Jeremiah 4:22

4:22 The Lord answered,¹

“This will happen² because my people are foolish.

They do not know me.

They are like children who have no sense.³

They have no understanding.

They are skilled at doing evil.

They do not know how to do good.”

Micah 3:2

3:2 yet you⁴ hate what is good,⁵

and love what is evil.⁶

You flay my people’s skin⁷

and rip the flesh from their bones.⁸

Romans 1:25

1:25 They⁹ exchanged the truth of God for a lie¹⁰ and worshiped and served the creation¹¹ rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

Romans 1:2

1:2 This gospel¹² he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures,

Romans 3:4

3:4 Absolutely not! Let God be proven true, and every human being¹³ shown up as a liar,¹⁴ just as it is written: “so that you will be justified¹⁵ in your words and will prevail when you are judged.”¹⁶

¹tn These words are not in the text but are supplied in the translation to show clearly the shift in speaker. Jeremiah has been speaking; now the Lord answers, giving the reason for the devastation Jeremiah foresees.

²tn Heb “For….” This gives the explanation for the destruction envisaged in 4:20 to which Jeremiah responds in 4:19, 21.

³tn Heb “They are senseless children.”

⁴tn Heb “the ones who.”

⁵tn Or “good.”

⁶tn Or “evil.”

⁷tn Heb “their skin from upon them.” The referent of the pronoun (“my people,” referring to Jacob and/or the house of Israel, with the Lord as the speaker) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁸tn Heb “and their flesh from their bones.”

⁹tn Grk “who.” The relative pronoun was converted to a personal pronoun and, because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

¹⁰tn Grk “the lie.”

¹¹tn Or “creature, created things.”

¹²tn Grk “the gospel of God, which he promised.” Because of the length and complexity of this sentence in Greek, it was divided into shorter English sentences in keeping with contemporary English style. To indicate the referent of the relative pronoun (“which”), the word “gospel” was repeated at the beginning of v. 2.

¹³tn Grk “every man”; but ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") is used in a generic sense here to stress humanity rather than masculinity.

¹⁴tn Grk “Let God be true, and every man a liar.” The words “proven” and “shown up” are supplied in the translation to clarify the meaning.

¹⁵tn Grk “might be justified,” a subjunctive verb, but in this type of clause it carries the same sense as the future indicative verb in the latter part. “Will” is more idiomatic in contemporary English.

¹⁶tn Or “prevail when you judge.” A quotation from Ps 51:4.