Jeremiah 11:8

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.’” ¹ 

Jeremiah 15:3-4

15:3 “I will punish them in four different ways: I will have war kill them. I will have dogs drag off their dead bodies. I will have birds and wild beasts devour and destroy their corpses. ²  15:4 I will make all the people in all the kingdoms of the world horrified at what has happened to them because of what Hezekiah’s son Manasseh, king of Judah, did in Jerusalem.” ³ 

Jeremiah 19:7-13

19:7 In this place I will thwart ⁴  the plans of the people of Judah and Jerusalem. I will deliver them over to the power of their enemies who are seeking to kill them. They will die by the sword ⁵  at the hands of their enemies. ⁶  I will make their dead bodies food for the birds and wild beasts to eat. 19:8 I will make this city an object of horror, a thing to be hissed at. All who pass by it will be filled with horror and will hiss out their scorn ⁷  because of all the disasters that have happened to it. ⁸  19:9 I will reduce the people of this city to desperate straits during the siege imposed on it by their enemies who are seeking to kill them. I will make them so desperate that they will eat the flesh of their own sons and daughters and the flesh of one another.”’” ⁹ 

19:10 The Lord continued, ¹⁰  “Now break the jar in front of those who have come here with you. 19:11 Tell them the Lord who rules over all says, ¹¹  ‘I will do just as Jeremiah has done. ¹²  I will smash this nation and this city as though it were a potter’s vessel which is broken beyond repair. ¹³  The dead will be buried here in Topheth until there is no more room to bury them.’ ¹⁴  19:12 I, the Lord, say: ¹⁵  ‘That is how I will deal with this city and its citizens. I will make it like Topheth. 19:13 The houses in Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be defiled by dead bodies ¹⁶  just like this place, Topheth. For they offered sacrifice to the stars ¹⁷  and poured out drink offerings to other gods on the roofs of those houses.’”

Jeremiah 21:4-10

21:4 that the Lord, the God of Israel, says, ¹⁸  ‘The forces at your disposal ¹⁹  are now outside the walls fighting against King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and the Babylonians ²⁰  who have you under siege. I will gather those forces back inside the city. ²¹  21:5 In anger, in fury, and in wrath I myself will fight against you with my mighty power and great strength! ²²  21:6 I will kill everything living in Jerusalem, ²³  people and animals alike! They will die from terrible diseases. 21:7 Then ²⁴  I, the Lord, promise that ²⁵  I will hand over King Zedekiah of Judah, his officials, and any of the people who survive the war, starvation, and disease. I will hand them over to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and to their enemies who want to kill them. He will slaughter them with the sword. He will not show them any mercy, compassion, or pity.’

21:8 “But ²⁶  tell the people of Jerusalem ²⁷  that the Lord says, ‘I will give you a choice between two courses of action. One will result in life; the other will result in death. ²⁸  21:9 Those who stay in this city will die in battle or of starvation or disease. Those who leave the city and surrender to the Babylonians who are besieging it will live. They will escape with their lives. ²⁹  21:10 For I, the Lord, say that ³⁰  I am determined not to deliver this city but to bring disaster on it. ³¹  It will be handed over to the king of Babylon and he will destroy it with fire.’” ³² 

Genesis 6:17

6:17 I am about to bring ³³  floodwaters ³⁴  on the earth to destroy ³⁵  from under the sky all the living creatures that have the breath of life in them. ³⁶  Everything that is on the earth will die,

Leviticus 26:14-46

The Consequences of Disobedience

26:14 “‘If, however, ³⁷  you do not obey me and keep ³⁸  all these commandments – 26:15 if you reject my statutes and abhor my regulations so that you do not keep ³⁹  all my commandments and you break my covenant – 26:16 I for my part ⁴⁰  will do this to you: I will inflict horror on you, consumption and fever, which diminish eyesight and drain away the vitality of life. ⁴¹  You will sow your seed in vain because ⁴²  your enemies will eat it. ⁴³  26:17 I will set my face against you. You will be struck down before your enemies, those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee when there is no one pursuing you.

26:18 “‘If, in spite of all these things, ⁴⁴  you do not obey me, I will discipline you seven times more on account of your sins. ⁴⁵  26:19 I will break your strong pride and make your sky like iron and your land like bronze. 26:20 Your strength will be used up in vain, your land will not give its yield, and the trees of the land ⁴⁶  will not produce their fruit.

26:21 “‘If you walk in hostility against me ⁴⁷  and are not willing to obey me, I will increase your affliction ⁴⁸  seven times according to your sins. 26:22 I will send the wild animals ⁴⁹  against you and they will bereave you of your children, ⁵⁰  annihilate your cattle, and diminish your population ⁵¹  so that your roads will become deserted.

26:23 “‘If in spite of these things ⁵²  you do not allow yourselves to be disciplined and you walk in hostility against me, ⁵³  26:24 I myself will also walk in hostility against you and strike you ⁵⁴  seven times on account of your sins. 26:25 I will bring on you an avenging sword, a covenant vengeance. ⁵⁵  Although ⁵⁶  you will gather together into your cities, I will send pestilence among you and you will be given into enemy hands. ⁵⁷  26:26 When I break off your supply of bread, ⁵⁸  ten women will bake your bread in one oven; they will ration your bread by weight, ⁵⁹  and you will eat and not be satisfied.

26:27 “‘If in spite of this ⁶⁰  you do not obey me but walk in hostility against me, ⁶¹  26:28 I will walk in hostile rage against you ⁶²  and I myself will also discipline you seven times on account of your sins. 26:29 You will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters. ⁶³  26:30 I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars, ⁶⁴  and I will stack your dead bodies on top of the lifeless bodies of your idols. ⁶⁵  I will abhor you. ⁶⁶  26:31 I will lay your cities waste ⁶⁷  and make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will refuse to smell your soothing aromas. 26:32 I myself will make the land desolate and your enemies who live in it will be appalled. 26:33 I will scatter you among the nations and unsheathe the sword ⁶⁸  after you, so your land will become desolate and your cities will become a waste.

26:34 “‘Then the land will make up for ⁶⁹  its Sabbaths all the days it lies desolate while you are in the land of your enemies; then the land will rest and make up its Sabbaths. 26:35 All the days of the desolation it will have the rest it did not have ⁷⁰  on your Sabbaths when you lived on it.

26:36 “‘As for ⁷¹  the ones who remain among you, I will bring despair into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. The sound of a blowing leaf will pursue them, and they will flee as one who flees the sword and fall down even though there is no pursuer. 26:37 They will stumble over each other as those who flee before a sword, though ⁷²  there is no pursuer, and there will be no one to take a stand ⁷³  for you before your enemies. 26:38 You will perish among the nations; the land of your enemies will consume you.

