Hosea 10:6

10:6 Even the calf idol ¹  will be carried to Assyria,

as tribute for the great king. ² 

Ephraim will be disgraced;

Israel will be put to shame because ³  of its wooden idol. ⁴ 

Isaiah 1:29

1:29 Indeed, they ⁵  will be ashamed of the sacred trees

you ⁶  find so desirable;

you will be embarrassed because of the sacred orchards ⁷ 

where you choose to worship.

Isaiah 42:17

42:17 Those who trust in idols

will turn back and be utterly humiliated, ⁸ 

those who say to metal images, ‘You are our gods.’”

Jeremiah 2:26-27

2:26 Just as a thief has to suffer dishonor when he is caught,

so the people of Israel ⁹  will suffer dishonor for what they have done. ¹⁰ 

So will their kings and officials,

their priests and their prophets.

2:27 They say to a wooden idol, ¹¹  ‘You are my father.’

They say to a stone image, ‘You gave birth to me.’ ¹² 

Yes, they have turned away from me instead of turning to me. ¹³ 

Yet when they are in trouble, they say, ‘Come and save us!’

Jeremiah 2:36-37

2:36 Why do you constantly go about

changing your political allegiances? ¹⁴ 

You will get no help from Egypt

just as you got no help from Assyria. ¹⁵ 

2:37 Moreover, you will come away from Egypt

with your hands covering your faces in sorrow and shame ¹⁶ 

because the Lord will not allow your reliance on them to be successful

and you will not gain any help from them. ¹⁷ 

Jeremiah 3:24-25

3:24 From earliest times our worship of that shameful god, Baal,

has taken away ¹⁸  all that our ancestors ¹⁹  worked for.

It has taken away our flocks and our herds,

and even our sons and daughters.

3:25 Let us acknowledge ²⁰  our shame.

Let us bear the disgrace that we deserve. ²¹ 

For we have sinned against the Lord our God,

both we and our ancestors.

From earliest times to this very day

we have not obeyed the Lord our God.’

Jeremiah 17:13

17:13 You are the one in whom Israel may find hope. ²² 

All who leave you will suffer shame.

Those who turn away from you ²³  will be consigned to the nether world. ²⁴ 

For they have rejected you, the Lord, the fountain of life. ²⁵ 

¹ tn The antecedent of the 3rd person masculine singular direct object pronoun אוֹתוֹ (’oto, “it”) is probably the calf idol of Beth Aven mentioned in 10:5a. This has been specified in the translation for clarity (cf. TEV, NLT).

² tc The MT reads מֶלֶךְ יָרֵב (melekh yarev, “a king who contends”?) which is syntactically awkward: מֶלֶךְ (“king”) followed by יָרֵב (“let him contend!”; Qal jussive 3rd person masculine singular from רִיב, riv, “to contend”). Note that KJV, ASV, NASB treat this as a proper name (“king Jareb”). The MT reading is probably the result of faulty word division. As the BHS editors suggest, the original reading most likely is מַלְכִּי רָב (malki rav, “the great king”). The suffixed י (yod) on מַלְכִּי is the remnant of the old genitive ending. This is the equivalent of the Assyrian royal epithet sarru rabbu (“the great king”). See also the tc note on the same phrase in 5:13.

³ tn The preposition מִן (min) functions in a causal sense specifying the logical cause: “because of” or “on account of” (e.g., Exod 2:23; Deut 7:7; Nah 3:4; BDB 580 s.v. מִן 2.f; HALOT 598 s.v. מִן 6).

⁴ tn The meaning of the root of מֵעֲצָתוֹ (me’atsato, preposition מִן, min, + feminine singular noun עֵצָה, ’etsah, + 3rd person masculine singular suffix) is debated. There are three options: (1) “its counsel” from I עֵצָה (“counsel; advice; plan”; BDB 420 s.v. עֵצָה; HALOT 867 s.v. I עֵצָה 3.a); (2) “its disobedience” from II עֵצָה (“disobedience,” but the existence of this root is debated; see HALOT 867 s.v. II עֵצָה); and (3) “its wooden idol” from III עֵצָה (“wood”; cf. Jer 6:6) referring to the wooden idol/effigy (the calf idol in 10:5), a stick of wood covered with gold (HALOT 867 s.v.). The last option is favored contextually: (a) the idol is called “a stick of wood” in Hos 4:12, and (b) the calf idol (probably the referent) of the cult is mentioned in 10:5. The English versions are divided: (1) “his idol” (RSV, NRSV), “its wooden idols” (NIV), “image” (NJPS margin), “that idol” (CEV), “this idol” (NLT); and (2) “his own counsel” (KJV, ASV), “its own counsel” (NASB), “his plans” (NJPS), “his schemes” (NAB), “the advice” (TEV).

