Discovery BoxJeremiah 3:1 
Context3:1 “If a man divorces his wife
and she leaves him and becomes another man’s wife,
he may not take her back again. 1
Doing that would utterly defile the land. 2
But you, Israel, have given yourself as a prostitute to many gods. 3
So what makes you think you can return to me?” 4
says the Lord.
Jeremiah 30:10
Context30:10 So I, the Lord, tell you not to be afraid,
you descendants of Jacob, my servants. 5
Do not be terrified, people of Israel.
For I will rescue you and your descendants
from a faraway land where you are captives. 6
The descendants of Jacob will return to their land and enjoy peace.
They will be secure and no one will terrify them. 7
Jeremiah 44:28
Context44:28 Some who survive in battle will return to the land of Judah from the land of Egypt. But they will be very few indeed! 8 Then the Judean remnant who have come to live in the land of Egypt will know whose word proves true, 9 mine or theirs.’
Jeremiah 46:27
Context46:27 10 “You descendants of Jacob, my servants, 11 do not be afraid;
do not be terrified, people of Israel.
For I will rescue you and your descendants
from the faraway lands where you are captives. 12
The descendants of Jacob will return to their land and enjoy peace.
They will be secure and no one will terrify them.
Jeremiah 50:9
Context50:9 For I will rouse into action and bring against Babylon
a host of mighty nations 13 from the land of the north.
They will set up their battle lines against her.
They will come from the north and capture her. 14
Their arrows will be like a skilled soldier 15
who does not return from the battle empty-handed. 16
Jeremiah 50:16
Context50:16 Kill all the farmers who sow the seed in the land of Babylon.
Kill all those who wield the sickle at harvest time. 17
Let all the foreigners return to their own people.
Let them hurry back to their own lands
to escape destruction by that enemy army. 18
1 tn Heb “May he go back to her again?” The question is rhetorical and expects a negative answer.
sn For the legal background for the illustration that is used here see Deut 24:1-4.
2 tn Heb “Would the land not be utterly defiled?” The stative is here rendered actively to connect better with the preceding. The question is rhetorical and expects a positive answer.
3 tn Heb “But you have played the prostitute with many lovers.”
4 tn Heb “Returning to me.” The form is the bare infinitive which the KJV and ASV have interpreted as an imperative “Yet, return to me!” However, it is more likely that a question is intended, expressing surprise in the light of the law alluded to and the facts cited. For the use of the infinitive absolute in the place of a finite verb, cf. GKC 346 §113.ee. For the introduction of a question without a question marker, cf. GKC 473 §150.a.
5 tn Heb “So do not be afraid, my servant Jacob, oracle of the
6 tn Heb “For I will rescue you from far away, your descendants from the land of their captivity.”
7 sn Compare the ideals of the Mosaic covenant in Lev 26:6, the Davidic covenant in 2 Sam 7:10-11, and the new covenant in Ezek 34:25-31.
8 tn Heb “The survivors of the sword will return from the land of Egypt to the land of Judah few in number [more literally, “men of number”; for the idiom see BDB 709 s.v. מִסְפָּר 1.a].” The term “survivors of the sword” may be intended to represent both those who survive death in war or death by starvation or disease, a synecdoche of species for all three genera.
sn This statement shows that the preceding “none,” “never again,” “all” in vv. 26-27 are rhetorical hyperbole. Not all but almost all; very few would survive. The following statement implies that the reason that they are left alive is to bear witness to the fact that the
9 tn Heb “will stand,” i.e., in the sense of being fulfilled, proving to be true, or succeeding (see BDB 878 s.v. קוּם 7.g).
10 sn Jer 46:27-28 are virtually the same as 30:10-11. The verses are more closely related to that context than to this. But the presence of a note of future hope for the Egyptians may have led to a note of encouragement also to the Judeans who were under threat of judgment at the same time (cf. the study notes on 46:2, 13 and 25:1-2 for the possible relative dating of these prophecies).
11 tn Heb “And/But you do not be afraid, my servant Jacob.” Here and elsewhere in the verse the terms Jacob and Israel are poetic for the people of Israel descended from the patriarch Jacob. The terms have been supplied throughout with plural referents for greater clarity.
12 tn Heb “For I will rescue you from far away, your descendants from the land of their captivity.”
13 sn Some of these are named in Jer 51:27-28.
14 tn Heb “She will be captured from there (i.e., from the north).”
15 tc Read Heb ַָמשְׂכִּיל (moskil) with a number of Hebrew
16 tn Or more freely, “Their arrows will be as successful at hitting their mark // as a skilled soldier always returns from battle with plunder.”
sn I.e., none of the arrows misses its mark.
17 tn Heb “Cut off the sower from Babylon, and the one who wields the sickle at harvest time.” For the meaning “kill” for the root “cut off” see BDB 503 s.v. כָּרַת Qal.1.b and compare usage in Jer 11:19. The verb is common in this nuance in the Hiphil, cf. BDB 504 s.v. כָּרַת Hiph, 2.b.
18 tn Heb “Because of [or out of fear of] the sword of the oppressor, let each of them turn toward his [own] people and each of them flee to his [own] country.” Compare a similar expression in 46:16 where the reference was to the flight of the mercenaries. Here it refers most likely to foreigners who are counseled to leave Babylon before they are caught up in the destruction. Many of the commentaries and English versions render the verbs as futures but they are more likely third person commands (jussives). Compare the clear commands in v. 8 followed by essentially the same motivation. The “sword of the oppressor,” of course, refers to death at the hands of soldiers wielding all kinds of weapons, chief of which has been a reference to the bow (v. 14).