Restoration through Confession and Repentance

26:39 “‘As for the ones who remain among you, they will rot away because of ⁷⁴  their iniquity in the lands of your enemies, and they will also rot away because of their ancestors’ ⁷⁵  iniquities which are with them. 26:40 However, when ⁷⁶  they confess their iniquity and their ancestors’ iniquity which they committed by trespassing against me, ⁷⁷  by which they also walked ⁷⁸  in hostility against me ⁷⁹  26:41 (and I myself will walk in hostility against them and bring them into the land of their enemies), and ⁸⁰  then their uncircumcised hearts become humbled and they make up for ⁸¹  their iniquity, 26:42 I will remember my covenant with Jacob and also my covenant with Isaac and also my covenant with Abraham, ⁸²  and I will remember the land. 26:43 The land will be abandoned by them ⁸³  in order that it may make up for ⁸⁴  its Sabbaths while it is made desolate ⁸⁵  without them, ⁸⁶  and they will make up for their iniquity because ⁸⁷  they have rejected my regulations and have abhorred ⁸⁸  my statutes. 26:44 In spite of this, however, when they are in the land of their enemies I will not reject them and abhor them to make a complete end of them, to break my covenant with them, for I am the Lord their God. 26:45 I will remember for them the covenant with their ancestors ⁸⁹  whom I brought out from the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations to be their God. I am the Lord.’”

Summary Colophon

26:46 These are the statutes, regulations, and instructions which the Lord established ⁹⁰  between himself and the Israelites at Mount Sinai through ⁹¹  Moses.

Deuteronomy 28:15-68

Curses as Reversal of Blessings

28:15 “But if you ignore ⁹²  the Lord your God and are not careful to keep all his commandments and statutes I am giving you today, then all these curses will come upon you in full force: ⁹³  28:16 You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the field. 28:17 Your basket and your mixing bowl will be cursed. 28:18 Your children ⁹⁴  will be cursed, as well as the produce of your soil, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks. 28:19 You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out. ⁹⁵ 

Curses by Disease and Drought

28:20 “The Lord will send on you a curse, confusing you and opposing you ⁹⁶  in everything you undertake ⁹⁷  until you are destroyed and quickly perish because of the evil of your deeds, in that you have forsaken me. ⁹⁸  28:21 The Lord will plague you with deadly diseases ⁹⁹  until he has completely removed you from the land you are about to possess. 28:22 He ¹⁰⁰  will afflict you with weakness, ¹⁰¹  fever, inflammation, infection, ¹⁰²  sword, ¹⁰³  blight, and mildew; these will attack you until you perish. 28:23 The ¹⁰⁴  sky ¹⁰⁵  above your heads will be bronze and the earth beneath you iron. 28:24 The Lord will make the rain of your land powder and dust; it will come down on you from the sky until you are destroyed.

Curses by Defeat and Deportation

28:25 “The Lord will allow you to be struck down before your enemies; you will attack them from one direction but flee from them in seven directions and will become an object of terror ¹⁰⁶  to all the kingdoms of the earth. 28:26 Your carcasses will be food for every bird of the sky and wild animal of the earth, and there will be no one to chase them off. 28:27 The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, eczema, and scabies, all of which cannot be healed. 28:28 The Lord will also subject you to madness, blindness, and confusion of mind. ¹⁰⁷  28:29 You will feel your way along at noon like the blind person does in darkness and you will not succeed in anything you do; ¹⁰⁸  you will be constantly oppressed and continually robbed, with no one to save you. 28:30 You will be engaged to a woman and another man will rape ¹⁰⁹  her. You will build a house but not live in it. You will plant a vineyard but not even begin to use it. 28:31 Your ox will be slaughtered before your very eyes but you will not eat of it. Your donkey will be stolen from you as you watch and will not be returned to you. Your flock of sheep will be given to your enemies and there will be no one to save you. 28:32 Your sons and daughters will be given to another people while you look on in vain all day, and you will be powerless to do anything about it. ¹¹⁰  28:33 As for the produce of your land and all your labor, a people you do not know will consume it, and you will be nothing but oppressed and crushed for the rest of your lives. 28:34 You will go insane from seeing all this. 28:35 The Lord will afflict you in your knees and on your legs with painful, incurable boils – from the soles of your feet to the top of your head. 28:36 The Lord will force you and your king ¹¹¹  whom you will appoint over you to go away to a people whom you and your ancestors have not known, and you will serve other gods of wood and stone there. 28:37 You will become an occasion of horror, a proverb, and an object of ridicule to all the peoples to whom the Lord will drive you.

The Curse of Reversed Status

28:38 “You will take much seed to the field but gather little harvest, because locusts will consume it. 28:39 You will plant vineyards and cultivate them, but you will not drink wine or gather in grapes, because worms will eat them. 28:40 You will have olive trees throughout your territory but you will not anoint yourself with olive oil, because the olives will drop off the trees while still unripe. ¹¹²  28:41 You will bear sons and daughters but not keep them, because they will be taken into captivity. 28:42 Whirring locusts ¹¹³  will take over every tree and all the produce of your soil. 28:43 The foreigners ¹¹⁴  who reside among you will become higher and higher over you and you will become lower and lower. 28:44 They will lend to you but you will not lend to them; they will become the head and you will become the tail!

28:45 All these curses will fall on you, pursuing and overtaking you until you are destroyed, because you would not obey the Lord your God by keeping his commandments and statutes that he has given ¹¹⁵  you. 28:46 These curses ¹¹⁶  will be a perpetual sign and wonder with reference to you and your descendants. ¹¹⁷ 

The Curse of Military Siege

28:47 “Because you have not served the Lord your God joyfully and wholeheartedly with the abundance of everything you have, 28:48 instead in hunger, thirst, nakedness, and poverty ¹¹⁸  you will serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you. They ¹¹⁹  will place an iron yoke on your neck until they have destroyed you. 28:49 The Lord will raise up a distant nation against you, one from the other side of the earth ¹²⁰  as the eagle flies, ¹²¹  a nation whose language you will not understand, 28:50 a nation of stern appearance that will have no regard for the elderly or pity for the young. 28:51 They ¹²²  will devour the offspring of your livestock and the produce of your soil until you are destroyed. They will not leave you with any grain, new wine, olive oil, calves of your herds, ¹²³  or lambs of your flocks ¹²⁴  until they have destroyed you. 28:52 They will besiege all of your villages ¹²⁵  until all of your high and fortified walls collapse – those in which you put your confidence throughout the land. They will besiege all your villages throughout the land the Lord your God has given you. 28:53 You will then eat your own offspring, ¹²⁶  the flesh of the sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you, because of the severity of the siege ¹²⁷  by which your enemies will constrict you. 28:54 The man among you who is by nature tender and sensitive will turn against his brother, his beloved wife, and his remaining children. 28:55 He will withhold from all of them his children’s flesh that he is eating (since there is nothing else left), because of the severity of the siege by which your enemy will constrict ¹²⁸  you in your villages. 28:56 Likewise, the most ¹²⁹  tender and delicate of your women, who would never think of putting even the sole of her foot on the ground because of her daintiness, ¹³⁰  will turn against her beloved husband, her sons and daughters, 28:57 and will secretly eat her afterbirth ¹³¹  and her newborn children ¹³²  (since she has nothing else), ¹³³  because of the severity of the siege by which your enemy will constrict you in your villages.

