Jeremiah 3:10

3:10 In spite of all this, ¹  Israel’s sister, unfaithful Judah, has not turned back to me with any sincerity; she has only pretended to do so,” ²  says the Lord.

Jeremiah 5:31

5:31 The prophets prophesy lies.

The priests exercise power by their own authority. ³ 

And my people love to have it this way.

But they will not be able to help you when the time of judgment comes! ⁴ 

Jeremiah 6:13

6:13 “That is because, from the least important to the most important of them,

all of them are greedy for dishonest gain.

Prophets and priests alike,

all of them practice deceit.

Jeremiah 7:4

7:4 Stop putting your confidence in the false belief that says, ⁵  “We are safe! ⁶  The temple of the Lord is here! The temple of the Lord is here! The temple of the Lord is here!” ⁷ 

Jeremiah 7:9

7:9 You steal. ⁸  You murder. You commit adultery. You lie when you swear on oath. You sacrifice to the god Baal. You pay allegiance to ⁹  other gods whom you have not previously known.

Jeremiah 9:5

9:5 One friend deceives another

and no one tells the truth.

These people have trained themselves ¹⁰  to tell lies.

They do wrong and are unable to repent.

Jeremiah 10:14

10:14 All these idolaters ¹¹  will prove to be stupid and ignorant.

Every goldsmith will be disgraced by the idol he made.

For the image he forges is merely a sham. ¹² 

There is no breath in any of those idols. ¹³ 

Jeremiah 27:10

27:10 Do not listen to them, ¹⁴  because their prophecies are lies. ¹⁵  Listening to them will only cause you ¹⁶  to be taken far away from your native land. I will drive you out of your country and you will die in exile. ¹⁷ 

Jeremiah 27:14-15

27:14 Do not listen to the prophets who are telling you that you do not need to serve ¹⁸  the king of Babylon. For they are prophesying lies to you. 27:15 For I, the Lord, affirm ¹⁹  that I did not send them. They are prophesying lies to you. If you ²⁰  listen to them, I will drive you and the prophets who are prophesying lies out of the land and you will all die in exile.” ²¹ 

Jeremiah 37:14

37:14 Jeremiah answered, “That’s a lie! I am not deserting to the Babylonians.” ²²  But Irijah would not listen to him. Irijah put Jeremiah under arrest and took him to the officials.

Jeremiah 51:17

51:17 All idolaters will prove to be stupid and ignorant.

Every goldsmith will be disgraced by the idol he made.

For the image he forges is merely a sham.

There is no breath in any of those idols.

¹ tn Heb “And even in all this.”

² tn Heb “ has not turned back to me with all her heart but only in falsehood.”

³ tn Heb “they shall rule at their hands.” Since the word “hand” can be used figuratively for authority or mean “side” and the pronoun “them” can refer to the priests themselves or the prophets, the following translations have also been suggested: “the priests rule under their [the prophets’] directions,” or “the priests rule in league with them [the prophets].” From the rest of the book it would appear that the prophets did not exercise authority over the priests nor did they exercise the same authority over the people that the priests did. Hence it probably mean “by their own hand/power/authority.”

⁴ tn Heb “But what will you do at its end?” The rhetorical question implies a negative answer: “Nothing!”

⁵ tn Heb “Stop trusting in lying words which say.”

⁶ tn The words “We are safe!” are not in the text but are supplied in the translation for clarity.

⁷ tn Heb “The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these (i.e., these buildings).” Elsewhere triple repetition seems to mark a kind of emphasis (cf. Isa 6:3; Jer 22:29; Ezek 21:27 [32 HT]). The triple repetition that follows seems to be Jeremiah’s way of mocking the (false) sense of security that people had in the invincibility of Jerusalem because God dwelt in the temple. They appeared to be treating the temple as some kind of magical charm. A similar feeling had grown up around the ark in the time of the judges (cf. 1 Sam 3:3) and the temple and city of Jerusalem in Micah’s day (cf. Mic 3:11). It is reflected also in some of the Psalms (cf., e.g., Ps 46, especially v. 5).

⁷ tn Heb “Will you steal…then say, ‘We are safe’?” Verses 9-10 are one long sentence in the Hebrew text.

⁸ tn Heb “You go/follow after.” See the translator’s note at 2:5 for an explanation of the idiom involved here.

⁹ tn Heb “their tongues.” However, this is probably not a natural idiom in contemporary English and the tongue may stand as a part for the whole anyway.

¹¹ tn Heb “Every man.” But in the context this is not a reference to all people without exception but to all idolaters. The referent is made explicit for the sake of clarity.

¹² tn Or “nothing but a phony god”; Heb “a lie/falsehood.”

¹³ tn Heb “There is no breath in them.” The referent is made explicit so that no one will mistakenly take it to refer to the idolaters or goldsmiths.

¹³ tn The words “Don’t listen to them” have been repeated from v. 9a to pick up the causal connection between v. 9a and v. 10 that is formally introduced by a causal particle in v. 10 in the original text.

¹⁴ tn Heb “they are prophesying a lie.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “lies will result in your being taken far…” (לְמַעַן [lÿma’an] + infinitive). This is a rather clear case of the particle לְמַעַן introducing result (contra BDB 775 s.v. מַעַן note 1. There is no irony in this statement; it is a bold prediction).

¹⁶ tn The words “out of your country” are not in the text but are implicit in the meaning of the verb. The words “in exile” are also not in the text but are implicit in the context. These words have been supplied in the translation for clarity.

¹⁵ tn The verb in this context is best taken as a negative obligatory imperfect. See IBHS 508 §31.4g for discussion and examples. See Exod 4:15 as an example of positive obligation.

¹⁷ tn Heb “oracle of the Lord.”

¹⁸ sn The verbs are again plural referring to the king and his royal advisers.

¹⁹ tn Heb “…drive you out and you will perish, you and the prophets who are prophesying lies.”

¹⁹ tn Heb “the Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for explanation.