Jeremiah 16:18

16:18 Before I restore them ¹  I will punish them in full ²  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 ³  with their detestable idols.” ⁴ 

Jeremiah 19:4

19:4 I will do so because these people ⁵  have rejected me and have defiled ⁶  this place. They have offered sacrifices in it to other gods which neither they nor their ancestors ⁷  nor the kings of Judah knew anything about. They have filled it with the blood of innocent children. ⁸ 

Jeremiah 23:15

23:15 So then I, the Lord who rules over all, ⁹ 

have something to say concerning the prophets of Jerusalem: ¹⁰ 

‘I will make these prophets eat the bitter food of suffering

and drink the poison water of judgment. ¹¹ 

For the prophets of Jerusalem are the reason ¹² 

that ungodliness ¹³  has spread throughout the land.’”

Jeremiah 31:37

31:37 The Lord says, “I will not reject all the descendants of Israel

because of all that they have done. ¹⁴ 

That could only happen if the heavens above could be measured

or the foundations of the earth below could all be explored,” ¹⁵ 

says the Lord. ¹⁶ 

Jeremiah 31:2

Israel Will Be Restored and Join Judah in Worship

31:2 The Lord says,

“The people of Israel who survived

death at the hands of the enemy ¹⁷ 

will find favor in the wilderness

as they journey to find rest for themselves.

Jeremiah 21:1

The Lord Will Hand Jerusalem over to Enemies

21:1 The Lord spoke to Jeremiah ¹⁸  when King Zedekiah ¹⁹  sent to him Pashhur son of Malkijah and the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah. ²⁰  Zedekiah sent them to Jeremiah to ask, ²¹ 

Ezekiel 8:17

8:17 He said to me, “Do you see, son of man? Is it a trivial thing that the house of Judah commits these abominations they are practicing here? For they have filled the land with violence and provoked me to anger still further. Look, they are putting the branch to their nose! ²² 

Ezekiel 9:9

9:9 He said to me, “The sin of the house of Israel and Judah is extremely great; the land is full of murder, and the city is full of corruption, ²³  for they say, ‘The Lord has abandoned the land, and the Lord does not see!’ ²⁴ 

Ezekiel 22:24-31

22:24 “Son of man, say to her: ‘You are a land that receives no rain ²⁵  or showers in the day of my anger.’ ²⁶  22:25 Her princes ²⁷  within her are like a roaring lion tearing its prey; they have devoured lives. They take away riches and valuable things; they have made many women widows ²⁸  within it. 22:26 Her priests abuse my law and have desecrated my holy things. They do not distinguish between the holy and the profane, ²⁹  or recognize any distinction between the unclean and the clean. They ignore ³⁰  my Sabbaths and I am profaned in their midst. 22:27 Her officials are like wolves in her midst rending their prey – shedding blood and destroying lives – so they can get dishonest profit. 22:28 Her prophets coat their messages with whitewash. ³¹  They see false visions and announce lying omens for them, saying, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says,’ when the Lord has not spoken. 22:29 The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery. They have wronged the poor and needy; they have oppressed the foreigner who lives among them and denied them justice. ³² 

22:30 “I looked for a man from among them who would repair the wall and stand in the gap before me on behalf of the land, so that I would not destroy it, but I found no one. ³³  22:31 So I have poured my anger on them, and destroyed them with the fire of my fury. I hereby repay them for what they have done, ³⁴  declares the sovereign Lord.”

Hosea 4:1

The Lord’s Covenant Lawsuit against the Nation Israel

4:1 Hear the word of the Lord, you Israelites! ³⁵ 

For the Lord has a covenant lawsuit ³⁶  against the people of Israel. ³⁷ 

For there is neither faithfulness nor loyalty in the land,

nor do they acknowledge God. ³⁸ 

Micah 7:18

7:18 There is no other God like you! ³⁹ 

You ⁴⁰  forgive sin

and pardon ⁴¹  the rebellion

of those who remain among your people. ⁴² 

You do not remain angry forever, ⁴³ 

but delight in showing loyal love.

Micah 7:20

7:20 You will be loyal to Jacob

and extend your loyal love to Abraham, ⁴⁴ 

which you promised on oath to our ancestors ⁴⁵ 

in ancient times. ⁴⁶ 

Zephaniah 3:1-4

Jerusalem is Corrupt

3:1 The filthy, ⁴⁷  stained city is as good as dead;

the city filled with oppressors is finished! ⁴⁸ 

3:2 She is disobedient; ⁴⁹ 

she refuses correction. ⁵⁰ 

She does not trust the Lord;

she does not seek the advice of ⁵¹  her God.

3:3 Her princes ⁵²  are as fierce as roaring lions; ⁵³ 

her rulers ⁵⁴  are as hungry as wolves in the desert, ⁵⁵ 

who completely devour their prey by morning. ⁵⁶ 

3:4 Her prophets are proud; ⁵⁷ 

they are deceitful men.

