1 tn Or "If you, Israel, want to turn [away from your shameful ways (those described in 3:23-25)]…then you must turn back to me." Or perhaps, "Israel, you must turn back…Yes, you must turn back to me."

2tn Heb "disgusting things."

3tn Or possibly, "If you get those disgusting idols out of my sight, you will not need to flee." This is less probable because the normal meaning of the last verb is "to wander," " to stray."

4tn Heb "If you [= you must, see the translator's note on the word "do" later in this verse] swear/take an oath, ‘As the Lord lives,' in truth, justice, and righteousness…"

5tn 4:1-2a consists of a number of "if" clauses, two of which are formally introduced by the Hebrew particle אִם ('im) while the others are introduced by the conjunction "and," followed by a conjunction ("and" = "then") with a perfect in 4:2b which introduces the consequence. The translation "You must…. If you do," was chosen to avoid a long and complicated sentence.

6tn Heb "bless themselves in him and make their boasts in him."

7tn The Hebrew particle is obviously asseverative here since a causal connection appears to make little sense.

8tn Heb "Plow up your unplowed ground and do not sow among the thorns." The translation is an attempt to bring out the force of a metaphor. The idea seems to be that they are to plow over the thorns and make the ground ready for the seeds which will produce a new crop where none had been produced before.

9tn Heb "Circumcise yourselves to the Lord and remove the foreskin of your heart." The translation is again an attempt to bring out the meaning of a metaphor. The mention of the "foreskin of the heart" shows that the passage is obviously metaphorical and involves heart attitude, not an external rite.

10tn Heb "lest."

11tn The words "The Lord said" are not in the text, but it is obvious from v. 6 and v. 9 that he is the speaker. These words are supplied in the translation for clarity.

12tn It is unclear who the addressees of the masculine plural imperatives are here. They may be the citizens of Jerusalem and Judah who are sounding the alarm to others. However, the first person reference to the Lord in v. 6 and Jeremiah's response in v. 10 suggest that this is a word from the Lord that he is commanded to pass on to the citizens of Jerusalem and Judah. If the imperatives are not merely rhetorical plurals they may reflect the practice referred to in Jer 23:18, 22; Amos 3:7. A similar phenomenon also occurs in Jer 5:1 and also in Isa 40:1-2. This may also be the explanation for the plural imperatives in Jer 31:6. For further discussion see the translator's note on Jer 5:1.

13map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

14tn Heb "ram's horn," but the modern equivalent is "trumpet" and is more readily understandable.

15tn Heb "Raise up a signal toward Zion."

16tn Heb "out of the north, even great destruction."

17tn Heb "A lion has left its lair." The metaphor is turned into a simile for clarification. The word translated "lair" has also been understood to refer to a hiding place. However, it appears to be cognate in meaning to the word translated "lair" in Ps 10:9; Jer 25:38, a word which also refers to the abode of the Lord in Ps 76:3.

18tn Heb "his place."

19tn Or "wail because the fierce anger of the Lord has not turned away from us." The translation does not need to assume a shift in speaker as the alternate reading does.

20tn Heb "In that day."

21tn The words "In response to all this" are not in the text but are supplied in the translation to clarify the connection.

22tn Heb "Lord Yahweh." The translation follows the ancient Jewish tradition of substituting the Hebrew word for God for the proper name Yahweh.

23tn Or "You have deceived." The Hiphil of נָשָׁא (nasha', "to deceive") is understood in a tolerative sense here: "to allow [someone] to be deceived." IBHS 446 §27.5c notes that this function of the hiphil describes caused activity that is welcome to the undersubject, but unacceptable or disagreeable to a third party. Jerusalem and Judah welcomed the assurances of false prophets who deceived them. Although this was detestable to God, he allowed it.

24tn Heb "this people and Jerusalem."