The Curse of Covenant Termination

28:58 “If you refuse to obey ¹³⁴  all the words of this law, the things written in this scroll, and refuse to fear this glorious and awesome name, the Lord your God, 28:59 then the Lord will increase your punishments and those of your descendants – great and long-lasting afflictions and severe, enduring illnesses. 28:60 He will infect you with all the diseases of Egypt ¹³⁵  that you dreaded, and they will persistently afflict you. ¹³⁶  28:61 Moreover, the Lord will bring upon you every kind of sickness and plague not mentioned in this scroll of commandments, ¹³⁷  until you have perished. 28:62 There will be very few of you left, though at one time you were as numerous as the stars in the sky, ¹³⁸  because you will have disobeyed ¹³⁹  the Lord your God. 28:63 This is what will happen: Just as the Lord delighted to do good for you and make you numerous, he ¹⁴⁰  will take delight in destroying and decimating you. You will be uprooted from the land you are about to possess. 28:64 The Lord will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship other gods that neither you nor your ancestors have known, gods of wood and stone. 28:65 Among those nations you will have no rest nor will there be a place of peaceful rest for the soles of your feet, for there the Lord will give you an anxious heart, failing eyesight, and a spirit of despair. 28:66 Your life will hang in doubt before you; you will be terrified by night and day and will have no certainty of surviving from one day to the next. ¹⁴¹  28:67 In the morning you will say, ‘If only it were evening!’ And in the evening you will say, ‘I wish it were morning!’ because of the things you will fear and the things you will see. 28:68 Then the Lord will make you return to Egypt by ship, over a route I said to you that you would never see again. There you will sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”

Deuteronomy 29:19-28

29:19 When such a person ¹⁴²  hears the words of this oath he secretly ¹⁴³  blesses himself ¹⁴⁴  and says, “I will have peace though I continue to walk with a stubborn spirit.” ¹⁴⁵  This will destroy ¹⁴⁶  the watered ground with the parched. ¹⁴⁷  29:20 The Lord will be unwilling to forgive him, and his intense anger ¹⁴⁸  will rage ¹⁴⁹  against that man; all the curses ¹⁵⁰  written in this scroll will fall upon him ¹⁵¹  and the Lord will obliterate his name from memory. ¹⁵²  29:21 The Lord will single him out ¹⁵³  for judgment ¹⁵⁴  from all the tribes of Israel according to all the curses of the covenant written in this scroll of the law. 29:22 The generation to come – your descendants who will rise up after you, as well as the foreigner who will come from distant places – will see ¹⁵⁵  the afflictions of that land and the illnesses that the Lord has brought on it. 29:23 The whole land will be covered with brimstone, salt, and burning debris; it will not be planted nor will it sprout or produce grass. It will resemble the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord destroyed in his intense anger. ¹⁵⁶  29:24 Then all the nations will ask, “Why has the Lord done all this to this land? What is this fierce, heated display of anger ¹⁵⁷  all about?” 29:25 Then people will say, “Because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt. 29:26 They went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods they did not know and that he did not permit them to worship. ¹⁵⁸  29:27 That is why the Lord’s anger erupted against this land, bringing on it all the curses ¹⁵⁹  written in this scroll. 29:28 So the Lord has uprooted them from their land in anger, wrath, and great rage and has deported them to another land, as is clear today.”

Deuteronomy 31:20-21

31:20 For after I have brought them ¹⁶⁰  to the land I promised to their ¹⁶¹  ancestors – one flowing with milk and honey – and they ¹⁶²  eat their fill ¹⁶³  and become fat, then they ¹⁶⁴  will turn to other gods and worship them; they will reject me and break my covenant. 31:21 Then when ¹⁶⁵  many disasters and distresses overcome them ¹⁶⁶  this song will testify against them, ¹⁶⁷  for their ¹⁶⁸  descendants will not forget it. ¹⁶⁹  I know the ¹⁷⁰  intentions they have in mind ¹⁷¹  today, even before I bring them ¹⁷²  to the land I have promised.”

Deuteronomy 32:16-42

32:16 They made him jealous with other gods, ¹⁷³ 

they enraged him with abhorrent idols. ¹⁷⁴ 

32:17 They sacrificed to demons, not God,

to gods they had not known;

to new gods who had recently come along,

gods your ancestors ¹⁷⁵  had not known about.

32:18 You have forgotten ¹⁷⁶  the Rock who fathered you,

and put out of mind the God who gave you birth.

A Word of Judgment

32:19 But the Lord took note and despised them

because his sons and daughters enraged him.

32:20 He said, “I will reject them, ¹⁷⁷ 

I will see what will happen to them;

for they are a perverse generation,

children ¹⁷⁸  who show no loyalty.

32:21 They have made me jealous ¹⁷⁹  with false gods, ¹⁸⁰ 

enraging me with their worthless gods; ¹⁸¹ 

so I will make them jealous with a people they do not recognize, ¹⁸² 

with a nation slow to learn ¹⁸³  I will enrage them.

32:22 For a fire has been kindled by my anger,

and it burns to lowest Sheol; ¹⁸⁴ 

it consumes the earth and its produce,

and ignites the foundations of the mountains.

32:23 I will increase their ¹⁸⁵  disasters,

I will use up my arrows on them.

32:24 They will be starved by famine,

eaten by plague, and bitterly stung; ¹⁸⁶ 

I will send the teeth of wild animals against them,

along with the poison of creatures that crawl in the dust.

32:25 The sword will make people childless outside,

and terror will do so inside;

they will destroy ¹⁸⁷  both the young man and the virgin,

the infant and the gray-haired man.

The Weakness of Other Gods

32:26 “I said, ‘I want to cut them in pieces. ¹⁸⁸ 

I want to make people forget they ever existed.

