Jeremiah 10:8

10:8 The people of those nations ¹  are both stupid and foolish.

Instruction from a wooden idol is worthless! ² 

Jeremiah 2:30

2:30 “It did no good for me to punish your people.

They did not respond to such correction.

You slaughtered your prophets

like a voracious lion.” ³ 

Jeremiah 5:3

5:3 Lord, I know you look for faithfulness. ⁴ 

But even when you punish these people, they feel no remorse. ⁵ 

Even when you nearly destroy them, they refuse to be corrected.

They have become as hardheaded as a rock. ⁶ 

They refuse to change their ways. ⁷ 

Jeremiah 7:28

7:28 So tell them: ‘This is a nation that has not obeyed the Lord their God and has not accepted correction. Faithfulness is nowhere to be found in it. These people do not even profess it anymore. ⁸ 

Jeremiah 17:23

17:23 Your ancestors, ⁹  however, did not listen to me or pay any attention to me. They stubbornly refused ¹⁰  to pay attention or to respond to any discipline.’

Jeremiah 30:14

30:14 All your allies have abandoned you. ¹¹ 

They no longer have any concern for you.

For I have attacked you like an enemy would.

I have chastened you cruelly.

For your wickedness is so great

and your sin is so much. ¹² 

Jeremiah 32:33

32:33 They have turned away from me instead of turning to me. ¹³  I tried over and over again ¹⁴  to instruct them, but they did not listen and respond to correction. ¹⁵ 

Jeremiah 35:13

35:13 The Lord God of Israel who rules over all ¹⁶  told him, “Go and speak to the people of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem. Tell them, ¹⁷  ‘I, the Lord, say: ¹⁸  “You must learn a lesson from this ¹⁹  about obeying what I say! ²⁰ 

[10:8]  ¹ 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]  ² 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.”

[2:30]  ³ tn Heb “Your sword devoured your prophets like a destroying lion.” However, the reference to the sword in this and many similar idioms is merely idiomatic for death by violent means.

[5:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “O Lord, are your eyes not to faithfulness?” The question is rhetorical and expects a positive answer.

[5:3]  ⁶ tn Commentaries and lexicons debate the meaning of the verb here. The MT is pointed as though from a verb meaning “to writhe in anguish or contrition” (חוּל [khul]; see, e.g., BDB 297 s.v. חוּל 2.c), but some commentaries and lexicons repoint the text as though from a verb meaning “to be sick,” thus “to feel pain” (חָלָה [khalah]; see, e.g., HALOT 304 s.v. חָלָה 3). The former appears more appropriate to the context.

[5:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “They made their faces as hard as a rock.”

[5:3]  ⁸ tn Or “to repent”; Heb “to turn back.”

[7:28]  ⁷ tn Heb “Faithfulness has vanished. It is cut off from their lips.”

[17:23]  ⁹ tn Heb “They.” The antecedent is spelled out to avoid any possible confusion.

[17:23]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “They hardened [or made stiff] their neck so as not to.”

[30:14]  ¹¹ tn Heb “forgotten you.”

[30:14]  ¹² tn Heb “attacked you like…with the chastening of a cruel one because of the greatness of your iniquity [and because] your sins are many.” The sentence has been broken down to conform to contemporary English style and better poetic scansion.

[32:33]  ¹³ tn Heb “they have turned [their] backs to me, not [their] faces.” Compare the same idiom in 2:27.

[32:33]  ¹⁴ tn For the idiom involved here see the translator’s note on 7:13. The verb that introduces this clause is a Piel infinitive absolute which is functioning in place of the finite verb (see, e.g., GKC 346 §113.ff and compare usage in Jer 8:15; 14:19. This grammatical point means that the versions cited in BHS fn a may not be reading a different text after all, but may merely be interpreting the form as syntactically equivalent to a finite verb as the present translation has done.).

[32:33]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “But they were not listening so as to accept correction.”

[35:13]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.” For this title see 7:3 and the study note on 2:19.

[35:13]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “35:12 And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying, ‘Thus says Yahweh of armies the God of Israel, “Go and say…‘Will you not learn…’”’” The use of the indirect introduction has been chosen here as in 34:1-2 to try to cut down on the confusion created by embedding quotations within quotations.

[35:13]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[35:13]  ¹⁸ tn The words “from this” are not in the text but are implicit from the context. They have been supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity.

[35:13]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “Will you not learn a lesson…?” The rhetorical question here has the force of an imperative, made explicit in the translation.