Psalms 78:63

78:63 Fire consumed their ¹  young men,

and their ²  virgins remained unmarried. ³ 

Jeremiah 4:4

4:4 Just as ritual circumcision cuts away the foreskin

as an external symbol of dedicated covenant commitment,

you must genuinely dedicate yourselves to the Lord

and get rid of everything that hinders your commitment to me, ⁴ 

people of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem.

If you do not, ⁵  my anger will blaze up like a flaming fire against you

that no one will be able to extinguish.

That will happen because of the evil you have done.”

Jeremiah 21:12

21:12 O royal family descended from David. ⁶ 

The Lord says:

‘See to it that people each day ⁷  are judged fairly. ⁸ 

Deliver those who have been robbed from those ⁹  who oppress them.

Otherwise, my wrath will blaze out against you.

It will burn like a fire that cannot be put out

because of the evil that you have done. ¹⁰ 

Jeremiah 21:2

21:2 “Please ask the Lord to come and help us, ¹¹  because King Nebuchadnezzar ¹²  of Babylon is attacking us. Maybe the Lord will perform one of his miracles as in times past and make him stop attacking us and leave.” ¹³ 

Jeremiah 1:8

1:8 Do not be afraid of those to whom I send you, ¹⁴  for I will be with you to protect ¹⁵  you,” says the Lord.

Hebrews 12:29

12:29 For our God is indeed a devouring fire. ¹⁶ 

¹ tn Heb “his.” The singular pronominal suffix is collective, referring back to God’s “people” (v. 62).

² tn Heb “his.” The singular pronominal suffix is collective, referring back to God’s “people” (v. 62).

³ tn Heb “were not praised,” that is, in wedding songs. The young men died in masses, leaving no husbands for the young women.

⁴ tn Heb “Circumcise yourselves to the Lord and remove the foreskin of your heart.” The translation is again an attempt to bring out the meaning of a metaphor. The mention of the “foreskin of the heart” shows that the passage is obviously metaphorical and involves heart attitude, not an external rite.

⁵ tn Heb “lest.”

⁶ tn Heb “house of David.” This is essentially equivalent to the royal court in v. 11.

⁷ tn Heb “to the morning” = “morning by morning” or “each morning.” See Isa 33:2 and Amos 4:4 for parallel usage.

⁸ sn The kings of Israel and Judah were responsible for justice. See Pss 122:5. The king himself was the final court of appeals judging from the incident of David with the wise woman of Tekoa (2 Sam 14), Solomon and the two prostitutes (1 Kgs 3:16-28), and Absalom’s attempts to win the hearts of the people of Israel by interfering with due process (2 Sam 15:2-4). How the system was designed to operate may be seen from 2 Chr 19:4-11.

⁹ tn Heb “from the hand [or power] of.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “Lest my wrath go out like fire and burn with no one to put it out because of the evil of your deeds.”

¹¹ tn The verb used here is often used of seeking information through a prophet (e.g., 2 Kgs 1:16; 8:8) and hence many translate “inquire of the Lord for us.” However, it is obvious from the following that they were not seeking information but help. The word is also used for that in Pss 34:4 (34:5 HT); 77:2 (77:3 HT).

¹² tn The dominant spelling of this name is actually Nebuchadrezzar which is closer to his Babylonian name Nebu kudduri uzzur. An alternate spelling which is found 6 times in the book of Jeremiah and 17 times elsewhere is Nebuchadnezzar which is the form of the name that is usually used in English versions.

¹³ tn Heb “Perhaps the Lord will do according to his miracles that he may go up from against us.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “be afraid of them.” The antecedent is the “whomever” in v. 7.

¹⁵ tn Heb “rescue.”

¹⁶ sn A quotation from Deut 4:24; 9:3.