Jeremiah 2:13

2:13 “Do so because my people have committed a double wrong:

they have rejected me,

the fountain of life-giving water, ¹ 

and they have dug cisterns for themselves,

cracked cisterns which cannot even hold water.”

Jeremiah 2:17

2:17 You have brought all this on yourself, Israel, ² 

by deserting the Lord your God when he was leading you along the right path. ³ 

Jeremiah 15:6

15:6 I, the Lord, say: ⁴  ‘You people have deserted me!

You keep turning your back on me.’ ⁵ 

So I have unleashed my power against you ⁶  and have begun to destroy you. ⁷ 

I have grown tired of feeling sorry for you!” ⁸ 

Jeremiah 16:11

16:11 Then tell them that the Lord says, ⁹  ‘It is because your ancestors ¹⁰  rejected me and paid allegiance to ¹¹  other gods. They have served them and worshiped them. But they have rejected me and not obeyed my law. ¹² 

Jeremiah 17:13

17:13 You are the one in whom Israel may find hope. ¹³ 

All who leave you will suffer shame.

Those who turn away from you ¹⁴  will be consigned to the nether world. ¹⁵ 

For they have rejected you, the Lord, the fountain of life. ¹⁶ 

Jeremiah 19:4

19:4 I will do so because these people ¹⁷  have rejected me and have defiled ¹⁸  this place. They have offered sacrifices in it to other gods which neither they nor their ancestors ¹⁹  nor the kings of Judah knew anything about. They have filled it with the blood of innocent children. ²⁰ 

Deuteronomy 28:20

Curses by Disease and Drought

28:20 “The Lord will send on you a curse, confusing you and opposing you ²¹  in everything you undertake ²²  until you are destroyed and quickly perish because of the evil of your deeds, in that you have forsaken me. ²³ 

Deuteronomy 31:16

31:16 Then the Lord said to Moses, “You are about to die, ²⁴  and then these people will begin to prostitute themselves with the foreign gods of the land into which they ²⁵  are going. They ²⁶  will reject ²⁷  me and break my covenant that I have made with them. ²⁸ 

Joshua 24:20

24:20 If ²⁹  you abandon the Lord and worship ³⁰  foreign gods, he will turn against you; ³¹  he will bring disaster on you and destroy you, ³²  though he once treated you well.” ³³ 

Joshua 24:2

24:2 Joshua told all the people, “Here is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘In the distant past your ancestors ³⁴  lived beyond the Euphrates River, ³⁵  including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor. They worshiped ³⁶  other gods,

Joshua 22:17

22:17 The sin we committed at Peor was bad enough. To this very day we have not purified ourselves; it even brought a plague on the community of the Lord. ³⁷ 

Joshua 22:2

22:2 and told them: “You have carried out all the instructions of Moses the Lord’s servant, and you have obeyed all I have told you. ³⁸ 

Joshua 7:19

7:19 So Joshua said to Achan, “My son, honor ³⁹  the Lord God of Israel and give him praise! Tell me what you did; don’t hide anything from me!”

Joshua 15:2

15:2 Their southern border started at the southern tip of the Salt Sea, ⁴⁰ 

Joshua 1:1

The Lord Commissions Joshua

1:1 After Moses the Lord’s servant died, the Lord said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ assistant:

[2:13]  ¹ tn It is difficult to decide whether to translate “fresh, running water” which the Hebrew term for “living water” often refers to (e.g., Gen 26:19; Lev 14:5), or “life-giving water” which the idiom “fountain of life” as source of life and vitality often refers to (e.g., Ps 36:9; Prov 13:14; 14:27). The contrast with cisterns, which collected and held rain water, suggests “fresh, running water,” but the reality underlying the metaphor contrasts the Lord, the source of life, health, and vitality, with useless idols that cannot do anything.

[2:17]  ² tn Heb “Are you not bringing this on yourself.” The question is rhetorical and expects a positive answer.

[2:17]  ³ tn Heb “at the time of leading you in the way.”

[15:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “oracle of the Lord.” In the original text this phrase is found between “you have deserted me” and “you keep turning your back on me.” It is put at the beginning and converted to first person for sake of English style and clarity.

[15:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “you are going backward.” This is the only occurrence of this adverb with this verb. It is often used with another verb meaning “turn backward” (= abandon; Heb סוּג [sug] in the Niphal). For examples see Jer 38:22; 46:5. The only other occurrence in Jeremiah has been in the unusual idiom in 7:24 where it was translated “they got worse and worse instead of better.” That is how J. Bright (Jeremiah [AB], 109) translates it here. However it is translated, it has connotations of apostasy.

[15:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “stretched out my hand against you.” For this idiom see notes on 6:12.

[15:6]  ⁷ tn There is a difference of opinion on how the verbs here and in the following verses are to be rendered, whether past or future. KJV, NASB, NIV for example render them as future. ASV, RSV, TEV render them as past. NJPS has past here and future in vv. 7-9. This is perhaps the best solution. The imperfect + vav consecutive here responds to the perfect in the first line. The imperfects + vav consecutives followed by perfects in vv. 7-9 and concluded by an imperfect in v. 9 pick up the perfects + vav (ו) consecutives in vv. 3-4. Verses 7-9 are further development of the theme in vv. 1-4. Verses 5-6 have been an apostrophe or a turning aside to address Jerusalem directly. For a somewhat similar alternation of the tenses see Isa 5:14-17 and consult GKC 329-30 §111.w. One could of course argue that the imperfects + vav consecutive in vv. 7-9 continue the imperfect + vav consecutive here. In this case, vv. 7-9 are not a continuation of the oracle of doom but another lament by God (cf. 14:1-6, 17-18).

