Jeremiah 10:20

10:20 But our tents have been destroyed.

The ropes that held them in place have been ripped apart. ¹ 

Our children are gone and are not coming back. ² 

There is no survivor to put our tents back up,

no one left to hang their tent curtains in place.

Jeremiah 32:33

32:33 They have turned away from me instead of turning to me. ³  I tried over and over again ⁴  to instruct them, but they did not listen and respond to correction. ⁵ 

¹ tn Heb “My tent has been destroyed and my tent cords have been ripped apart.” For a very similar identification of Jeremiah’s plight with the plight of the personified community see 4:20 and the notes there.

² tn Heb “my children have gone from me and are no more.”

³ tn Heb “they have turned [their] backs to me, not [their] faces.” Compare the same idiom in 2:27.

⁴ tn For the idiom involved here see the translator’s note on 7:13. The verb that introduces this clause is a Piel infinitive absolute which is functioning in place of the finite verb (see, e.g., GKC 346 §113.ff and compare usage in Jer 8:15; 14:19. This grammatical point means that the versions cited in BHS fn a may not be reading a different text after all, but may merely be interpreting the form as syntactically equivalent to a finite verb as the present translation has done.).

⁵ tn Heb “But they were not listening so as to accept correction.”