Jeremiah 3:6-11

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  3:7 Yet even after she had done all that, I thought that she might come back to me. ³  But she did not. Her sister, unfaithful Judah, saw what she did. ⁴  3:8 She also saw ⁵  that I gave wayward Israel her divorce papers and sent her away because of her adulterous worship of other gods. ⁶  Even after her unfaithful sister Judah had seen this, ⁷  she still was not afraid, and she too went and gave herself like a prostitute to other gods. ⁸  3:9 Because she took her prostitution so lightly, she defiled the land ⁹  through her adulterous worship of gods made of wood and stone. ¹⁰  3:10 In spite of all this, ¹¹  Israel’s sister, unfaithful Judah, has not turned back to me with any sincerity; she has only pretended to do so,” ¹²  says the Lord. 3:11 Then the Lord said to me, “Under the circumstances, wayward Israel could even be considered less guilty than unfaithful Judah. ¹³ 

Jeremiah 31:32

31:32 It will not be like the old ¹⁴  covenant that I made with their ancestors ¹⁵  when I delivered them ¹⁶  from Egypt. For they violated that covenant, even though I was like a faithful husband to them,” ¹⁷  says the Lord. ¹⁸ 

Leviticus 26:15

26:15 if you reject my statutes and abhor my regulations so that you do not keep ¹⁹  all my commandments and you break my covenant –

Deuteronomy 31:16

31:16 Then the Lord said to Moses, “You are about to die, ²⁰  and then these people will begin to prostitute themselves with the foreign gods of the land into which they ²¹  are going. They ²²  will reject ²³  me and break my covenant that I have made with them. ²⁴ 

Deuteronomy 31:2

31:2 He said to them, “Today I am a hundred and twenty years old. I am no longer able to get about, ²⁵  and the Lord has said to me, ‘You will not cross the Jordan.’

Deuteronomy 17:7-20

17:7 The witnesses ²⁶  must be first to begin the execution, and then all the people ²⁷  are to join in afterward. In this way you will purge evil from among you.

Appeal to a Higher Court

17:8 If a matter is too difficult for you to judge – bloodshed, ²⁸  legal claim, ²⁹  or assault ³⁰  – matters of controversy in your villages ³¹  – you must leave there and go up to the place the Lord your God chooses. ³²  17:9 You will go to the Levitical priests and the judge in office in those days and seek a solution; they will render a verdict. 17:10 You must then do as they have determined at that place the Lord chooses. Be careful to do just as you are taught. 17:11 You must do what you are instructed, and the verdict they pronounce to you, without fail. Do not deviate right or left from what they tell you. 17:12 The person who pays no attention ³³  to the priest currently serving the Lord your God there, or to the verdict – that person must die, so that you may purge evil from Israel. 17:13 Then all the people will hear and be afraid, and not be so presumptuous again.

Provision for Kingship

17:14 When you come to the land the Lord your God is giving you and take it over and live in it and then say, “I will select a king like all the nations surrounding me,” 17:15 you must select without fail ³⁴  a king whom the Lord your God chooses. From among your fellow citizens ³⁵  you must appoint a king – you may not designate a foreigner who is not one of your fellow Israelites. ³⁶  17:16 Moreover, he must not accumulate horses for himself or allow the people to return to Egypt to do so, ³⁷  for the Lord has said you must never again return that way. 17:17 Furthermore, he must not marry many ³⁸  wives lest his affections turn aside, and he must not accumulate much silver and gold. 17:18 When he sits on his royal throne he must make a copy of this law ³⁹  on a scroll ⁴⁰  given to him by the Levitical priests. 17:19 It must be with him constantly and he must read it as long as he lives, so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and observe all the words of this law and these statutes and carry them out. 17:20 Then he will not exalt himself above his fellow citizens or turn from the commandments to the right or left, and he and his descendants will enjoy many years ruling over his kingdom ⁴¹  in Israel.

Ezekiel 16:59

16:59 “‘For this is what the sovereign Lord says: I will deal with you according to what you have done when you despised your oath by breaking your covenant.

Ezekiel 44:7

44:7 When you bring foreigners, those uncircumcised in heart and in flesh, into my sanctuary, you desecrate ⁴²  it – even my house – when you offer my food, the fat and the blood. You ⁴³  have broken my covenant by all your abominable practices.

Hosea 6:7

Indictments Against the Cities of Israel and Judah

6:7 At Adam ⁴⁴  they broke ⁴⁵  the covenant;

Oh how ⁴⁶  they were unfaithful ⁴⁷  to me!

Hosea 8:1

God Will Raise Up the Assyrians to Attack Israel

8:1 Sound the alarm! ⁴⁸ 

An eagle ⁴⁹  looms over the temple of the Lord!

