Jeremiah 19:15

19:15 “The Lord God of Israel who rules over all ¹  says, ‘I will soon bring on this city and all the towns surrounding it ²  all the disaster I threatened to do to it. I will do so because they have stubbornly refused ³  to pay any attention to what I have said!’”

Jeremiah 19:2

19:2 Go out to the part of the Hinnom Valley which is near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate. ⁴  Announce there what I tell you. ⁵ 

Jeremiah 17:14

17:14 Lord, grant me relief from my suffering

so that I may have some relief.

Rescue me from those who persecute me

so that I may be rescued. ⁶ 

Jeremiah 17:2

17:2 Their children are always thinking about ⁷  their ⁸  altars

and their sacred poles dedicated to the goddess Asherah, ⁹ 

set up beside the green trees on the high hills

Jeremiah 30:8

30:8 When the time for them to be rescued comes,” ¹⁰ 

says the Lord who rules over all, ¹¹ 

“I will rescue you from foreign subjugation. ¹² 

I will deliver you from captivity. ¹³ 

Foreigners will then no longer subjugate them.

Nehemiah 9:17

9:17 They refused to obey and did not recall your miracles that you had performed among them. Instead, they rebelled and appointed a leader to return to their bondage in Egypt. ¹⁴  But you are a God of forgiveness, merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and unfailing in your loyal love. ¹⁵  You did not abandon them,

Nehemiah 9:29

9:29 And you solemnly admonished them in order to return them to your law, but they behaved presumptuously and did not obey your commandments. They sinned against your ordinances – those by which an individual, if he obeys them, ¹⁶  will live. They boldly turned from you; ¹⁷  they rebelled ¹⁸  and did not obey.

Proverbs 29:1

29:1 The one who stiffens his neck ¹⁹  after numerous rebukes ²⁰ 

will suddenly be destroyed ²¹  without remedy. ²² 

Isaiah 48:4

48:4 I did this ²³  because I know how stubborn you are.

Your neck muscles are like iron

and your forehead like bronze. ²⁴ 

Acts 7:51

7:51 “You stubborn ²⁵  people, with uncircumcised ²⁶  hearts and ears! ²⁷  You are always resisting the Holy Spirit, like your ancestors ²⁸  did!

Romans 2:5

2:5 But because of your stubbornness ²⁹  and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourselves in the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment is revealed! ³⁰ 

[19:15]  ¹ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.”

[19:15]  ² tn Heb “all its towns.”

[19:15]  ³ tn Heb “They hardened [or made stiff] their neck so as not to.”

[19:2]  ⁴ sn The exact location of the Potsherd Gate is unknown since it is nowhere else mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. It is sometimes identified with the Dung Gate mentioned in Neh 2:13; 3:13-14; 12:31 on the basis of the Jerusalem Targum. It is probably called “Potsherd Gate” because that is where the potter threw out the broken pieces of pottery which were no longer of use to him. The Valley of Ben Hinnom has already been mentioned in 7:31-32 in connection with the illicit religious practices, including child sacrifice, which took place there. The Valley of Ben Hinnom (or sometimes Valley of Hinnom) runs along the west and south sides of Jerusalem.

[19:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “the words that I will speak to you.”

[17:14]  ⁶ tn The translation fills in the details of the metaphor from a preceding context (15:18) and from the following context (17:18). The literal translation “Heal me and I will be healed. Rescue me and I will be rescued.” does not make much sense if these details are not filled in. The metaphor is filled in for clarity for the average reader.

[17:2]  ⁷ tn It is difficult to convey in good English style the connection between this verse and the preceding. The text does not have a finite verb but a temporal preposition with an infinitive: Heb “while their children remember their altars…” It is also difficult to translate the verb “literally.” (i.e., what does “remember” their altars mean?). Hence it has been rendered “always think about.” Another possibility would be “have their altars…on their minds.”

[17:2]  ⁸ tc This reading follows many Hebrew mss and ancient versions. Many other Hebrew mss read “your” [masc. pl.].

