Jeremiah 6:9

6:9 This is what the Lord who rules over all ¹  said to me: ² 

“Those who remain in Israel will be

like the grapes thoroughly gleaned ³  from a vine.

So go over them again, as though you were a grape harvester

passing your hand over the branches one last time.” ⁴ 

Jeremiah 25:15

Judah and the Nations Will Experience God’s Wrath

25:15 So ⁵  the Lord, the God of Israel, spoke to me in a vision. ⁶  “Take this cup from my hand. It is filled with the wine of my wrath. ⁷  Take it and make the nations to whom I send you drink it.

Jeremiah 25:31

25:31 The sounds of battle ⁸  will resound to the ends of the earth.

For the Lord will bring charges against the nations. ⁹ 

He will pass judgment on all humankind

and will hand the wicked over to be killed in war.’ ¹⁰ 

The Lord so affirms it! ¹¹ 

Jeremiah 29:21

29:21 “The Lord God of Israel who rules over all ¹²  also has something to say about Ahab son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah son of Maaseiah, who are prophesying lies to you and claiming my authority to do so. ¹³  ‘I will hand them over to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and he will execute them before your very eyes.

Jeremiah 32:3

32:3 For King Zedekiah ¹⁴  had confined Jeremiah there after he had reproved him for prophesying as he did. He had asked Jeremiah, “Why do you keep prophesying these things? Why do you keep saying that the Lord says, ‘I will hand this city over to the king of Babylon? I will let him capture it. ¹⁵ 

Jeremiah 34:2

34:2 The Lord God of Israel told Jeremiah ¹⁶  to go and give King Zedekiah of Judah a message. He told Jeremiah ¹⁷  to tell him, “The Lord says, ‘I am going to ¹⁸  hand this city over to the king of Babylon and he will burn it down.

Jeremiah 36:14

36:14 All the officials sent Jehudi, who was the son of Nethaniah and the grandson of Cushi, to Baruch. They ordered him to tell Baruch, “Come here and bring with you ¹⁹  the scroll you read in the hearing of the people.” ²⁰  So Baruch son of Neriah went to them, carrying the scroll in his hand. ²¹ 

Jeremiah 38:16

38:16 So King Zedekiah made a secret promise to Jeremiah and sealed it with an oath. He promised, ²²  “As surely as the Lord lives who has given us life and breath, ²³  I promise you this: I will not kill you or hand you over to those men who want to kill you.” ²⁴ 

Jeremiah 44:30

44:30 I, the Lord, promise that ²⁵  I will hand Pharaoh Hophra ²⁶  king of Egypt over to his enemies who are seeking to kill him. I will do that just as surely as I handed King Zedekiah of Judah over to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, his enemy who was seeking to kill him.’”

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¹ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.”

sn For an explanation of the significance of this title see the study note on 2:19.

² tn The words “to me” are not in the text but are supplied in the translation for clarity.

³ tn Heb “They will thoroughly glean those who are left in Israel like a vine.” That is, they will be carried off by judgment. It is not necessary to read the verb forms here as two imperatives or an infinitive absolute followed by an imperative as some English versions and commentaries do. This is an example of a third plural verb used impersonally and translated as a passive (cf. GKC 460 §144.g).

⁴ tn Heb “Pass your hand back over the branches like a grape harvester.” The translation is intended to clarify the metaphor that Jeremiah should try to rescue some from the coming destruction.

⁵ tn This is an attempt to render the Hebrew particle כִּי (ki) which is probably being used in the sense that BDB 473-74 s.v. כִּי 3.c notes, i.e., the causal connection is somewhat loose, related here to the prophecies against the nations. “So” seems to be the most appropriate way to represent this.

⁶ tn Heb “Thus said the Lord, the God of Israel, to me.” It is generally understood that the communication is visionary. God does not have a “hand” and the action of going to the nations and making them drink of the cup are scarcely literal. The words are supplied in the translation to show the figurative nature of this passage.

