Jeremiah 14:10

14:10 Then the Lord spoke about these people. ¹ 

“They truly ²  love to go astray.

They cannot keep from running away from me. ³ 

So I am not pleased with them.

I will now call to mind ⁴  the wrongs they have done ⁵ 

and punish them for their sins.”

Jeremiah 14:1

A Lament over the Ravages of Drought ⁶ 

14:1 The Lord spoke to Jeremiah ⁷  about the drought. ⁸ 

Jeremiah 15:3

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. ⁹ 

Jeremiah 15:1

15:1 Then the Lord said to me, “Even if Moses and Samuel stood before me pleading for ¹⁰  these people, I would not feel pity for them! ¹¹  Get them away from me! Tell them to go away! ¹² 

Jeremiah 17:18

17:18 May those who persecute me be disgraced.

Do not let me be disgraced.

May they be dismayed.

Do not let me be dismayed.

Bring days of disaster on them.

Bring on them the destruction they deserve.” ¹³ 

Psalms 79:8

79:8 Do not hold us accountable for the sins of earlier generations! ¹⁴ 

Quickly send your compassion our way, ¹⁵ 

for we are in serious trouble! ¹⁶ 

Isaiah 64:9

64:9 Lord, do not be too angry!

Do not hold our sins against us continually! ¹⁷ 

Take a good look at your people, at all of us! ¹⁸ 

Ezekiel 21:23-24

21:23 But those in Jerusalem ¹⁹  will view it as a false omen. They have sworn solemn oaths, ²⁰  but the king of Babylon ²¹  will accuse them of violations ²²  in order to seize them. ²³ 

21:24 “Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: ‘Because you have brought up ²⁴  your own guilt by uncovering your transgressions and revealing your sins through all your actions, for this reason you will be taken by force. ²⁵ 

Hosea 7:2

7:2 They do not realize ²⁶ 

that I remember all of their wicked deeds.

Their evil deeds have now surrounded them;

their sinful deeds are always before me. ²⁷ 

Amos 8:7

8:7 The Lord confirms this oath ²⁸  by the arrogance of Jacob: ²⁹ 

“I swear ³⁰  I will never forget all you have done! ³¹ 

Revelation 16:19

16:19 The ³²  great city was split into three parts and the cities of the nations ³³  collapsed. ³⁴  So ³⁵  Babylon the great was remembered before God, and was given the cup ³⁶  filled with the wine made of God’s furious wrath. ³⁷ 

Revelation 18:5

18:5 because her sins have piled ³⁸  up all the way to heaven ³⁹  and God has remembered ⁴⁰  her crimes. ⁴¹ 

[14:10]  ¹ tn Heb “Thus said the Lord concerning this people.”

[14:10]  ² tn It is difficult to be certain how the particle כֵּן (ken, usually used for “thus, so”) is to be rendered here. BDB 485 s.v. כֵּן 1.b says that the force sometimes has to be elicited from the general context and points back to the line of v. 9. IHBS 666 §39.3.4e states that when there is no specific comparative clause preceding a general comparison is intended. They point to Judg 5:31 as a parallel. Ps 127:2 may also be an example if כִּי (ki) is not to be read (cf. BHS fn). “Truly” seemed the best way to render this idea in contemporary English.

[14:10]  ³ tn Heb “They do not restrain their feet.” The idea of “away from me” is implicit in the context and is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[14:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “remember.”

[14:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “their iniquities.”

[14:1]  ⁶ sn The form of Jer 14:1–15:9 is very striking rhetorically. It consists essentially of laments and responses to them. However, what makes it so striking is its deviation from normal form (cf. 2 Chr 20:5-17 for what would normally be expected). The descriptions of the lamentable situation come from the mouth of God not the people (cf.14:1-6, 17-18). The prophet utters the petitions with statements of trust (14:7-9, 19-22) and the Lord answers not with oracles promising deliverance but promising doom (14:10; 15:1-9). In the course of giving the first oracle of doom, the Lord commands Jeremiah not to pray for the people (14:11-12) and Jeremiah tries to provide an excuse for their actions (14:13). The Lord responds to that with an oracle of doom on the false prophets (14:14-16).

[14:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “That which came [as] the word of the Lord to Jeremiah.” The introductory formula here is a variation of that found in 7:1; 10:1; 11:1, i.e., “The word of the Lord which came to Jeremiah.” The relative pronoun “which” (אֲשֶׁר, ’asher) actually precedes the noun it modifies. See BDB 82 s.v. אֲשֶׁר 6.a for discussion and further examples.

[14:1]  ⁸ sn Drought was one of the punishments for failure to adhere to the terms of their covenant with God. See Deut 28:22-24; Lev 26:18-20.

[15:3]  ⁹ 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.”

[15:1]  ¹⁰ tn The words “pleading for” have been supplied in the translation to explain the idiom (a metonymy). For parallel usage see BDB 763 s.v. עָמַד Qal.1.a and compare usage in Gen 19:27, Deut 4:10.