32:27 But I fear the reaction ¹⁸⁹  of their enemies,

for ¹⁹⁰  their adversaries would misunderstand

and say, “Our power is great, ¹⁹¹ 

and the Lord has not done all this!”’

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.”

32:30 How can one man chase a thousand of them, ¹⁹² 

and two pursue ten thousand;

unless their Rock had delivered them up, ¹⁹³ 

and the Lord had handed them over?

32:31 For our enemies’ ¹⁹⁴  rock is not like our Rock,

as even our enemies concede.

32:32 For their vine is from the stock ¹⁹⁵  of Sodom,

and from the fields of Gomorrah. ¹⁹⁶ 

Their grapes contain venom,

their clusters of grapes are bitter.

32:33 Their wine is snakes’ poison,

the deadly venom of cobras.

32:34 “Is this not stored up with me?” says the Lord, ¹⁹⁷ 

“Is it not sealed up in my storehouses?

32:35 I will get revenge and pay them back

at the time their foot slips;

for the day of their disaster is near,

and the impending judgment ¹⁹⁸  is rushing upon them!”

32:36 The Lord will judge his people,

and will change his plans concerning ¹⁹⁹  his servants;

when he sees that their power has disappeared,

and that no one is left, whether confined or set free.

32:37 He will say, “Where are their gods,

the rock in whom they sought security,

32:38 who ate the best of their sacrifices,

and drank the wine of their drink offerings?

Let them rise and help you;

let them be your refuge!

The Vindication of the Lord

32:39 “See now that I, indeed I, am he!” says the Lord, ²⁰⁰ 

“and there is no other god besides me.

I kill and give life,

I smash and I heal,

and none can resist ²⁰¹  my power.

32:40 For I raise up my hand to heaven,

and say, ‘As surely as I live forever,

32:41 I will sharpen my lightning-like sword,

and my hand will grasp hold of the weapon of judgment; ²⁰² 

I will execute vengeance on my foes,

and repay those who hate me! ²⁰³ 

32:42 I will make my arrows drunk with blood,

and my sword will devour flesh –

the blood of the slaughtered and captured,

the chief ²⁰⁴  of the enemy’s leaders!’”

Joshua 23:15-16

23:15 But in the same way every faithful promise the Lord your God made to you has been realized, ²⁰⁵  it is just as certain, if you disobey, that the Lord will bring on you every judgment ²⁰⁶  until he destroys you from this good land which the Lord your God gave you. 23:16 If you violate the covenantal laws of the Lord your God which he commanded you to keep, ²⁰⁷  and follow, worship, and bow down to other gods, ²⁰⁸  the Lord will be very angry with you and you will disappear ²⁰⁹  quickly from the good land which he gave to you.”

Micah 3:12

3:12 Therefore, because of you, ²¹⁰  Zion will be plowed up like ²¹¹  a field,

Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins,

and the Temple Mount ²¹²  will become a hill overgrown with brush! ²¹³ 

[11:8]  ¹ 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.

[15:3]  ² tn The translation attempts to render in understandable English some rather unusual uses of terms here. The verb translated “punish” is often used that way (cf. BDB 823 s.v. פָּקַד Qal.A.3 and compare usage in Jer 11:22, 13:21). However, here it is accompanied by a direct object and a preposition meaning “over” which is usually used in the sense of appointing someone over someone (cf. BDB 823 s.v. פָּקַד Qal.B.1 and compare usage in Jer 51:27). Moreover the word translated “different ways” normally refers to “families,” “clans,” or “guilds” (cf. BDB 1046-47 s.v. מִשְׁפָּחָה for usage). Hence the four things mentioned are referred to figuratively as officers or agents into whose power the Lord consigns them. The Hebrew text reads: “I will appoint over them four guilds, the sword to kill, the dogs to drag away, the birds of the skies and the beasts of the earth to devour and to destroy.”

[15:4]  ³ tn The length of this sentence runs contrary to the normal policy followed in the translation of breaking up long sentences. However, there does not seem any way to break it up here without losing the connections.

[19:7]  ⁴ sn There is perhaps a two-fold wordplay in the use of this word. One involves the sound play with the word for “jar,” which has been explained as a water decanter. The word here is בַקֹּתִי (vaqqoti). The word for jar in v. 1 is בַקְבֻּק (vaqbuq). There may also be a play on the literal use of this word to refer to the laying waste or destruction of a land (see Isa 24:3; Nah 2:3). Many modern commentaries think that at this point Jeremiah emptied out the contents of the jar, symbolizing the “emptying” out of their plans.

[19:7]  ⁵ sn This refers to the fact that they will die in battle. The sword would be only one of the weapons that strikes them down. It is one of the trio of “sword,” “starvation,” and “disease” which were the concomitants of war referred to so often in the book of Jeremiah. Starvation is referred to in v. 9.

[19:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies and in the hand of those who seek their soul [= life].” In this context the two are meant as obvious qualifications of one entity, not two. Some rearrangement of the qualifiers had to be made in the English translation to convey this.

[19:8]  ⁷ sn See 18:16 and the study note there.

[19:8]  ⁸ tn Heb “all its smitings.” This word has been used several times for the metaphorical “wounds” that Israel has suffered as a result of the blows from its enemies. See, e.g., 14:17. It is used in the Hebrew Bible of scourging, both literally and metaphorically (cf. Deut 25:3; Isa 10:26), and of slaughter and defeat (1 Sam 4:10; Josh 10:20). Here it refers to the results of the crushing blows at the hands of her enemies which has made her the object of scorn.

[19:9]  ⁹ tn This verse has been restructured to try to bring out the proper thought and subordinations reflected in the verse without making the sentence too long and complex in English: Heb “I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters. And they will eat one another’s flesh in the siege and in the straits which their enemies who are seeking their lives reduce them to.” This also shows the agency through which God’s causation was effected, i.e., the siege.

[19:10]  ¹⁰ tn The words “And the Lord continued” are not in the text. However, they are necessary to take us clearly back to the flow of the narrative begun in vv. 1-2 and interrupted by the long speech in vv. 3-9.

[19:11]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Thus says Yahweh of armies.” For this title see the study note on 2:19. The translation attempts to avoid the confusion of embedding quotes within quotes by reducing this one to an indirect quote.

[19:11]  ¹² tn The adverb “Thus” or “Like this” normally points back to something previously mentioned. See, e.g., Exod 29:35; Num 11:15; 15:11; Deut 25:9.

[19:11]  ¹³ tn Heb “Like this I will break this people and this city, just as one breaks the vessel of a potter which is not able to be repaired.”

[19:11]  ¹⁴ sn See Jer 7:22-23 for parallels.

