Jeremiah 18:20

18:20 Should good be paid back with evil?

Yet they are virtually digging a pit to kill me. ¹ 

Just remember how I stood before you

pleading on their behalf ² 

to keep you from venting your anger on them. ³ 

Jeremiah 32:37

32:37 ‘I will certainly regather my people from all the countries where I will have exiled ⁴  them in my anger, fury, and great wrath. I will bring them back to this place and allow them to live here in safety.

Jeremiah 44:6

44:6 So my anger and my wrath were poured out and burned like a fire through the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem. That is why they have become the desolate ruins that they are today.’

[18:20]  ¹ tn Or “They are plotting to kill me”; Heb “They have dug a pit for my soul.” This is a common metaphor for plotting against someone. See BDB 500 s.v. כָּרָה Qal and for an example see Pss 7:16 (7:15 HT) in its context.

[18:20]  ² tn Heb “to speak good concerning them” going back to the concept of “good” being paid back with evil.

[18:20]  ³ tn Heb “to turn back your anger from them.”

[32:37]  ⁴ tn The verb here should be interpreted as a future perfect; though some of the people have already been exiled (in 605 and 597 b.c.), some have not yet been exiled at the time this prophesy is given (see study note on v. 1 for the date). However, contemporary English style does not regularly use the future perfect, choosing instead to use the simple future or the simple perfect as the present translation has done here.