Isaiah 5:12

5:12 They have stringed instruments, ¹  tambourines, flutes,

and wine at their parties.

So they do not recognize what the Lord is doing,

they do not perceive what he is bringing about. ² 

Isaiah 27:11

27:11 When its branches get brittle, ³  they break;

women come and use them for kindling. ⁴ 

For these people lack understanding, ⁵ 

therefore the one who made them has no compassion on them;

the one who formed them has no mercy on them.

Isaiah 44:18

44:18 They do not comprehend or understand,

for their eyes are blind and cannot see;

their minds do not discern. ⁶ 

Deuteronomy 32:28-29

32:28 They are a nation devoid of wisdom,

and there is no understanding among them.

32:29 I wish that they were wise and could understand this,

and that they could comprehend what will happen to them.”

Psalms 94:8

94:8 Take notice of this, ⁷  you ignorant people! ⁸ 

You fools, when will you ever understand?

Jeremiah 4:22

4:22 The Lord answered, ⁹ 

“This will happen ¹⁰  because my people are foolish.

They do not know me.

They are like children who have no sense. ¹¹ 

They have no understanding.

They are skilled at doing evil.

They do not know how to do good.”

Jeremiah 9:3-6

The Lord Laments That He Has No Choice But to Judge Them

9:3 The Lord says, ¹² 

“These people are like soldiers who have readied their bows.

Their tongues are always ready to shoot out lies. ¹³ 

They have become powerful in the land,

but they have not done so by honest means. ¹⁴ 

Indeed, they do one evil thing after another ¹⁵ 

and do not pay attention to me. ¹⁶ 

9:4 Everyone must be on his guard around his friends.

He must not even trust any of his relatives. ¹⁷ 

For every one of them will find some way to cheat him. ¹⁸ 

And all of his friends will tell lies about him.

9:5 One friend deceives another

and no one tells the truth.

These people have trained themselves ¹⁹  to tell lies.

They do wrong and are unable to repent.

9:6 They do one act of violence after another,

and one deceitful thing after another. ²⁰ 

They refuse to pay attention to me,” ²¹ 

says the Lord.

Jeremiah 10:8

10:8 The people of those nations ²²  are both stupid and foolish.

Instruction from a wooden idol is worthless! ²³ 

Jeremiah 10:14

10:14 All these idolaters ²⁴  will prove to be stupid and ignorant.

Every goldsmith will be disgraced by the idol he made.

For the image he forges is merely a sham. ²⁵ 

There is no breath in any of those idols. ²⁶ 

Matthew 13:13-15

13:13 For this reason I speak to them in parables: Although they see they do not see, and although they hear they do not hear nor do they understand. 13:14 And concerning them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says:

‘You will listen carefully ²⁷  yet will never understand,

you will look closely ²⁸  yet will never comprehend.

13:15 For the heart of this people has become dull;

they are hard of hearing,

and they have shut their eyes,

so that they would not see with their eyes

and hear with their ears

and understand with their hearts

and turn, and I would heal them.’ ²⁹ 

Matthew 13:19

13:19 When anyone hears the word about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one ³⁰  comes and snatches what was sown in his heart; ³¹  this is the seed sown along the path.

Romans 1:28

1:28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God, ³²  God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what should not be done. ³³ 

Romans 1:2

1:2 This gospel ³⁴  he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures,

Romans 3:5

3:5 But if our unrighteousness demonstrates ³⁵  the righteousness of God, what shall we say? The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is he? ³⁶  (I am speaking in human terms.) ³⁷ 

[5:12]  ¹ tn Two types of stringed instruments are specifically mentioned in the Hebrew text, the כִּנּוֹר (kinnor, “zither”) and נֶבֶל (nevel, “harp”).

[5:12]  ² tn Heb “the work of the Lord they do not look at, and the work of his hands they do not see.” God’s “work” can sometimes be his creative deeds, but in this context it is the judgment that he is planning to bring upon his people (cf. vv. 19, 26; 10:12; 28:21).

[27:11]  ³ tn Heb “are dry” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[27:11]  ⁴ tn Heb “women come [and] light it.” The city is likened to a dead tree with dried up branches that is only good for firewood.

[27:11]  ⁵ tn Heb “for not a people of understanding [is] he.”

[44:18]  ⁶ tn Heb “for their eyes are smeared over so they cannot see, so their heart cannot be wise.”

[94:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “understand.” The verb used in v. 7 is repeated here for rhetorical effect. The people referred to here claim God is ignorant of their actions, but the psalmist corrects their faulty viewpoint.

[94:8]  ⁸ tn Heb “[you] brutish among the people.”

[4:22]  ⁹ tn These words are not in the text but are supplied in the translation to show clearly the shift in speaker. Jeremiah has been speaking; now the Lord answers, giving the reason for the devastation Jeremiah foresees.

[4:22]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “For….” This gives the explanation for the destruction envisaged in 4:20 to which Jeremiah responds in 4:19, 21.

[4:22]  ¹¹ tn Heb “They are senseless children.”

[9:3]  ¹² tn The words “The Lord says” have been moved up from the end of the verse to make clear that a change in speaker has occurred.

[9:3]  ¹³ tn Heb “They have readied [or strung] their tongue as their bow for lies.”

[9:3]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “but not through honesty.”

[9:3]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “they go from evil to evil.”

