Discovery BoxJeremiah 1:5 
Context1:5 “Before I formed you in your mother’s womb 1 I chose you. 2
Before you were born I set you apart.
I appointed you to be a prophet to the nations.”
Jeremiah 6:8
Context6:8 So 3 take warning, Jerusalem,
or I will abandon you in disgust 4
and make you desolate,
a place where no one can live.”
Jeremiah 22:23
Context22:23 You may feel as secure as a bird
nesting in the cedars of Lebanon.
But oh how you 5 will groan 6 when the pains of judgment come on you.
They will be like those of a woman giving birth to a baby. 7
Jeremiah 31:5
Context31:5 Once again you will plant vineyards
on the hills of Samaria. 8
Those who plant them
will once again enjoy their fruit. 9
Jeremiah 32:19
Context32:19 You plan great things and you do mighty deeds. 10 You see everything people do. 11 You reward each of them for the way they live and for the things they do. 12
Jeremiah 49:9
Context49:9 If grape pickers came to pick your grapes,
would they not leave a few grapes behind? 13
If robbers came at night,
would they not pillage only what they needed? 14
1 tn Heb “the womb.” The words “your mother’s” are implicit and are supplied in the translation for clarity.
2 tn Heb “I knew you.” The parallelism here with “set you apart” and “appointed you” make clear that Jeremiah is speaking of his foreordination to be a prophet. For this same nuance of the Hebrew verb see Gen 18:19; Amos 3:2.
3 tn This word is not in the text but is supplied in the translation. Jeremiah uses a figure of speech (enallage) where the speaker turns from talking about someone to address him/her directly.
4 tn Heb “lest my soul [= I] becomes disgusted with you.”
sn The wordplay begun with “sound…in Tekoa” in v. 1 and continued with “they will pitch” in v. 3 is concluded here with “turn away” (וּבִתְקוֹעַ תִּקְעוּ [uvitqoa’ tiq’u] in v. 1, תָּקְעוּ [taq’u] in v. 3 and תֵּקַע [teqa’] here).
5 tn Heb “You who dwell in Lebanon, you who are nested in its cedars, how you….” The metaphor has been interpreted for the sake of clarity. The figure here has often been interpreted of the people of Jerusalem living in paneled houses or living in a city dominated by the temple and palace which were built from the cedars of Lebanon. Some even interpret this as a reference to the king who has been characterized as living in a cedar palace, in a veritable Lebanon (cf. vv. 6-7, 14 and see also the alternate interpretation of 21:13-14). However, the reference to “nesting in the cedars” and the earlier reference to “feeling secure” suggests that the figure is rather like that of Ezek 31:6 and Dan 4:12. See also Hab 2:9 where a related figure is used. The forms for “you who dwell” and “you who are nested” in the literal translation are feminine singular participles referring again to personified Jerusalem. (The written forms of these participles are to be explained as participles with a hireq campaginis according to GKC 253 §90.m. The use of the participle before the preposition is to be explained according to GKC 421 §130.a.)
6 tn The verb here should be identified as a Niphal perfect of the verb אָנַח (’anakh) with the א (aleph) left out (so BDB 336 s.v. חָנַן Niph and GKC 80 §23.f, n. 1). The form is already translated that way by the Greek, Latin, and Syriac versions.
7 sn This simile has already been used in Jer 4:31; 6:24 in conjunction with Zion/Jerusalem’s judgment.
8 map For location see Map2 B1; Map4 D3; Map5 E2; Map6 A4; Map7 C1.
9 sn The terms used here refer to the enjoyment of a period of peace and stability and the reversal of the curse (contrast, e.g., Deut 28:30). The Hebrew word translated “enjoy its fruit” is a technical one that refers to the owner of a vineyard getting to enjoy its fruit in the fifth year after it was planted, the crops of the first three years lying fallow, and that of the fourth being given to the
10 tn Heb “[you are] great in counsel and mighty in deed.”
11 tn Heb “your eyes are open to the ways of the sons of men.”
12 tn Heb “giving to each according to his way [= behavior/conduct] and according to the fruit of his deeds.”
13 tn The translation of this verse is generally based on the parallels in Obad 5. There the second line has a ה interrogative in front of it. The question can still be assumed because questions can be asked in Hebrew without a formal marker (cf. GKC 473 §150.a and BDB 519 s.v. לֹא 1.a[e] and compare usage in 2 Kgs 5:26).
14 tn The tense and nuance of the verb translated “pillage” are both different than the verb in Obad 5. There the verb is the imperfect of גָּנַב (ganav, “to steal”). Here the verb is the perfect of a verb which means to “ruin” or “spoil.” The English versions and commentaries, however, almost all render the verb here in much the same way as in Obad 5. The nuance must mean they only “ruin, destroy” (by stealing) only as much as they need (Heb “their sufficiency”), and the verb is used as metonymical substitute, effect for cause. The perfect must be some kind of a future perfect; “would they not have destroyed only…” The negative question is carried over by ellipsis from the preceding lines.
