Jeremiah 2:28

2:28 But where are the gods you made for yourselves?

Let them save you when you are in trouble.

The sad fact is that ¹  you have as many gods

as you have towns, Judah.

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. ² 

Doing that would utterly defile the land. ³ 

But you, Israel, have given yourself as a prostitute to many gods. ⁴ 

So what makes you think you can return to me?” ⁵ 

says the Lord.

3:2 “Look up at the hilltops and consider this. ⁶ 

You have had sex with other gods on every one of them. ⁷ 

You waited for those gods like a thief lying in wait in the desert. ⁸ 

You defiled the land by your wicked prostitution to other gods. ⁹ 

Deuteronomy 32:16-17

32:16 They made him jealous with other gods, ¹⁰ 

they enraged him with abhorrent idols. ¹¹ 

32:17 They sacrificed to demons, not God,

to gods they had not known;

to new gods who had recently come along,

gods your ancestors ¹²  had not known about.

Deuteronomy 32:2

32:2 My teaching will drop like the rain,

my sayings will drip like the dew, ¹³ 

as rain drops upon the grass,

and showers upon new growth.

Deuteronomy 23:4-5

23:4 for they did not meet you with food and water on the way as you came from Egypt, and furthermore, they hired ¹⁴  Balaam son of Beor of Pethor in Aram Naharaim to curse you. 23:5 But the Lord your God refused to listen to Balaam and changed ¹⁵  the curse to a blessing, for the Lord your God loves ¹⁶  you.

Deuteronomy 23:13

23:13 You must have a spade among your other equipment and when you relieve yourself ¹⁷  outside you must dig a hole with the spade ¹⁸  and then turn and cover your excrement. ¹⁹ 

Isaiah 2:8

2:8 Their land is full of worthless idols;

they worship ²⁰  the product of their own hands,

what their own fingers have fashioned.

Hosea 12:11

12:11 Is there idolatry ²¹  in Gilead? ²² 

Certainly its inhabitants ²³  will come to nothing! ²⁴ 

Do they sacrifice bulls in Gilgal?

Surely their altars will be like stones heaped up on a plowed field!

[2:28]  ¹ tn This is an attempt to render the Hebrew particle כִּי (ki, “for, indeed”) contextually.

[3:1]  ² tn Heb “May he go back to her again?” The question is rhetorical and expects a negative answer.

[3:1]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn Heb “But you have played the prostitute with many lovers.”

[3:1]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn Heb “and see.”

[3:2]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ tn Heb “You sat for them [the lovers, i.e., the foreign gods] beside the road like an Arab in the desert.”

[3:2]  ⁹ 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.

[32:16]  ¹⁰ tc Heb “with strange (things).” The Vulgate actually supplies diis (“gods”).

[32:16]  ¹¹ tn Heb “abhorrent (things)” (cf. NRSV). A number of English versions understand this as referring to “idols” (NAB, NIV, NCV, CEV), while NLT supplies “acts.”

[32:17]  ¹² tn Heb “your fathers.”

[32:2]  ¹³ tn Or “mist,” “light drizzle.” In some contexts the term appears to refer to light rain, rather than dew.

[23:4]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “hired against you.”

[23:5]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the Lord your God changed.” The phrase “the Lord your God” has not been included in the translation here for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy. Moreover, use of the pronoun “he” could create confusion regarding the referent (the Lord or Balaam).

[23:5]  ¹⁶ tn The verb אָהַב (’ahav, “love”) here and commonly elsewhere in the Book of Deuteronomy speaks of God’s elective grace toward Israel. See note on the word “loved” in Deut 4:37.

[23:13]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “sit.” This expression is euphemistic.

[23:13]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “with it”; the referent (the spade mentioned at the beginning of the verse) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[23:13]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “what comes from you,” a euphemism.

[2:8]  ²⁰ tn Or “bow down to” (NIV, NRSV).

[12:11]  ²¹ tn The noun אָוֶן (’aven) has a broad range of meanings which includes: (1) “wickedness, sin, injustice” (2) “deception, nothingness,” and (3) “idolatry, idolatrous cult” (HALOT 22 s.v. אָוֶן; BDB 19 s.v. אָוֶן). While any of these meanings would fit the present context, the second-half of the verse refers to cultic sins, suggesting that Hosea is denouncing Gilead for its idolatry. Cf. NLT “Gilead is filled with sinners who worship idols.”

[12:11]  ²² tn The introductory deictic particle אִם (’im) functions as an interrogative and introduces an interrogative clause: “Is there…?” (see HALOT 60 s.v. אִם 5; BDB 50 s.v. אִם 2). The LXX assumed that אִם was being used in its more common function as a conditional particle: “If there….”

[12:11]  ²³ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the inhabitants of Gilead) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[12:11]  ²⁴ tn The noun שָׁוְא (shav’, “emptiness, nothing”), which describes the imminent judgment of the people of Gilead, creates a wordplay in Hebrew with the noun אָוֶן (’aven, “nothingness” = idolatry). Because Gilead worshiped “nothingness” (idols), it would become “nothing” (i.e., be destroyed).