[19:12]  ¹⁵ tn This phrase (Heb “Oracle of the Lord”) has been handled this way on several occasions when it occurs within first person addresses where the Lord is the speaker. See, e.g., 16:16; 17:24; 18:6.

[19:13]  ¹⁶ tn The words “by dead bodies” is not in the text but is implicit from the context. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[19:13]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “the host of heaven.”

[21:4]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “Tell Zedekiah, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel.’” Using the indirect quote eliminates one level of embedded quotation and makes it easier for the reader to follow.

[21:4]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the weapons which are in your hand.” Weapons stands here by substitution for the soldiers who wield them.

[21:4]  ²⁰ sn The Babylonians (Heb “the Chaldeans”). The Chaldeans were a group of people in the country south of Babylon from which Nebuchadnezzar came. The Chaldean dynasty his father established became the name by which the Babylonians are regularly referred to in the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah’s contemporary Ezekiel uses both terms.

[21:4]  ²¹ tn The structure of the Hebrew sentence of this verse is long and complex and has led to a great deal of confusion and misunderstanding. There are two primary points of confusion: 1) the relation of the phrase “outside the walls,” and 2) the antecedent of “them” in the last clause of the verse that reads in Hebrew: “I will gather them back into the midst of the city.” Most take the phrase “outside the walls” with “the Babylonians….” Some take it with “turn back/bring back” to mean “from outside….” However, the preposition “from” is part of the idiom for “outside….” The phrase goes with “fighting” as J. Bright (Jeremiah [AB], 215) notes and as NJPS suggests. The antecedent of “them” has sometimes been taken mistakenly to refer to the Babylonians. It refers rather to “the forces at your disposal” which is literally “the weapons which are in your hands.” This latter phrase is a figure involving substitution (called metonymy) as Bright also correctly notes. The whole sentence reads in Hebrew: “I will bring back the weapons of war which are in your hand with which you are fighting Nebuchadrezzar the King of Babylon and the Chaldeans who are besieging you outside your wall and I will gather them into the midst of the city.” The sentence has been restructured to better reflect the proper relationships and to make the sentence conform more to contemporary English style.

[21:5]  ²² tn Heb “with outstretched hand and with strong arm.” These are, of course, figurative of God’s power and might. He does not literally have hands and arms.

[21:6]  ²³ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[21:7]  ²⁴ tn Heb “And afterward.”

[21:7]  ²⁵ tn Heb “oracle of the Lord.”

[21:8]  ²⁶ tn Heb “And/But unto this people you shall say…” “But” is suggested here by the unusual word order which offsets what they are to say to Zedekiah (v. 3).

[21:8]  ²⁷ tn Heb “these people.”

[21:8]  ²⁸ tn Heb “Behold I am setting before you the way of life and the way of death.”

[21:9]  ²⁹ tn Heb “his life will be to him for spoil.”

[21:10]  ³⁰ tn Heb “oracle of the Lord.”

[21:10]  ³¹ tn Heb “I have set my face against this city for evil [i.e., disaster] and not for good [i.e., well-being].” For the use of the idiom “set one’s face against/toward” see, e.g., usage in 1 Kgs 2:15; 2 Kgs 2:17; Jer 42:15, 17 and note the interesting interplay of usage in Jer 44:11-12.

[21:10]  ³² tn Heb “he will burn it with fire.”

[6:17]  ³³ tn The Hebrew construction uses the independent personal pronoun, followed by a suffixed form of הִנֵּה (hinneh, “look”) and the a participle used with an imminent future nuance: “As for me, look, I am going to bring.”

[6:17]  ³⁴ tn Heb “the flood, water.”

[6:17]  ³⁵ tn The verb שָׁחָת (shakhat, “to destroy”) is repeated yet again, only now in an infinitival form expressing the purpose of the flood.

[6:17]  ³⁶ tn The Hebrew construction here is different from the previous two; here it is רוּחַ חַיִּים (ruakh khayyim) rather than נֶפֶשׁ הַיָּה (nefesh khayyah) or נִשְׁמַת חַיִּים (nishmat khayyim). It refers to everything that breathes.

[26:14]  ³⁷ tn Heb “And if.”

[26:14]  ³⁸ tn Heb “and do not do.”

[26:15]  ³⁹ tn Heb “to not do.”

[26:16]  ⁴⁰ tn Or “I also” (see HALOT 76 s.v. אַף 6.b).

[26:16]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “soul.” These expressions may refer either to the physical effects of consumption and fever as the rendering in the text suggests (e.g., J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 452, 454, “diminishing eyesight and loss of appetite”), or perhaps the more psychological effects, “which exhausts the eyes” because of anxious hope “and causes depression” (Heb “causes soul [נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh] to pine away”), e.g., B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 185.

[26:16]  ⁴² tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have causal force here.

[26:16]  ⁴³ tn That is, “your enemies will eat” the produce that grows from the sown seed.

[26:18]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “And if until these.”

[26:18]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “I will add to discipline you seven [times] on your sins.”

[26:20]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “the tree of the land will not give its fruit.” The collective singular has been translated as a plural. Tg. Onq., some medieval Hebrew mss, Smr, LXX, and Tg. Ps.-J. have “the field” as in v. 4, rather than “the land.”

[26:21]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “hostile with me,” but see the added preposition בְּ (bet) on the phrase “in hostility” in v. 24 and 27.

[26:21]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “your blow, stroke”; cf. TEV “punishment”; NLT “I will inflict you with seven more disasters.”

[26:22]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “the animal of the field.” This collective singular has been translated as a plural. The expression “animal of the field” refers to a wild (i.e., nondomesticated) animal.

[26:22]  ⁵⁰ tn The words “of your children” are not in the Hebrew text, but are implied.

[26:22]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “and diminish you.”

[26:23]  ⁵² tn Heb “And if in these.”

[26:23]  ⁵³ tn Heb “with me,” but see the added preposition בְּ (bet) on the phrase “in hostility” in vv. 24 and 27.

[26:24]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “and I myself will also strike you.”

[26:25]  ⁵⁵ tn Heb “vengeance of covenant”; cf. NAB “the avenger of my covenant.”

[26:25]  ⁵⁶ tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) has a concessive force in this context.

[26:25]  ⁵⁷ tn Heb “in hand of enemy,” but Tg. Ps.-J. and Tg. Neof. have “in the hands of your enemies” (J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 454).

[26:26]  ⁵⁸ tn Heb “When I break to you staff of bread” (KJV, ASV, and NASB all similar).

[26:26]  ⁵⁹ tn Heb “they will return your bread in weight.”

[26:27]  ⁶⁰ tn Heb “And if in this.”

[26:27]  ⁶¹ tn Heb “with me.”