Her priests defile what is holy; ⁵⁸ 

they break God’s laws. ⁵⁹ 

[16:18]  ¹ 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]  ² 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]  ³ tn Heb “my inheritance.”

[16:18]  ⁴ 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).

[19:4]  ⁵ tn The text merely has “they.” But since a reference is made later to “they” and “their ancestors,” the referent must be to the people that the leaders of the people and leaders of the priests represent.

[19:4]  ⁶ sn Heb “have made this city foreign.” The verb here is one that is built off of the noun and adjective which relate to foreign nations. Comparison may be made to Jer 2:21 where the adjective refers to the strange, wild vine as opposed to the choice vine the Lord planted and to 5:19 and 8:19 where the noun is used of worshiping foreign gods. Israel through its false worship has “denationalized” itself in its relation to God.

[19:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “fathers.”

[19:4]  ⁸ tn Heb “the blood of innocent ones.” This must be a reference to child sacrifice as explained in the next verse. Some have seen a reference to the sins of social injustice alluded to in 2 Kgs 21:16 and 24:4 but those are connected with the city itself. Hence the word children is supplied in the translation to make the referent explicit.

[23:15]  ⁹ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.”

[23:15]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Therefore, thus says the Lord…concerning the prophets.” The person is shifted to better conform with English style and the word “of Jerusalem” is supplied in the translation to avoid the possible misunderstanding that the judgment applies to the prophets of Samaria who had already been judged long before.

[23:15]  ¹¹ tn Heb “I will feed this people wormwood and make them drink poison water.” For these same words of judgment on another group see 9:15 (9:14 HT). “Wormwood” and “poison water” are not to be understood literally here but are symbolic of judgment and suffering. See, e.g., BDB 542 s.v. לַעֲנָה.

[23:15]  ¹² tn The compound preposition מֵאֵת (me’et) expresses source or origin (see BDB 86 s.v. אֵת 4.c). Context shows that the origin is in their false prophesying which encourages people in their evil behavior.

[23:15]  ¹³ sn A word that derives from this same Hebrew word is used in v. 11 at the beginning of the Lord’s criticism of the prophet and priest. This is a common rhetorical device for bracketing material that belongs together. The criticism has, however, focused on the false prophets and the judgment due them.

[31:37]  ¹⁴ sn This answers Jeremiah’s question in 14:19.

[31:37]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “If the heavens above could be measured or the foundations of the earth below be explored, then also I could reject all the seed of Israel for all they have done.”

[31:37]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[31:2]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “who survived the sword.”

[21:1]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord.”

[21:1]  ¹⁹ 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]  ²⁰ 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]  ²¹ tn Heb “sent to him…Maaseiah, saying,….”

[8:17]  ²² tn It is not clear what the practice of “holding a branch to the nose” indicates. A possible parallel is the Syrian relief of a king holding a flower to his nose as he worships the stars (ANEP 281). See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 1:145-46. The LXX glosses the expression as “Behold, they are like mockers.”

[9:9]  ²³ tn Or “lawlessness” (NAB); “perversity” (NRSV). The Hebrew word occurs only here in the OT, and its meaning is uncertain. The similar phrase in 7:23 has a common word for “violence.”

[9:9]  ²⁴ sn The saying is virtually identical to that of the elders in Ezek 8:12.

[22:24]  ²⁵ tc The MT reads “that is not cleansed”; the LXX reads “that is not drenched,” which assumes a different vowel pointing as well as the loss of a מ (mem) due to haplography. In light of the following reference to showers, the reading of the LXX certainly fits the context well. For a defense of the emendation, see L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:32. Yet the MT is not an unreasonable reading since uncleanness in the land also fits the context, and a poetic connection between rain and the land being uncleansed may be feasible since washing with water is elsewhere associated with cleansing (Num 8:7; 31:23; Ps 51:7).

[22:24]  ²⁶ tn Heb “in a day of anger.”

[22:25]  ²⁷ tn Heb “a conspiracy of her prophets is in her midst.” The LXX reads “whose princes” rather than “a conspiracy of prophets.” The prophets are mentioned later in the paragraph (v. 28). If one follows the LXX in verse 25, then five distinct groups are mentioned in vv. 25-29: princes, priests, officials, prophets, and the people of the land. For a defense of the Septuagintal reading, see L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:32, and D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:720, n. 4.

[22:25]  ²⁸ tn Heb “her widows they have multiplied.” The statement alludes to their murderous acts.

[22:26]  ²⁹ tn Or “between the consecrated and the common.”

[22:26]  ³⁰ tn Heb “hide their eyes from.” The idiom means to disregard or ignore something or someone (see Lev 20:4; 1 Sam 12:3; Prov 28:27; Isa 1:15).

[22:28]  ³¹ tn Heb “her prophets coat for themselves with whitewash.” The expression may be based on Ezek 13:10-15.

[22:29]  ³² tn Heb “and the foreigner they have oppressed without justice.”

[22:30]  ³³ tn Heb “I did not find.”

[22:31]  ³⁴ tn Heb “their way on their head I have placed.”

