Discovery BoxJeremiah 1:18 
Context1:18 I, the Lord, 1 hereby promise to make you 2 as strong as a fortified city, an iron pillar, and a bronze wall. You will be able to stand up against all who live in 3 the land, including the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests and all the people of the land.
Jeremiah 5:17
Context5:17 They will eat up your crops and your food.
They will kill off 4 your sons and your daughters.
They will eat up your sheep and your cattle.
They will destroy your vines and your fig trees. 5
Their weapons will batter down 6
the fortified cities you trust in.
Jeremiah 8:14
Context“Why are we just sitting here?
Let us gather together inside the fortified cities. 8
Let us at least die there fighting, 9
since the Lord our God has condemned us to die.
He has condemned us to drink the poison waters of judgment 10
because we have sinned against him. 11
Jeremiah 15:20
Context15:20 I will make you as strong as a wall to these people,
a fortified wall of bronze.
They will attack you,
but they will not be able to overcome you.
For I will be with you to rescue you and deliver you,” 12
says the Lord.
Jeremiah 17:27
Context17:27 But you must obey me and set the Sabbath day apart to me. You must not carry any loads in through 13 the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. If you disobey, I will set the gates of Jerusalem on fire. It will burn down all the fortified dwellings in Jerusalem and no one will be able to put it out.’”
Jeremiah 51:30
Context51:30 The soldiers of Babylonia will stop fighting.
They will remain in their fortified cities.
They will lose their strength to do battle. 14
They will be as frightened as women. 15
The houses in her cities will be set on fire.
The gates of her cities will be broken down. 16
1 tn See the note on “Jeremiah” at the beginning of v. 17.
2 tn Heb “today I have made you.” The Hebrew verb form here emphasizes the certainty of a yet future act; the
3 tn Heb “I make you a fortified city…against all the land….” The words “as strong as” and “so you will be able to stand against all the people of…” are given to clarify the meaning of the metaphor.
4 tn Heb “eat up.”
5 tn Or “eat up your grapes and figs”; Heb “eat up your vines and your fig trees.”
sn It was typical for an army in time of war in the ancient Near East not only to eat up the crops but to destroy the means of further production.
6 tn Heb “They will beat down with the sword.” The term “sword” is a figure of speech (synecdoche) for military weapons in general. Siege ramps, not swords, beat down city walls; swords kill people, not city walls.
7 tn The words “The people say” are not in the text but are implicit in the shift of speakers between vv. 4-13 and vv. 14-16. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.
8 tn Heb “Gather together and let us enter into the fortified cities.”
9 tn Heb “Let us die there.” The words “at least” and “fighting” are intended to bring out the contrast of passive surrender to death in the open country and active resistance to the death implicit in the context.
10 tn The words “of judgment” are not in the text but are intended to show that “poison water” is not literal but figurative of judgment at the hands of God through the agency of the enemy mentioned in v. 16.
11 tn Heb “against the
12 sn See 1:18. The
13 tn Heb “carry loads on the Sabbath and bring [them] in through.” The translation treats the two verbs “carry” and “bring in” are an example of hendiadys (see the note on “through” in 17:21).
14 tn Heb “Their strength is dry.” This is a figurative nuance of the word “dry” which BDB 677 s.v. נָשַׁת Qal.1 explain as meaning “fails.” The idea of “strength to do battle” is implicit from the context and is supplied in the translation here for clarity.
15 tn Heb “They have become women.” The metaphor has been turned into a simile and the significance of the comparison drawn out for the sake of clarity. See 50:37 for the same figure.
16 tn Heb “Her dwelling places have been set on fire. Her bars [i.e., the bars on the gates of her cities] have been broken.” The present translation has substituted the word “gates” for “bars” because the intent of the figure is to show that the bars of the gates have been broken giving access to the city. “Gates” makes it easier for the modern reader to understand the figure.