[26:28]  ⁶² tn Heb “in rage of hostility with you”; NASB “with wrathful hostility”; NRSV “I will continue hostile to you in fury”; CEV “I’ll get really furious.”

[26:29]  ⁶³ tn Heb “and the flesh of your daughters you will eat.” The phrase “you will eat” has not been repeated in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[26:30]  ⁶⁴ sn Regarding these cultic installations, see the remarks in B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 188, and R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 2:903. The term rendered “incense altars” might better be rendered “sanctuaries [of foreign deities]” or “stelae.”

[26:30]  ⁶⁵ tn The translation reflects the Hebrew wordplay “your corpses…the corpses of your idols.” Since idols, being lifeless, do not really have “corpses,” the translation uses “dead bodies” for people and “lifeless bodies” for the idols.

[26:30]  ⁶⁶ tn Heb “and my soul will abhor you.”

[26:31]  ⁶⁷ tn Heb “And I will give your cities a waste”; NLT “make your cities desolate.”

[26:33]  ⁶⁸ tn Heb “and I will empty sword” (see HALOT 1228 s.v. ריק 3).

[26:34]  ⁶⁹ tn There are two Hebrew roots רָצָה (ratsah), one meaning “to be pleased with; to take pleasure” (HALOT 1280-81 s.v. רצה; cf. “enjoy” in NASB, NIV, NRSV, and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 452), and the other meaning “to restore” (HALOT 1281-82 s.v. II רצה; cf. NAB “retrieve” and B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 189).

[26:35]  ⁷⁰ tn Heb “it shall rest which it did not rest.”

[26:36]  ⁷¹ tn Heb “And.”

[26:37]  ⁷² tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) is used in a concessive sense here.

[26:37]  ⁷³ tn The term rendered “to stand up” is a noun, not an infinitive. It occurs only here and appears to designate someone who would take a powerful stand for them against their enemies.

[26:39]  ⁷⁴ tn Heb “in” (so KJV, ASV; also later in this verse).

[26:39]  ⁷⁵ tn Heb “fathers’” (also in the following verse).

[26:40]  ⁷⁶ tn Heb “And.” Many English versions take this to be a conditional clause (“if…”) though there is no conditional particle (see, e.g., NASB, NIV, NRSV; but see the very different rendering in B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 190). The temporal translation offered here (“when”) takes into account the particle אָז (’az, “then”), which occurs twice in v. 41. The obvious contextual contrast between vv. 39 and 40 is expressed by “however” in the translation.

[26:40]  ⁷⁷ tn Heb “in their trespassing which they trespassed in me.” See the note on Lev 5:15, although the term is used in a more technical sense there in relation to the “guilt offering.”

[26:40]  ⁷⁸ tn Heb “and also which they walked.”

[26:40]  ⁷⁹ tn Heb “with me.”

[26:41]  ⁸⁰ tn Heb “or then,” although the LXX has “then” and the Syriac “and then.”

[26:41]  ⁸¹ tn Heb “and then they make up for.” On the verb “make up for” see the note on v. 34 above.

[26:42]  ⁸² tn Heb “my covenant with Abraham I will remember.” The phrase “I will remember” has not been repeated in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[26:43]  ⁸³ tn Heb “from them.” The preposition “from” refers here to the agent of the action (J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 455).

[26:43]  ⁸⁴ tn The jussive form of the verb with the simple vav (ו) here calls for a translation that expresses purpose.

[26:43]  ⁸⁵ tn The verb is the Hophal infinitive construct with the third feminine singular suffix (GKC 182 §67.y; cf. v. 34).

[26:43]  ⁸⁶ tn Heb “from them.”

[26:43]  ⁸⁷ tn Heb “because and in because,” a double expression, which is used only here and in Ezek 13:10 (without the vav) for emphasis (GKC 492 §158.b).

[26:43]  ⁸⁸ tn Heb “and their soul has abhorred.”

[26:45]  ⁸⁹ tn Heb “covenant of former ones.”

[26:46]  ⁹⁰ tn Heb “gave” (so NLT); KJV, ASV, NCV “made.”

[26:46]  ⁹¹ tn Heb “by the hand of” (so KJV).

[28:15]  ⁹² tn Heb “do not hear the voice of.”

[28:15]  ⁹³ tn Heb “and overtake you” (so NIV, NRSV); NAB, NLT “and overwhelm you.”

[28:18]  ⁹⁴ tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).

[28:19]  ⁹⁵ sn See note on the similar expression in v. 6.

[28:20]  ⁹⁶ tn Heb “the curse, the confusion, and the rebuke” (NASB and NIV similar); NRSV “disaster, panic, and frustration.”

[28:20]  ⁹⁷ tn Heb “in all the stretching out of your hand.”

[28:20]  ⁹⁸ tc For the MT first person common singular suffix (“me”), the LXX reads either “Lord” (Lucian) or third person masculine singular suffix (“him”; various codices). The MT’s more difficult reading probably represents the original text.

[28:21]  ⁹⁹ tn Heb “will cause pestilence to cling to you.”

[28:22]  ¹⁰⁰ tn Heb “The Lord.” See note on “he” in 28:8.

[28:22]  ¹⁰¹ tn Or perhaps “consumption” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV). The term is from a verbal root that indicates a weakening of one’s physical strength (cf. NAB “wasting”; NIV, NLT “wasting disease”).

[28:22]  ¹⁰² tn Heb “hot fever”; NIV “scorching heat.”

[28:22]  ¹⁰³ tn Or “drought” (so NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[28:23]  ¹⁰⁴ tc The MT reads “Your.” The LXX reads “Heaven will be to you.”

[28:23]  ¹⁰⁵ tn Or “heavens” (also in the following verse). The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.

[28:25]  ¹⁰⁶ tc The meaningless MT reading זַעֲוָה (za’avah) is clearly a transposition of the more commonly attested Hebrew noun זְוָעָה (zÿva’ah, “terror”).

[28:28]  ¹⁰⁷ tn Heb “heart” (so KJV, NASB).

[28:29]  ¹⁰⁸ tn Heb “you will not cause your ways to prosper.”

[28:30]  ¹⁰⁹ tc For MT reading שָׁגַל (shagal, “ravish; violate”), the Syriac, Targum, and Vulgate presume the less violent שָׁכַב (shakhav, “lie with”). The unexpected counterpart to betrothal here favors the originality of the MT.

[28:32]  ¹¹⁰ tn Heb “and there will be no power in your hand”; NCV “there will be nothing you can do.”

[28:36]  ¹¹¹ tc The LXX reads the plural “kings.”

[28:40]  ¹¹² tn Heb “your olives will drop off” (נָשַׁל, nashal), referring to the olives dropping off before they ripen.

