Jeremiah 2:35

2:35 you say, ‘I have not done anything wrong,

so the Lord cannot really be angry with me any more.’

But, watch out! ¹  I will bring down judgment on you

because you say, ‘I have not committed any sin.’

Jeremiah 13:22

13:22 You will probably ask yourself, ² 

‘Why have these things happened to me?

Why have I been treated like a disgraced adulteress

whose skirt has been torn off and her limbs exposed?’ ³ 

It is because you have sinned so much. ⁴ 

Jeremiah 16:10

The Lord Promises Exile (But Also Restoration)

16:10 “When you tell these people about all this, ⁵  they will undoubtedly ask you, ‘Why has the Lord threatened us with such great disaster? What wrong have we done? What sin have we done to offend the Lord our God?’

Jeremiah 22:8-9

22:8 “‘People from other nations will pass by this city. They will ask one another, “Why has the Lord done such a thing to this great city?” 22:9 The answer will come back, “It is because they broke their covenant with the Lord their God and worshiped and served other gods.”

Deuteronomy 29:24-28

29:24 Then all the nations will ask, “Why has the Lord done all this to this land? What is this fierce, heated display of anger ⁶  all about?” 29:25 Then people will say, “Because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt. 29:26 They went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods they did not know and that he did not permit them to worship. ⁷  29:27 That is why the Lord’s anger erupted against this land, bringing on it all the curses ⁸  written in this scroll. 29:28 So the Lord has uprooted them from their land in anger, wrath, and great rage and has deported them to another land, as is clear today.”

Deuteronomy 29:1

Narrative Interlude

29:1 (28:69) ⁹  These are the words of the covenant that the Lord commanded Moses to make with the people of Israel in the land of Moab, in addition to the covenant he had made with them at Horeb. ¹⁰ 

Deuteronomy 9:8-9

9:8 At Horeb you provoked him and he was angry enough with you to destroy you. 9:9 When I went up the mountain to receive the stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant that the Lord made with you, I remained there ¹¹  forty days and nights, eating and drinking nothing.

Deuteronomy 9:2

9:2 They include the Anakites, ¹²  a numerous ¹³  and tall people whom you know about and of whom it is said, “Who is able to resist the Anakites?”

Deuteronomy 7:21-22

7:21 You must not tremble in their presence, for the Lord your God, who is present among you, is a great and awesome God. 7:22 He, ¹⁴  the God who leads you, will expel the nations little by little. You will not be allowed to destroy them all at once lest the wild animals overrun you.

[2:35]  ¹ tn This is an attempt to render the Hebrew particle often translated “behold” (הִנֵּה, hinneh) in a meaningful way in this context. See further the translator’s note on the word “really” in 1:6.

[13:22]  ² tn Heb “say in your heart.”

[13:22]  ³ tn Heb “Your skirt has been uncovered and your heels have been treated with violence.” This is the generally accepted interpretation of these phrases. See, e.g., BDB 784 s.v. עָקֵב a and HALOT 329 s.v. I חָמַס Nif. The significance of the actions here are part of the metaphor (i.e., personification) of Jerusalem as an adulteress having left her husband and have been explained in the translation for the sake of readers unfamiliar with the metaphor.

[13:22]  ⁴ tn The translation has been restructured to break up a long sentence involving a conditional clause and an elliptical consequential clause. It has also been restructured to define more clearly what “these things” are. The Hebrew text reads: “And if you say, ‘Why have these things happened to me?’ Because of the greatness of your iniquity your skirts [= what your skirt covers] have been uncovered and your heels have been treated with violence.”

[16:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “all these words/things.”

[29:24]  ⁶ tn Heb “this great burning of anger”; KJV “the heat of this great anger.”

[29:26]  ⁷ tn Heb “did not assign to them”; NASB, NRSV “had not allotted to them.”

[29:27]  ⁸ tn Heb “the entire curse.”

[29:1]  ⁹ sn Beginning with 29:1, the verse numbers through 29:29 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 29:1 ET = 28:69 HT, 29:2 ET = 29:1 HT, 29:3 ET = 29:2 HT, etc., through 29:29 ET = 29:28 HT. With 30:1 the verse numbers in the ET and HT are again the same.

[29:1]  ¹⁰ sn Horeb is another name for Mount Sinai (which some English versions substitute here for clarity, cf. NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT).

[9:9]  ¹¹ tn Heb “in the mountain.” The demonstrative pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[9:2]  ¹² sn Anakites. See note on this term in Deut 1:28.

[9:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “great and tall.” Many English versions understand this to refer to physical size or strength rather than numbers (cf. “strong,” NIV, NCV, NRSV, NLT).

[7:22]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in 7:19.