Jeremiah 2:23

2:23 “How can you say, ‘I have not made myself unclean.

I have not paid allegiance to ¹  the gods called Baal.’

Just look at the way you have behaved in the Valley of Hinnom! ² 

Think about the things you have done there!

You are like a flighty, young female camel

that rushes here and there, crisscrossing its path. ³ 

Jeremiah 2:36

2:36 Why do you constantly go about

changing your political allegiances? ⁴ 

You will get no help from Egypt

just as you got no help from Assyria. ⁵ 

Jeremiah 3:1-2

3:1 “If a man divorces his wife

and she leaves him and becomes another man’s wife,

he may not take her back again. ⁶ 

Doing that would utterly defile the land. ⁷ 

But you, Israel, have given yourself as a prostitute to many gods. ⁸ 

So what makes you think you can return to me?” ⁹ 

says the Lord.

3:2 “Look up at the hilltops and consider this. ¹⁰ 

You have had sex with other gods on every one of them. ¹¹ 

You waited for those gods like a thief lying in wait in the desert. ¹² 

You defiled the land by your wicked prostitution to other gods. ¹³ 

Isaiah 57:7-10

57:7 On every high, elevated hill you prepare your bed;

you go up there to offer sacrifices.

57:8 Behind the door and doorpost you put your symbols. ¹⁴ 

Indeed, ¹⁵  you depart from me ¹⁶  and go up

and invite them into bed with you. ¹⁷ 

You purchase favors from them, ¹⁸ 

you love their bed,

and gaze longingly ¹⁹  on their genitals. ²⁰ 

57:9 You take olive oil as tribute ²¹  to your king, ²² 

along with many perfumes. ²³ 

You send your messengers to a distant place;

you go all the way to Sheol. ²⁴ 

57:10 Because of the long distance you must travel, you get tired, ²⁵ 

but you do not say, ‘I give up.’ ²⁶ 

You get renewed energy, ²⁷ 

so you don’t collapse. ²⁸ 

Hosea 2:5-7

2:5 For their mother has committed adultery;

she who conceived them has acted shamefully.

For she said, “I will seek out ²⁹  my lovers; ³⁰ 

they are the ones who give me my bread and my water,

my wool, my flax, my olive oil, and my wine. ³¹ 

The Lord’s Discipline Will Bring Israel Back

2:6 Therefore, I will soon ³²  fence her in ³³  with thorns;

I will wall her in ³⁴  so that ³⁵  she cannot find her way. ³⁶ 

2:7 Then she will pursue her lovers, but she will not catch ³⁷  them;

she will seek them, but she will not find them. ³⁸ 

Then she will say,

“I will go back ³⁹  to my husband, ⁴⁰ 

because I was better off then than I am now.” ⁴¹ 

Hosea 2:13

2:13 “I will punish her for the festival days

when she burned incense to the Baal idols; ⁴² 

she adorned herself with earrings and jewelry,

and went after her lovers,

but ⁴³  she forgot me!” ⁴⁴  says the Lord.

[2:23]  ¹ tn Heb “I have not gone/followed after.” See the translator’s note on 2:5 for the meaning and usage of this idiom.

[2:23]  ² tn Heb “Look at your way in the valley.” The valley is an obvious reference to the Valley of Hinnom where Baal and Molech were worshiped and child sacrifice was practiced.

[2:23]  ³ sn The metaphor is intended to depict Israel’s lack of clear direction and purpose without the Lord’s control.

[2:36]  ⁴ tn Heb “changing your way.” The translation follows the identification of the Hebrew verb here as a defective writing of a form (תֵּזְלִי [tezÿli] instead of תֵּאזְלִי [te’zÿli]) from a verb meaning “go/go about” (אָזַל [’azal]; cf. BDB 23 s.v. אָזַל). Most modern English versions, commentaries, and lexicons read it from a root meaning “to treat cheaply [or lightly]” (תָּזֵלִּי [tazelli] from the root זָלַל (zalal); cf. HALOT 261 s.v. זָלַל); hence, “Why do you consider it such a small matter to…”

[2:36]  ⁵ tn Heb “You will be ashamed/disappointed by Egypt, just as you were ashamed/ disappointed by Assyria.”

