Jeremiah 1:8
Context1:8 Do not be afraid of those to whom I send you, 1 for I will be with you to protect 2 you,” says the Lord.
Jeremiah 2:36
Context2:36 Why do you constantly go about
changing your political allegiances? 3
You will get no help from Egypt
just as you got no help from Assyria. 4
Jeremiah 3:4
Context3:4 Even now you say to me, ‘You are my father! 5
You have been my faithful companion ever since I was young.
Jeremiah 3:22
Context3:22 Come back to me, you wayward people.
I want to cure your waywardness. 6
Say, 7 ‘Here we are. We come to you
because you are the Lord our God.
Jeremiah 4:14
Context4:14 “Oh people of Jerusalem, purify your hearts from evil 8
so that you may yet be delivered.
How long will you continue to harbor up
wicked schemes within you?
Jeremiah 15:14
Context15:14 I will make you serve your enemies 9 in a land that you know nothing about.
For my anger is like a fire that will burn against you.”
Jeremiah 26:4
Context26:4 Tell them that the Lord says, 10 ‘You must obey me! You must live according to the way I have instructed you in my laws. 11
Jeremiah 27:14
Context27:14 Do not listen to the prophets who are telling you that you do not need to serve 12 the king of Babylon. For they are prophesying lies to you.
Jeremiah 32:22
Context32:22 You kept the promise that you swore on oath to their ancestors. 13 You gave them a land flowing with milk and honey. 14
Jeremiah 33:3
Context33:3 ‘Call on me in prayer and I will answer you. I will show you great and mysterious 15 things which you still do not know about.’
Jeremiah 36:19
Context36:19 Then the officials said to Baruch, “You and Jeremiah must go and hide. You must not let anyone know where you are.” 16
Jeremiah 38:5
Context38:5 King Zedekiah said to them, “Very well, you can do what you want with him. 17 For I cannot do anything to stop you.” 18
Jeremiah 39:17
Context39:17 But I will rescue you when it happens. 19 I, the Lord, affirm it! 20 You will not be handed over to those whom you fear. 21
Jeremiah 42:12
Context42:12 I will have compassion on you so that he in turn will have mercy on you and allow you to return to your land.’
Jeremiah 42:21
Context42:21 This day 22 I have told you what he said. 23 But you do not want to obey the Lord by doing what he sent me to tell you. 24
Jeremiah 51:20
Context51:20 “Babylon, 25 you are my war club, 26
my weapon for battle.
I used you to smash nations. 27
I used you to destroy kingdoms.
Jeremiah 51:22-23
Context51:22 I used you to smash men and women.
I used you to smash old men and young men.
I used you to smash young men and young women.
51:23 I used you to smash shepherds and their flocks.
I used you to smash farmers and their teams of oxen.
I used you to smash governors and leaders.” 28
1 tn Heb “be afraid of them.” The antecedent is the “whomever” in v. 7.
2 tn Heb “rescue.”
3 tn Heb “changing your way.” The translation follows the identification of the Hebrew verb here as a defective writing of a form (תֵּזְלִי [tezÿli] instead of תֵּאזְלִי [te’zÿli]) from a verb meaning “go/go about” (אָזַל [’azal]; cf. BDB 23 s.v. אָזַל). Most modern English versions, commentaries, and lexicons read it from a root meaning “to treat cheaply [or lightly]” (תָּזֵלִּי [tazelli] from the root זָלַל (zalal); cf. HALOT 261 s.v. זָלַל); hence, “Why do you consider it such a small matter to…”
4 tn Heb “You will be ashamed/disappointed by Egypt, just as you were ashamed/ disappointed by Assyria.”
5 tn Heb “Have you not just now called out to me, ‘[you are] my father!’?” The rhetorical question expects a positive answer.
6 tn Or “I will forgive your apostasies.” Heb “I will [or want to] heal your apostasies.” For the use of the verb “heal” (רָפָא, rafa’) to refer to spiritual healing and forgiveness see Hos 14:4.
7 tn Or “They say.” There is an obvious ellipsis of a verb of saying here since the preceding words are those of the
8 tn Heb “Oh, Jerusalem, wash your heart from evil.”
9 tc This reading follows the Greek and Syriac versions and several Hebrew
10 tn Heb “thus says the
11 tn Heb “by walking in my law which I set before you.”
sn Examples of those laws are found in Jer 7:5-6, 9. The law was summarized or epitomized in the ten commandments which are called the “words of the covenant” in Exod 34:28, but it contained much more. However, when Israel is taken to task by God, it often relates to their failure to live up to the standards of the ten commandments (Heb “the ten words”; see Hos 4:1-3; Jer 7:9).
