Jeremiah 2:30

2:30 “It did no good for me to punish your people.

They did not respond to such correction.

You slaughtered your prophets

like a voracious lion.” ¹ 

Jeremiah 12:8

12:8 The people I call my own ²  have turned on me

like a lion ³  in the forest.

They have roared defiantly ⁴  at me.

So I will treat them as though I hate them. ⁵ 

[2:30]  ¹ tn Heb “Your sword devoured your prophets like a destroying lion.” However, the reference to the sword in this and many similar idioms is merely idiomatic for death by violent means.

[12:8]  ² tn See the note on the previous verse.

[12:8]  ³ tn Heb “have become to me like a lion.”

[12:8]  ⁴ tn Heb “have given against me with her voice.”

[12:8]  ⁵ tn Or “so I will reject her.” The word “hate” is sometimes used in a figurative way to refer to being neglected, i.e., treated as though unloved. In these contexts it does not have the same emotive connotations that a typical modern reader would associate with hate. See Gen 29:31, 33 and E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 556.