[3:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “May he go back to her again?” The question is rhetorical and expects a negative answer.

[3:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “Would the land not be utterly defiled?” The stative is here rendered actively to connect better with the preceding. The question is rhetorical and expects a positive answer.

[3:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “But you have played the prostitute with many lovers.”

[3:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “Returning to me.” The form is the bare infinitive which the KJV and ASV have interpreted as an imperative “Yet, return to me!” However, it is more likely that a question is intended, expressing surprise in the light of the law alluded to and the facts cited. For the use of the infinitive absolute in the place of a finite verb, cf. GKC 346 §113.ee. For the introduction of a question without a question marker, cf. GKC 473 §150.a.

[3:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and see.”

[3:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Where have you not been ravished?” The rhetorical question expects the answer “nowhere,” which suggests she has engaged in the worship of pagan gods on every one of the hilltops.

[3:2]  ¹² tn Heb “You sat for them [the lovers, i.e., the foreign gods] beside the road like an Arab in the desert.”

[3:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “by your prostitution and your wickedness.” This is probably an example of hendiadys where, when two nouns are joined by “and,” one expresses the main idea and the other qualifies it.

[57:8]  ¹⁴ tn The precise referent of זִכָּרוֹן (zikkaron) in this context is uncertain. Elsewhere the word refers to a memorial or commemorative sign. Here it likely refers to some type of idolatrous symbol.

[57:8]  ¹⁵ tn Or “for” (KJV, NRSV).

[57:8]  ¹⁶ tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “from me you uncover.” The translation assumes an emendation of the Piel form גִּלִּית (gillit, “you uncover”), which has no object expressed here, to the Qal גָּלִית (galit, “you depart”).

[57:8]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “you make wide your bed” (NASB similar).

[57:8]  ¹⁸ tc Heb “and you [second masculine singular, unless the form be taken as third feminine singular] cut for yourself [feminine singular] from them.” Most English translations retain the MT reading in spite of at least three problems. This section makes significant use of feminine verbs and noun suffixes because of the sexual imagery. The verb in question is likely a 2nd person masculine singular verb. Nevertheless, this kind of fluctuation in gender appears elsewhere (GKC 127-28 §47.k and 462 §144.p; cf. Jer 3:5; Ezek 22:4; 23:32; cf. J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah [NICOT], 2:473, n. 13). Secondly, when this verbal root signifies establishing a covenant, it is normally accompanied by the noun for “covenant” (בְּרִית, bÿrit). Finally, this juxtaposition of the verb “to cut” and “covenant” normally is followed by the preposition “with,” while here it is “from.” The translation above assumes an emendation of וַתִּכְרָת (vatikhrah, “and you cut”) to וְכָרִית (vÿkharit, “and you purchase”) from the root כָּרָה (kharah); see HALOT 497 s.v. II כרה.

[57:8]  ¹⁹ tn The Hebrew text has simply חָזָה (khazah, “gaze”). The adverb “longingly” is interpretive (see the context, where sexual lust is depicted).

[57:8]  ²⁰ tn Heb “[at] a hand you gaze.” The term יָד (yad, “hand”) probably has the sense of “power, manhood” here, where it is used, as in Ugaritic, as a euphemism for the genitals. See HALOT 387 s.v. I יָד.

[57:9]  ²¹ tn Heb “you journey with oil.”

[57:9]  ²² tn Heb “the king.” Since the context refers to idolatry and child sacrifice (see v. 5), some emend מֶלֶך (melekh, “king”) to “Molech.” Perhaps Israel’s devotion to her idols is likened here to a subject taking tribute to a ruler.

[57:9]  ²³ tn Heb “and you multiply your perfumes.”

[57:9]  ²⁴ sn Israel’s devotion to her idols is inordinate, irrational, and self-destructive.