[4:1]  ³⁵ tn Heb “sons of Israel” (so NASB); KJV “children of Israel”; NAB, NRSV “people of Israel.”

[4:1]  ³⁶ tn The noun רִיב (riv, “dispute, lawsuit”) is used in two contexts: (1) nonlegal contexts: (a) “dispute” between individuals (e.g., Gen 13:7; Isa 58:1; Jer 15:10) or (b) “brawl; quarrel” between people (e.g., Exod 17:7; Deut 25:1); and (2) legal contexts: (a) “lawsuit; legal process” (e.g., Exod 23:3-6; Deut 19:17; 21:5; Ezek 44:24; Ps 35:23), (b) “lawsuit; legal case” (e.g., Deut 1:12; 17:8; Prov 18:17; 25:9), and (c) God’s “lawsuit” on behalf of a person or against his own people (Hos 4:1; 12:3; Mic 6:2; HALOT 1225-26 s.v. רִיב). The term in Hosea refers to a covenant lawsuit in which Yahweh the suzerain lodges a legal case against his disobedient vassal, accusing Israel and Judah of breach of covenant which will elicit the covenant curses.

[4:1]  ³⁷ tn Heb “with the inhabitants of the land” (so KJV); NAB, NASB, NRSV “against the inhabitants of the land.”

[4:1]  ³⁸ tn Heb “there is no truthfulness nor loyalty nor knowledge of God in the land.” Here “knowledge of God” refers to recognition of his authority and obedience to his will.

[7:18]  ³⁹ tn Heb “Who is a God like you?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “No one!”

[7:18]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “one who.” The prayer moves from direct address (second person) in v. 18a to a descriptive (third person) style in vv. 18b-19a and then back to direct address (second person) in vv. 19b-20. Due to considerations of English style and the unfamiliarity of the modern reader with alternation of persons in Hebrew poetry, the entire section has been rendered as direct address (second person) in the translation.

[7:18]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “pass over.”

[7:18]  ⁴² tn Heb “of the remnant of his inheritance.”

[7:18]  ⁴³ tn Heb “he does not keep hold of his anger forever.”

[7:20]  ⁴⁴ tn More literally, “You will extend loyalty to Jacob, and loyal love to Abraham.

[7:20]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “our fathers.” The Hebrew term refers here to more distant ancestors, not immediate parents.

[7:20]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “which you swore [or, “pledged”] to our fathers from days of old.”

[3:1]  ⁴⁷ tn The present translation assumes מֹרְאָה (mor’ah) is derived from רֹאִי (ro’i,“excrement”; see Jastrow 1436 s.v. רֳאִי). The following participle, “stained,” supports this interpretation (cf. NEB “filthy and foul”; NRSV “soiled, defiled”). Another option is to derive the form from מָרָה (marah, “to rebel”); in this case the term should be translated “rebellious” (cf. NASB, NIV “rebellious and defiled”). This idea is supported by v. 2. For discussion of the two options, see HALOT 630 s.v. I מרא and J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (OTL), 206.

[3:1]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “Woe, soiled and stained one, oppressive city.” The verb “is finished” is supplied in the second line. On the Hebrew word הוֹי (hoy, “ah, woe”), see the note on the word “dead” in 2:5.

[3:2]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “she does not hear a voice” Refusing to listen is equated with disobedience.

[3:2]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “she does not receive correction.” The Hebrew phrase, when negated, refers elsewhere to rejecting verbal advice (Jer 17:23; 32:33; 35:13) and refusing to learn from experience (Jer 2:30; 5:3).

[3:2]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “draw near to.” The present translation assumes that the expression “draw near to” refers to seeking God’s will (see 1 Sam 14:36).

[3:3]  ⁵² tn Or “officials.”

[3:3]  ⁵³ tn Heb “her princes in her midst are roaring lions.” The metaphor has been translated as a simile (“as fierce as”) for clarity.

[3:3]  ⁵⁴ tn Traditionally “judges.”

[3:3]  ⁵⁵ tn Heb “her judges [are] wolves of the evening,” that is, wolves that prowl at night. The translation assumes an emendation to עֲרָבָה (’aravah, “desert”). For a discussion of this and other options, see Adele Berlin, Zephaniah (AB 25A), 128. The metaphor has been translated as a simile (“as hungry as”) for clarity.

[3:3]  ⁵⁶ tn Heb “they do not gnaw [a bone] at morning.” The precise meaning of the line is unclear. The statement may mean these wolves devour their prey so completely that not even a bone is left to gnaw by the time morning arrives. For a discussion of this and other options, see Adele Berlin, Zephaniah (AB 25A), 129.

[3:4]  ⁵⁷ sn Applied to prophets, the word פֹּחֲזִים (pokhazim, “proud”) probably refers to their audacity in passing off their own words as genuine prophecies from the Lord (see Jer 23:32).

[3:4]  ⁵⁸ tn Or “defile the temple.”

[3:4]  ⁵⁹ tn Heb “they treat violently [the] law.”