Jeremiah 14:3

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Jeremiah 14:3 tn Though the concept of “cisterns” is probably not familiar to some readers, it would be a mistake to translate this word as “well.” Wells have continual sources of water. Cisterns were pits dug in the ground and lined with plaster to hold rainwater. The drought had exhausted all the water in the cisterns.
2. Jeremiah 14:3 tn The word “containers” is a generic word in Hebrew meaning “vessels.” It would probably in this case involve water “jars” or “jugs.” But since in contemporary English one would normally associate those terms with smaller vessels, “containers” may be safer.
3. Jeremiah 14:3 tn Heb “they cover their heads.” Some of the English versions have gone wrong here because of the “normal” use of the words translated here “disappointed” and “dismayed.” Regularly translated “ashamed” and “disgraced, humiliated, dismayed” elsewhere (see e.g., Jer 22:22), they are somewhat synonymous terms that are often parallel or combined. The key here, however, is the expression “they cover their heads,” which is used in 2 Sam 15:30 for the expression of grief. Moreover, the word translated “disappointed” (בּוֹשׁ, bosh) here is used that way several times. See, for example, Jer 12:13 and consult examples in BDB 101 s.v. בּוֹשׁ Qal.2. A very similar context with the same figure is found in Jer 2:36-37.