Discovery BoxJeremiah 4:19 
Context“Oh, the feeling in the pit of my stomach! 2
I writhe in anguish.
Oh, the pain in my heart! 3
My heart pounds within me.
I cannot keep silent.
For I hear the sound of the trumpet; 4
the sound of the battle cry pierces my soul! 5
Jeremiah 30:6
Context30:6 Ask yourselves this and consider it carefully: 6
Have you ever seen a man give birth to a baby?
Why then do I see all these strong men
grabbing their stomachs in pain like 7 a woman giving birth?
And why do their faces
turn so deathly pale?
Jeremiah 47:2
Context47:2 “Look! Enemies are gathering in the north like water rising in a river. 8
They will be like an overflowing stream.
They will overwhelm the whole country and everything in it like a flood.
They will overwhelm the cities and their inhabitants.
People will cry out in alarm.
Everyone living in the country will cry out in pain.
1 tn The words “I said” are not in the text. They are used to mark the shift from the
2 tn Heb “My bowels! My bowels!”
3 tn Heb “the walls of my heart!”
4 tn Heb “ram’s horn,” but the modern equivalent is “trumpet” and is more readily understandable.
5 tc The translation reflects a different division of the last two lines than that suggested by the Masoretes. The written text (the Kethib) reads “for the sound of the ram’s horn I have heard [or “you have heard,” if the form is understood as the old second feminine singular perfect] my soul” followed by “the battle cry” in the last line. The translation is based on taking “my soul” with the last line and understanding an elliptical expression “the battle cry [to] my soul.” Such an elliptical expression is in keeping with the elliptical nature of the exclamations at the beginning of the verse (cf. the literal translations of the first two lines of the verse in the notes on the words “stomach” and “heart”).
6 tn Heb “Ask and see/consider.”
7 tn Heb “with their hands on their loins.” The word rendered “loins” refers to the area between the ribs and the thighs.
8 tn Heb “Behold! Waters are rising from the north.” The metaphor of enemy armies compared to overflowing water is seen also in Isa 8:8-9 (Assyria) and 46:7-8 (Egypt). Here it refers to the foe from the north (Jer 1:14; 4:6; etc) which is specifically identified with Babylon in Jer 25. The metaphor has been turned into a simile in the translation to help the average reader identify that a figure is involved and to hint at the referent.