[15:6]  ⁸ sn It is difficult to be sure what intertextual connections are intended by the author in his use of vocabulary. The Hebrew word translated “grown tired” is not very common. It has been used twice before. In 9:5-6b where it refers to the people being unable to repent and in 6:11 where it refers to Jeremiah being tired or unable to hold back his anger because of that inability. Now God too has worn out his patience with them (cf. Isa 7:13).

[16:11]  ⁹ tn These two sentences have been recast in English to break up a long Hebrew sentence and incorporate the oracular formula “says the Lord (Heb ‘oracle of the Lord’)” which occurs after “Your fathers abandoned me.” In Hebrew the two sentences read: “When you tell them these things and they say, ‘…’, then tell them, ‘Because your ancestors abandoned me,’ oracle of the Lord.”

[16:11]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 12, 13, 15, 19).

[16:11]  ¹¹ tn Heb “followed after.” See the translator’s note at 2:5 for the explanation of the idiom.

[16:11]  ¹² tn Heb “But me they have abandoned and my law they have not kept.” The objects are thrown forward to bring out the contrast which has rhetorical force. However, such a sentence in English would be highly unnatural.

[17:13]  ¹³ tn Heb “O glorious throne, O high place from the beginning, O hope of Israel, O Lord.” Commentators and translators generally understand these four lines (which are three in the Hebrew original) as two predications, one eulogizing the temple and the other eulogizing God. However, that does not fit the context very well and does not take into account the nature of Jeremiah’s doxology in Jeremiah 16:19-20 (and compare also 10:6-7). There the doxology is context motivated, focused on God, and calls on relevant attributes in the form of metaphorical epithets. That fits nicely here as well. For the relevant parallel passages see the study note.

[17:13]  ¹⁴ tc The translation is based on an emendation suggested in W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah (Hermeneia), 1:500, n. b-b. The emendation involves following the reading preferred by the Masoretes (the Qere) and understanding the preposition with the following word as a corruption of the suffix on it. Thus the present translation reads וּסוּרֶיךָ אֶרֶץ (usurekha ’erets) instead of וּסוּרַי בָּאֶרֶץ (usuray ba’erets, “and those who leave me will be written in the earth”), a reading which is highly improbable since all the other pronouns are second singular.

[17:13]  ¹⁵ tn Or “to the world of the dead.” An alternative interpretation is: “will be as though their names were written in the dust”; Heb “will be written in the dust.” The translation follows the nuance of “earth” listed in HALOT 88 s.v. אֶרֶץ 4 and found in Jonah 2:6 (2:7 HT); Job 10:21-22. For the nuance of “enrolling, registering among the number” for the verb translated here “consign” see BDB 507 s.v. כָּתַב Qal.3 and 508 s.v. Niph.2 and compare usage in Ezek 13:9 and Ps 69:28 (69:29 HT).

[17:13]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “The fountain of living water.” For an earlier use of this metaphor and the explanation of it see Jer 2:13 and the notes there. There does not appear to be any way to retain this metaphor in the text without explaining it. In the earlier text the context would show that literal water was not involved. Here it might still be assumed that the Lord merely gives life-giving water.

[19:4]  ¹⁷ 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]  ¹⁸ 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]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “fathers.”

[19:4]  ²⁰ 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.

[28:20]  ²¹ tn Heb “the curse, the confusion, and the rebuke” (NASB and NIV similar); NRSV “disaster, panic, and frustration.”

[28:20]  ²² tn Heb “in all the stretching out of your hand.”

[28:20]  ²³ tc For the MT first person common singular suffix (“me”), the LXX reads either “Lord” (Lucian) or third person masculine singular suffix (“him”; various codices). The MT’s more difficult reading probably represents the original text.

[31:16]  ²⁴ tn Heb “lie down with your fathers” (so NASB); NRSV “ancestors.”

[31:16]  ²⁵ tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they,” which is necessary in any case in the translation because of contemporary English style. The third person singular also occurs in the Hebrew text twice more in this verse, three times in v. 17, once in v. 18, five times in v. 20, and four times in v. 21. Each time it is translated as third person plural for stylistic reasons.

[31:16]  ²⁶ tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:16]  ²⁷ tn Or “abandon” (TEV, NLT).

[31:16]  ²⁸ tn Heb “him.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “them.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[24:20]  ²⁹ tn Or “when.”

[24:20]  ³⁰ tn Or “and serve.”

[24:20]  ³¹ tn The words “against you” are added for clarification.

[24:20]  ³² tn Heb “bring you to an end.”

[24:20]  ³³ tn Heb “after he did good for you.”

[24:2]  ³⁴ tn Heb “your fathers.”

[24:2]  ³⁵ tn Heb “the river,” referring to the Euphrates. This has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[24:2]  ³⁶ tn Or “served.”

[22:17]  ³⁷ tn Heb “Was the sin of Peor too insignificant for us, from which we have not made purification to this day? And there was a plague in the assembly of the Lord.”

[22:2]  ³⁸ tn Heb “You have kept all which Moses, the Lord’s servant, commanded you, and you have listened to my voice, to all which I commanded you.”

[7:19]  ³⁹ tn Heb “give glory to.”

[15:2]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “Their southern border was from the end of the Salt Sea, from the tongue that faces to the south.”