⁷ sn “Drinking from the cup of wrath” is a common figure to represent being punished by God. Isaiah had used it earlier to refer to the punishment which Judah was to suffer and from which God would deliver her (Isa 51:17, 22) and Jeremiah’s contemporary Habakkuk uses it of Babylon “pouring out its wrath” on the nations and in turn being forced to drink the bitter cup herself (Hab 2:15-16). In Jer 51:7 the Lord will identify Babylon as the cup which makes the nations stagger. In v. 16 drinking from the cup will be identified with the sword (i.e., wars) that the Lord will send against the nations. Babylon is also to be identified as the sword (cf. Jer 51:20-23). What is being alluded to here in highly figurative language is the judgment that the Lord will wreak on the nations listed here through the Babylonians. The prophecy given here in symbolical form is thus an expansion of the one in vv. 9-11.

⁸ tn For the use of this word see Amos 2:2; Hos 10:14; Ps 74:23. See also the usage in Isa 66:6 which is very similar to the metaphorical usage here.

⁹ tn Heb “the Lord has a lawsuit against the nations.” For usage of the term see Hos 4:1; Mic 6:2, and compare the usage of the related verb in Jer 2:9; 12:1.

¹⁰ tn Heb “give the wicked over to the sword.”

sn There is undoubtedly a deliberate allusion here to the reference to the “wars” (Heb “sword”) that the Lord had said he would send raging through the nations (vv. 16, 27) and the “war” (Heb “sword”) that he is proclaiming against them (v. 29).

¹¹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

¹² tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.”

sn See study notes on 2:19 and 7:3 for the explanation of this title.

¹³ tn Heb “prophesying lies in my name.” For an explanation of this idiom see the study notes on 14:14 and 23:27.

¹⁴ tn Heb “Zedekiah king of Judah.”

¹⁵ tn The translation represents an attempt to break up a very long Hebrew sentence with several levels of subordination and embedded quotations and also an attempt to capture the rhetorical force of the question “Why…” which is probably an example of what E. W. Bullinger (Figures of Speech, 953-54) calls a rhetorical question of expostulation or remonstrance (cf. the note on 26:9 and compare also the question in 36:29. In all three of these cases NJPS translates “How dare you…” which captures the force nicely). The Hebrew text reads, “For Zedekiah king of Judah had confined him, saying, ‘Why are you prophesying, saying, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Behold I am giving this city into the hands of the king of Babylon and he will capture it.’”’”

¹⁶ tn Heb “told him”; the referent (Jeremiah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁷ tn Heb “told him”; the referent (Jeremiah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁸ tn Heb 34:1 “The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord…saying, ‘Thus says the Lord God of Israel, “Go and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, “I am going to….”’”’” The translation has tried to avoid some of the confusion that is created by embedding quotations within quotations by using indirect quotation in some instances; the conceptualization is the same but the style is simpler.

¹⁹ tn Heb “in your hand.”

²⁰ tn The original has another example of a prepositioned object (called casus pendens in the grammars; cf. GKC 458 §143.b) which is intended to focus attention on “the scroll.” The Hebrew sentence reads: “The scroll which you read from it in the ears of the people take it and come.” Any attempt to carry over this emphasis into the English translation would be awkward. Likewise, the order of the two imperatives has been reversed as more natural in English.

²¹ tn Heb “So Baruch son of Neriah took the scroll in his hand and went to them.” The clause order has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.

²² tn Heb “So King Zedekiah secretly swore an oath to Jeremiah, saying.”

²³ tn Heb “who has made this life/soul/ breath [נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh] for us.” The Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ refers to the living, breathing substance of a person which constitutes his very life (cf. BDB 659 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ 1; 3).

²⁴ tn Heb “who are seeking your life.”

²⁵ tn Heb “Thus says the Lord, ‘Behold I will hand…’” The first person and indirect quote have been chosen because the Lord is already identified as the speaker and the indirect quote eliminates an extra level of embedded quotes.

²⁶ sn Hophra ruled over Egypt from 589-570 b.c. He was the Pharaoh who incited Zedekiah to rebel against Nebuchadnezzar and whose army proved ineffective in providing any long-term relief to Jerusalem when it was under siege (see Jer 37 and especially the study note on 37:5). He was assassinated following a power struggle with a court official who had earlier saved him from a rebellion of his own troops and had ruled as co-regent with him.