Jeremiah 3:6

3:6 When Josiah was king of Judah, the Lord said to me, “Jeremiah, you have no doubt seen what wayward Israel has done. ¹  You have seen how she went up to every high hill and under every green tree to give herself like a prostitute to other gods. ² 

Jeremiah 7:28

7:28 So tell them: ‘This is a nation that has not obeyed the Lord their God and has not accepted correction. Faithfulness is nowhere to be found in it. These people do not even profess it anymore. ³ 

Jeremiah 8:6

8:6 I have listened to them very carefully, ⁴ 

but they do not speak honestly.

None of them regrets the evil he has done.

None of them says, “I have done wrong!” ⁵ 

All of them persist in their own wayward course ⁶ 

like a horse charging recklessly into battle.

Jeremiah 8:8

8:8 How can you say, “We are wise!

We have the law of the Lord”?

The truth is, ⁷  those who teach it ⁸  have used their writings

to make it say what it does not really mean. ⁹ 

Jeremiah 8:10

8:10 ¹⁰ So I will give their wives to other men

and their fields to new owners.

For from the least important to the most important of them,

all of them are greedy for dishonest gain.

Prophets and priests alike,

all practice deceit.

Jeremiah 12:4

12:4 How long must the land be parched ¹¹ 

and the grass in every field be withered?

How long ¹²  must the animals and the birds die

because of the wickedness of the people who live in this land? ¹³ 

For these people boast,

“God ¹⁴  will not see what happens to us.” ¹⁵ 

Jeremiah 15:18

15:18 Why must I continually suffer such painful anguish?

Why must I endure the sting of their insults like an incurable wound?

Will you let me down when I need you

like a brook one goes to for water, but that cannot be relied on?” ¹⁶ 

Jeremiah 23:28

23:28 Let the prophet who has had a dream go ahead and tell his dream. Let the person who has received my message report that message faithfully. What is like straw cannot compare to what is like grain! ¹⁷  I, the Lord, affirm it! ¹⁸ 

Jeremiah 27:13

27:13 There is no reason why you and your people should die in war ¹⁹  or from starvation or disease! ²⁰  That’s what the Lord says will happen to any nation ²¹  that will not be subject to the king of Babylon.

Jeremiah 30:6

30:6 Ask yourselves this and consider it carefully: ²² 

Have you ever seen a man give birth to a baby?

Why then do I see all these strong men

grabbing their stomachs in pain like ²³  a woman giving birth?

And why do their faces

turn so deathly pale?

Jeremiah 42:6

42:6 We will obey what the Lord our God to whom we are sending you tells us to do. It does not matter whether we like what he tells us or not. We will obey what he tells us to do so that things will go well for us.” ²⁴ 

[3:6]  ¹ tn “Have you seen…” The question is rhetorical and expects a positive answer.

[3:6]  ² tn Heb “she played the prostitute there.” This is a metaphor for Israel’s worship; she gave herself to the worship of other gods like a prostitute gives herself to her lovers. There seems no clear way to completely spell out the metaphor in the translation.

[7:28]  ³ tn Heb “Faithfulness has vanished. It is cut off from their lips.”

[8:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “I have paid attention and I have listened.” This is another case of two concepts being joined by “and” where one expresses the main idea and the other acts as an adverbial or adjectival modifier (a figure called hendiadys).

[8:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “What have I done?” The addition of the word “wrong” is implicit in the context and is supplied in the translation for clarity. The rhetorical question does not function as a denial of wrongdoing, but rather as contrite shock at one’s own wrongdoing. It is translated as a declaration for the sake of clarity.

[8:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “each one of them turns aside into their own running course.”

[8:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “Surely, behold!”

[8:8]  ⁸ tn Heb “the scribes.”

[8:8]  ⁹ tn Heb “The lying pen of the scribes have made [it] into a lie.” The translation is an attempt to make the most common interpretation of this passage understandable for the average reader. This is, however, a difficult passage whose interpretation is greatly debated and whose syntax is capable of other interpretations. The interpretation of the NJPS, “Assuredly, for naught has the pen labored, for naught the scribes,” surely deserves consideration within the context; i.e. it hasn’t done any good for the scribes to produce a reliable copy of the law, which the people have refused to follow. That interpretation has the advantage of explaining the absence of an object for the verb “make” or “labored” but creates a very unbalanced poetic couplet.

[8:10]  ⁹ sn See Jer 6:12-15 for parallels to 8:10-12. The words of Jeremiah to the people may have been repeated on more than one occasion or have been found appropriate to more than one of his collection of messages in written and edited form. See Jer 36:4 and Jer 36:28 for reference to at least two of these collections.

[12:4]  ¹¹ tn The verb here is often translated “mourn.” However, this verb is from a homonymic root meaning “to be dry” (cf. HALOT 7 s.v. II אָבַל and compare Hos 4:3 for usage).

[12:4]  ¹² tn The words “How long” are not in the text. They are carried over from the first line.

[12:4]  ¹³ tn Heb “because of the wickedness of those who live in it.”

[12:4]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “he.” The referent is usually identified as God and is supplied here for clarity. Some identify the referent with Jeremiah. If that is the case, then he returns to his complaint about the conspirators. It is more likely, however, that it refers to God and Jeremiah’s complaint that the people live their lives apart from concern about God.

[12:4]  ¹⁵ tc Or reading with the Greek version, “God does not see what we are doing.” In place of “what will happen to us (אַחֲרִיתֵנוּ, ’akharitenu, “our end”) the Greek version understands a Hebrew text which reads “our ways” (אָרְחוֹתֵנו, ’orkhotenu), which is graphically very close to the MT. The Masoretic is supported by the Latin and is retained here on the basis of external evidence. Either text makes good sense in the context. Some identify the “he” with Jeremiah and understand the text to be saying that the conspirators are certain that they will succeed and he will not live to see his prophecies fulfilled.

[15:18]  ¹³ tn Heb “Will you be to me like a deceptive (brook), like waters which do not last [or are not reliable].”

[23:28]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “What to the straw with [in comparison with] the grain?” This idiom represents an emphatic repudiation or denial of relationship. See, for example, the usage in 2 Sam 16:10 and note BDB 553 s.v. מָה 1.d(c).

[23:28]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[27:13]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “with/by the sword.”

[27:13]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “Why should you and your people die…?” The rhetorical question expects the answer made explicit in the translation, “There is no reason!”

[27:13]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “…disease according to what the Lord spoke concerning the nation that…”

[30:6]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “Ask and see/consider.”

[30:6]  ²⁰ tn Heb “with their hands on their loins.” The word rendered “loins” refers to the area between the ribs and the thighs.

[42:6]  ²¹ tn Heb “Whether good or whether evil we will hearken to the voice of the Lord our God to whom we are sending you in order that it may go well for us because/when we hearken to the voice of the Lord our God.” The phrase “whether good or whether evil” is an abbreviated form of the idiomatic expressions “to be good in the eyes of” = “to be pleasing to” (BDB 374 s.v. טוֹב 2.f and see 1 Kgs 21:2) and “to be bad in the eyes of” = “to be displeasing to” (BDB 948 s.v. רַע 3 and see Num 22:34). The longer Hebrew sentence has been broken down and restructured to better conform with contemporary English style.