[9:3]  ¹⁶ tn Or “do not acknowledge me”; Heb “do not know me.” But “knowing” in Hebrew thought often involves more than intellectual knowledge; it involves emotional and volitional commitment as well. For יָדַע meaning “acknowledge” see 1 Chr 28:9; Isa 29:21; Hos 2:20; Prov 3:6. This word is also found in ancient Near Eastern treaty contexts where it has the idea of a vassal king acknowledging the sovereignty of a greater king (cf. H. Huffmon, “The Treaty Background of Hebrew yada,” BASOR 181 [1966]: 31-37).

[9:4]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Be on your guard…Do not trust.” The verbs are second masculine plural of direct address and there seems no way to translate literally and not give the mistaken impression that Jeremiah is being addressed. This is another example of the tendency in Hebrew style to turn from description to direct address (a figure of speech called apostrophe).

[9:4]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “cheating, each of them will cheat.”

[9:5]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “their tongues.” However, this is probably not a natural idiom in contemporary English and the tongue may stand as a part for the whole anyway.

[9:6]  ²⁰ tc An alternate reading for vv. 5d-6b is: “They wear themselves out doing wrong. Jeremiah, you live in the midst of deceitful people. They deceitfully refuse to take any thought of/acknowledge me.” The translation which has been adopted is based on a redivision of the lines, a redivision of some of the words, and a revocalization of some of the consonants. The MT reads literally “doing wrong they weary themselves. Your sitting in the midst of deceit; in deceit they refuse to know me” (הַעֲוֵה נִלְאוּ׃ שִׁבְתְּךָ בְּתוֹךְ מִרְמָה בְּמִרְמָה מֵאֲנוּ דַעַת־אוֹתִי). The Greek version reads literally “they do wrong and they do not cease to turn themselves around. Usury upon usury and deceit upon deceit. They do not want to know me.” This suggests that one should read the Hebrew text as שֻׁב׃ תֹּךְ בְּתוֹךְ מִרְ־מָה בְּמִרְ־מָה מֵאֲנוּ דַעַת אוֹתִי הַעֲוֵה נִלְאוּ, which translated literally yields “doing evil [= “they do evil” using the Hiphil infinitive absolute as a finite verb (cf. GKC 346 §113.ff)] they are not able [cf. KBL 468 s.v. לָאָה Niph.3 and see Exod 7:18 for parallel use] to repent. Oppression on oppression [cf. BDB 1067 s.v. תֹּךְ, II תּוֹךְ]; deceit on deceit. They refuse to know me.” This reading has ancient support and avoids the introduction of an unexpected second masculine suffix into the context. It has been adopted here along with a number of modern commentaries (cf., e.g., W. McKane, Jeremiah [ICC], 1:201) and English versions as the more likely reading.

[9:6]  ²¹ tn Or “do not acknowledge me”; Heb “do not know me.” See the note on the phrase “do not take any thought of me” in 9:3.

[10:8]  ²² tn Or “Those wise people and kings are…” It is unclear whether the subject is the “they” of the nations in the preceding verse, or the wise people and kings referred to. The text merely has “they.”

[10:8]  ²³ tn Heb “The instruction of vanities [worthless idols] is wood.” The meaning of this line is a little uncertain. Various proposals have been made to make sense, most of which involve radical emendation of the text. For some examples see J. A. Thompson, Jeremiah (NICOT), 323-24, fn 6. However, this is probably a case of the bold predication that discussed in GKC 452 §141.d, some examples of which may be seen in Ps 109:4 “I am prayer,” and Ps 120:7 “I am peace.”

[10:14]  ²⁴ tn Heb “Every man.” But in the context this is not a reference to all people without exception but to all idolaters. The referent is made explicit for the sake of clarity.

[10:14]  ²⁵ tn Or “nothing but a phony god”; Heb “a lie/falsehood.”

[10:14]  ²⁶ tn Heb “There is no breath in them.” The referent is made explicit so that no one will mistakenly take it to refer to the idolaters or goldsmiths.

[13:14]  ²⁷ tn Grk “with hearing,” a cognate dative that intensifies the action of the main verb “you will listen” (ExSyn 168-69).

[13:14]  ²⁸ tn Grk “look by looking.” The participle is redundant, functioning to intensify the force of the main verb.

[13:15]  ²⁹ sn A quotation from Isa 6:9-10. Thus parables both conceal or reveal depending on whether one is open to hearing what they teach.

[13:19]  ³⁰ sn Interestingly, the synoptic parallels each use a different word for Satan here: Mark 4:15 has “Satan,” while Luke 8:12 has “the devil.” This illustrates the fluidity of the gospel tradition in often using synonyms at the same point of the parallel tradition.

[13:19]  ³¹ sn The word of Jesus has the potential to save if it germinates in a person’s heart, something the devil is very much against.

[1:28]  ³² tn Grk “and just as they did not approve to have God in knowledge.”

[1:28]  ³³ tn Grk “the things that are improper.”

[1:2]  ³⁴ tn Grk “the gospel of God, which he promised.” Because of the length and complexity of this sentence in Greek, it was divided into shorter English sentences in keeping with contemporary English style. To indicate the referent of the relative pronoun (“which”), the word “gospel” was repeated at the beginning of v. 2.

[3:5]  ³⁵ tn Or “shows clearly.”

[3:5]  ³⁶ tn Grk “That God is not unjust to inflict wrath, is he?”

[3:5]  ³⁷ sn The same expression occurs in Gal 3:15, and similar phrases in Rom 6:19 and 1 Cor 9:8.