Jeremiah 2:5

2:5 This is what the Lord says:

“What fault could your ancestors ¹  have possibly found in me

that they strayed so far from me? ² 

They paid allegiance to ³  worthless idols, and so became worthless to me. ⁴ 

Jeremiah 3:18

3:18 At that time ⁵  the nation of Judah and the nation of Israel will be reunited. ⁶  Together they will come back from a land in the north to the land that I gave to your ancestors as a permanent possession. ” ⁷ 

Jeremiah 7:22

7:22 Consider this: ⁸  When I spoke to your ancestors after I brought them out of Egypt, I did not merely give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices.

Jeremiah 17:22

17:22 Do not carry any loads out of your houses or do any work on the Sabbath day. ⁹  But observe the Sabbath day as a day set apart to the Lord, ¹⁰  as I commanded your ancestors. ¹¹ 

Jeremiah 34:13

34:13 “The Lord God of Israel has a message for you. ¹²  ‘I made a covenant with your ancestors ¹³  when I brought them out of Egypt where they had been slaves. ¹⁴  It stipulated, ¹⁵ 

Jeremiah 44:10

44:10 To this day your people ¹⁶  have shown no contrition! They have not revered me nor followed the laws and statutes I commanded ¹⁷  you and your ancestors.’

Jeremiah 7:25

7:25 From the time your ancestors departed the land of Egypt until now, ¹⁸  I sent my servants the prophets to you again and again, ¹⁹  day after day. ²⁰ 

Jeremiah 11:4

11:4 Those are the terms that I charged your ancestors ²¹  to keep ²²  when I brought them out of Egypt, that place which was like an iron-smelting furnace. ²³  I said at that time, ²⁴  “Obey me and carry out the terms of the agreement ²⁵  exactly as I commanded you. If you do, ²⁶  you will be my people and I will be your God. ²⁷ 

Jeremiah 16:11

16:11 Then tell them that the Lord says, ²⁸  ‘It is because your ancestors ²⁹  rejected me and paid allegiance to ³⁰  other gods. They have served them and worshiped them. But they have rejected me and not obeyed my law. ³¹ 

Jeremiah 34:14

34:14 “Every seven years each of you must free any fellow Hebrews who have sold themselves to you. After they have served you for six years, you shall set them free.” ³²  But your ancestors did not obey me or pay any attention to me.

Jeremiah 44:9

44:9 Have you forgotten all the wicked things that have been done in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem by your ancestors, by the kings of Judah and their ³³  wives, by you and your wives?

[2:5]  ¹ tn Heb “fathers.”

[2:5]  ² tn Or “I did not wrong your ancestors in any way. Yet they went far astray from me.” Both translations are an attempt to render the rhetorical question which demands a negative answer.

[2:5]  ³ tn Heb “They went/followed after.” This idiom is found most often in Deuteronomy or covenant contexts. It refers to loyalty to God and to his covenant or his commandments (e.g., 1 Kgs 14:8; 2 Chr 34:31) with the metaphor of a path or way underlying it (e.g., Deut 11:28; 28:14). To “follow other gods” was to abandon this way and this loyalty (i.e., to “abandon” or “forget” God, Judg 2:12; Hos 2:13) and to follow the customs or religious traditions of the pagan nations (e.g., 2 Kgs 17:15). The classic text on “following” God or another god is 1 Kgs 18:18, 21 where Elijah taunts the people with “halting between two opinions” whether the Lord was the true God or Baal was. The idiom is often found followed by “to serve and to worship” or “they served and worshiped” such and such a god or entity (see, e.g., Jer 8:2; 11:10; 13:10; 16:11; 25:6; 35:15).

[2:5]  ⁴ tn The words “to me” are not in the Hebrew text but are implicit from the context: Heb “they followed after the worthless thing/things and became worthless.” There is an obvious wordplay on the verb “became worthless” and the noun “worthless thing,” which is probably to be understood collectively and to refer to idols as it does in Jer 8:19; 10:8; 14:22; Jonah 2:8.

[3:18]  ⁵ tn Heb “In those days.”

[3:18]  ⁶ tn Heb “the house of Judah will walk together with the house of Israel.”

[3:18]  ⁷ tn Heb “the land that I gave your [fore]fathers as an inheritance.”

[7:22]  ⁹ tn Heb “For” but this introduces a long explanation about the relative importance of sacrifice and obedience.

[17:22]  ¹³ tn Heb “Do not carry any loads out of your houses on the Sabbath day and do not do any work.” Translating literally might give the wrong impression that they were not to work at all. The phrase “on the Sabbath day” is, of course, intended to qualify both prohibitions.

