Jeremiah 4:22

4:22 The Lord answered, ¹ 

“This will happen ²  because my people are foolish.

They do not know me.

They are like children who have no sense. ³ 

They have no understanding.

They are skilled at doing evil.

They do not know how to do good.”

Jeremiah 52:31

Jehoiachin in Exile

52:31 In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of King Jehoiachin of Judah, on the twenty-fifth ⁴  day of the twelfth month, ⁵  Evil-Merodach, in the first year of his reign, pardoned ⁶  King Jehoiachin of Judah and released him from prison.

[4:22]  ¹ tn These words are not in the text but are supplied in the translation to show clearly the shift in speaker. Jeremiah has been speaking; now the Lord answers, giving the reason for the devastation Jeremiah foresees.

[4:22]  ² tn Heb “For….” This gives the explanation for the destruction envisaged in 4:20 to which Jeremiah responds in 4:19, 21.

[4:22]  ³ tn Heb “They are senseless children.”

[52:31]  ⁴ sn The parallel account in 2 Kgs 25:28 has “twenty-seventh.”

[52:31]  ⁵ sn The twenty-fifth day would be March 20, 561 b.c. in modern reckoning.

[52:31]  ⁶ tn Heb “lifted up the head of.”