Jeremiah 2:19

2:19 Your own wickedness will bring about your punishment.

Your unfaithful acts will bring down discipline on you. ¹ 

Know, then, and realize how utterly harmful ² 

it was for you to reject me, the Lord your God, ³ 

to show no respect for me,” ⁴ 

says the Lord God who rules over all. ⁵ 

Jeremiah 3:6

3:6 When Josiah was king of Judah, the Lord said to me, “Jeremiah, you have no doubt seen what wayward Israel has done. ⁶  You have seen how she went up to every high hill and under every green tree to give herself like a prostitute to other gods. ⁷ 

Jeremiah 5:6

5:6 So like a lion from the thicket their enemies will kill them.

Like a wolf from the desert they will destroy them.

Like a leopard they will lie in wait outside their cities

and totally destroy anyone who ventures out. ⁸ 

For they have rebelled so much

and done so many unfaithful things. ⁹ 

Ezra 9:6-7

9:6 I prayed, ¹⁰ 

“O my God, I am ashamed and embarrassed to lift my face to you, my God! For our iniquities have climbed higher than our heads, and our guilt extends to the heavens. 9:7 From the days of our fathers until this very day our guilt has been great. Because of our iniquities we, along with our kings and ¹¹  priests, have been delivered over by the local kings ¹²  to sword, captivity, plunder, and embarrassment – right up to the present time.

Ezra 9:15

9:15 O Lord God of Israel, you are righteous, for we are left as a remnant this day. Indeed, we stand before you in our guilt. However, because of this guilt ¹³  no one can really stand before you.”

Nehemiah 9:33-34

9:33 You are righteous with regard to all that has happened to us, for you have acted faithfully. ¹⁴  It is we who have been in the wrong! 9:34 Our kings, our leaders, our priests, and our ancestors have not kept your law. They have not paid attention to your commandments or your testimonies by which you have solemnly admonished them.

Daniel 9:5-16

9:5 we have sinned! We have done what is wrong and wicked; we have rebelled by turning away from your commandments and standards. 9:6 We have not paid attention to your servants the prophets, who spoke by your authority ¹⁵  to our kings, our leaders, and our ancestors, ¹⁶  and to all the inhabitants ¹⁷  of the land as well.

9:7 “You are righteous, ¹⁸  O Lord, but we are humiliated this day ¹⁹  – the people ²⁰  of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, both near and far away in all the countries in which you have scattered them, because they have behaved unfaithfully toward you. 9:8 O LORD, we have been humiliated ²¹  – our kings, our leaders, and our ancestors – because we have sinned against you. 9:9 Yet the Lord our God is compassionate and forgiving, ²²  even though we have rebelled against him. 9:10 We have not obeyed ²³  the LORD our God by living according to ²⁴  his laws ²⁵  that he set before us through his servants the prophets.

9:11 “All Israel has broken ²⁶  your law and turned away by not obeying you. ²⁷  Therefore you have poured out on us the judgment solemnly threatened ²⁸  in the law of Moses the servant of God, for we have sinned against you. ²⁹  9:12 He has carried out his threats ³⁰  against us and our rulers ³¹  who were over ³²  us by bringing great calamity on us – what has happened to Jerusalem has never been equaled under all heaven! 9:13 Just as it is written in the law of Moses, so all this calamity has come on us. Still we have not tried to pacify ³³  the LORD our God by turning back from our sin and by seeking wisdom ³⁴  from your reliable moral standards. ³⁵  9:14 The LORD was mindful of the calamity, and he brought it on us. For the LORD our God is just ³⁶  in all he has done, ³⁷  and we have not obeyed him. ³⁸ 

9:15 “Now, O Lord our God, who brought your people out of the land of Egypt with great power ³⁹  and made a name for yourself that is remembered to this day – we have sinned and behaved wickedly. 9:16 O Lord, according to all your justice, ⁴⁰  please turn your raging anger ⁴¹  away from your city Jerusalem, your holy mountain. For due to our sins and the iniquities of our ancestors, Jerusalem and your people are mocked by all our neighbors.

¹ tn Or “teach you a lesson”; Heb “rebuke/chide you.”

² tn Heb “how evil and bitter.” The reference is to the consequences of their acts. This is a figure of speech (hendiadys) where two nouns or adjectives joined by “and” introduce a main concept modified by the other noun or adjective.

³ tn Heb “to leave the Lord your God.” The change in person is intended to ease the problem of the rapid transition, which is common in Hebrew style but not in English, from third to first person between this line and the next.

⁴ tn Heb “and no fear of me was on you.”

