Isaiah 30:10-11

30:10 They ¹  say to the visionaries, “See no more visions!”

and to the seers, “Don’t relate messages to us about what is right! ² 

Tell us nice things,

relate deceptive messages. ³ 

30:11 Turn aside from the way,

stray off the path. ⁴ 

Remove from our presence the Holy One of Israel.” ⁵ 

Jeremiah 5:31

5:31 The prophets prophesy lies.

The priests exercise power by their own authority. ⁶ 

And my people love to have it this way.

But they will not be able to help you when the time of judgment comes! ⁷ 

Jeremiah 5:2

5:2 These people make promises in the name of the Lord. ⁸ 

But the fact is, ⁹  what they swear to is really a lie.” ¹⁰ 

Jeremiah 2:11

2:11 Has a nation ever changed its gods

(even though they are not really gods at all)?

But my people have exchanged me, their glorious God, ¹¹ 

for a god that cannot help them at all! ¹² 

[30:10]  ¹ tn Heb “who” (so NASB, NRSV). A new sentence was started here in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[30:10]  ² tn Heb “Do not see for us right things.”

[30:10]  ³ tn Heb “Tell us smooth things, see deceptive things.”

[30:11]  ⁴ sn The imagery refers to the way or path of truth, as revealed by God to the prophet.

[30:11]  ⁵ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[5:31]  ⁶ tn Heb “they shall rule at their hands.” Since the word “hand” can be used figuratively for authority or mean “side” and the pronoun “them” can refer to the priests themselves or the prophets, the following translations have also been suggested: “the priests rule under their [the prophets’] directions,” or “the priests rule in league with them [the prophets].” From the rest of the book it would appear that the prophets did not exercise authority over the priests nor did they exercise the same authority over the people that the priests did. Hence it probably mean “by their own hand/power/authority.”

[5:31]  ⁷ tn Heb “But what will you do at its end?” The rhetorical question implies a negative answer: “Nothing!”

[5:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “Though they say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives.” The idea of “swear on oath” comes from the second line.

[5:2]  ⁹ tc The translation follows many Hebrew mss and the Syriac version in reading “surely” (אָכֵן, ’akhen) instead of “therefore” (לָכֵן, lakhen) in the MT.

[5:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “they swear falsely.”

[2:11]  ¹¹ tn Heb “have exchanged their glory [i.e., the God in whom they glory].” This is a case of a figure of speech where the attribute of a person or thing is put for the person or thing. Compare the common phrase in Isaiah, the Holy One of Israel, obviously referring to the Lord, the God of Israel.

[2:11]  ¹² tn Heb “what cannot profit.” The verb is singular and the allusion is likely to Baal. See the translator’s note on 2:8 for the likely pun or wordplay.