Jeremiah 2:25

2:25 Do not chase after other gods until your shoes wear out

and your throats become dry. ¹ 

But you say, ‘It is useless for you to try and stop me

because I love those foreign gods ²  and want to pursue them!’

Jeremiah 2:2

2:2 “Go and declare in the hearing of the people of Jerusalem: ³  ‘This is what the Lord says: “I have fond memories of you, ⁴  how devoted you were to me in your early years. ⁵  I remember how you loved me like a new bride; you followed me through the wilderness, through a land that had never been planted.

Jeremiah 6:1

The Destruction of Jerusalem Depicted

6:1 “Run for safety, people of Benjamin!

Get out of Jerusalem! ⁶ 

Sound the trumpet ⁷  in Tekoa!

Light the signal fires at Beth Hakkerem!

For disaster lurks ⁸  out of the north;

it will bring great destruction. ⁹ 

Isaiah 57:10

57:10 Because of the long distance you must travel, you get tired, ¹⁰ 

but you do not say, ‘I give up.’ ¹¹ 

You get renewed energy, ¹² 

so you don’t collapse. ¹³ 

Ezekiel 37:11

37:11 Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are all the house of Israel. Look, they are saying, ‘Our bones are dry, our hope has perished; we are cut off.’

¹ tn Heb “Refrain your feet from being bare and your throat from being dry/thirsty.”

² tn Heb “It is useless! No!” For this idiom, see Jer 18:12; NEB “No; I am desperate.”

³ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

⁴ tn Heb “I remember to/for you.”

⁵ tn Heb “the loyal love of your youth.”

⁶ tn Heb “Flee for safety, people of Benjamin, out of the midst of Jerusalem.”

⁷ tn Heb “ram’s horn,” but the modern equivalent is “trumpet” and is more readily understandable.

⁸ tn Heb “leans down” or “looks down.” This verb personifies destruction leaning/looking down from its window in the sky, ready to attack.

⁹ tn Heb “[It will be] a severe fracture.” The nation is pictured as a limb being fractured.

¹⁰ tn Heb “by the greatness [i.e., “length,” see BDB 914 s.v. רֹב 2] of your way you get tired.”

¹¹ tn Heb “it is hopeless” (so NAB, NASB, NIV); NRSV “It is useless.”

¹² tn Heb “the life of your hand you find.” The term חַיָּה (khayyah, “life”) is here used in the sense of “renewal” (see BDB 312 s.v.) while יָד (yad) is used of “strength.”

¹³ tn Heb “you do not grow weak.”