translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: JER

label: NET translator note

text: The word “Jeremiah” is not in the text. Some Hebrew mss and some of the versions have “to me.” This section, 19:1 –20:6 appears to be one of the biographical sections of the book of Jeremiah where incidents in his life are reported in third person. See clearly 9:14 and 20:1-3 . The mss and versions do not represent a more original text but are translational or interpretive attempts to fill in a text which had no referent. They are like the translational addition that has been supplied on the basis of contextual indicators.


text: Heb “an earthenware jar of the potter.” sn The word translated “clay” here refers to a clay which has been baked or fired in a kiln. In the clay was still soft and pliable, capable of being formed into different kinds of vessels. Here the clay is set, just as Israel is set in its ways. The word for jar refers probably to a water jug or decanter and is onomatopoeic, baqbuq , referring to the gurgling sound made by pouring out the water.


label: NET textual note

text: The words “Take with you” follow the reading of the Syriac version and to a certain extent the reading of the Greek version (the latter does not have “with you”). The Hebrew text does not have these words but they are undoubtedly implicit.


text: Heb “elders” both here and before “of the people.” sn The civil and religious leaders are referred to here. They were to be witnesses of the symbolic act and of the message that Jeremiah proclaimed to the leaders of Jerusalem and its citizens (see v. 3 ).


text: Heb “the words that I will speak to you.”


text: For location see Map5-B1 ; Map6-F3 ; Map7-E2 ; Map8-F2 ; Map10-B3 ; JP1-F4 ; JP2-F4 ; JP3-F4 ; JP4-F4 .


text: Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.” sn See the study notes on 2:19 and 7:3 for explanation of this title.


text: Heb “which everyone who hears it [or about it] his ears will ring.” This is proverbial for a tremendous disaster. See 1 Sam 3:11 ; 2 Kgs 21:12 for similar prophecies.


text: The text merely has “they.” But since a reference is made later to “they” and “their ancestors,” the referent must be to the people that the leaders of the people and leaders of the priests represent.


text: Heb “fathers.”


text: Heb “the blood of innocent ones.” This must be a reference to child sacrifice as explained in the next verse. Some have seen a reference to the sins of social injustice alluded to in 2 Kgs 21:16 and 24:4 but those are connected with the city itself. Hence the word children is supplied in the translation to make the referent explicit.


text: The word “here” is not in the text. However, it is implicit from the rest of the context. It is supplied in the translation for clarity.


text: The words “such sacrifices” are not in the text. The text merely says “to burn their children in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal which I did not command.” The command obviously refers not to the qualification “to Baal” but to burning the children in the fire as burnt offerings. The words are supplied in the translation to avoid a possible confusion that the reference is to sacrifices to Baal. Likewise the words should not be translated so literally that they leave the impression that God never said anything about sacrificing their children to other gods. The fact is he did. See Lev 18:21 ; Deut 12:30; 18:10 .


text: This phrase ( Heb “Oracle of the Lord ”) has been handled this way on several occasions when it occurs within first person addresses where the Lord is the speaker. See, e.g., 16:16; 17:24; 18:6 .


text: Heb “it will no longer be called to this place Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom but the Valley of Slaughter.” sn See Jer 7:31-32 for an almost word for word repetition of vv. 5-6 .


text: Heb “I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies and in the hand of those who seek their soul [= life].” In this context the two are meant as obvious qualifications of one entity, not two. Some rearrangement of the qualifiers had to be made in the English translation to convey this.


text: Heb “all its smitings.” This word has been used several times for the metaphorical “wounds” that Israel has suffered as a result of the blows from its enemies. See, e.g., 14:17 . It is used in the Hebrew Bible of scourging, both literally and metaphorically (cf. Deut 25:3 ; Isa 10:26 ), and of slaughter and defeat ( 1 Sam 4:10 ; Josh 10:20 ). Here it refers to the results of the crushing blows at the hands of her enemies which has made her the object of scorn.


text: This verse has been restructured to try to bring out the proper thought and subordinations reflected in the verse without making the sentence too long and complex in English: Heb “I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters. And they will eat one another’s flesh in the siege and in the straits which their enemies who are seeking their lives reduce them to.” This also shows the agency through which God’s causation was effected, i.e., the siege. sn Cannibalism is one of the penalties for disobedience to their covenant with the Lord effected through the Mosaic covenant. See Deut 28:53, 55, 57 . For examples of this being carried out see 2 Kgs 6:28-29 ; Lam 4:10 .


text: The words “And the Lord continued” are not in the text. However, they are necessary to take us clearly back to the flow of the narrative begun in vv. 1-2 and interrupted by the long speech in vv. 3-9 .


text: Heb “Thus says Yahweh of armies.” For this title see the study note on 2:19 . The translation attempts to avoid the confusion of embedding quotes within quotes by reducing this one to an indirect quote.


text: The adverb “Thus” or “Like this” normally points back to something previously mentioned. See, e.g., Exod 29:35 ; Num 11:15; 15:11 ; Deut 25:9 .


text: Heb “Like this I will break this people and this city, just as one breaks the vessel of a potter which is not able to be repaired.”


text: The words “by dead bodies” is not in the text but is implicit from the context. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.


text: Heb “the host of heaven.”


text: Heb “And Jeremiah entered from Topheth where the Lord had sent him to prophesy and he stood in the courtyard of the Lord ’s temple.”


text: Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.” sn See the study notes on 2:19 and 7:3 for explanation of this title.


text: Heb “all its towns.”


text: Heb “They hardened [or made stiff] their neck so as not to.”