Jeremiah 2:20

The Lord Expresses His Exasperation at Judah’s Persistent Idolatry

2:20 “Indeed, ¹  long ago you threw off my authority

and refused to be subject to me. ² 

You said, ‘I will not serve you.’ ³ 

Instead, you gave yourself to other gods on every high hill

and under every green tree,

like a prostitute sprawls out before her lovers. ⁴ 

Jeremiah 3:2

3:2 “Look up at the hilltops and consider this. ⁵ 

You have had sex with other gods on every one of them. ⁶ 

You waited for those gods like a thief lying in wait in the desert. ⁷ 

You defiled the land by your wicked prostitution to other gods. ⁸ 

Ezekiel 16:16

16:16 You took some of your clothing and made for yourself decorated high places; you engaged in prostitution on them. You went to him to become his. ⁹ 

Ezekiel 16:25

16:25 At the head of every street you erected your pavilion and you disgraced ¹⁰  your beauty when you spread ¹¹  your legs to every passerby and multiplied your promiscuity.

Ezekiel 20:28-29

20:28 I brought them to the land which I swore ¹²  to give them, but whenever they saw any high hill or leafy tree, they offered their sacrifices there and presented the offerings that provoke me to anger. They offered their soothing aroma there and poured out their drink offerings. 20:29 So I said to them, What is this high place you go to?’” (So it is called “High Place” ¹³  to this day.)

Ezekiel 23:17

23:17 The Babylonians crawled into bed with her. ¹⁴  They defiled her with their lust; after she was defiled by them, she ¹⁵  became disgusted with them.

Ezekiel 23:41

23:41 You sat on a magnificent couch, with a table arranged in front of it where you placed my incense and my olive oil.

¹ tn Or “For.” The Hebrew particle (כִּי, ki) here introduces the evidence that they had no respect for him.

² tn Heb “you broke your yoke…tore off your yoke ropes.” The metaphor is that of a recalcitrant ox or heifer which has broken free from its master.

³ tc The MT of this verse has two examples of the old second feminine singular perfect, שָׁבַרְתִּי (shavarti) and נִתַּקְתִּי (nittaqti), which the Masoretes mistook for first singulars leading to the proposal to read אֶעֱבוֹר (’e’evor, “I will not transgress”) for אֶעֱבֹד (’e’evod, “I will not serve”). The latter understanding of the forms is accepted in KJV but rejected by almost all modern English versions as being less appropriate to the context than the reading accepted in the translation given here.

⁴ tn Heb “you sprawled as a prostitute on….” The translation reflects the meaning of the metaphor.

⁵ tn Heb “and see.”

⁶ tn Heb “Where have you not been ravished?” The rhetorical question expects the answer “nowhere,” which suggests she has engaged in the worship of pagan gods on every one of the hilltops.

⁷ tn Heb “You sat for them [the lovers, i.e., the foreign gods] beside the road like an Arab in the desert.”

⁸ tn Heb “by your prostitution and your wickedness.” This is probably an example of hendiadys where, when two nouns are joined by “and,” one expresses the main idea and the other qualifies it.

⁹ tc The text as written in the MT is incomprehensible (“not coming [plural] and he will not”). Driver has suggested a copying error of similar-sounding words, specifically לֹא (lo’) for לוֹ (lo). The feminine participle בָאוֹת (va’ot) has also been read as the feminine perfect בָאת (va’t). See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 1:228, n. 15.b, and D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:486, n. 137.

¹⁰ tn Heb “treated as if abominable,” i.e., repudiated.

¹¹ tn The only other occurrence of the Hebrew root is found in Prov 13:3 in reference to the talkative person who habitually “opens wide” his lips.

¹² tn Heb “which I lifted up my hand.”

¹³ tn The Hebrew word (“Bamah”) means “high place.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “The sons of Babel came to her on a bed of love.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “her soul.”