Jeremiah 15:1-2

15:1 Then the Lord said to me, “Even if Moses and Samuel stood before me pleading for ¹  these people, I would not feel pity for them! ²  Get them away from me! Tell them to go away! ³  15:2 If they ask you, ‘Where should we go?’ tell them the Lord says this:

“Those who are destined to die of disease will go to death by disease.

Those who are destined to die in war will go to death in war.

Those who are destined to die of starvation will go to death by starvation.

Those who are destined to go into exile will go into exile.” ⁴ 

Jeremiah 16:13

16:13 So I will throw you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your ancestors have ever known. There you must worship other gods day and night, for I will show you no mercy.’”

Deuteronomy 28:63-64

28:63 This is what will happen: Just as the Lord delighted to do good for you and make you numerous, he ⁵  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.

Deuteronomy 28:1

The Covenant Blessings

28:1 “If you indeed ⁶  obey the Lord your God and are careful to observe all his commandments I am giving ⁷  you today, the Lord your God will elevate you above all the nations of the earth.

Deuteronomy 25:1

25:1 If controversy arises between people, ⁸  they should go to court for judgment. When the judges ⁹  hear the case, they shall exonerate ¹⁰  the innocent but condemn ¹¹  the guilty.

[15:1]  ¹ 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]  ² 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]  ³ tn Heb “Send them away from my presence and let them go away.”

[15:2]  ⁴ tn It is difficult to render the rhetorical force of this passage in meaningful English. The text answers the question “Where should we go?” with four brief staccato-like expressions with a play on the preposition “to”: Heb “Who to the death, to the death and who to the sword, to the sword and who to the starvation, to the starvation and who to the captivity, to the captivity.” The word “death” here is commonly understood to be a poetic substitute for “plague” because of the standard trio of sword, famine, and plague (see, e.g., 14:12 and the notes there). This is likely here and in 18:21. For further support see W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah (Hermeneia), 1:440. The nuance “starvation” rather than “famine” has been chosen in the translation because the referents here are all things that accompany war.

[28:63]  ⁵ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 28:8.

[28:1]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates with “indeed.”

[28:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “commanding”; NAB “which I enjoin on you today” (likewise in v. 15).

[25:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “men.”

[25:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the judges) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[25:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “declare to be just”; KJV, NASB “justify the righteous”; NAB, NIV “acquitting the innocent.”

[25:1]  ¹¹ tn Heb “declare to be evil”; NIV “condemning the guilty (+ party NAB).”