[17:2]  ⁹ sn Sacred poles dedicated to…Asherah. A leading deity of the Canaanite pantheon was Asherah, wife/sister of El and goddess of fertility. She was commonly worshiped at shrines in or near groves of evergreen trees, or, failing that, at places marked by wooden poles (Hebrew אֲשֵׁרִים [’asherim], plural). They were to be burned or cut down (Deut 7:5; 12:3; 16:21; Judg 6:25, 28, 30; 2 Kgs 18:4).

[30:8]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “And it shall happen in that day.”

[30:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Oracle of Yahweh of armies.” See the study note on 2:19 for explanation of the title for God.

[30:8]  ¹² tn Heb “I will break his yoke from upon your neck.” For the explanation of the figure see the study note on 27:2. The shift from third person at the end of v. 7 to second person in v. 8c, d and back to third person in v. 8e is typical of Hebrew poetry in the book of Psalms and in the prophetic books (cf., GKC 351 §114.p and compare usage in Deut 32:15; Isa 5:8 listed there). The present translation, like several other modern ones, has typically leveled them to the same person to avoid confusion for modern readers who are not accustomed to this poetic tradition.

[30:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “I will tear off their bands.” The “bands” are the leather straps which held the yoke bars in place (cf. 27:2). The metaphor of the “yoke on the neck” is continued. The translation reflects the sense of the metaphor but not the specific referent.

[9:17]  ¹⁴ tc The present translation follows a few medieval Hebrew MSS and the LXX in reading בְּמִצְרָיִם (bÿmitsrayim, “in Egypt”; so also NAB, NASB, NRSV, TEV, NLT) rather than the MT reading בְּמִרְיָם (bÿmiryam, “in their rebellion”).

[9:17]  ¹⁵ tc The translation follows the Qere reading חֶסֶד (khesed, “loyal love”) rather than the Kethib reading וְחֶסֶד (vÿkhesed, “and loyal love”) of the MT.

[9:29]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “if a man keep.” See note on the word “obey” in Neh 1:5.

[9:29]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “they gave a stubborn shoulder.”

[9:29]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “they stiffened their neck.”

[29:1]  ¹⁹ tn The idiom “to harden the neck” (מַקְשֶׁה־עֹרֶף, maqsheh-’oref) is the idea of resisting the rebukes and persisting in obstinacy (e.g., Exod 32:9). The opposite of a “stiff neck” would be the bending back, i.e., submission.

[29:1]  ²⁰ tn The Hebrew construction is אִישׁ תּוֹכָחוֹת (’ish tokhakhot, “a man of rebukes”), meaning “a man who has (or receives) many rebukes.” This describes a person who is deserving of punishment and who has been given many warnings. The text says, then, “a man of rebukes hardening himself.”

[29:1]  ²¹ sn The stubborn person refuses to listen; he will suddenly be destroyed when the calamity strikes (e.g., Prov 6:15; 13:18; 15:10).

[29:1]  ²² tn Or “healing” (NRSV).

[48:4]  ²³ tn The words “I did this” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. In the Hebrew text v. 4 is subordinated to v. 3.

[48:4]  ²⁴ sn The image is that of a person who has tensed the muscles of the face and neck as a sign of resolute refusal.

[7:51]  ²⁵ sn Traditionally, “stiff-necked people.” Now the critique begins in earnest.

[7:51]  ²⁶ tn The term ἀπερίτμητοι (aperitmhtoi, “uncircumcised”) is a NT hapax legomenon (occurs only once). See BDAG 101-2 s.v. ἀπερίτμητος and Isa 52:1.

[7:51]  ²⁷ tn Or “You stubborn and obstinate people!” (The phrase “uncircumcised hearts and ears” is another figure for stubbornness.)

[7:51]  ²⁸ tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”

[2:5]  ²⁹ tn Grk “hardness.” Concerning this imagery, see Jer 4:4; Ezek 3:7; 1 En. 16:3.

[2:5]  ³⁰ tn Grk “in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.”