Jeremiah 3:2

3:2 “Look up at the hilltops and consider this. ¹ 

You have had sex with other gods on every one of them. ² 

You waited for those gods like a thief lying in wait in the desert. ³ 

You defiled the land by your wicked prostitution to other gods. ⁴ 

Jeremiah 5:3

5:3 Lord, I know you look for faithfulness. ⁵ 

But even when you punish these people, they feel no remorse. ⁶ 

Even when you nearly destroy them, they refuse to be corrected.

They have become as hardheaded as a rock. ⁷ 

They refuse to change their ways. ⁸ 

Jeremiah 22:17

22:17 But you are always thinking and looking

for ways to increase your wealth by dishonest means.

Your eyes and your heart are set

on killing some innocent person

and committing fraud and oppression. ⁹ 

Jeremiah 32:19

32:19 You plan great things and you do mighty deeds. ¹⁰  You see everything people do. ¹¹  You reward each of them for the way they live and for the things they do. ¹² 

[3:2]  ¹ tn Heb “and see.”

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

[3:2]  ⁴ 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.

[5:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “O Lord, are your eyes not to faithfulness?” The question is rhetorical and expects a positive answer.

[5:3]  ⁶ tn Commentaries and lexicons debate the meaning of the verb here. The MT is pointed as though from a verb meaning “to writhe in anguish or contrition” (חוּל [khul]; see, e.g., BDB 297 s.v. חוּל 2.c), but some commentaries and lexicons repoint the text as though from a verb meaning “to be sick,” thus “to feel pain” (חָלָה [khalah]; see, e.g., HALOT 304 s.v. חָלָה 3). The former appears more appropriate to the context.

[5:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “They made their faces as hard as a rock.”

[5:3]  ⁸ tn Or “to repent”; Heb “to turn back.”

[22:17]  ⁹ tn Heb “Your eyes and your heart do not exist except for dishonest gain and for innocent blood to shed [it] and for fraud and for oppression to do [them].” The sentence has been broken up to conform more to English style and the significance of “eyes” and “heart” explained before they are introduced into the translation.

[32:19]  ¹³ tn Heb “[you are] great in counsel and mighty in deed.”

[32:19]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “your eyes are open to the ways of the sons of men.”

[32:19]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “giving to each according to his way [= behavior/conduct] and according to the fruit of his deeds.”