12 tn The verb in this context is best taken as a negative obligatory imperfect. See IBHS 508 §31.4g for discussion and examples. See Exod 4:15 as an example of positive obligation.
13 tn Heb “fathers.”
14 tn For an alternative translation of the expression “a land flowing with milk and honey” see the translator’s note on 11:5.
15 tn This passive participle or adjective is normally used to describe cities or walls as “fortified” or “inaccessible.” All the lexicons, however, agree in seeing it used here metaphorically of “secret” or “mysterious” things, things that Jeremiah could not know apart from the
16 tn The verbs here are both direct imperatives but it sounds awkward to say “You and Jeremiah, go and hide” in contemporary English. The same force is accomplished by phrasing the statement as strong advice.
17 tn Heb “Behold, he is in your hands [= power/control].”
18 tn Heb “For the king cannot do a thing with/against you.” The personal pronoun “I” is substituted in the English translation due to differences in style; Hebrew style often uses the third person or the title in speaking of oneself but English rarely if ever does. Compare the common paraphrasis of “your servant” for “I” in Hebrew (cf. BDB 714 s.v. עֶבֶד 6 and usage in 1 Sam 20:7, 8) and compare the usage in Pss 63:11 (63:12 HT); 61:6 (61:7 HT) where the king is praying for himself. For the meaning of יָכֹל (yakhol) as “to be able to do anything,” see BDB 407 s.v. יָכֹל 1.g.
19 tn Heb “But I will rescue you on that day” (referring to the same day mentioned in the preceding verse).
20 tn Heb “Oracle of the
21 sn Some commentators see this as a reference to the princes from whose clutches Ebed-Melech delivered Jeremiah (38:7-13). However, it is clear that in this context it refers to those that he would fear when the
22 tn Or “Today.”
23 tn The words “what he said” are not in the text but are implicit and seem necessary for clarity.
24 tn Heb “But you have not hearkened to the voice of [idiomatic for “obeyed” see BDB 1034 s.v. שָׁמַע Qal.1.m] the
25 tn Or “Media.” The referent is not identified in the text; the text merely says “you are my war club.” Commentators in general identify the referent as Babylon because Babylon has been referred to as a hammer in 50:23 and Babylon is referred to in v. 25 as a “destroying mountain” (compare v. 20d). However, S. R. Driver, Jeremiah, 317, n. c maintains that v. 24 speaks against this. It does seem a little inconsistent to render the vav consecutive perfect at the beginning of v. 24 as future while rendering those in vv. 20b-23 as customary past. However, change in person from second masculine singular (vv. 20b-23) to the second masculine plural in “before your very eyes” and its position at the end of the verse after “which they did in Zion” argue that a change in address occurs there. Driver has to ignore the change in person and take “before your eyes” with the verb “repay” at the beginning to maintain the kind of consistency he seeks. The vav (ו) consecutive imperfect can be used for either the customary past (GKC 335-36 §112.dd with cross reference back to GKC 331-32 §112.e) or the future (GKC 334 §112.x). Hence the present translation has followed the majority of commentaries (and English versions like TEV, NCV, CEV, NIrV) in understanding the referent as Babylon and v. 24 being a transition to vv. 25-26 (cf., e.g., J. Bright, Jeremiah [AB], 356-57, and J. A. Thompson, Jeremiah [NICOT], 756-57). If the referent is understood as Media then the verbs in vv. 20-23 should all be translated as futures. See also the translator’s note on v. 24.
26 tn This Hebrew word (מַפֵּץ, mappets) only occurs here in the Hebrew Bible, but its meaning is assured from the use of the verbs that follow which are from the same root (נָפַץ, nafats) and there is a cognate noun מַפָּץ (mappats) that occurs in Ezek 9:2 in the sense of weapon of “smashing.”
27 tn Heb “I smash nations with you.” This same structure is repeated throughout the series in vv. 20c-23.
28 tn These two words are Akkadian loan words into Hebrew which often occur in this pairing (cf. Ezek 23:6, 12, 23; Jer 51:23, 28, 57). BDB 688 s.v. סָגָן (sagan) gives “prefect, ruler” as the basic definition for the second term but neither works very well in a modern translation because “prefect” would be unknown to most readers and “ruler” would suggest someone along the lines of a king, which these officials were not. The present translation has chosen “leaders” by default, assuming there is no other term that would be any more appropriate in light of the defects noted in “prefect” and “ruler.”