[28:42]  ¹¹³ tn The Hebrew term denotes some sort of buzzing or whirring insect; some have understood this to be a type of locust (KJV, NIV, CEV), but other insects have also been suggested: “buzzing insects” (NAB); “the cricket” (NASB); “the cicada” (NRSV).

[28:43]  ¹¹⁴ tn Heb “the foreigner.” This is a collective singular and has therefore been translated as plural; this includes the pronouns in the following verse, which are also singular in the Hebrew text.

[28:45]  ¹¹⁵ tn Heb “commanded”; NAB, NIV, TEV “he gave you.”

[28:46]  ¹¹⁶ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the curses mentioned previously) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[28:46]  ¹¹⁷ tn Heb “seed” (so KJV, ASV).

[28:48]  ¹¹⁸ tn Heb “lack of everything.”

[28:48]  ¹¹⁹ tn Heb “he” (also later in this verse). The pronoun is a collective singular referring to the enemies (cf. CEV, NLT). Many translations understand the singular pronoun to refer to the Lord (cf. NAB, NASB, NIV, NCV, NRSV, TEV).

[28:49]  ¹²⁰ tn Heb “from the end of the earth.”

[28:49]  ¹²¹ tn Some translations understand this to mean “like an eagle swoops down” (e.g., NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT), comparing the swift attack of an eagle to the attack of the Israelites’ enemies.

[28:51]  ¹²² tn Heb “it” (so NRSV), a collective singular referring to the invading nation (several times in this verse and v. 52).

[28:51]  ¹²³ tn Heb “increase of herds.”

[28:51]  ¹²⁴ tn Heb “growth of flocks.”

[28:52]  ¹²⁵ tn Heb “gates,” also in vv. 55, 57.

[28:53]  ¹²⁶ tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NRSV); NASB “the offspring of your own body.”

[28:53]  ¹²⁷ tn Heb “siege and stress.”

[28:55]  ¹²⁸ tn Heb “besiege,” redundant with the noun “siege.”

[28:56]  ¹²⁹ tc The LXX adds σφόδρα (sfodra, “very”) to bring the description into line with v. 54.

[28:56]  ¹³⁰ tn Heb “delicateness and tenderness.”

[28:57]  ¹³¹ tn Heb includes “that which comes out from between her feet.”

[28:57]  ¹³² tn Heb “her sons that she will bear.”

[28:57]  ¹³³ tn Heb includes “in her need for everything.”

[28:58]  ¹³⁴ tn Heb “If you are not careful to do.”

[28:60]  ¹³⁵ sn These are the plagues the Lord inflicted on the Egyptians prior to the exodus which, though they did not fall upon the Israelites, must have caused great terror (cf. Exod 15:26).

[28:60]  ¹³⁶ tn Heb “will cling to you” (so NIV); NLT “will claim you.”

[28:61]  ¹³⁷ tn The Hebrew term תּוֹרָה (torah) can refer either (1) to the whole Pentateuch or, more likely, (2) to the book of Deuteronomy or even (3) only to this curse section of the covenant text. “Scroll” better reflects the actual document, since “book” conveys the notion of a bound book with pages to the modern English reader. Cf. KJV, NASB, NRSV “the book of this law”; NIV, NLT “this Book of the Law”; TEV “this book of God’s laws and teachings.”

[28:62]  ¹³⁸ tn Or “heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.

[28:62]  ¹³⁹ tn Heb “have not listened to the voice of.”

[28:63]  ¹⁴⁰ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 28:8.

[28:66]  ¹⁴¹ tn Heb “you will not be confident in your life.” The phrase “from one day to the next” is implied by the following verse.

[29:19]  ¹⁴² tn Heb “he”; the referent (the subject of the warning in v. 18) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[29:19]  ¹⁴³ tn Heb “in his heart.”

[29:19]  ¹⁴⁴ tn Or “invokes a blessing on himself.” A formalized word of blessing is in view, the content of which appears later in the verse.

[29:19]  ¹⁴⁵ tn Heb “heart.”

[29:19]  ¹⁴⁶ tn Heb “thus destroying.” For stylistic reasons the translation begins a new sentence here.

[29:19]  ¹⁴⁷ tn Heb “the watered with the parched.” The word “ground” is implied. The exact meaning of the phrase is uncertain although it appears to be figurative. This appears to be a proverbial observation employing a figure of speech (a merism) suggesting totality. That is, the Israelite who violates the letter and even spirit of the covenant will harm not only himself but everything he touches – “the watered and the parched.” Cf. CEV “you will cause the rest of Israel to be punished along with you.”

[29:20]  ¹⁴⁸ tn Heb “the wrath of the Lord and his zeal.” The expression is a hendiadys, a figure in which the second noun becomes adjectival to the first.

[29:20]  ¹⁴⁹ tn Heb “smoke,” or “smolder.”

[29:20]  ¹⁵⁰ tn Heb “the entire oath.”

[29:20]  ¹⁵¹ tn Or “will lie in wait against him.”

[29:20]  ¹⁵² tn Heb “blot out his name from under the sky.”

[29:21]  ¹⁵³ tn Heb “set him apart.”

[29:21]  ¹⁵⁴ tn Heb “for evil”; NAB “for doom”; NASB “for adversity”; NIV “for disaster”; NRSV “for calamity.”

[29:22]  ¹⁵⁵ tn Heb “will say and see.” One expects a quotation to appear, but it seems to be omitted. To avoid confusion in the translation, the verb “will say” is omitted.

[29:23]  ¹⁵⁶ tn Heb “the anger and the wrath.” This construction is a hendiadys intended to intensify the emotion.

[29:24]  ¹⁵⁷ tn Heb “this great burning of anger”; KJV “the heat of this great anger.”

[29:26]  ¹⁵⁸ tn Heb “did not assign to them”; NASB, NRSV “had not allotted to them.”

[29:27]  ¹⁵⁹ tn Heb “the entire curse.”

[31:20]  ¹⁶⁰ tn Heb “him.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “them.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:20]  ¹⁶¹ tn Heb “his.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “their.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:20]  ¹⁶² tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:20]  ¹⁶³ tn Heb “and are satisfied.”

[31:20]  ¹⁶⁴ tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:21]  ¹⁶⁵ tn Heb “Then it will come to pass that.”

[31:21]  ¹⁶⁶ tn Heb “him.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “them.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:21]  ¹⁶⁷ tn Heb “him.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “them.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:21]  ¹⁶⁸ tn Heb “his.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “their.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:21]  ¹⁶⁹ tn Heb “it will not be forgotten from the mouth of his seed.”

