4:6 “But surely I gave 1 you no food to eat in any of your cities;
you lacked food everywhere you live. 2
Still you did not come back to me.”
The Lord is speaking!
6:28 I reported, 3
“All of them are the most stubborn of rebels! 4
They are as hard as bronze or iron.
They go about telling lies.
They all deal corruptly.
6:29 The fiery bellows of judgment burn fiercely.
But there is too much dross to be removed. 5
The process of refining them has proved useless. 6
The wicked have not been purged.
6:30 They are regarded as ‘rejected silver’ 7
because the Lord rejects them.”
22:17 The word of the Lord came to me: 22:18 “Son of man, the house of Israel has become slag to me. All of them are like bronze, tin, iron, and lead in the furnace; 8 they are the worthless slag of silver. 22:19 Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: ‘Because all of you 9 have become slag, look out! – I am about to gather you in the middle of Jerusalem. 10 22:20 As silver, bronze, iron, lead, and tin are gathered in a furnace so that the fire can melt them, so I will gather you in my anger and in my rage. I will deposit you there 11 and melt you. 22:21 I will gather you and blow on you with the fire of my fury, and you will be melted in it. 22:22 As silver is melted in a furnace, so you will be melted in it, and you will know that I, the Lord, have poured out my anger on you.’”
24:13 You mix uncleanness with obscene conduct. 12
I tried to cleanse you, 13 but you are not clean.
You will not be cleansed from your uncleanness 14
until I have exhausted my anger on you.
1 tn The Hebrew construction is emphatic (pronoun + verb). It underscores the stark contrast between the judgments that the Lord had been sending with the God of blessing Israel was celebrating in its worship (4:4-5).
2 tn Heb “But I gave to you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of food in all your places.” The phrase “cleanness of teeth” is a vivid way of picturing the famine Israel experienced.
3 tn These words are not in the text but are supplied in the translation for clarity. Some takes these words to be the continuation of the
4 tn Or “arch rebels,” or “hardened rebels.” Literally “rebels of rebels.”
5 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).
6 tn Heb “The refiner refines them in vain.”
7 tn This translation is intended to reflect the wordplay in the Hebrew text where the same root word is repeated in the two lines.
8 tn For similar imagery, see Isa 1:21-26; Jer 6:27-30.
9 tn The Hebrew second person pronoun is masculine plural here and in vv. 19b-21, indicating that the people are being addressed.
10 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
11 tn Heb “I will put.” No object is supplied in the Hebrew, prompting many to emend the text to “I will blow.” See BHS and verse 21.
12 tn Heb “in your uncleanness (is) obscene conduct.”
13 tn Heb “because I cleansed you.” In this context (see especially the very next statement), the statement must refer to divine intention and purpose. Despite God’s efforts to cleanse his people, they resisted him and remained morally impure.
14 tn The Hebrew text adds the word “again.”
15 tn The word “made” is not in the Greek text but is implied.
16 tn The Greek conjunction καί (kai) has not been translated here or before the following materials in this list, since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more.