For they have broken their covenant with me, ⁵⁰ 

and have rebelled against my law.

Hebrews 8:9

8:9 “It will not be like the covenant ⁵¹  that I made with their fathers, on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not continue in my covenant and I had no regard for them, says the Lord.

[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.

[3:7]  ³ tn Or “I said to her, ‘Come back to me!’” The verb אָמַר (’amar) usually means “to say,” but here it means “to think,” of an assumption that turns out to be wrong (so HALOT 66.4 s.v. אמר); cf. Gen 44:28; Jer 3:19; Pss 82:6; 139:11; Job 29:18; Ruth 4:4; Lam 3:18.

[3:7]  ⁴ tn The words “what she did” are not in the text but are implicit from the context and are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[3:8]  ⁵ tc Heb “she [‘her sister, unfaithful Judah’ from the preceding verse] saw” with one Hebrew ms, some Greek mss, and the Syriac version. The MT reads “I saw” which may be a case of attraction to the verb at the beginning of the previous verse.

[3:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “because she committed adultery.” The translation is intended to spell out the significance of the metaphor.

[3:8]  ⁷ tn The words “Even after her unfaithful sister, Judah, had seen this” are not in the Hebrew text but are implicit in the connection and are supplied for clarification.

[3:8]  ⁸ 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.

[3:9]  ⁹ tc The translation reads the form as a causative (Hiphil, תַּהֲנֵף, tahanef) with some of the versions in place of the simple stative (Qal, תֶּחֱנַף, tekhenaf) in the MT.

[3:9]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “because of the lightness of her prostitution, she defiled the land and committed adultery with stone and wood.”

[3:10]  ¹¹ tn Heb “And even in all this.”

[3:10]  ¹² tn Heb “ has not turned back to me with all her heart but only in falsehood.”

[3:11]  ¹³ tn Heb “Wayward Israel has proven herself to be more righteous than unfaithful Judah.”

[31:32]  ¹⁴ tn The word “old” is not in the text but is implicit in the use of the word “new.” It is supplied in the translation for greater clarity.

[31:32]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “fathers.”

[31:32]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “when I took them by the hand and led them out.”

[31:32]  ¹⁷ tn Or “I was their master.” See the study note on 3:14.

[31:32]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[26:15]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “to not do.”

[31:16]  ²⁰ tn Heb “lie down with your fathers” (so NASB); NRSV “ancestors.”

[31:16]  ²¹ tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they,” which is necessary in any case in the translation because of contemporary English style. The third person singular also occurs in the Hebrew text twice more in this verse, three times in v. 17, once in v. 18, five times in v. 20, and four times in v. 21. Each time it is translated as third person plural for stylistic reasons.

[31:16]  ²² tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:16]  ²³ tn Or “abandon” (TEV, NLT).

[31:16]  ²⁴ tn Heb “him.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “them.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:2]  ²⁵ tn Or “am no longer able to lead you” (NIV, NLT); Heb “am no longer able to go out and come in.”

[17:7]  ²⁶ tn Heb “the hand of the witnesses.” This means the two or three witnesses are to throw the first stones (cf. NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT).

[17:7]  ²⁷ tn Heb “the hand of all the people.”

[17:8]  ²⁸ tn Heb “between blood and blood.”

[17:8]  ²⁹ tn Heb “between claim and claim.”

[17:8]  ³⁰ tn Heb “between blow and blow.”

[17:8]  ³¹ tn Heb “gates.”

[17:8]  ³² tc Several Greek recensions add “to place his name there,” thus completing the usual formula to describe the central sanctuary (cf. Deut 12:5, 11, 14, 18; 16:6). However, the context suggests that the local Levitical towns, and not the central sanctuary, are in mind.

[17:12]  ³³ tn Heb “who acts presumptuously not to listen” (cf. NASB).

[17:15]  ³⁴ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, indicated in the translation by the words “without fail.”

[17:15]  ³⁵ tn Heb “your brothers,” but not referring to siblings (cf. NIV “your brother Israelites”; NLT “a fellow Israelite”). The same phrase also occurs in v. 20.

[17:15]  ³⁶ tn Heb “your brothers.” See the preceding note on “fellow citizens.”

[17:16]  ³⁷ tn Heb “in order to multiply horses.” The translation uses “do so” in place of “multiply horses” to avoid redundancy (cf. NAB, NIV).

[17:17]  ³⁸ tn Heb “must not multiply” (cf. KJV, NASB); NLT “must not take many.”