[15:1]  ¹¹ tn Heb “my soul would not be toward them.” For the usage of “soul” presupposed here see BDB 660 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ 6 in the light of the complaints and petitions in Jeremiah’s prayer in 14:19, 21.

[15:1]  ¹² tn Heb “Send them away from my presence and let them go away.”

[17:18]  ¹³ tn Or “complete destruction.” See the translator’s note on 16:18.

[79:8]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “do not remember against us sins, former.” Some understand “former” as an attributive adjective modifying sins, “former [i.e., chronologically prior] sins” (see BDB 911 s.v. רִאשׁוֹן). The present translation assumes that ראשׁנים (“former”) here refers to those who lived formerly, that is, the people’s ancestors (see Lam 5:7). The word is used in this way in Lev 26:45; Deut 19:14 and Eccl 1:11.

[79:8]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “may your compassion quickly confront us.” The prefixed verbal form is understood as a jussive, indicating a tone of prayer.

[79:8]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “for we are very low.”

[64:9]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “do not remember sin continually.”

[64:9]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “Look, gaze at your people, all of us.” Another option is to translate, “Take a good look! We are all your people.”

[21:23]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the people in Jerusalem) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[21:23]  ²⁰ sn When the people of Judah realized the Babylonians’ intentions, they would object on grounds that they had made a treaty with the Babylonian king (see 17:13).

[21:23]  ²¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king of Babylon) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[21:23]  ²² tn Or “iniquity.”

[21:23]  ²³ tn Heb “and he will remind of guilt for the purpose of being captured.” The king would counter their objections by pointing out that they had violated their treaty with him (see 17:18).

[21:24]  ²⁴ tn Heb “caused to be remembered.”

[21:24]  ²⁵ tn Heb “Because you have brought to remembrance your guilt when your transgressions are uncovered so that your sins are revealed in all your deeds – because you are remembered, by the hand you will be seized.”

[7:2]  ²⁶ tn Heb “and they do not say in their heart”; TEV “It never enters their heads.”

[7:2]  ²⁷ tn Heb “they [the sinful deeds] are before my face” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV); NCV “they are right in front of me.”

[8:7]  ²⁸ tn Or “swears.”

[8:7]  ²⁹ sn In an oath one appeals to something permanent to emphasize one’s commitment to the promise. Here the Lord sarcastically swears by the arrogance of Jacob, which he earlier had condemned (6:8), something just as enduring as the Lord’s own life (see 6:8) or unchanging character (see 4:2). Other suggestions include that the Lord is swearing by the land, his most valuable possession (cf. Isa 4:2; Ps 47:4 [47:5 HT]); that this is a divine epithet analogous to “the Glory of Israel” (1 Sam 15:29); or that an ellipsis should be understood here, in which case the meaning is the same as that of 6:8 (“The Lord has sworn [by himself] against the arrogance of Jacob”).

[8:7]  ³⁰ tn The words “I swear” are not in the Hebrew text, but have been supplied in the translation because a self-imprecation is assumed in oaths of this type.

[8:7]  ³¹ tn Or “I will never forget all your deeds.”

[16:19]  ³² tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[16:19]  ³³ tn Or “of the Gentiles” (the same Greek word may be translated “Gentiles” or “nations”).

[16:19]  ³⁴ tn Grk “fell.”

[16:19]  ³⁵ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of Babylon’s misdeeds (see Rev 14:8).

[16:19]  ³⁶ tn Grk “the cup of the wine of the anger of the wrath of him.” The concatenation of four genitives has been rendered somewhat differently by various translations (see the note on the word “wrath”).

[16:19]  ³⁷ tn Following BDAG 461 s.v. θυμός 2, the combination of the genitives of θυμός (qumo") and ὀργή (orgh) in Rev 16:19 and 19:15 are taken to be a strengthening of the thought as in the OT and Qumran literature (Exod 32:12; Jer 32:37; Lam 2:3; CD 10:9). Thus in Rev 14:8 (to which the present passage alludes) and 18:3 there is irony: The wine of immoral behavior with which Babylon makes the nations drunk becomes the wine of God’s wrath for her.

[18:5]  ³⁸ tn On ἐκολλήθησαν (ekollhqhsan) BDAG 556 s.v. κολλάω 2.a.β states, “fig. cling to = come in close contact with (cp. Ps 21:16; 43:26 ἐκολλήθη εἰς γῆν ἡ γαστὴρ ἡμῶν. The act.=‘bring into contact’ PGM 5, 457 κολλήσας τ. λίθον τῷ ὠτίῳ) ἐκολλήθησαν αἱ ἁμαρτίαι ἄχρι τ. οὐρανοῦ the sins have touched the heaven = reached the sky (two exprs. are telescoped) Rv 18:5.”

[18:5]  ³⁹ tn Or “up to the sky” (the same Greek word means both “heaven” and “sky”).

[18:5]  ⁴⁰ tn That is, remembered her sins to execute judgment on them.

[18:5]  ⁴¹ tn Or “her sins.”