Jeremiah 12:13

12:13 My people will sow wheat, but will harvest weeds. ¹ 

They will work until they are exhausted, but will get nothing from it.

They will be disappointed in their harvests ² 

because the Lord will take them away in his fierce anger. ³ 

Jeremiah 2:8

2:8 Your priests ⁴  did not ask, ‘Where is the Lord?’ ⁵ 

Those responsible for teaching my law ⁶  did not really know me. ⁷ 

Your rulers rebelled against me.

Your prophets prophesied in the name of the god Baal. ⁸ 

They all worshiped idols that could not help them. ⁹ 

[12:13]  ¹ sn Invading armies lived off the land, using up all the produce and destroying everything they could not consume.

[12:13]  ² tn The pronouns here are actually second plural: Heb “Be ashamed/disconcerted because of your harvests.” Because the verb form (וּבֹשׁוּ, uvoshu) can either be Qal perfect third plural or Qal imperative masculine plural many emend the pronoun on the noun to third plural (see, e.g., BHS). However, this is the easier reading and is not supported by either the Latin or the Greek which have second plural. This is probably another case of the shift from description to direct address that has been met with several times already in Jeremiah (the figure of speech called apostrophe; for other examples see, e.g., 9:4; 11:13). As in other cases the translation has been leveled to third plural to avoid confusion for the contemporary English reader. For the meaning of the verb here see BDB 101 s.v. בּוֹשׁ Qal.2 and compare the usage in Jer 48:13.

[12:13]  ³ tn Heb “be disappointed in their harvests from the fierce anger of the Lord.” The translation makes explicit what is implicit in the elliptical poetry of the Hebrew original.

[2:8]  ⁴ tn Heb “The priests…the ones who grasp my law…the shepherds…the prophets…they…”

[2:8]  ⁵ sn See the study note on 2:6.

[2:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “those who handle my law.”

[2:8]  ⁷ tn Or “were not committed to me.” The Hebrew verb rendered “know” refers to more than mere intellectual knowledge. It carries also the ideas of emotional and volitional commitment as well intimacy. See for example its use in contexts like Hos 4:1; 6:6.

[2:8]  ⁸ tn Heb “by Baal.”

[2:8]  ⁹ tn Heb “and they followed after those things [the word is plural] which do not profit.” The poetic structure of the verse, four lines in which a distinct subject appears at the beginning followed by a fifth line beginning with a prepositional phrase and no distinct subject, argues that this line is climactic and refers to all four classes enumerated in the preceding lines. See W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah (Hermeneia), 1:88-89. There may be a play or pun in the Hebrew text on the name for the god Baal (בַּעַל, ba’al) and the verb “cannot help you” (Heb “do not profit”) which is spelled יַעַל (ya’al).