Discovery BoxJeremiah 4:8 
Context4:8 So put on sackcloth!
Mourn and wail, saying,
‘The fierce anger of the Lord
has not turned away from us!’” 1
Jeremiah 6:5
Context6:5 So come on, let’s go ahead and attack it by night
and destroy all its fortified buildings.’
Jeremiah 6:18
Context“Hear, you nations!
Be witnesses and take note of what will happen to these people. 3
Jeremiah 13:2
Context13:2 So I bought the shorts as the Lord had told me to do 4 and put them on. 5
Jeremiah 13:26
Context13:26 So I will pull your skirt up over your face
and expose you to shame like a disgraced adulteress! 6
Jeremiah 18:3
Context18:3 So I went down to the potter’s house and found him working 7 at his wheel. 8
1 tn Or “wail because the fierce anger of the
2 tn These words are not in the text but are implicit from the flow of the context. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.
3 tn Heb “Know, congregation [or witness], what in [or against] them.” The meaning of this line is somewhat uncertain. The meaning of the noun of address in the second line (“witness,” rendered as an imperative in the translation, “Be witnesses”) is greatly debated. It is often taken as “congregation” but the lexicons and commentaries generally question the validity of reading that word since it is nowhere else applied to the nations. BDB 417 s.v. עֵדָה 3 says that the text is dubious. HALOT 747 s.v. I עֵדָה, 4 emends the text to דֵּעָה (de’ah). Several modern English versions (e.g., NIV, NCV, God’s Word) take it as the feminine singular noun “witness” (cf. BDB 729 s.v. II עֵדָה) and understand it as a collective. This solution is also proposed by J. A. Thompson (Jeremiah [NICOT], 259, n. 3) and appears to make the best sense in the context. The end of the line is very elliptical but is generally taken as either, “what I will do with/to them,” or “what is coming against them” (= “what will happen to them”) on the basis of the following context.
4 tn Heb “according to the word of the
5 tn Heb “upon your loins.” The “loins” were the midriff of the body from the waist to the knees. For a further discussion including the figurative uses see R. C. Dentan, “Loins,” IDB 3:149-50.
6 tn Heb “over your face and your shame will be seen.” The words “like a disgraced adulteress” are not in the text but are supplied in the translation to explain the metaphor. See the notes on 13:22.
7 tn Heb “And behold he was working.”
8 sn At his wheel (Heb “at the two stones”). The Hebrew expression is very descriptive of the construction of a potter’s wheel which consisted of two stones joined by a horizontal shaft. The potter rotated the wheel with his feet on the lower wheel and worked the clay with his hands on the upper. For a picture of a potter working at his wheel see I. Ben-Dor, “Potter’s Wheel,” IDB 3:846. See also the discussion regarding the making of pottery in J. L. Kelso, “Pottery,” IDB 3:846-53.
