Jeremiah 12:3-4

12:3 But you, Lord, know all about me.

You watch me and test my devotion to you. ¹ 

Drag these wicked men away like sheep to be slaughtered!

Appoint a time when they will be killed! ² 

12:4 How long must the land be parched ³ 

and the grass in every field be withered?

How long ⁴  must the animals and the birds die

because of the wickedness of the people who live in this land? ⁵ 

For these people boast,

“God ⁶  will not see what happens to us.” ⁷ 

Jeremiah 12:2

12:2 You plant them like trees and they put down their roots. ⁸ 

They grow prosperous and are very fruitful. ⁹ 

They always talk about you,

but they really care nothing about you. ¹⁰ 

Jeremiah 18:3

18:3 So I went down to the potter’s house and found him working ¹¹  at his wheel. ¹² 

Jeremiah 21:1

The Lord Will Hand Jerusalem over to Enemies

21:1 The Lord spoke to Jeremiah ¹³  when King Zedekiah ¹⁴  sent to him Pashhur son of Malkijah and the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah. ¹⁵  Zedekiah sent them to Jeremiah to ask, ¹⁶ 

Ezekiel 33:24-29

33:24 “Son of man, the ones living in these ruins in the land of Israel are saying, ‘Abraham was only one man, yet he possessed the land, but we are many; surely the land has been given to us for a possession.’ ¹⁷  33:25 Therefore say to them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: You eat the meat with the blood still in it, ¹⁸  pray to ¹⁹  your idols, and shed blood. Do you really think you will possess ²⁰  the land? 33:26 You rely ²¹  on your swords and commit abominable deeds; each of you defiles his neighbor’s wife. Will you possess the land?’

33:27 “This is what you must say to them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: As surely as I live, those living in the ruins will die ²²  by the sword, those in the open field I will give to the wild beasts for food, and those who are in the strongholds and caves will die of disease. 33:28 I will turn the land into a desolate ruin; her confident pride will come to an end. The mountains of Israel will be so desolate no one will pass through them. 33:29 Then they will know that I am the Lord when I turn the land into a desolate ruin because of all the abominable deeds they have committed.’ ²³ 

John 11:50

11:50 You do not realize ²⁴  that it is more to your advantage to have one man ²⁵  die for the people than for the whole nation to perish.” ²⁶ 

[12:3]  ¹ tn Heb “You, Lord, know me. You watch me and you test my heart toward you.”

[12:3]  ² tn Heb “set aside for them a day of killing.”

[12:4]  ³ tn The verb here is often translated “mourn.” However, this verb is from a homonymic root meaning “to be dry” (cf. HALOT 7 s.v. II אָבַל and compare Hos 4:3 for usage).

[12:4]  ⁴ tn The words “How long” are not in the text. They are carried over from the first line.

[12:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “because of the wickedness of those who live in it.”

[12:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “he.” The referent is usually identified as God and is supplied here for clarity. Some identify the referent with Jeremiah. If that is the case, then he returns to his complaint about the conspirators. It is more likely, however, that it refers to God and Jeremiah’s complaint that the people live their lives apart from concern about God.

[12:4]  ⁷ tc Or reading with the Greek version, “God does not see what we are doing.” In place of “what will happen to us (אַחֲרִיתֵנוּ, ’akharitenu, “our end”) the Greek version understands a Hebrew text which reads “our ways” (אָרְחוֹתֵנו, ’orkhotenu), which is graphically very close to the MT. The Masoretic is supported by the Latin and is retained here on the basis of external evidence. Either text makes good sense in the context. Some identify the “he” with Jeremiah and understand the text to be saying that the conspirators are certain that they will succeed and he will not live to see his prophecies fulfilled.

[12:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “You planted them and they took root.”

[12:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “they grow and produce fruit.” For the nuance “grow” for the verb which normally means “go, walk,” see BDB 232 s.v. חָלַךְ Qal.I.3 and compare Hos 14:7.

[12:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “You are near in their mouths, but far from their kidneys.” The figure of substitution is being used here, “mouth” for “words” and “kidneys” for passions and affections. A contemporary equivalent might be, “your name is always on their lips, but their hearts are far from you.”

[18:3]  ¹¹ tn Heb “And behold he was working.”

[18:3]  ¹² sn At his wheel (Heb “at the two stones”). The Hebrew expression is very descriptive of the construction of a potter’s wheel which consisted of two stones joined by a horizontal shaft. The potter rotated the wheel with his feet on the lower wheel and worked the clay with his hands on the upper. For a picture of a potter working at his wheel see I. Ben-Dor, “Potter’s Wheel,” IDB 3:846. See also the discussion regarding the making of pottery in J. L. Kelso, “Pottery,” IDB 3:846-53.

[21:1]  ¹³ tn Heb “The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord.”

[21:1]  ¹⁴ sn Zedekiah was the last king of Judah. He ruled from 597 b.c. when he was placed on the throne by Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kgs 24:17) until the fall of Jerusalem in 587/6 b.c. He acquiesced to some of his anti-Babylonian counselors, rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar, and sought help from the Egyptians (Ezek 17:12-15). This brought Nebuchadnezzar against the city in 588 b.c. This is the first of two delegations to Jeremiah. The later one was sent after Nebuchadnezzar withdrew to take care of the Egyptian threat (cf. Jer 37:1-9).

[21:1]  ¹⁵ sn The Pashhur son of Malkijah referred to here is not the same as the Pashhur referred to in 20:1-6 who was the son of Immer. This Pashhur is referred to later in 38:1. The Zephaniah referred to here was the chief of security referred to later in Jer 29:25-26. He appears to have been favorably disposed toward Jeremiah.

[21:1]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “sent to him…Maaseiah, saying,….”

[33:24]  ¹⁷ sn Outside of its seven occurrences in Ezekiel the term translated “possession” appears only in Exod 6:8 and Deut 33:4.

[33:25]  ¹⁸ sn This practice was a violation of Levitical law (see Lev 19:26).

[33:25]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “lift up your eyes.”

[33:25]  ²⁰ tn Heb “Will you possess?”

[33:26]  ²¹ tn Heb “stand.”

[33:27]  ²² tn Heb “fall.”

[33:29]  ²³ sn The judgments of vv. 27-29 echo the judgments of Lev 26:22, 25.

[11:50]  ²⁴ tn Or “you are not considering.”

[11:50]  ²⁵ tn Although it is possible to argue that ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") should be translated “person” here since it is not necessarily masculinity that is in view in Caiaphas’ statement, “man” was retained in the translation because in 11:47 “this man” (οὗτος ὁ ἄνθρωπος, outo" Jo anqrwpo") has as its referent a specific individual, Jesus, and it was felt this connection should be maintained.

[11:50]  ²⁶ sn In his own mind Caiaphas was no doubt giving voice to a common-sense statement of political expediency. Yet he was unconsciously echoing a saying of Jesus himself (cf. Mark 10:45). Caiaphas was right; the death of Jesus would save the nation from destruction. Yet Caiaphas could not suspect that Jesus would die, not in place of the political nation Israel, but on behalf of the true people of God; and he would save them, not from physical destruction, but from eternal destruction (cf. 3:16-17). The understanding of Caiaphas’ words in a sense that Caiaphas could not possibly have imagined at the time he uttered them serves as a clear example of the way in which the author understood that words and actions could be invested retrospectively with a meaning not consciously intended or understood by those present at the time.