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 7:8

7:8 “‘But just look at you! ⁴  You are putting your confidence in a false belief ⁵  that will not deliver you. ⁶ 

Jeremiah 8:7

8:7 Even the stork knows

when it is time to move on. ⁷ 

The turtledove, swallow, and crane ⁸ 

recognize ⁹  the normal times for their migration.

But my people pay no attention

to ¹⁰  what I, the Lord, require of them. ¹¹ 

Isaiah 27:11

27:11 When its branches get brittle, ¹²  they break;

women come and use them for kindling. ¹³ 

For these people lack understanding, ¹⁴ 

therefore the one who made them has no compassion on them;

the one who formed them has no mercy on them.

Isaiah 28:9-13

28:9 Who is the Lord ¹⁵  trying to teach?

To whom is he explaining a message? ¹⁶ 

Those just weaned from milk!

Those just taken from their mother’s breast! ¹⁷ 

28:10 Indeed, they will hear meaningless gibberish,

senseless babbling,

a syllable here, a syllable there. ¹⁸ 

28:11 For with mocking lips and a foreign tongue

he will speak to these people. ¹⁹ 

28:12 In the past he said to them, ²⁰ 

“This is where security can be found.

Provide security for the one who is exhausted!

This is where rest can be found.” ²¹ 

But they refused to listen.

28:13 So the Lord’s word to them will sound like

meaningless gibberish,

senseless babbling,

a syllable here, a syllable there. ²² 

As a result, they will fall on their backsides when they try to walk, ²³ 

and be injured, ensnared, and captured. ²⁴ 

Hosea 4:6

4:6 You have destroyed ²⁵  my people

by failing to acknowledge me!

Because you refuse to acknowledge me, ²⁶ 

I will reject you as my priests.

Because you reject ²⁷  the law of your God,

I will reject ²⁸  your descendants.

Matthew 11:5

11:5 The blind see, the ²⁹  lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news proclaimed to them.

John 7:48-49

7:48 None of the rulers ³⁰  or the Pharisees have believed in him, have they? ³¹  7:49 But this rabble ³²  who do not know the law are accursed!”

[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.”

[7:8]  ⁴ tn Heb “Behold!”

[7:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “You are trusting in lying words.” See the similar phrase in v. 4 and the note there.

[7:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “not profit [you].”

[8:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “its appointed time.” The translation is contextually motivated to avoid lack of clarity.

[8:7]  ⁸ tn There is debate in the commentaries and lexicons about the identification of some of these birds, particularly regarding the identification of the “swallow” which is more likely the “swift” and the “crane” which some identify with the “thrush.” For a discussion see the Bible encyclopedias and the UBS handbook Fauna and Flora of the Bible. The identity of the individual birds makes little difference to the point being made and “swallow” is more easily identifiable to the average reader than the “swift.”

[8:7]  ⁹ tn Heb “keep.” Ironically birds, which do not think, obey the laws of nature, but Israel does not obey the laws of God.

[8:7]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “do not know.” But here as elsewhere the word “know” is more than an intellectual matter. It is intended here to summarize both “know” and “follow” (Heb “observe”) in the preceding lines.

[8:7]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the ordinance/requirement of the Lord.”

[27:11]  ¹² tn Heb “are dry” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[27:11]  ¹³ tn Heb “women come [and] light it.” The city is likened to a dead tree with dried up branches that is only good for firewood.

[27:11]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “for not a people of understanding [is] he.”

[28:9]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[28:9]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Who is he teaching knowledge? For whom is he explaining a message?” The translation assumes that the Lord is the subject of the verbs “teaching” and “explaining,” and that the prophet is asking the questions. See v. 12. According to some vv. 9-10 record the people’s sarcastic response to the Lord’s message through Isaiah.

[28:9]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “from the breasts.” The words “their mother’s” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The translation assumes that this is the prophet’s answer to the questions asked in the first half of the verse. The Lord is trying to instruct people who are “infants” morally and ethically.

[28:10]  ¹⁸ tn The meaning of this verse has been debated. The text has literally “indeed [or “for”] a little there, a little there” ( כִּי צַו לָצָו צַו לָצָו קַו לָקָו קַו, ki tsav latsav, tsav latsav, qav laqav, qav laqav). The present translation assumes that the repetitive syllables are gibberish that resembles baby talk (cf v. 9b) and mimics what the people will hear when foreign invaders conquer the land (v. 11). In this case זְעֵיר (zÿ’er, “a little”) refers to the short syllabic structure of the babbling (cf. CEV). Some take צַו (tsav) as a derivative of צָוָה (tsavah, “command”) and translate the first part of the statement as “command after command, command after command.” Proponents of this position (followed by many English versions) also take קַו (qav) as a noun meaning “measuring line” (see v. 17), understood here in the abstract sense of “standard” or “rule.”

[28:11]  ¹⁹ sn This verse alludes to the coming Assyrian invasion, when the people will hear a foreign language that sounds like gibberish to them. The Lord is the subject of the verb “will speak,” as v. 12 makes clear. He once spoke in meaningful terms, but in the coming judgment he will speak to them, as it were, through the mouth of foreign oppressors. The apparent gibberish they hear will be an outward reminder that God has decreed their defeat.

[28:12]  ²⁰ tn Heb “who said to them.”

[28:12]  ²¹ sn This message encapsulates the Lord’s invitation to his people to find security in his protection and blessing.

[28:13]  ²² tn Heb “And the word of the Lord will be to them, ‘tsahv latsahv,’ etc.” See the note at v. 10. In this case the “Lord’s word” is not the foreigner’s strange sounding words (as in v. 10), but the Lord’s repeated appeals to them (like the one quoted in v. 12). As time goes on, the Lord’s appeals through the prophets will have no impact on the people; they will regard prophetic preaching as gibberish.

[28:13]  ²³ tn Heb “as a result they will go and stumble backward.” Perhaps an infant falling as it attempts to learn to walk is the background image here (cf. v. 9b). The Hebrew term לְמַעַן (lÿma’an) could be taken as indicating purpose (“in order that”), rather than simple result. In this case the people’s insensitivity to the message is caused by the Lord as a means of expediting their downfall.

[28:13]  ²⁴ sn When divine warnings and appeals become gibberish to the spiritually insensitive, they have no guidance and are doomed to destruction.

[4:6]  ²⁵ tn Heb “they have destroyed” or “my people are destroyed” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV).

[4:6]  ²⁶ tn Heb “Because you reject knowledge”; NLT “because they don’t know me.”

[4:6]  ²⁷ tn Heb “have forgotten”; NAB, NIV “have ignored.”

[4:6]  ²⁸ tn Heb “forget” (so KJV, NRSV); NLT “forget to bless.”

[11:5]  ²⁹ tn Grk “and the,” but καί (kai) has not been translated since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more. Two other conjunctions are omitted in this series.

[7:48]  ³⁰ sn The chief priests and Pharisees (John 7:45) is a comprehensive term for the groups represented in the ruling council (the Sanhedrin) as in John 7:45; 18:3; Acts 5:22, 26. Likewise the term ruler here denotes a member of the Sanhedrin, the highest legal, legislative, and judicial body among the Jews. Note the same word (“ruler”) is used to describe Nicodemus in John 3:1, and Nicodemus also speaks up in this episode (John 7:50).

[7:48]  ³¹ tn Questions prefaced with μή (mh) in Greek anticipate a negative answer. This can sometimes be indicated by using a “tag” at the end in English (here the tag is “have they?”).

[7:49]  ³² tn Grk “crowd.” “Rabble” is a good translation here because the remark by the Pharisees is so derogatory.