⁵ tc The Hebrew text (and the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a) has the third person here, though a few Hebrew mss (and Targums) read the second person, which is certainly more consistent with the following context. The third person form is the more difficult reading and probably original. This disagreement in person has caused some to emend the first verb (3rd plural) to a 2nd plural form (followed by most English translations). The BHS textual apparatus suggests that the 2nd plural form be read even though there is only sparse textual evidence. LXX, Syriac, and the Vulgate change all the 2nd person verbs in 1:29-31 to 3rd person verbs. It is likely that the change to a 2nd person form represents an attempt at syntactical harmonization (J. de Waard, Isaiah, 10). The abrupt change from 3rd person to 2nd person may have been intentional for rhetorical impact (GKC 462 §144.p). The rapid change from exclamation (they did!) to reproach (you desired!) might be regarded as a rhetorical figure focusing attention on the addressees and their conditions (de Waard, 10; E. König, Stilistik, Rhetorik, Poetik, 239). This use of the 3rd person could also be understood as an impersonal third person: “one will be ashamed” (de Waard, 10). In v. 29 the prophet continues his description of the sinners (v. 28), but then suddenly makes a transition to direct address (switching from 3^rd to 2^nd person) in the middle of his sentence.

⁶ tn The second person pronouns in vv. 29-30 are masculine plural, indicating that the rebellious sinners (v. 28) are addressed.

⁷ tn Or “gardens” (so KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); NAB “groves.”

⁸ tn Heb “be ashamed with shame”; ASV, NASB “be utterly put to shame.”

⁹ tn Heb “house of Israel.”

¹⁰ tn The words “for what they have done” are implicit in the comparison and are supplied in the translation for clarification.

¹¹ tn Heb “wood…stone…”

¹² sn The reference to wood and stone is, of course, a pejorative reference to idols made by human hands. See the next verse where reference is made to “the gods you have made.”

¹³ tn Heb “they have turned [their] backs to me, not [their] faces.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “changing your way.” The translation follows the identification of the Hebrew verb here as a defective writing of a form (תֵּזְלִי [tezÿli] instead of תֵּאזְלִי [te’zÿli]) from a verb meaning “go/go about” (אָזַל [’azal]; cf. BDB 23 s.v. אָזַל). Most modern English versions, commentaries, and lexicons read it from a root meaning “to treat cheaply [or lightly]” (תָּזֵלִּי [tazelli] from the root זָלַל (zalal); cf. HALOT 261 s.v. זָלַל); hence, “Why do you consider it such a small matter to…”

¹⁵ tn Heb “You will be ashamed/disappointed by Egypt, just as you were ashamed/ disappointed by Assyria.”

¹⁶ tn Heb “with your hands on your head.” For the picture here see 2 Sam 13:19.

¹⁷ tn Heb “The Lord has rejected those you trust in; you will not prosper by/from them.”

¹⁸ tn Heb “From our youth the shameful thing has eaten up…” The shameful thing is specifically identified as Baal in Jer 11:13. Compare also the shift in certain names such as Ishbaal (“man of Baal”) to Ishbosheth (“man of shame”).

¹⁹ tn Heb “fathers” (also in v. 25).

²⁰ tn Heb “Let us lie down in….”

²¹ tn Heb “Let us be covered with disgrace.”

²² tn Heb “O glorious throne, O high place from the beginning, O hope of Israel, O Lord.” Commentators and translators generally understand these four lines (which are three in the Hebrew original) as two predications, one eulogizing the temple and the other eulogizing God. However, that does not fit the context very well and does not take into account the nature of Jeremiah’s doxology in Jeremiah 16:19-20 (and compare also 10:6-7). There the doxology is context motivated, focused on God, and calls on relevant attributes in the form of metaphorical epithets. That fits nicely here as well. For the relevant parallel passages see the study note.

²³ tc The translation is based on an emendation suggested in W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah (Hermeneia), 1:500, n. b-b. The emendation involves following the reading preferred by the Masoretes (the Qere) and understanding the preposition with the following word as a corruption of the suffix on it. Thus the present translation reads וּסוּרֶיךָ אֶרֶץ (usurekha ’erets) instead of וּסוּרַי בָּאֶרֶץ (usuray ba’erets, “and those who leave me will be written in the earth”), a reading which is highly improbable since all the other pronouns are second singular.

²⁴ tn Or “to the world of the dead.” An alternative interpretation is: “will be as though their names were written in the dust”; Heb “will be written in the dust.” The translation follows the nuance of “earth” listed in HALOT 88 s.v. אֶרֶץ 4 and found in Jonah 2:6 (2:7 HT); Job 10:21-22. For the nuance of “enrolling, registering among the number” for the verb translated here “consign” see BDB 507 s.v. כָּתַב Qal.3 and 508 s.v. Niph.2 and compare usage in Ezek 13:9 and Ps 69:28 (69:29 HT).

²⁵ tn Heb “The fountain of living water.” For an earlier use of this metaphor and the explanation of it see Jer 2:13 and the notes there. There does not appear to be any way to retain this metaphor in the text without explaining it. In the earlier text the context would show that literal water was not involved. Here it might still be assumed that the Lord merely gives life-giving water.