37:12 Evil men plot against the godly 1
and viciously attack them. 2
37:32 Evil men set an ambush for the godly
and try to kill them. 3
4:22 The Lord answered, 4
“This will happen 5 because my people are foolish.
They do not know me.
They are like children who have no sense. 6
They have no understanding.
They are skilled at doing evil.
They do not know how to do good.”
9:3 The Lord says, 7
“These people are like soldiers who have readied their bows.
Their tongues are always ready to shoot out lies. 8
They have become powerful in the land,
but they have not done so by honest means. 9
Indeed, they do one evil thing after another 10
and do not pay attention to me. 11
9:4 Everyone must be on his guard around his friends.
He must not even trust any of his relatives. 12
For every one of them will find some way to cheat him. 13
And all of his friends will tell lies about him.
9:5 One friend deceives another
and no one tells the truth.
These people have trained themselves 14 to tell lies.
They do wrong and are unable to repent.
1 tn Or “innocent.” The singular is used here in a representative sense; the typical evildoer and the typical godly individual are in view.
2 tn Heb “and gnashes at him with his teeth” (see Ps 35:16). The language may picture the evil men as wild animals. The active participles in v. 12 are used for purposes of dramatic description.
3 tn Heb “an evil [one] watches the godly [one] and seeks to kill him.” The singular forms are used in a representative sense; the typical evildoer and godly individual are in view. The active participles describe characteristic behavior.
4 tn 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
5 tn Heb “For….” This gives the explanation for the destruction envisaged in 4:20 to which Jeremiah responds in 4:19, 21.
6 tn Heb “They are senseless children.”
7 tn The words “The
8 tn Heb “They have readied [or strung] their tongue as their bow for lies.”
9 tn Heb “but not through honesty.”
10 tn Heb “they go from evil to evil.”
11 tn Or “do not acknowledge me”; Heb “do not know me.” But “knowing” in Hebrew thought often involves more than intellectual knowledge; it involves emotional and volitional commitment as well. For יָדַע meaning “acknowledge” see 1 Chr 28:9; Isa 29:21; Hos 2:20; Prov 3:6. This word is also found in ancient Near Eastern treaty contexts where it has the idea of a vassal king acknowledging the sovereignty of a greater king (cf. H. Huffmon, “The Treaty Background of Hebrew yada,” BASOR 181 [1966]: 31-37).
12 tn Heb “Be on your guard…Do not trust.” The verbs are second masculine plural of direct address and there seems no way to translate literally and not give the mistaken impression that Jeremiah is being addressed. This is another example of the tendency in Hebrew style to turn from description to direct address (a figure of speech called apostrophe).
13 tn Heb “cheating, each of them will cheat.”
14 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.