Jeremiah 12:8

12:8 The people I call my own ¹  have turned on me

like a lion ²  in the forest.

They have roared defiantly ³  at me.

So I will treat them as though I hate them. ⁴ 

Jeremiah 21:14

21:14 But I will punish you as your deeds deserve,’

says the Lord. ⁵ 

‘I will set fire to your palace;

it will burn up everything around it.’” ⁶ 

[12:8]  ¹ tn See the note on the previous verse.

[12:8]  ² tn Heb “have become to me like a lion.”

[12:8]  ³ tn Heb “have given against me with her voice.”

[12:8]  ⁴ tn Or “so I will reject her.” The word “hate” is sometimes used in a figurative way to refer to being neglected, i.e., treated as though unloved. In these contexts it does not have the same emotive connotations that a typical modern reader would associate with hate. See Gen 29:31, 33 and E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 556.

[21:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “oracle of the Lord.”

[21:14]  ⁶ tn Heb “I will set fire in its forest and it will devour its surroundings.” The pronouns are actually third feminine singular going back to the participle “you who sit enthroned above the valley.” However, this is another example of those rapid shifts in pronouns typical of the biblical Hebrew style which are uncommon in English. They have regularly been leveled to the same person throughout in the translation to avoid possible confusion for the English reader.