Jeremiah 4:14

4:14 “Oh people of Jerusalem, purify your hearts from evil ¹ 

so that you may yet be delivered.

How long will you continue to harbor up

wicked schemes within you?

Jeremiah 7:3-7

7:3 The Lord God of Israel who rules over all ²  says: Change the way you have been living and do what is right. ³  If you do, I will allow you to continue to live in this land. 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  7:5 You must change ⁸  the way you have been living and do what is right. You must treat one another fairly. ⁹  7:6 Stop oppressing foreigners who live in your land, children who have lost their fathers, and women who have lost their husbands. ¹⁰  Stop killing innocent people ¹¹  in this land. Stop paying allegiance to ¹²  other gods. That will only bring about your ruin. ¹³  7:7 If you stop doing these things, ¹⁴  I will allow you to continue to live in this land ¹⁵  which I gave to your ancestors as a lasting possession. ¹⁶ 

Jeremiah 17:23

17:23 Your ancestors, ¹⁷  however, did not listen to me or pay any attention to me. They stubbornly refused ¹⁸  to pay attention or to respond to any discipline.’

Jeremiah 31:19

31:19 For after we turned away from you we repented.

After we came to our senses ¹⁹  we beat our breasts in sorrow. ²⁰ 

We are ashamed and humiliated

because of the disgraceful things we did previously.’ ²¹ 

Jeremiah 32:33

32:33 They have turned away from me instead of turning to me. ²²  I tried over and over again ²³  to instruct them, but they did not listen and respond to correction. ²⁴ 

Jeremiah 35:13-15

35:13 The Lord God of Israel who rules over all ²⁵  told him, “Go and speak to the people of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem. Tell them, ²⁶  ‘I, the Lord, say: ²⁷  “You must learn a lesson from this ²⁸  about obeying what I say! ²⁹  35:14 Jonadab son of Rechab ordered his descendants not to drink wine. His orders have been carried out. ³⁰  To this day his descendants have drunk no wine because they have obeyed what their ancestor commanded them. But I ³¹  have spoken to you over and over again, ³²  but you have not obeyed me! 35:15 I sent all my servants the prophets to warn you over and over again. They said, “Every one of you, stop doing the evil things you have been doing and do what is right. ³³  Do not pay allegiance to other gods ³⁴  and worship them. Then you can continue to live in this land that I gave to you and your ancestors.” But you did not pay any attention or listen to me.

Deuteronomy 32:29

32:29 I wish that they were wise and could understand this,

and that they could comprehend what will happen to them.”

Psalms 2:10

2:10 So now, you kings, do what is wise; ³⁵ 

you rulers of the earth, submit to correction! ³⁶ 

Psalms 50:17

50:17 For you hate instruction

and reject my words. ³⁷ 

Psalms 94:12

94:12 How blessed is the one ³⁸  whom you instruct, O Lord,

the one whom you teach from your law,

Proverbs 4:13

4:13 Hold on to instruction, ³⁹  do not let it go;

protect it, ⁴⁰  because it is your life.

Zephaniah 3:7

3:7 I thought, ⁴¹  ‘Certainly you will respect ⁴²  me!

Now you will accept correction!’

If she had done so, her home ⁴³  would not be destroyed ⁴⁴ 

by all the punishments I have threatened. ⁴⁵ 

But they eagerly sinned

in everything they did. ⁴⁶ 

¹ tn Heb “Oh, Jerusalem, wash your heart from evil.”

² tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God Israel.”

³ tn Or “Make good your ways and your actions.” J. Bright’s translation (“Reform the whole pattern of your conduct”; Jeremiah [AB], 52) is excellent.

⁴ tn Heb “place” but this might be misunderstood to refer to the temple.

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).

⁸ tn The infinitive absolute precedes the finite verb for emphasis.

⁹ tn Heb “you must do justice between a person and his fellow/neighbor.” The infinitive absolute precedes the finite verb for emphasis.

¹⁰ tn Heb “Stop oppressing foreigner, orphan, and widow.”

¹¹ tn Heb “Stop shedding innocent blood.”

¹² tn Heb “going/following after.” See the translator’s note at 2:5 for an explanation of the idiom involved here.

¹³ tn Heb “going after other gods to your ruin.”

¹⁴ tn The translation uses imperatives in vv. 5-6 followed by the phrase, “If you do all this,” to avoid the long and complex sentence structure of the Hebrew sentence which has a series of conditional clauses in vv. 5-6 followed by a main clause in v. 7.

¹⁵ tn Heb “live in this place, in this land.”

