2 Chronicles 36:15-16

The Babylonians Destroy Jerusalem

36:15 The Lord God of their ancestors ¹  continually warned them through his messengers, ²  for he felt compassion for his people and his dwelling place. 36:16 But they mocked God’s messengers, despised his warnings, ³  and ridiculed his prophets. ⁴  Finally the Lord got very angry at his people and there was no one who could prevent his judgment. ⁵ 

Psalms 81:8-11

81:8 I said, ⁶  ‘Listen, my people!

I will warn ⁷  you!

O Israel, if only you would obey me! ⁸ 

81:9 There must be ⁹  no other ¹⁰  god among you.

You must not worship a foreign god.

81:10 I am the Lord, your God,

the one who brought you out of the land of Egypt.

Open your mouth wide and I will fill it!’

81:11 But my people did not obey me; ¹¹ 

Israel did not submit to me. ¹² 

Jeremiah 6:16-17

6:16 The Lord said to his people: ¹³ 

“You are standing at the crossroads. So consider your path. ¹⁴ 

Ask where the old, reliable paths ¹⁵  are.

Ask where the path is that leads to blessing ¹⁶  and follow it.

If you do, you will find rest for your souls.”

But they said, “We will not follow it!”

6:17 The Lord said, ¹⁷ 

“I appointed prophets as watchmen to warn you, ¹⁸  saying:

‘Pay attention to the warning sound of the trumpet!’” ¹⁹ 

But they said, “We will not pay attention!”

Jeremiah 11:7-8

11:7 For I solemnly warned your ancestors to obey me. ²⁰  I warned them again and again, ²¹  ever since I delivered them out of Egypt until this very day. 11:8 But they did not listen to me or pay any attention to me! Each one of them followed the stubborn inclinations of his own wicked heart. So I brought on them all the punishments threatened in the covenant because they did not carry out its terms as I commanded them to do.’” ²² 

Jeremiah 25:3-7

25:3 “For the last twenty-three years, from the thirteenth year that Josiah son of Amon was ruling in Judah ²³  until now, the Lord has been speaking to me. I told you over and over again ²⁴  what he said. ²⁵  But you would not listen. 25:4 Over and over again ²⁶  the Lord has sent ²⁷  his servants the prophets to you. But you have not listened or paid attention. ²⁸  25:5 He said through them, ²⁹  ‘Each of you must turn from your wicked ways and stop doing the evil things you are doing. ³⁰  If you do, I will allow you to continue to live here in the land that I gave to you and your ancestors as a lasting possession. ³¹  25:6 Do not pay allegiance to ³²  other gods and worship and serve them. Do not make me angry by the things that you do. ³³  Then I will not cause you any harm.’ 25:7 So, now the Lord says, ³⁴  ‘You have not listened to me. But ³⁵  you have made me angry by the things that you have done. ³⁶  Thus you have brought harm on yourselves.’

Jeremiah 35:15

35:15 I sent all my servants the prophets to warn you over and over again. They said, “Every one of you, stop doing the evil things you have been doing and do what is right. ³⁷  Do not pay allegiance to other gods ³⁸  and worship them. Then you can continue to live in this land that I gave to you and your ancestors.” But you did not pay any attention or listen to me.

Jeremiah 42:9-13

42:9 Then Jeremiah said to them, “You sent me to the Lord God of Israel to make your request known to him. Here is what he says to you: ³⁹  42:10 ‘If you will just stay ⁴⁰  in this land, I will build you up. I will not tear you down. I will firmly plant you. ⁴¹  I will not uproot you. For I am filled with sorrow because of the disaster that I have brought on you. 42:11 Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon whom you now fear. ⁴²  Do not be afraid of him because I will be with you to save you and to rescue you from his power. I, the Lord, affirm it! ⁴³  42:12 I will have compassion on you so that he in turn will have mercy on you and allow you to return to your land.’

42:13 “You must not disobey the Lord your God by saying, ‘We will not stay in this land.’

Jeremiah 44:4

44:4 I sent my servants the prophets to you people over and over ⁴⁴  again warning you not to do this disgusting thing I hate. ⁴⁵ 

Zechariah 1:4

1:4 “Do not be like your ancestors, to whom the former prophets called out, saying, ‘The Lord who rules over all says, “Turn now from your evil wickedness,”’ but they would by no means obey me,” says the Lord.

[36:15]  ¹ tn Heb “fathers.”

[36:15]  ² tn Heb “and the Lord God of their fathers sent against them by the hand of his messengers, getting up early and sending.”

[36:16]  ³ tn Heb “his words.”

[36:16]  ⁴ tn All three verbal forms (“mocked,” “despised,” and “ridiculed”) are active participles in the Hebrew text, indicating continual or repeated action. They made a habit of rejecting God’s prophetic messengers.

[36:16]  ⁵ tn Heb “until the anger of the Lord went up against his people until there was no healer.”

[81:8]  ⁵ tn The words “I said” are supplied in the translation for clarification. Verses 8-10 appear to recall what the Lord commanded the generation of Israelites that experienced the events described in v. 7. Note the statement in v. 11, “my people did not listen to me.”

[81:8]  ⁶ tn Or perhaps “command.”

[81:8]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew particle אִם (“if”) and following prefixed verbal form here express a wish (GKC 321 §109.b). Note that the apodosis (the “then” clause of the conditional sentence) is suppressed.

[81:9]  ⁷ tn The imperfect verbal forms in v. 9 have a modal function, expressing what is obligatory.

[81:9]  ⁸ tn Heb “different”; “illicit.”

[81:11]  ⁹ tn Heb “did not listen to my voice.”

[81:11]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew expression אָבָה לִי (’avah liy) means “submit to me” (see Deut 13:8).

