Discovery Box1 Kings 12:33
Context12:33 On the fifteenth day of the eighth month (a date he had arbitrarily chosen) 1 Jeroboam 2 offered sacrifices on the altar he had made in Bethel. 3 He inaugurated a festival for the Israelites and went up to the altar to offer sacrifices.
Isaiah 65:7
Context65:7 for your sins and your ancestors’ sins,” 4 says the Lord.
“Because they burned incense on the mountains
and offended 5 me on the hills,
I will punish them in full measure.” 6
Jeremiah 18:15
Context18:15 Yet my people have forgotten me
and offered sacrifices to worthless idols!
This makes them stumble along in the way they live
and leave the old reliable path of their fathers. 7
They have left them to walk in bypaths,
in roads that are not smooth and level. 8
Jeremiah 44:15
Context44:15 Then all the men who were aware that their wives were sacrificing to other gods, as well as all their wives, answered Jeremiah. There was a great crowd of them representing all the people who lived in northern and southern Egypt. 9 They answered,
[12:33] 1 tn Heb “which he had chosen by himself.”
[12:33] 2 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jeroboam) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[12:33] 3 map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.
[65:7] 4 tn Heb “the iniquities of your fathers.”
[65:7] 5 tn Or perhaps, “taunted”; KJV “blasphemed”; NAB “disgraced”; NASB “scorned”; NIV “defied”; NRSV “reviled.”
[65:7] 6 tn Heb “I will measure out their pay [from the] beginning into their lap,” i.e., he will give them everything they have earned.
[18:15] 7 sn Heb “the ancient path.” This has already been referred to in Jer 6:16. There is another “old way” but it is the path trod by the wicked (cf. Job 22:15).
[18:15] 8 sn Heb “ways that are not built up.” This refers to the built-up highways. See Isa 40:4 for the figure. The terms “way,” “by-paths,” “roads” are, of course, being used here in the sense of moral behavior or action.
[44:15] 9 tn The translation is very interpretive at several key points: Heb “Then all the men who were aware that their wives were sacrificing to other gods and all their wives who were standing by, a great crowd/congregation, and all the people who were living in the land of Egypt in Pathros answered, saying.” It is proper to assume that the phrase “a great crowd” is appositional to “all the men…and their wives….” It is also probably proper to assume that the phrase “who were standing by” is unnecessary to the English translation. What is interpretive is the assumption that the “and all the people who were living in Egypt in Pathros” is explicative of “the great crowd” and that the phrase “in Pathros” is conjunctive and not appositional. Several commentaries and English versions (e.g., J. A. Thompson, Jeremiah [NICOT], 678-79, n. 2; NJPS) assume that the phrase is descriptive of a second group, i.e., all the Jews from Pathros in Egypt (i.e., southern Egypt [see the study note on 44:1]). Those who follow this interpretation generally see this as a gloss (see Thompson, 678, n. 2, and also W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah [Hermeneia], 2:279, n. 15b). It is probably better to assume that the phrase is explicative and that “all” is used in the same rhetorical way that it has been used within the chapter, i.e., “all” = representatives of all. Likewise the phrase “in Pathros” should be assumed to be conjunctive as in the Syriac translation and as suggested by BHS fn c since Jeremiah’s answer in vv. 24, 26 is directed to all the Judeans living in Egypt.
