3:10 “Therefore, I became provoked at that generation and said, ‘Their hearts are always wandering 1 and they have not known my ways.’
2:13 “Do so because my people have committed a double wrong:
they have rejected me,
the fountain of life-giving water, 9
and they have dug cisterns for themselves,
cracked cisterns which cannot even hold water.”
17:9 The human mind is more deceitful than anything else.
It is incurably bad. 16 Who can understand it?
1 tn Grk “they are wandering in the heart.”
2 tn The
3 tn Heb “and the
4 tn Heb “in his heart.”
5 tn Here the Hebrew word translated “curse” is קָלָל (qalal), used in the Piel verbal stem.
6 tn The Hebrew particle כִּי (ki) can be used in a concessive sense (see BDB 473 s.v. כִּי), which makes good sense in this context. Its normal causal sense (“for”) does not fit the context here very well.
7 tn Heb “the inclination of the heart of humankind.”
8 tn Heb “from his youth.”
9 tn It is difficult to decide whether to translate “fresh, running water” which the Hebrew term for “living water” often refers to (e.g., Gen 26:19; Lev 14:5), or “life-giving water” which the idiom “fountain of life” as source of life and vitality often refers to (e.g., Ps 36:9; Prov 13:14; 14:27). The contrast with cisterns, which collected and held rain water, suggests “fresh, running water,” but the reality underlying the metaphor contrasts the
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 “will gather to the name of the
12 tn Heb “the stubbornness of their evil hearts.”
13 tn Or “They went backward and not forward”; Heb “They were to the backward and not to the forward.” The two phrases used here appear nowhere else in the Bible and the latter preposition plus adverb elsewhere is used temporally meaning “formerly” or “previously.” The translation follows the proposal of J. Bright, Jeremiah (AB), 57. Another option is “they turned their backs to me, not their faces,” understanding the line as a variant of a line in 2:27.
14 tn Heb “So I brought on them all the terms of this covenant which I commanded to do and they did not do.” There is an interesting polarity that is being exploited by two different nuances implicit in the use of the word “terms” (דִּבְרֵי [divre], literally “words”), i.e., what the
15 sn For the argumentation here compare Jer 7:23-26.
16 tn Or “incurably deceitful”; Heb “It is incurable.” For the word “deceitful” compare the usage of the verb in Gen 27:36 and a related noun in 2 Kgs 10:19. For the adjective “incurable” compare the usage in Jer 15:18. It is most commonly used with reference to wounds or of pain. In Jer 17:16 it is used metaphorically for a “woeful day” (i.e., day of irreparable devastation).
17 tn Heb “It is useless!” See the same expression in a similar context in Jer 2:25.
18 tn Heb “We will follow our own plans and do each one according to the stubbornness of his own wicked heart.”