[31:21]  ¹⁷⁰ tn Heb “his.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “their.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:21]  ¹⁷¹ tn Heb “which he is doing.”

[31:21]  ¹⁷² tn Heb “him.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “them.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[32:16]  ¹⁷³ tc Heb “with strange (things).” The Vulgate actually supplies diis (“gods”).

[32:16]  ¹⁷⁴ tn Heb “abhorrent (things)” (cf. NRSV). A number of English versions understand this as referring to “idols” (NAB, NIV, NCV, CEV), while NLT supplies “acts.”

[32:17]  ¹⁷⁵ tn Heb “your fathers.”

[32:18]  ¹⁷⁶ tc The Hebrew text is corrupt here; the translation follows the suggestion offered in HALOT 1477 s.v. שׁיה. Cf. NASB, NLT “You neglected”; NIV “You deserted”; NRSV “You were unmindful of.”

[32:20]  ¹⁷⁷ tn Heb “I will hide my face from them.”

[32:20]  ¹⁷⁸ tn Heb “sons” (so NAB, NASB); TEV “unfaithful people.”

[32:21]  ¹⁷⁹ sn They have made me jealous. The “jealousy” of God is not a spirit of pettiness prompted by his insecurity, but righteous indignation caused by the disloyalty of his people to his covenant grace (see note on the word “God” in Deut 4:24). The jealousy of Israel, however (see next line), will be envy because of God’s lavish attention to another nation. This is an ironic wordplay. See H. Peels, NIDOTTE 3:938-39.

[32:21]  ¹⁸⁰ tn Heb “what is not a god,” or a “nondeity.”

[32:21]  ¹⁸¹ tn Heb “their empty (things).” The Hebrew term used here to refer pejoratively to the false gods is הֶבֶל (hevel, “futile” or “futility”), used frequently in Ecclesiastes (e.g., Eccl 1:1, “Futile! Futile!” laments the Teacher, “Absolutely futile! Everything is futile!”).

[32:21]  ¹⁸² tn Heb “what is not a people,” or a “nonpeople.” The “nonpeople” (לֹא־עָם, lo’-’am) referred to here are Gentiles who someday would become God’s people in the fullest sense (cf. Hos 1:9; 2:23).

[32:21]  ¹⁸³ tn Heb “a foolish nation” (so KJV, NAB, NRSV); NIV “a nation that has no understanding”; NLT “I will provoke their fury by blessing the foolish Gentiles.”

[32:22]  ¹⁸⁴ tn Or “to the lowest depths of the earth”; cf. NAB “to the depths of the nether world”; NIV “to the realm of death below”; NLT “to the depths of the grave.”

[32:23]  ¹⁸⁵ tn Heb “upon them.”

[32:24]  ¹⁸⁶ tn The Hebrew term קֶטֶב (qetev) is probably metaphorical here for the sting of a disease (HALOT 1091-92 s.v.).

[32:25]  ¹⁸⁷ tn A verb is omitted here in the Hebrew text; for purposes of English style one suitable to the context is supplied.

[32:26]  ¹⁸⁸ tc The LXX reads “I said I would scatter them.” This reading is followed by a number of English versions (e.g., KJV, ASV, NIV, NCV, NRSV, NLT, CEV).

[32:27]  ¹⁸⁹ tn Heb “anger.”

[32:27]  ¹⁹⁰ tn Heb “lest.”

[32:27]  ¹⁹¹ tn Heb “Our hand is high.” Cf. NAB “Our own hand won the victory.”

[32:30]  ¹⁹² tn The words “man” and “of them” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[32:30]  ¹⁹³ tn Heb “sold them” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[32:31]  ¹⁹⁴ tn Heb “their,” but the referent (enemies) is specified in the translation for the sake of clarity.

[32:32]  ¹⁹⁵ tn Heb “vine.”

[32:32]  ¹⁹⁶ sn Sodom…Gomorrah. The term “vine” is a reference to the pagan deities which, the passage says, find their ultimate source in Sodom and Gomorrah, that is, in the soil of perversion exemplified by these places (cf. Gen 18:20; 19:4-28; Isa 1:10; 3:9; Jer 23:14; Lam 4:6; Ezek 16:44-52; Matt 10:15; 11:23-24).

[32:34]  ¹⁹⁷ tn Verses 34-35 appear to be a quotation of the Lord and so the introductory phrase “says the Lord” is supplied in the translation.

[32:35]  ¹⁹⁸ tn Heb “prepared things,” “impending things.” See BDB 800 s.v. עָתִיד.

[32:36]  ¹⁹⁹ tn The translation understands the verb in the sense of “be grieved, relent” (cf. HALOT 689 s.v. נחם hitp 2); cf. KJV, ASV “repent himself”; NLT “will change his mind.” Another option is to translate “will show compassion to” (see BDB 637 s.v. נחם); cf. NASB, NIV, NRSV.

[32:39]  ²⁰⁰ tn Verses 39-42 appear to be a quotation of the Lord and so the introductory phrase “says the Lord” is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[32:39]  ²⁰¹ tn Heb “deliver from” (so NRSV, NLT).

[32:41]  ²⁰² tn Heb “judgment.” This is a metonymy, a figure of speech in which the effect (judgment) is employed as an instrument (sword, spear, or the like), the means, by which it is brought about.

[32:41]  ²⁰³ tn The Hebrew term שָׂנֵא (sane’, “hate”) in this covenant context speaks of those who reject Yahweh’s covenant overtures, that is, who disobey its stipulations (see note on the word “rejecting” in Deut 5:9; also see Deut 7:10; 2 Chr 19:2; Ps 81:15; 139:20-21).

[32:42]  ²⁰⁴ tn Or “head” (the same Hebrew word can mean “head” in the sense of “leader, chieftain” or “head” in the sense of body part).

[23:15]  ²⁰⁵ tn Heb “and it will be as every good word which the Lord your God spoke to you has come to pass.”

[23:15]  ²⁰⁶ tn Heb “so the Lord will bring every injurious [or “evil”] word [or “thing”] upon you.”

[23:16]  ²⁰⁷ tn Heb “when you violate the covenant of the Lord your God which he commanded you.”

[23:16]  ²⁰⁸ tn Heb “and you walk and serve other gods and bow down to them.”

[23:16]  ²⁰⁹ tn Or “perish.”

[3:12]  ²¹⁰ tn The plural pronoun refers to the leaders, priests, and prophets mentioned in the preceding verse.

[3:12]  ²¹¹ tn Or “into” (an adverbial accusative of result).

[3:12]  ²¹² tn Heb “the mountain of the house” (so KJV, ASV, NRSV).

[3:12]  ²¹³ tn Heb “a high place of overgrowth.”