3:1 “If a man divorces his wife
and she leaves him and becomes another man’s wife,
he may not take her back again. 1
Doing that would utterly defile the land. 2
But you, Israel, have given yourself as a prostitute to many gods. 3
So what makes you think you can return to me?” 4
says the Lord.
14:14 Then the Lord said to me, “Those prophets are prophesying lies while claiming my authority! 17 I did not send them. I did not commission them. 18 I did not speak to them. They are prophesying to these people false visions, worthless predictions, 19 and the delusions of their own mind.
24:1 The Lord showed me two baskets of figs sitting before his temple. This happened after King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon deported Jehoiakim’s son, King Jeconiah of Judah. He deported him and the leaders of Judah, along with the craftsmen and metal workers, and took them to Babylon. 20
31:34 “People will no longer need to teach their neighbors and relatives to know me. 22 For all of them, from the least important to the most important, will know me,” 23 says the Lord. “For 24 I will forgive their sin and will no longer call to mind the wrong they have done.”
52:31 In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of King Jehoiachin of Judah, on the twenty-fifth 28 day of the twelfth month, 29 Evil-Merodach, in the first year of his reign, pardoned 30 King Jehoiachin of Judah and released him from prison.
1 tn Heb “May he go back to her again?” The question is rhetorical and expects a negative answer.
2 tn Heb “Would the land not be utterly defiled?” The stative is here rendered actively to connect better with the preceding. The question is rhetorical and expects a positive answer.
3 tn Heb “But you have played the prostitute with many lovers.”
4 tn Heb “Returning to me.” The form is the bare infinitive which the KJV and ASV have interpreted as an imperative “Yet, return to me!” However, it is more likely that a question is intended, expressing surprise in the light of the law alluded to and the facts cited. For the use of the infinitive absolute in the place of a finite verb, cf. GKC 346 §113.ee. For the introduction of a question without a question marker, cf. GKC 473 §150.a.
5 tn Heb “you will become numerous and fruitful.”
6 tn Or “chest.”
7 tn Heb “the ark of the covenant.” It is called this because it contained the tables of the law which in abbreviated form constituted their covenant obligations to the
8 tn Or “Nor will another one be made”; Heb “one will not do/make [it?] again.”
9 tn Heb “high places.”
10 tn Heb “the high places of [or in] Topheth.”
11 tn Heb “It never entered my heart.” The words “to command such a thing” do not appear in the Hebrew but are added for the sake of clarity.
13 tn Heb “the ways of my people.” For this nuance of the word “ways” compare 10:2 and the notes there.
14 tn Heb “taught my people to swear by Baal.”
15 tn The words “I swear” are not in the text but are implicit to the oath formula. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.
16 tn The words “If they do this” are not in the text. They are part of an attempt to break up a Hebrew sentence which is long and complex into equivalent shorter sentences consistent with contemporary English style. Verse 16 in Hebrew is all one sentence with a long complex conditional clause followed by a short consequence: “If they carefully learn the ways of my people to swear by name, ‘By the life of the
17 tn Heb “they will be built up among my people.” The expression “be built up among” is without parallel. However, what is involved here is conceptually parallel to the ideas expressed in Isa 19:23-25 and Zech 14:16-19. That is, these people will be allowed to live on their own land, to worship the
17 tn Heb “Falsehood those prophets are prophesying in my name.” In the OT, the “name” reflected the person’s character (cf. Gen 27:36; 1 Sam 25:25) or his reputation (Gen 11:4; 2 Sam 8:13). To speak in someone’s name was to act as his representative or carry his authority (1 Sam 25:9; 1 Kgs 21:8).
18 tn Heb “I did not command them.” Compare 1 Chr 22:12 for usage.
19 tn Heb “divination and worthlessness.” The noun “worthlessness” stands as a qualifying “of” phrase (= to an adjective; an attributive genitive in Hebrew) after a noun in Zech 11:17; Job 13:4. This is an example of hendiadys where two nouns are joined by “and” with one serving as the qualifier of the other.
21 sn See 2 Kgs 24:10-17 (especially vv. 14-16). Nebuchadnezzar left behind the poorest people of the land under the puppet king Zedekiah. Jeconiah has already been referred to earlier in 13:18; 22:25-26. The deportation referred to here occurred in 597
25 tn Heb “Oracle of the
29 tn Heb “teach…, saying, ‘Know the
30 sn This statement should be understood against the background of Jer 8:8-9 where class distinctions were drawn and certain people were considered to have more awareness and responsibility for knowing the law and also Jer 5:1-5 and 9:3-9 where the sinfulness of Israel was seen to be universal across these class distinctions and no trust was to be placed in friends, neighbors, or relatives because all without distinction had cast off God’s yoke (i.e., refused to submit themselves to his authority).
31 tn The Hebrew particle כִּי (ki) that introduces this clause refers to more than just the preceding clause (i.e., that all will know the
33 tn Heb “Oracle of the
37 tn The words “to other gods” are not in the text but are implicit from the context (cf. v. 17). They are supplied in the translation for clarity. It was not the act of sacrifice that was wrong but the recipient.
38 tn Heb “The sacrifices which you sacrificed in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, you and your fathers, your kings and your leaders and the people of the land, did not the
41 sn The parallel account in 2 Kgs 25:28 has “twenty-seventh.”
42 sn The twenty-fifth day would be March 20, 561
43 tn Heb “lifted up the head of.”