Discovery BoxJeremiah 6:29 
Context6:29 The fiery bellows of judgment burn fiercely.
But there is too much dross to be removed. 1
The process of refining them has proved useless. 2
The wicked have not been purged.
Jeremiah 7:20
Context7:20 So,” the Lord God 3 says, “my raging fury will be poured out on this land. 4 It will be poured out on human beings and animals, on trees and crops. 5 And it will burn like a fire which cannot be extinguished.”
Jeremiah 37:10
Context37:10 For even if you were to defeat all the Babylonian forces 6 fighting against you so badly that only wounded men were left lying in their tents, they would get up and burn this city down.”’” 7
Jeremiah 38:18
Context38:18 But if you do not surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, this city will be handed over to the Babylonians 8 and they will burn it down. You yourself will not escape from them.’” 9
Jeremiah 50:32
Context50:32 You will stumble and fall, you proud city;
no one will help you get up.
I will set fire to your towns;
it will burn up everything that surrounds you.” 10
1 tn Heb “The bellows blow fiercely; the lead is consumed by the fire.” The translation tries to clarify a metaphor involving ancient metallurgy. In the ancient refining process lead was added as a flux to remove impurities from silver ore in the process of oxidizing the lead. Jeremiah says that the lead has been used up and the impurities have not been removed. The translation is based on the recognition of an otherwise unused verb root meaning “blow” (נָחַר [nakhar]; cf. BDB 1123 s.v. I חָרַר and HALOT 651 s.v. נָחַר) and the Masoretes’ suggestion that the consonants מאשׁתם be read מֵאֵשׁ תַּם (me’esh tam) rather than as מֵאֶשָּׁתָם (me’eshatam, “from their fire”) from an otherwise unattested noun אֶשָּׁה (’eshah).
2 tn Heb “The refiner refines them in vain.”
3 tn Heb “Lord Yahweh.” The translation follows the ancient Jewish tradition of substituting the Hebrew word for God for the proper name Yahweh.
4 tn Heb “this place.” Some see this as a reference to the temple but the context has been talking about what goes on in the towns of Judah and Jerusalem and the words that follow, meant as a further explanation, are applied to the whole land.
5 tn Heb “the trees of/in the field and the fruit of/in the ground.”
6 tn Heb “all the army of the Chaldeans.” For the rendering “Babylonian” in place of Chaldean see the study note on 21:4.
7 tn The length and complexity of this English sentence violates the more simple style that has been used to conform such sentences to contemporary English style. However, there does not seem to be any alternative that would enable a simpler style and still retain the causal and conditional connections that give this sentence the rhetorical force that it has in the original. The condition is, of course, purely hypothetical and the consequence a poetic exaggeration. The intent is to assure Zedekiah that there is absolutely no hope of the city being spared.
8 tn Heb “Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for explanation.
9 tn Heb “will not escape from their hand.”
sn Zedekiah held out this hope of escape until the end and attempted to do so but was unsuccessful (cf. 39:4-5).
10 tn Heb “And the proud one will fall and there will be no one to help him up. I will start a fire in his towns and it will consume all that surround him.” The personification continues but now the stance is indirect (third person) rather than direct (second person). It is easier for the modern reader who is not accustomed to such sudden shifts if the second person is maintained. The personification of the city (or nation) as masculine is a little unusual; normally cities and nations are personified as feminine, as daughters or mothers.
