50:16 God says this to the evildoer: 1
“How can you declare my commands,
and talk about my covenant? 2
50:17 For you hate instruction
and reject my words. 3
50:18 When you see a thief, you join him; 4
you associate with men who are unfaithful to their wives. 5
50:19 You do damage with words, 6
and use your tongue to deceive. 7
50:20 You plot against your brother; 8
you slander your own brother. 9
7:8 “‘But just look at you! 22 You are putting your confidence in a false belief 23 that will not deliver you. 24 7:9 You steal. 25 You murder. You commit adultery. You lie when you swear on oath. You sacrifice to the god Baal. You pay allegiance to 26 other gods whom you have not previously known. 7:10 Then you come and stand in my presence in this temple I have claimed as my own 27 and say, “We are safe!” You think you are so safe that you go on doing all those hateful sins! 28
3:11 Her 29 leaders take bribes when they decide legal cases, 30
her priests proclaim rulings for profit,
and her prophets read omens for pay.
Yet they claim to trust 31 the Lord and say,
“The Lord is among us. 32
Disaster will not overtake 33 us!”
12:1 Therefore I exhort you, brothers and sisters, 34 by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice – alive, holy, and pleasing to God 35 – which is your reasonable service.
3:9 What then? Are we better off? Certainly not, for we have already charged that Jews and Greeks alike are all under sin,
1 tn Heb “evil [one].” The singular adjective is used here in a representative sense; it refers to those within the larger covenant community who have blatantly violated the
2 tn Heb “What to you to declare my commands and lift up my covenant upon your mouth?” The rhetorical question expresses sarcastic amazement. The
3 tn Heb “and throw my words behind you.”
4 tn Heb “you run with him.”
5 tn Heb “and with adulterers [is] your portion.”
6 tn Heb “your mouth you send with evil.”
7 tn Heb “and your tongue binds together [i.e., “frames”] deceit.”
8 tn Heb “you sit, against your brother you speak.” To “sit” and “speak” against someone implies plotting against that person (see Ps 119:23).
9 tn Heb “against the son of your mother you give a fault.”
10 tn Heb “Stop trusting in lying words which say.”
11 tn The words “We are safe!” are not in the text but are supplied in the translation for clarity.
12 tn Heb “The temple of the
13 tn The infinitive absolute precedes the finite verb for emphasis.
14 tn Heb “you must do justice between a person and his fellow/neighbor.” The infinitive absolute precedes the finite verb for emphasis.
15 tn Heb “Stop oppressing foreigner, orphan, and widow.”
16 tn Heb “Stop shedding innocent blood.”
17 tn Heb “going/following after.” See the translator’s note at 2:5 for an explanation of the idiom involved here.
18 tn Heb “going after other gods to your ruin.”
19 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.
20 tn Heb “live in this place, in this land.”
21 tn Heb “gave to your fathers [with reference to] from ancient times even unto forever.”
22 tn Heb “Behold!”
23 tn Heb “You are trusting in lying words.” See the similar phrase in v. 4 and the note there.
24 tn Heb “not profit [you].”
25 tn Heb “Will you steal…then say, ‘We are safe’?” Verses 9-10 are one long sentence in the Hebrew text.
26 tn Heb “You go/follow after.” See the translator’s note at 2:5 for an explanation of the idiom involved here.
27 tn Heb “over which my name is called.” For this nuance of this idiom cf. BDB 896 s.v. קָרָא Niph.2.d(4) and see the usage in 2 Sam 12:28.
28 tn Or “‘We are safe!’ – safe, you think, to go on doing all those hateful things.” Verses 9-10 are all one long sentence in the Hebrew text. It has been broken up for English stylistic reasons. Somewhat literally it reads “Will you steal…then come and stand…and say, ‘We are safe’ so as to/in order to do…” The Hebrew of v. 9 has a series of infinitives which emphasize the bare action of the verb without the idea of time or agent. The effect is to place a kind of staccato like emphasis on the multitude of their sins all of which are violations of one of the Ten Commandments. The final clause in v. 8 expresses purpose or result (probably result) through another infinitive. This long sentence is introduced by a marker (ה interrogative in Hebrew) introducing a rhetorical question in which God expresses his incredulity that they could do these sins, come into the temple and claim the safety of his protection, and then go right back out and commit the same sins. J. Bright (Jeremiah [AB], 52) catches the force nicely: “What? You think you can steal, murder…and then come and stand…and say, ‘We are safe…’ just so that you can go right on…”
29 sn The pronoun Her refers to Jerusalem (note the previous line).
30 tn Heb “judge for a bribe.”
31 tn Heb “they lean upon” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV); NAB “rely on.”
32 tn Heb “Is not the
33 tn Or “come upon” (so many English versions); NCV “happen to us”; CEV “come to us.”
34 tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:13.
35 tn The participle and two adjectives “alive, holy, and pleasing to God” are taken as predicates in relation to “sacrifice,” making the exhortation more emphatic. See ExSyn 618-19.