25tn Heb "Jerusalem, saying, ‘You will have peace'"; or "You have deceived the people of Judah and Jerusalem, saying, ‘You will have peace.'" The words "you will be safe" are, of course, those of the false prophets (cf., Jer 6:14; 8:11; 14:13; 23:16-17). It is difficult to tell whether the charge here is meant literally as the emotional outburst of the prophet (compare for example, Jer 15:18) or whether it is to be understood as a figure of speech in which a verb of direct causation is to be understood as permissive or tolerative, i.e., God did not command the prophets to say this but allowed them to do so. While it is not beyond God to use false prophets to accomplish his will (cf., e.g., 1 Kgs 22:19-23), he elsewhere in the book of Jeremiah directly denies having sent the false prophets to say such things as this (cf., e.g., Jer 14:14-15; 23:21, 32). For examples of the use of this figure of speech, see E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 571, 823 and compare Ezek 20:25. The translation given attempts to resolve the issue.

26tn Heb "touches the throat/soul." For this use of the word usually translated "soul" or "life" cf. HALOT 672 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ 1, 2 and compare the use in Ps 105:18.

27tn Heb "this people and Jerusalem."

28tn Heb "A scorching wind from the hilltops in the desert toward…"

sn The allusion is, of course, to the destructive forces of the enemy armies of Babylon compared above in 4:7 to a destructive lion and here to the destructive desert winds of the Near Eastern sirocco.

29tn Heb "daughter of my people." The term "daughter of" is appositional to "my people" and is supplied in the translation as a term of sympathy and endearment. Compare the common expression "daughter of Zion."

30tn Heb "not for winnowing and not for cleansing." The words "It will not be a gentle breeze" are not in the text but are implicit in the connection. They are supplied in the translation here for clarification.

31tn The word "No" is not in the text but is carried over from the connection with the preceding line "not for…"

32tn Heb "will speak judgments against them."

33tn Heb "he is coming up like clouds." The words "The enemy" are supplied in the translation to identify the referent and the word "gathering" is supplied to try to convey the significance of the simile, i.e., that of quantity and of an approaching storm.

34tn Heb "his chariots [are] like a whirlwind." The words "roar" and "sound" are supplied in the translation to clarify the significance of the simile.

35tn The words "I cry out" are not in the text, but the words that follow are obviously not the Lord's. They are either those of the people or of Jeremiah. Taking them as Jeremiah's parallels the interjection of Jeremiah's response in 4:10 which is formally introduced.

36tn Heb "Woe to us!" The words "woe to" are common in funeral laments and at the beginning of oracles of judgment. In many contexts they carry the connotation of hopelessness or apprehensiveness of inevitable doom.

37tn Heb "Oh, Jerusalem, wash your heart from evil."

38tn Heb "For a voice declaring from Dan and making heard disaster from the hills of Ephraim."

39tn The words "They are saying" are not in the text but are implicit in the connection and are supplied in the translation for clarification.

40tn The word "surrounding" is not in the text but is implicit and is supplied in the translation for clarification.

41tc Or "Here they come!" Heb "Look!" or "Behold!" Or "Announce to the surrounding nations, indeed [or yes] proclaim to Jerusalem, ‘Besiegers…'" The text is very elliptical here. Some of the modern English versions appear to be emending the text from הִנֵּה (hinneh, "behold") to either הֵנָּה (hennah, "these things"; so NEB), or הַזֶּה (hazzeh, "this"; so NIV). The solution proposed here is as old as the LXX which reads, "Behold, they have come."

42tn The words, "this message," are not in the text but are supplied in the translation to make the introduction of the quote easier.

43tn Heb "Besiegers." For the use of this verb to refer to besieging a city compare Isa 1:8.

44tn Heb "They have raised their voices against." The verb here, a vav (ו) consecutive with an imperfect, continues the nuance of the preceding participle "are coming."

45tn Heb "will surround her." The antecedent is Jerusalem in the preceding verse. The referent is again made explicit in the translation to avoid any possible lack of clarity. The verb form here is a form of the verb that emphasizes the fact as being as good as done (i.e., it is a prophetic perfect).

