn Heb “It will never again be inhabited nor dwelt in unto generation and generation.” For the meaning of this last phrase compare the usage in Ps 100:5 and Isaiah 13:20. Since the first half of the verse has spoken of animals living there, it is necessary to add “people” and turn the passive verbs into active ones.