Jeremiah 23:18-19

23:18 Yet which of them has ever stood in the Lord’s inner circle ¹ 

so they ²  could see and hear what he has to say? ³ 

Which of them have ever paid attention or listened to what he has said?

23:19 But just watch! ⁴  The wrath of the Lord

will come like a storm! ⁵ 

Like a raging storm it will rage down ⁶ 

on the heads of those who are wicked.

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¹ tn Or “has been the Lord’s confidant.”

sn The Lord’s inner circle refers to the council of angels (Ps 89:7 [89:8 HT]; 1 Kgs 22:19-22; Job 1-2; Job 15:8) where God made known his counsel/plans (Amos 3:7). They and those they prophesied to will find out soon enough what the purposes of his heart are, and they are not “peace” (see v. 20). By their failure to announce the impending doom they were not turning the people away from their wicked course (vv. 21-22).

² tn The form here is a jussive with a vav of subordination introducing a purpose after a question (cf. GKC 322 §109.f).

³ tc Heb “his word.” In the second instance (“what he has said” at the end of the verse) the translation follows the suggestion of the Masoretes (Qere) and many Hebrew mss rather than the consonantal text (Kethib) of the Leningrad Codex.

⁴ tn Heb “Behold!”

⁵ tn The syntax of this line has generally been misunderstood, sometimes to the point that some want to delete the word wrath. Both here and in 30:23 where these same words occur the word “anger” stands not as an accusative of attendant circumstance but an apposition, giving the intended referent to the figure. Comparison should be made with Jer 25:15 where “this wrath” is appositional to “the cup of wine” (cf. GKC 425 §131.k).

⁶ tn The translation is deliberate, intending to reflect the repetition of the Hebrew root which is “swirl/swirling.”