Discovery BoxJeremiah 2:24 
Context2:24 You are like a wild female donkey brought up in the wilderness.
In her lust she sniffs the wind to get the scent of a male. 1
No one can hold her back when she is in heat.
None of the males need wear themselves out chasing after her.
At mating time she is easy to find. 2
Jeremiah 6:11
Context6:11 I am as full of anger as you are, Lord, 3
I am tired of trying to hold it in.”
The Lord answered, 4
“Vent it, then, 5 on the children who play in the street
and on the young men who are gathered together.
Husbands and wives are to be included, 6
as well as the old and those who are advanced in years.
Jeremiah 17:4
Context17:4 You will lose your hold on the land 7
which I gave to you as a permanent possession.
I will make you serve your enemies in a land that you know nothing about.
For you have made my anger burn like a fire that will never be put out.” 8
Jeremiah 20:9
Context20:9 Sometimes I think, “I will make no mention of his message.
I will not speak as his messenger 9 any more.”
But then 10 his message becomes like a fire
locked up inside of me, burning in my heart and soul. 11
I grow weary of trying to hold it in;
I cannot contain it.
1 tn The words “to get the scent of a male” are implicit and are supplied in the translation for clarification.
2 sn The metaphor is intended to depict Israel’s irrepressible desire to worship other gods.
3 tn Heb “I am full of the wrath of the
4 tn These words are not in the text but are implicit from the words that follow. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.
5 tn Heb “Pour it out.”
6 tn Heb “are to be captured.”
7 tc Or “Through your own fault you will lose the land…” As W. McKane (Jeremiah [ICC], 1:386) notes the ancient versions do not appear to be reading וּבְךָ (uvÿkha) as in the MT but possibly לְבַדְּךָ (lÿvaddÿkha; see BHS fn). The translation follows the suggestion in BHS fn that יָדְךָ (yadÿkha, literally “your hand”) be read for MT וּבְךָ. This has the advantage of fitting the idiom of this verb with “hand” in Deut 15:2 (see also v. 3 there). The Hebrew text thus reads “You will release your hand from your heritage.”
8 tc A few Hebrew
tn Heb “you have started a fire in my anger which will burn forever.”
9 tn Heb “speak in his name.” This idiom occurs in passages where someone functions as the messenger under the authority of another. See Exod 5:23; Deut 18:19, 29:20; Jer 14:14. The antecedent in the first line is quite commonly misidentified as being “him,” i.e., the
10 tn The English sentence has again been restructured for the sake of English style. The Hebrew construction involves two vav consecutive perfects in a condition and consequence relation, “If I say to myself…then it [his word] becomes.” See GKC 337 §112.kk for the construction.
11 sn Heb “It is in my heart like a burning fire, shut up in my bones.” In addition to standing as part for the whole, the “bones” for the person (e.g., Ps 35:10), the bones were associated with fear (e.g., Job 4:14) and with pain (e.g., Job 33:19, Ps 102:3 [102:4 HT]) and joy or sorrow (e.g., Ps 51:8 [51:10 HT]). As has been mentioned several times, the heart was connected with intellectual and volitional concerns.