[6:16]  ¹¹ tn The words, “to his people” are not in the text but are implicit in the interchange of pronouns in the Hebrew of vv. 16-17. They are supplied in the translation here for clarity.

[6:16]  ¹² tn Heb “Stand at the crossroads and look.”

[6:16]  ¹³ tn Heb “the ancient path,” i.e., the path the Lord set out in ancient times (cf. Deut 32:7).

[6:16]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the way of/to the good.”

[6:17]  ¹³ tn These words are not in the text but are implicit in the interchange of pronouns in the Hebrew of vv. 16-17. They are supplied in the translation here for clarity.

[6:17]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “I appointed watchmen over you.”

[6:17]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Pay attention to the sound of the trumpet.” The word “warning” is not in the Hebrew text, but is implied.

[11:7]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “warned them…saying, ‘Obey me.’” However, it allows the long sentence to be broken up easier if the indirect quote is used.

[11:7]  ¹⁶ tn For the explanation for this rendering see the note on 7:13.

[11:8]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “So I brought on them all the terms of this covenant which I commanded to do and they did not do.” There is an interesting polarity that is being exploited by two different nuances implicit in the use of the word “terms” (דִּבְרֵי [divre], literally “words”), i.e., what the Lord “brings on” them, namely, the curses that are the penalty for disobedience and the stipulations that they are “to do,” that is, to carry out. The sentence is broken up this way in keeping with contemporary English style to avoid the long and complicated style of the original.

[25:3]  ¹⁹ sn The year referred to would be 627 b.c. The same year is referred to in 1:2 in reference to his call to be a prophet.

[25:3]  ²⁰ tn For the idiom involved here see the notes at 7:13 and 11:7.

[25:3]  ²¹ tn The words “what he said” are not in the text but are implicit. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[25:4]  ²¹ tn For the idiom involved here see the notes at 7:13 and 11:7.

[25:4]  ²² tn The vav consecutive with the perfect in a past narrative is a little unusual. Here it is probably indicating repeated action in past time in keeping with the idiom that precedes and follows it. See GKC 332 §112.f for other possible examples.

[25:4]  ²³ tn Heb “inclined your ear to hear.” This is idiomatic for “paying attention.” It is often parallel with “listen” as here or with “pay attention” (see, e.g., Prov 4:20; 51:1).

[25:5]  ²³ tn Heb “saying.” The infinitive goes back to “he sent”; i.e., “he sent, saying.”

[25:5]  ²⁴ tn Heb “Turn [masc. pl.] each person from his wicked way and from the evil of your [masc. pl.] doings.” See the same demand in 23:22.

[25:5]  ²⁵ tn Heb “gave to you and your fathers with reference to from ancient times even unto forever.” See the same idiom in 7:7.

[25:6]  ²⁵ tn Heb “follow after.” See the translator’s note on 2:5 for this idiom.

[25:6]  ²⁶ tn Heb “make me angry with the work of your hands.” The term “work of your own hands” is often interpreted as a reference to idolatry as is clearly the case in Isa 2:8; 37:19. However, the parallelism in 25:14 and the context in 32:30 show that it is more general and refers to what they have done. That is likely the meaning here as well.

[25:7]  ²⁷ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[25:7]  ²⁸ tn This is a rather clear case where the Hebrew particle לְמַעַן (lÿma’an) introduces a consequence and not a purpose, contrary to the dictum of BDB 775 s.v. מַעַן note 1. They have not listened to him in order to make him angry but with the result that they have made him angry by going their own way. Jeremiah appears to use this particle for result rather than purpose on several other occasions (see, e.g., 7:18, 19; 27:10, 15; 32:29).

[25:7]  ²⁹ tn Heb “make me angry with the work of your hands.” The term “work of your own hands” is often interpreted as a reference to idolatry as is clearly the case in Isa 2:8; 37:19. However, the parallelism in 25:14 and the context in 32:30 show that it is more general and refers to what they have done. That is likely the meaning here as well.

[35:15]  ²⁹ tn Heb “Turn, each of you, from his [= your] wicked way and make good your deeds.” Compare 18:11 where the same idiom occurs with the added term of “make good your ways.”

[35:15]  ³⁰ tn Heb “Don’t go after/follow other gods.” See the translator’s note on 2:5 for an explanation of the idiom and see 11:10; 13:10; 25:6 for the same idiom.

[42:9]  ³¹ tn Heb “Thus says the Lord God of Israel to whom you sent me to present your petition before him, ‘…’” The sentence has been restructured to cut down on the length of the introduction leading in to the long quote.

[42:10]  ³³ tn The word “just” is intended to reflect the infinitive absolute before the finite verb emphasizing here the condition rather than the verb root (see Joüon 2:423 §123.g, and compare the usage in Exod 15:26). The form looks like the infinitive absolute of the verb שׁוּב (shuv), but all the versions interpret it as though it is from יָשַׁב (yashav) which is the root of the verb that follows it. Either this is a textual error of the loss of a י (yod) or this is one of the cases that GKC 69 §19.i list as the possible loss of a weak consonant at the beginning of a word.

[42:10]  ³⁴ tn Or “I will firmly plant you in the land,” or “I will establish you.” This is part of the metaphor that has been used of God (re)establishing Israel in the land. See 24:6; 31:28; 32:41.

[42:11]  ³⁵ sn See Jer 41:18 for their reason for fear.

[42:11]  ³⁶ tn Heb “oracle of the Lord.”

[44:4]  ³⁷ tn See 7:13 for an explanation of this idiom and compare 7:25; 25:4; 26:5; 29:19; 35:15 for similar references to the persistent warnings of the prophets.

[44:4]  ³⁸ tn Heb “sent…over again, saying, ‘Do not do this terrible thing that I hate.’” The indirect quote has been used to shorten the sentence and eliminate one level of embedded quotes.