[57:10]  ²⁵ tn Heb “by the greatness [i.e., “length,” see BDB 914 s.v. רֹב 2] of your way you get tired.”

[57:10]  ²⁶ tn Heb “it is hopeless” (so NAB, NASB, NIV); NRSV “It is useless.”

[57:10]  ²⁷ tn Heb “the life of your hand you find.” The term חַיָּה (khayyah, “life”) is here used in the sense of “renewal” (see BDB 312 s.v.) while יָד (yad) is used of “strength.”

[57:10]  ²⁸ tn Heb “you do not grow weak.”

[2:5]  ²⁹ tn Heb “I will go after” (so KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV).

[2:5]  ³⁰ sn This statement alludes to the practice of sexual rites in the Canaanite fertility cult which attempted to secure agricultural fertility from the Canaanite gods (note the following reference to wool, flax, olive oil, and wine).

[2:5]  ³¹ tn Heb “my drinks.” Many English versions use the singular “drink” here, but cf. NCV, TEV, CEV “wine.”

[2:6]  ³² tn The deictic particle הִנְנִי (hinni, “Behold!”) introduces a future-time reference participle that refers to imminent future action: “I am about to” (TEV “I am going to”).

[2:6]  ³³ tn Heb “I will hedge up her way”; NIV “block her path.”

[2:6]  ³⁴ tn Heb “I will wall in her wall.” The cognate accusative construction וְגָדַרְתִּי אֶת־גְּדֵרָהּ (vÿgadarti ’et-gÿderah, “I will wall in her wall”) is an emphatic literary device. The 3rd person feminine singular suffix on the noun functions as a dative of disadvantage: “as a wall against her” (A. B. Davidson, Hebrew Syntax, 3, remark 2). The expression means “I will build a wall to bar her way.” Cf. KJV “I will make a wall”; TEV “I will build a wall”; RSV, NASB, NRSV “I will build a wall against her”; NLT “I will fence her in.”

[2:6]  ³⁵ tn The disjunctive clause (object followed by negated verb) introduces a clause which can be understood as either purpose or result.

[2:6]  ³⁶ tn Heb “her paths” (so NAB, NRSV).

[2:7]  ³⁷ tn Heb “overtake” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV); NLT “be able to catch up with.”

[2:7]  ³⁸ tn In the Hebrew text the accusative direct object pronoun אֹתָם (’otam, “them”) is omitted/elided for balanced poetic parallelism. The LXX supplies αὐτους (autous, “them”); but it is not necessary to emend the MT because this is a poetic literary convention rather than a textual problem.

[2:7]  ³⁹ tn Heb “I will go and return” (so NRSV). The two verbs joined with vav form a verbal hendiadys. Normally, the first verb functions adverbially and the second retains its full verbal sense (GKC 386-87 §120.d, h). The Hebrew phrase אֵלְכָה וְאָשׁוּבָה (’elkhah vÿ’ashuvah, “I will go and I will return”) connotes, “I will return again.” As cohortatives, both verbs emphasize the resolution of the speaker.

[2:7]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “to my man, the first.” Many English translations (e.g., KJV, NAB, NRSV, TEV) take this as “my first husband,” although this implies that there was more than one husband involved. The text refers to multiple lovers, but these were not necessarily husbands.

[2:7]  ⁴¹ tn Or “because it was better for me then than now” (cf. NCV).

[2:13]  ⁴² tn Heb “the days of the Baals, to whom she burned incense.” The word “festival” is supplied to clarify the referent of “days,” and the word “idols” is supplied in light of the plural “Baals” (cf. NLT “her images of Baal”).

[2:13]  ⁴³ tn The vav prefixed to a nonverb (וְאֹתִי, vé’oti) introduces a disjunctive contrastive clause, which is rhetorically powerful.

[2:13]  ⁴⁴ tn The accusative direct object pronoun וְאֹתִי (vé’oti, “me”) is emphatic in the word order of this clause (cf. NIV “but me she forgot”), emphasizing the heinous inappropriateness of Israel’s departure from the Lord.