Jeremiah 3:11

3:11 Then the Lord said to me, “Under the circumstances, wayward Israel could even be considered less guilty than unfaithful Judah. ¹ 

Jeremiah 17:2

17:2 Their children are always thinking about ²  their ³  altars

and their sacred poles dedicated to the goddess Asherah, ⁴ 

set up beside the green trees on the high hills

Jeremiah 37:16

37:16 So ⁵  Jeremiah was put in prison in a cell in the dungeon in Jonathan’s house. ⁶  He ⁷  was kept there for a long time.

Jeremiah 52:14

52:14 The whole Babylonian army that came with the captain of the royal guard tore down the walls that surrounded Jerusalem.

[3:11]  ¹ tn Heb “Wayward Israel has proven herself to be more righteous than unfaithful Judah.”

[17:2]  ² tn It is difficult to convey in good English style the connection between this verse and the preceding. The text does not have a finite verb but a temporal preposition with an infinitive: Heb “while their children remember their altars…” It is also difficult to translate the verb “literally.” (i.e., what does “remember” their altars mean?). Hence it has been rendered “always think about.” Another possibility would be “have their altars…on their minds.”

[17:2]  ³ tc This reading follows many Hebrew mss and ancient versions. Many other Hebrew mss read “your” [masc. pl.].

[17:2]  ⁴ sn Sacred poles dedicated to…Asherah. A leading deity of the Canaanite pantheon was Asherah, wife/sister of El and goddess of fertility. She was commonly worshiped at shrines in or near groves of evergreen trees, or, failing that, at places marked by wooden poles (Hebrew אֲשֵׁרִים [’asherim], plural). They were to be burned or cut down (Deut 7:5; 12:3; 16:21; Judg 6:25, 28, 30; 2 Kgs 18:4).

[37:16]  ³ tn The particle כִּי (ki) here is probably temporal, introducing the protasis to the main clause in v. 17 (cf. BDB 473 s.v. כִּי 2.a). However, that would make the translation too long, so the present translation does what several modern English versions do here, though there are no parallels listed for this nuance in the lexicons.

[37:16]  ⁴ tn Heb “Jeremiah came into the house of the pit [= “dungeon,” BDB 92 s.v. בּוֹר 4 and compare usage in Gen 40:15; 41:14] and into the cells [this word occurs only here; it is defined on the basis of the cognate languages (cf. BDB 333 s.v. חָנוּת)].” The sentence has been restructured and some words supplied in the translation to better relate it to the preceding context.

[37:16]  ⁵ tn Heb “Jeremiah.” But the proper name is somewhat redundant and unnecessary in a modern translation.