Jeremiah 11:7-10

11:7 For I solemnly warned your ancestors to obey me. ¹  I warned them again and again, ²  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.’” ³ 

11:9 The Lord said to me, “The people of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem have plotted rebellion against me! ⁴  11:10 They have gone back to the evil ways ⁵  of their ancestors of old who refused to obey what I told them. They, too, have paid allegiance to ⁶  other gods and worshiped them. Both the nation of Israel and the nation of Judah ⁷  have violated the covenant I made with their ancestors.

[11:7]  ¹ 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]  ² tn For the explanation for this rendering see the note on 7:13.

[11:8]  ³ 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.

[11:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “Conspiracy [a plot to rebel] is found [or exists] among the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.”

[11:10]  ⁵ tn Or “They have repeated the evil actions of….”

[11:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “have walked/followed after.” See the translator’s note at 2:5 for the idiom.

[11:10]  ⁷ tn Heb “house of Israel and house of Judah.”