¹⁶ tn Heb “gave to your fathers [with reference to] from ancient times even unto forever.”

¹⁷ tn Heb “They.” The antecedent is spelled out to avoid any possible confusion.

¹⁸ tn Heb “They hardened [or made stiff] their neck so as not to.”

¹⁹ tn For this meaning of the verb see HAL 374 s.v. יָדַע Nif 5 or W. L. Holladay, Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon, 129. REB translates “Now that I am submissive” relating the verb to a second root meaning “be submissive.” (See HALOT 375 s.v. II יָדַע and J. Barr, Comparative Philology and the Text of the Old Testament, 19-21, for evidence for this verb. Other passages cited with this nuance are Judg 8:16; Prov 10:9; Job 20:20.)

²⁰ tn Heb “I struck my thigh.” This was a gesture of grief and anguish (cf. Ezek 21:12 [21:17 HT]). The modern equivalent is “to beat the breast.”

²¹ tn Heb “because I bear the reproach of my youth.” For the plural referents see the note at the beginning of v. 18.

²² tn Heb “they have turned [their] backs to me, not [their] faces.” Compare the same idiom in 2:27.

²³ tn For the idiom involved here see the translator’s note on 7:13. The verb that introduces this clause is a Piel infinitive absolute which is functioning in place of the finite verb (see, e.g., GKC 346 §113.ff and compare usage in Jer 8:15; 14:19. This grammatical point means that the versions cited in BHS fn a may not be reading a different text after all, but may merely be interpreting the form as syntactically equivalent to a finite verb as the present translation has done.).

²⁴ tn Heb “But they were not listening so as to accept correction.”

²⁵ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.” For this title see 7:3 and the study note on 2:19.

²⁶ tn Heb “35:12 And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying, ‘Thus says Yahweh of armies the God of Israel, “Go and say…‘Will you not learn…’”’” The use of the indirect introduction has been chosen here as in 34:1-2 to try to cut down on the confusion created by embedding quotations within quotations.

²⁷ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

²⁸ tn The words “from this” are not in the text but are implicit from the context. They have been supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity.

²⁹ tn Heb “Will you not learn a lesson…?” The rhetorical question here has the force of an imperative, made explicit in the translation.

³⁰ tn Heb “The words of Jonadab son of Rechab which he commanded his descendants not to drink wine have been carried out.” (For the construction of the accusative of subject after a passive verb illustrated here see GKC 388 §121.b.) The sentence has been broken down and made more direct to better conform to contemporary English style.

³¹ tn The vav (ו) plus the independent pronoun before the verb is intended to mark a sharp contrast. It is difficult, if not impossible to mark this in English other than “But I.”

³² tn On this idiom (which occurs again in the following verse) see the translator’s note on 7:13 for this idiom and compare its use in 7:13, 25; 11:7; 25:3, 4; 26:5; 29:19; 32:33; 35:14, 15; 44:9.

³³ tn Heb “Turn, each of you, from his [= your] wicked way and make good your deeds.” Compare 18:11 where the same idiom occurs with the added term of “make good your ways.”

³⁴ tn Heb “Don’t go after/follow other gods.” See the translator’s note on 2:5 for an explanation of the idiom and see 11:10; 13:10; 25:6 for the same idiom.

³⁵ sn The speaker here is either the psalmist or the Davidic king, who now addresses the rebellious kings.

³⁶ tn The Niphal has here a tolerative nuance; the kings are urged to submit themselves to the advice being offered.

³⁷ tn Heb “and throw my words behind you.”

³⁸ tn Heb “[Oh] the happiness [of] the man.” Hebrew wisdom literature often assumes and reflects the male-oriented perspective of ancient Israelite society. The principle of the psalm is certainly applicable to all people, regardless of their gender or age. To facilitate modern application, we translate the gender and age specific “man” with the more neutral “one.” The generic masculine pronoun is used in v. 2.

³⁹ tn Heb “discipline.”

⁴⁰ tn The form נִצְּרֶהָ (nitsÿreha, from נָצַר, natsar) has an anomalous doubled letter (see GKC 73 §20.h).

⁴¹ tn Heb “said.”

⁴² tn Or “fear.” The second person verb form (“you will respect”) is feminine singular, indicating that personified Jerusalem is addressed.

⁴³ tn Or “dwelling place.”

⁴⁴ tn Heb “cut off.”

⁴⁵ tn Heb “all which I have punished her.” The precise meaning of this statement and its relationship to what precedes are unclear.

⁴⁶ tn Heb “But they got up early, they made corrupt all their actions.” The phrase “they got up early” probably refers to their eagerness to engage in sinful activities.