Jeremiah 11:10

11:10 They have gone back to the evil ways ¹  of their ancestors of old who refused to obey what I told them. They, too, have paid allegiance to ²  other gods and worshiped them. Both the nation of Israel and the nation of Judah ³  have violated the covenant I made with their ancestors.

Jeremiah 11:17

11:17 For though I, the Lord who rules over all, ⁴  planted you in the land, ⁵ 

I now decree that disaster will come on you ⁶ 

because the nations of Israel and Judah have done evil

and have made me angry by offering sacrifices to the god Baal.” ⁷ 

Jeremiah 12:6

12:6 As a matter of fact, ⁸  even your own brothers

and the members of your own family have betrayed you too.

Even they have plotted to do away with you. ⁹ 

So do not trust them even when they say kind things ¹⁰  to you.

Jeremiah 27:18

27:18 I also told them, ¹¹  “If they are really prophets and the Lord is speaking to them, ¹²  let them pray earnestly to the Lord who rules over all. ¹³  Let them plead with him not to let the valuable articles that are still left in the Lord’s temple, in the royal palace, and in Jerusalem be taken away ¹⁴  to Babylon.

Jeremiah 35:7

35:7 Do not build houses. Do not plant crops. Do not plant a vineyard or own one. ¹⁵  Live in tents all your lives. If you do these things you will ¹⁶  live a long time in the land that you wander about on.’ ¹⁷ 

¹ tn Or “They have repeated the evil actions of….”

² tn Heb “have walked/followed after.” See the translator’s note at 2:5 for the idiom.

³ tn Heb “house of Israel and house of Judah.”

⁴ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.”

⁵ tn The words “in the land” are not in the text but are supplied in the translation to clarify the meaning of the metaphor.

⁶ tn Heb “For Yahweh of armies who planted you speaks disaster upon you.” Because of the way the term Lord of armies has been rendered this sentence has been restructured to avoid confusion in English style.

⁷ tn Heb “pronounced disaster…on account of the evil of the house of Israel and the house of Judah which they have done to make me angry [or thus making me angry] by sacrificing to Baal.” The lines have been broken up in conformity with contemporary English style.

⁷ tn This is an attempt to give some contextual sense to the particle “for, indeed” (כִּי, ki).

⁸ tn Heb “they have called after you fully”; or “have lifted up loud voices against you.” The word “against” does not seem quite adequate for the preposition “after.” The preposition “against” would be Hebrew עַל (’al). The idea appears to be that they are chasing after him, raising their voices along with those of the conspirators to have him killed.

⁹ tn Heb “good things.” See BDB 373 s.v. II טוֹב 2 for this nuance and compare Prov 12:25 for usage.

¹⁰ tn The words “I also told them” are not in the text, but it is obvious from the fact that the Lord is spoken about in the third person in vv. 18, 19, 21 that he is not the speaker. This is part of Jeremiah’s own speech to the priests and the people (v. 16). These words are supplied in the translation for clarity.

¹¹ tn Heb “the word of the Lord is with them.”

¹² tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.”

¹³ tn Heb “…speaking to them, let them entreat the Lord…so that the valuable articles…will not go to Babylon.” The long original sentence has been broken up for the sake of English style.

¹³ tn Heb “Don’t plant a vineyard and it shall not be to you [= and you shall/must not have one].”

¹⁴ tn Heb “Don’t…and don’t…but live…in order that you might….”

¹⁵ sn Heb “where you are sojourning.” The terms “sojourn” and “sojourner” referred to a person who resided in a country not his own, without the rights and privileges of citizenship as a member of a nation, state, or principality. In the ancient Near East such people were dependent on the laws of hospitality rather than the laws of state for protection and provision of legal rights. Perhaps the best illustration of this is Abraham who “sojourned” among the Philistines and the Hittites in Canaan and was dependent upon them for grazing and water rights and for a place to bury his wife (cf. Gen 20-24). What is described here is the typical lifestyle of a nomadic tribe.