⁵ tn Heb “the Lord Yahweh, [the God of] hosts.” For the title Lord God see the study note on 1:6. For the title “who rules over all” see the following study note. The title “the Lord who rules over all” is a way of rendering the title “Yahweh of armies.” It is an abbreviation of a longer title “Yahweh the God of armies” which occurs five times in Jeremiah (see, e.g., 44:7). The abbreviated title occurs seventy-seven times in the book of Jeremiah. On thirty-two occasions it is further qualified by the title “the God of Israel,” showing his special relation to Israel. On six occasions it is preceded by the title “Lord” (see, e.g., 46:10) and twice it is preceded by the title “the King” (see, e.g., 51:17). Both titles emphasize his sovereignty. Twice it is said that he is the maker of all things (10:16; 51:19), and once it is said that he made the earth and the people and animals on it and gives them into the control of whomever he wishes (27:4-5). On two occasions it is emphasized that he also made the heavenly elements and controls the natural elements of wind, rain, thunder, and hail (31:35; 51:14-16). All this is consistent with usage elsewhere where the “armies” over which he has charge are identified as (1) the angels which surround his throne (Isa 6:3, 5; 1 Kgs 22:19) and which he sends to protect his servants (2 Kgs 6:17), (2) the natural forces of thunder, rain, and hail (Isa 29:6; Josh 10:11; Judg 5:4, 5) through which he sends the enemy into panic and “gums” up their chariot wheels, (3) the armies of Israel (1 Sam 17:45) which he leads into battle (Num 10:34-35; Josh 5:14, 15) and for whom he fights as a mighty warrior (Exod 15:3; Isa 42:13; Ps 24:8), and even (4) the armies of the nations which he musters against his disobedient people (Isa 13:14). This title is most commonly found in the messenger formula “Thus says…” introducing both oracles of judgment (on Israel [e.g., 9:7, 15] and on the nations [e.g. 46:19; 50:18]; and see in general 25:29-32). It emphasizes his sovereignty as the king and creator, the lord of creation and of history, and the just judge who sees and knows all (11:20; 20:12) and judges each person and nation according to their actions (Jer 32:18-19). In the first instance (in the most dominant usage) this will involve the punishment of his own people through the agency of the Babylonians (cf., e.g., 25:8-9). But it will also include the punishment of all nations, including Babylon itself (cf. Jer 25:17-26, 32-38), and will ultimately result in the restoration of his people and a new relation with them (30:8; 31:35-37).

⁶ tn “Have you seen…” The question is rhetorical and expects a positive answer.

⁷ tn Heb “she played the prostitute there.” This is a metaphor for Israel’s worship; she gave herself to the worship of other gods like a prostitute gives herself to her lovers. There seems no clear way to completely spell out the metaphor in the translation.

⁸ tn Heb “So a lion from the thicket will kill them. A wolf from the desert will destroy them. A leopard will watch outside their cities. Anyone who goes out from them will be torn in pieces.” However, it is unlikely that, in the context of judgment that Jeremiah has previously been describing, literal lions are meant. The animals are metaphorical for their enemies. Compare Jer 4:7.

⁹ tn Heb “their rebellions are so many and their unfaithful acts so numerous.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “I said.”

¹¹ tc The MT lacks “and” here, but see the LXX and Vulgate.

¹² tn Heb “the kings of the lands.”

¹³ tn Heb “this”; the referent (the guilt mentioned previously) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁴ tn Heb “you have done truth.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “in your name.” Another option is to translate, “as your representatives.”

¹⁶ tn Heb “our fathers” (also in vv. 8, 16). The Hebrew term translated “father” can refer to more distant relationships such as grandfathers or ancestors.

¹⁷ tn Heb “people.”

¹⁸ tn Heb “to you (belongs) righteousness.”

¹⁹ tn Heb “and to us (belongs) shame of face like this day.”

²⁰ tn Heb “men.”

²¹ tn Heb “to us (belongs) shame of face.”

²² tn Heb “to the Lord our God (belong) compassion and forgiveness.”

²³ tn Heb “paid attention to the voice of,” which is an idiomatic expression for obedience (cf. NASB “nor have we obeyed the voice of”).

²⁴ tn Heb “to walk in.”

²⁵ tc The LXX and Vulgate have the singular.

²⁶ tn Or “transgressed.” The Hebrew verb has the primary sense of crossing a boundary, in this case, God’s law.

²⁷ tn Heb “by not paying attention to your voice.”

²⁸ tn Heb “the curse and the oath which is written.” The term “curse” refers here to the judgments threatened in the Mosaic law (see Deut 28) for rebellion. The expression “the curse and the oath” is probably a hendiadys (cf. Num 5:21; Neh 10:29) referring to the fact that the covenant with its threatened judgments was ratified by solemn oath and made legally binding upon the covenant community.

²⁹ tn Heb “him.”

³⁰ tn Heb “he has fulfilled his word(s) which he spoke.”

³¹ tn Heb “our judges.”

³² tn Heb “who judged.”

³³ tn Heb “we have not pacified the face of.”

³⁴ tn Or “by gaining insight.”

³⁵ tn Heb “by your truth.” The Hebrew term does not refer here to abstract truth, however, but to the reliable moral guidance found in the covenant law. See vv 10-11.

³⁶ tn Or “righteous.”

³⁷ tn Heb “in all his deeds which he has done.”

³⁸ tn Heb “we have not listened to his voice.”

³⁹ tn Heb “with a powerful hand.”

⁴⁰ tn Or “righteousness.”

⁴¹ tn Heb “your anger and your rage.” The synonyms are joined here to emphasize the degree of God’s anger. This is best expressed in English by making one of the terms adjectival (cf. NLT “your furious anger”; CEV “terribly angry”).