Jeremiah 16:17-18

16:17 For I see everything they do. Their wicked ways are not hidden from me. Their sin is not hidden away where I cannot see it. ¹  16:18 Before I restore them ²  I will punish them in full ³  for their sins and the wrongs they have done. For they have polluted my land with the lifeless statues of their disgusting idols. They have filled the land I have claimed as my own ⁴  with their detestable idols.” ⁵ 

Jeremiah 33:8

33:8 I will purify them from all the sin that they committed against me. I will forgive all their sins which they committed in rebelling against me. ⁶ 

Jeremiah 14:10

14:10 Then the Lord spoke about these people. ⁷ 

“They truly ⁸  love to go astray.

They cannot keep from running away from me. ⁹ 

So I am not pleased with them.

I will now call to mind ¹⁰  the wrongs they have done ¹¹ 

and punish them for their sins.”

Jeremiah 18:23

18:23 But you, Lord, know

all their plots to kill me.

Do not pardon their crimes!

Do not ignore their sins as though you had erased them! ¹² 

Let them be brought down in defeat before you!

Deal with them while you are still angry! ¹³ 

Jeremiah 25:12

25:12 “‘But when the seventy years are over, I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation ¹⁴  for their sins. I will make the land of Babylon ¹⁵  an everlasting ruin. ¹⁶  I, the Lord, affirm it! ¹⁷ 

Jeremiah 36:31

36:31 I will punish him and his descendants and the officials who serve him for the wicked things they have done. ¹⁸  I will bring on them, the citizens of Jerusalem, ¹⁹  and the people of Judah all the disaster that I threatened to do to them. I will punish them because I threatened them but they still paid no heed.”’” ²⁰ 

[16:17]  ¹ tn Heb “For my eyes are upon all their ways. They are not hidden from before me. And their sin is not hidden away from before my eyes.”

[16:18]  ² tn Heb “First.” Many English versions and commentaries delete this word because it is missing from the Greek version and is considered a gloss added by a postexilic editor who is said to be responsible also for vv. 14-16. This is not the place to resolve issues of authorship and date. It is the task of the translator to translate the “original” which in this case is the MT supported by the other versions. The word here refers to order in rank or order of events. Compare Gen 38:28; 1 Kgs 18:25. Here allusion is made to the restoration previously mentioned. First in order of events is the punishment of destruction and exile, then restoration.

[16:18]  ³ tn Heb “double.” However, usage in Deut 15:18 and probably Isa 40:2 argues for “full compensation.” This is supported also by usage in a tablet from Alalakh in Syria. See P. C. Craigie, P. H. Kelley, J. F. Drinkard, Jeremiah 1-25 (WBC), 218, for bibliography.

[16:18]  ⁴ tn Heb “my inheritance.”

[16:18]  ⁵ tn Many of the English versions take “lifeless statues of their detestable idols” with “filled” as a compound object. This follows the Masoretic punctuation but violates usage. The verb “fill” never takes an object preceded by the preposition בְּ (bet).

[33:8]  ³ sn Compare Jer 31:34; Ezek 36:25, 33.

[14:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “Thus said the Lord concerning this people.”

[14:10]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ tn Heb “remember.”

[14:10]  ⁸ tn Heb “their iniquities.”

[18:23]  ⁵ sn Heb “Do not blot out their sins from before you.” For this anthropomorphic figure which looks at God’s actions as though connected with record books, i.e., a book of wrongdoings to be punished, and a book of life for those who are to live, see e.g., Exod 32:32, 33, Ps 51:1 (51:3 HT); 69:28 (69:29 HT).

[18:23]  ⁶ tn Heb “in the time of your anger.”

[25:12]  ⁶ tn Heb “that nation.”

[25:12]  ⁷ tn Heb “the land of the Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for the use of the term “Chaldeans.”

[25:12]  ⁸ tn Heb “I will visit upon the king of Babylon and upon that nation, oracle of the Lord, their iniquity even upon the land of the Chaldeans and I will make it everlasting ruins.” The sentence has been restructured to avoid ambiguity and to conform the style more to contemporary English.

[25:12]  ⁹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[36:31]  ⁷ tn Heb “for their iniquity.”

[36:31]  ⁸ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[36:31]  ⁹ tn Heb “all the disaster which I spoke against them and they did not listen [or obey].”