Jeremiah 26:2-6

26:2 The Lord said, “Go stand in the courtyard of the Lord’s temple. ¹  Speak out to all the people who are coming from the towns of Judah to worship in the Lord’s temple. Tell them everything I command you to tell them. Do not leave out a single word! 26:3 Maybe they will pay attention and each of them will stop living the evil way they do. ²  If they do that, then I will forgo destroying them ³  as I had intended to do because of the wicked things they have been doing. ⁴  26:4 Tell them that the Lord says, ⁵  ‘You must obey me! You must live according to the way I have instructed you in my laws. ⁶  26:5 You must pay attention to the exhortations of my servants the prophets. I have sent them to you over and over again. ⁷  But you have not paid any attention to them. 26:6 If you do not obey me, ⁸  then I will do to this temple what I did to Shiloh. ⁹  And I will make this city an example to be used in curses by people from all the nations on the earth.’”

¹ sn It is generally agreed that the incident recorded in this chapter relates to the temple message that Jeremiah gave in 7:1-15. The message there is summarized here in vv. 3-6. The primary interest here is in the response to that message.

² tn Heb “will turn from his wicked way.”

³ tn For the idiom and translation of terms involved here see 18:8 and the translator’s note there.

⁴ tn Heb “because of the wickedness of their deeds.”

³ tn Heb “thus says the Lord, ‘…’.” The use of the indirect quotation in the translation eliminates one level of embedded quotation to avoid confusion.

⁴ tn Heb “by walking in my law which I set before you.”

⁴ tn See the translator’s note on 7:13 for the idiom here.

⁵ tn 26:4-6 are all one long sentence containing a long condition with subordinate clauses (vv. 4-5) and a compound consequence in v. 6: Heb “If you will not obey me by walking in my law…by paying attention to the words of the prophets which…and you did not pay heed, then I will make…and I will make…” The sentence has been broken down in conformity to contemporary English style but an attempt has been made to reflect all the subordinations in the English translation.

⁶ sn See the study note on Jer 7:13.