[17:22]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “But sanctify [or set apart as sacred] the Sabbath day.” The idea of setting it apart as something sacred to the Lord is implicit in the command. See the explicit statements of this in Exod 20:10; 31:5; 35:2; Lev 24:8. For some readers the idea of treating the Sabbath day as something sacred won’t mean much without spelling the qualification out specifically. Sabbath observance was not just a matter of not working.

[17:22]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “fathers.”

[34:13]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘…’” The style adopted here has been used to avoid a longer, more complex English sentence.

[34:13]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 14, 15).

[34:13]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “out of the house of bondage.”

[34:13]  ²⁰ tn Heb “made a covenant, saying.” This was only one of several stipulations of the covenant. The form used here has been chosen as an indirect way of relating the specific stipulation that is being focused upon to the general covenant that is referred to in v. 13.

[44:10]  ²¹ tn Heb “they” but as H. Freedman (Jeremiah [SoBB], 284) notes the third person is used here to include the people just referred to as well as the current addressees. Hence “your people” or “the people of Judah.” It is possible that the third person again reflects the rhetorical distancing that was referred to earlier in 35:16 (see the translator’s note there for explanation) in which case one might translate “you have shown,” and “you have not revered.”

[44:10]  ²² tn Heb “to set before.” According to BDB 817 s.v. פָּנֶה II.4.b(g) this refers to “propounding to someone for acceptance or choice.” This is clearly the usage in Deut 30:15, 19; Jer 21:8 and is likely the case here. However, to translate literally would not be good English idiom and “proposed to” might not be correctly understood, so the basic translation of נָתַן (natan) has been used here.

[7:25]  ²⁵ tn Heb “from the day your ancestors…until this very day.” However, “day” here is idiomatic for “the present time.”

[7:25]  ²⁶ tn On the Hebrew idiom see the note at 7:13.

[7:25]  ²⁷ tc There is some textual debate about the legitimacy of this expression here. The text reads merely “day” (יוֹם, yom). BHS suggests the word is to be deleted as a dittography of the plural ending of the preceding word. The word is in the Greek and Latin, and the Syriac represents the typical idiom “day after day” as though the noun were repeated. Either יוֹם has dropped out by haplography or a ם (mem) has been left out, i.e., reading יוֹמָם (yomam, “daily”).

[11:4]  ²⁹ tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 5, 7, 10).

[11:4]  ³⁰ tn Heb “does not listen…this covenant which I commanded your fathers.” The sentence is broken up this way in conformity with contemporary English style.

[11:4]  ³¹ tn Heb “out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron-smelting furnace.”

[11:4]  ³² tn In place of the words “I said at that time” the Hebrew text has “saying.” The sentence is again being restructured in English to avoid the long, confusing style of the Hebrew original.

[11:4]  ³³ tn Heb “Obey me and carry them out.” The “them” refers back to the terms of the covenant which they were charged to keep according to the preceding. The referent is made specific to avoid ambiguity.

[11:4]  ³⁴ tn The words, “If you do” are not in the text. They have been supplied in the translation to break up a long sentence consisting of an imperative followed by a consequential sentence.

[11:4]  ³⁵ sn Obey me and carry out the terms of the agreement…and I will be your God. This refers to the Mosaic law which was instituted at Sinai and renewed on the Plains of Moab before Israel entered into the land. The words “the terms of the covenant” are explicitly used for the Ten Commandments in Exod 34:28 and for the additional legislation given in Deut 28:69; 29:8. The formulation here is reminiscent of Deut 29:9-14 (29:10-15 HT). The book of Deuteronomy is similar in its structure and function to an ancient Near Eastern treaty. In these the great king reminded his vassal of past benefits that he had given to him, charged him with obligations (the terms or stipulations of the covenant) chief among which was absolute loyalty and sole allegiance, promised him future benefits for obeying the stipulations (the blessings), and placed him under a curse for disobeying them. Any disobedience was met with stern warnings of punishment in the form of destruction and exile. Those who had witnessed the covenant were called in to confirm the continuing goodness of the great king and the disloyalty of the vassal. The vassal was then charged with a list of particular infringements of the stipulations and warned to change his actions or suffer the consequences. This is the background for Jer 11:1-9. Jeremiah is here functioning as a messenger from the Lord, Israel’s great king, and charging both the fathers and the children with breach of covenant.

[16:11]  ³³ 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]  ³⁴ tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 12, 13, 15, 19).

[16:11]  ³⁵ tn Heb “followed after.” See the translator’s note at 2:5 for the explanation of the idiom.

[16:11]  ³⁶ 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.

[34:14]  ³⁷ sn Compare Deut 15:12-18 for the complete statement of this law. Here only the first part of it is cited.

[44:9]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “his.” This should not be viewed as a textual error but as a distributive singular use of the suffix, i.e., the wives of each of the kings of Judah (cf. GKC 464 §145.l and compare the usage in Isa 2:8; Hos 4:8).