¹ tn Heb “Therefore, thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel.” The first person is again adopted because the Lord is speaking. For this title, “Yahweh of Armies,” compare 7:3 and the study note on 2:19.

¹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.” Again the first person is adopted because the Lord is speaking, and the indirect quotation is used to avoid an embedded quotation with quotation marks on either side.

¹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.” Again the first person is adopted because the Lord is speaking, and the indirect quotation is used to avoid an embedded quotation with quotation marks on either side.

³ tn Heb “…speaking to them, let them entreat the Lord…so that the valuable articles…will not go to Babylon.” The long original sentence has been broken up for the sake of English style.

¹ tn The words “Then I said” are not in the text. They are supplied in the translation to show the shift from God, who has been speaking to Jeremiah, to Jeremiah, who here addresses God.

¹ tn The words “Then I said” are not in the text. They are supplied in the translation to show the shift in speaker from vv. 18-19, where the Lord is speaking to Jeremiah.

³ tn Heb “For Yahweh of Armies who planted you speaks disaster upon you.” Because of the way the term Lord of Heaven’s Armies has been rendered, this sentence has been restructured to avoid confusion in English style.

¹ tn The words “the Lord said to me” are not in the text but are implicit from the context. They are supplied in the translation to make clear who is speaking and who is being addressed.

¹ tn These words are not in the text, but the context indicates that someone other than God is speaking for and to the people (either Jeremiah or the people themselves). These words are supplied in the translation for clarity.

¹ tn These words are not in the text but are supplied in the translation to show clearly the shift in speaker. Jeremiah has been speaking; now the Lord answers, giving the reason for the devastation Jeremiah foresees.

¹ sn The passage is reminiscent of Deut 18:18, which refers to the Lord’s promise of future revelation through a line of prophets who, like Moses, would speak God’s word.

² tn Heb “a people too deep of lip to hear.” The phrase “deep of lip” must be an idiom meaning “lips that speak words that are unfathomable [i.e., incomprehensible].”

¹ tn Heb “what is.” The Hebrew verbal form is a perfect. Another option is to translate, “What has been.” See the next line, which speaks of the past and the future.

⁴ tn The text uses an independent nominative absolute to draw attention to her husband: “her husband, and he praises her.” Prominent as he is, her husband speaks in glowing terms of his noble wife.

¹ sn The instruction to “open your mouth” is a metonymy of cause; it means “speak up for” (so NIV, TEV, NLT) or in this context “serve as an advocate in judgment” (cf. CEV “you must defend”).

³ sn The focus of this proverb is on someone who is hasty in his words. This is the person who does not stop to think, but acts on the spur of the moment. To speak before thinking is foolishness.

² tn Heb “lips of knowledge.” The term “lips” is a metonymy for speaking, and “knowledge” could be either an attributive genitive or objective genitive: “knowledgeable lips.” Lips that impart knowledge are the true jewel to be sought.

⁴ tn This term for friend (אֹהֵב, ʾohev) is based on the root meaning “to love. It speaks of a bond or commitment that is not true of the term for “companion” in the first line.

⁵ sn This is an implied comparison (hypocatastasis), the fountain of wisdom being the person who speaks. The Greek version has “fountain of life” instead of “wisdom,” probably influenced from 10:11.

³ tn The MT has the singular participle followed by the plural adjective (which is here a substantive). The editors of BHS wish to follow the ancient versions in making the participle plural, “those who speak uprightly.”