[17:18]  ³⁹ tn Or “instruction.” The LXX reads here τὸ δευτερονόμιον τοῦτο (to deuteronomion touto, “this second law”). From this Greek phrase the present name of the book, “Deuteronomy” or “second law” (i.e., the second giving of the law), is derived. However, the MT’s expression מִשְׁנֶה הַתּוֹרָה הַזֹּאת (mishneh hattorah hazzo’t) is better rendered “copy of this law.” Here the term תּוֹרָה (torah) probably refers only to the book of Deuteronomy and not to the whole Pentateuch.

[17:18]  ⁴⁰ tn The Hebrew term סֵפֶר (sefer) means a “writing” or “document” and could be translated “book” (so KJV, ASV, TEV). However, since “book” carries the connotation of a modern bound book with pages (an obvious anachronism) it is preferable to render the Hebrew term “scroll” here and elsewhere.

[17:20]  ⁴¹ tc Heb “upon his kingship.” Smr supplies כִּסֵא (kise’, “throne”) so as to read “upon the throne of his kingship.” This overliteralizes what is a clearly understood figure of speech.

[44:7]  ⁴² tn Heb “to desecrate.”

[44:7]  ⁴³ tc The Greek, Syriac, and Latin versions read “you.” The Masoretic text reads “they.”

[6:7]  ⁴⁴ tn Or “Like Adam”; or “Like [sinful] men.” The MT reads כְּאָדָם (kÿ’adam, “like Adam” or “as [sinful] men”); however, the editors of BHS suggest this reflects an orthographic confusion of בְּאָדָם (bÿ’adam, “at Adam”), as suggested by the locative adverb שָׁם (sham, “there”) in the following line. However, שָׁם sometimes functions in a nonlocative sense similar to the deictic particle הִנֵּה (hinneh, “Behold!”). The singular noun אָדָם (’adam) has been taken in several different ways: (1) proper name: “like Adam” (כְּאָדָם), (2) collective singular: “like [sinful] men” (כְּאָדָם), (3) proper location: “at Adam,” referring to a city in the Jordan Valley (Josh 3:16), emending comparative כְּ (kaf) to locative בְּ (bet, “at”): “at Adam” (בְּאָדָם). BDB 9 s.v. אָדָם 2 suggests the collective sense, referring to sinful men (Num 5:6; 1 Kgs 8:46; 2 Chr 6:36; Jer 10:14; Job 31:33; Hos 6:7). The English versions are divided: KJV margin, ASV, RSV margin, NASB, NIV, TEV margin, NLT “like Adam”; RSV, NRSV, TEV “at Adam”; KJV “like men.”

[6:7]  ⁴⁵ tn The verb עָבַר (’avar) refers here to breaking a covenant and carries the nuance “to overstep, transgress” (BDB 717 s.v. עָבַר 1.i). Cf. NAB “violated”; NRSV “transgressed.”

[6:7]  ⁴⁶ tn The adverb שָׁם (sham) normally functions in a locative sense meaning “there” (BDB 1027 s.v. שָׁם). This is how it is translated by many English versions (e.g., KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV). However, in poetry שָׁם sometimes functions in a nonlocative sense to introduce expressions of astonishment or when a scene is vividly visualized in the writer’s imagination (see BDB 1027 s.v. 1.a.β), or somewhat similar to the deictic particle הִנֵּה (hinneh, “Behold!”): “See [שָׁם] how the evildoers lie fallen!” (Ps 36:13); “Listen! The cry on the day of the Lord will be bitter! See [שָׁם]! The shouting of the warrior!” (Zeph 1:14); “They saw [רָאוּ, ra’u] her and were astonished…See [שָׁם] how trembling seized them!” (Ps 48:7). In some cases, it introduces emphatic statements in a manner similar to הִנֵּה (“Behold!”): “Come and see [לְכוּ וּרְאוּ, lÿkhu urÿ’u] what God has done…Behold [שָׁם], let us rejoice in him!” (Ps 66:5); “See/Behold [שָׁם]! I will make a horn grow for David” (Ps 132:17). The present translation’s use of “Oh how!” in Hos 6:7 is less visual than the Hebrew idiom שָׁם (“See! See how!”), but it more closely approximates the parallel English idiom of astonishment.

[6:7]  ⁴⁷ tn The verb בָּגַד (bagad, “to act treacherously”) is often used in reference to faithlessness in covenant relationships (BDB 93 s.v. בָּגַד).

[8:1]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “A horn unto your gums!”; NAB “A trumpet to your lips!”

[8:1]  ⁴⁹ tn Or perhaps “A vulture.” Some identify the species indicated by the Hebrew term נֶשֶׁר (nesher) as the griffon vulture (cf. NEB, NRSV).

[8:1]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “my covenant” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV); TEV “the covenant I made with them.”

[8:9]  ⁵¹ tn Grk “not like the covenant,” continuing the description of v. 8b.