46sn There is some irony involved in the choice of the simile since the men guarding a field were there to keep thieves from getting in and stealing the crops. Here the besiegers are guarding the city to keep people from getting out.

47tn Heb "Your way and your deeds."

48tn Heb "How bitter!"

49tn Heb "Indeed, it reaches to your heart." The subject must be the pain alluded to in the last half of the preceding line; the verb is masculine, agreeing with the adjective translated "painful." The only other possible antecedent "punishment" is feminine.

50tn The words "I said" are not in the text. They are used to mark the shift from the Lord's promise of judgment to Jeremiah's lament concerning it.

51tn Heb "My bowels! My bowels!"

52tn Heb "the walls of my heart!"

53tn Heb "ram's horn," but the modern equivalent is "trumpet" and is more readily understandable.

54tc 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").

55tn The words, "I see" are not in the text here or at the beginning of the third line. They are supplied in the translation to show that this is Jeremiah's vision of what will happen as a result of the invasion announced in 4:5-9, 11-17a.

56tn Heb "my." This is probably not a reference to Jeremiah's own tents since he foresees the destruction of the whole land. Jeremiah so identifies with the plight of his people that he sees the destruction of their tents as though they were his very own. It would probably lead to confusion to translate literally and it is not uncommon in Hebrew laments for the community or its representative to speak of the community as an "I." See for example the interchange between first singular and first plural pronouns in Ps 44:4-8.

57tn Heb "my."

58tn It is not altogether clear what Jeremiah intends by the use of this metaphor. In all likelihood he means that the defenses of Israel's cities and towns have offered no more resistance than nomads' tents. However, in light of the fact that the word "tent" came to be used generically for a person's home (cf. 1 Kgs 8:66; 12:16), it is possible that Jeremiah is here referring to the destruction of their homes and the resultant feeling of homelessness and loss of even elementary protection. Given the lack of certainty the present translation is rather literal here.

59tn Heb "the sound of ram's horns," but the modern equivalent is "bugles" and is more readily understandable.

60tn 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.

61tn Heb "For…." This gives the explanation for the destruction envisaged in 4:20 to which Jeremiah responds in 4:19, 21.

62tn Heb "They are senseless children."

63tn Heb "I looked at the land and behold..." This indicates the visionary character of Jeremiah's description of the future condition of the land of Israel.

64tn Heb "formless and empty." This is a case of hendiadys (two nouns joined by "and" both describe the same thing): one noun retains its full nominal force, the other functions as an adjective. The words תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ (tohu vavohu) allude to Gen 1:2, hyperbolically picturing a reversal of creation and return to the original precreation chaos.

65tn Heb "there was no man/human being."

66tn Heb "because of the Lord, because of his blazing anger."

67tn Heb "For this is what the Lord said,"

68sn The earth and the heavens are personified here and depicted in the act of mourning and wearing black clothes because of the destruction of the land of Israel.

69tn Heb "has spoken and purposed." This is an example of hendiadys where two verbs are joined by "and" but one is meant to serve as a modifier of the other.

70tn Heb "will not turn back from it."

71tn Heb "And you that are doomed to destruction." The referent is supplied from the following context and the fact that Zion/Jerusalem represents the leadership which was continually making overtures to foreign nations for help.

72tn Heb "What are you accomplishing…?" The rhetorical question assumes a negative answer, made clear by the translation in the indicative.

73tn Heb "clothing yourself in scarlet."

74tn Heb "enlarging your eyes with antimony." Antimony was a black powder used by women as eyeliner to make their eyes look larger.

75tn Heb "they seek your life."

76tn The particle כִּי (ki) is more likely asseverative here than causal.

77sn Jerusalem is personified as a helpless maiden.

78tn Heb "spreading out her hands." The idea of asking or pleading for help is implicit in the figure.

79tn Heb "Woe, now to me!" See the translator's note on 4:13 for the usage of "Woe to…"