Jeremiah 4:3

4:3 Yes, ¹  the Lord has this to say

to the people of Judah and Jerusalem:

“Like a farmer breaking up hard unplowed ground,

you must break your rebellious will and make a new beginning;

just as a farmer must clear away thorns lest the seed is wasted,

you must get rid of the sin that is ruining your lives. ² 

Jeremiah 23:36

23:36 You must no longer say that the Lord’s message is burdensome. ³  For what is ‘burdensome’ ⁴  really pertains to what a person himself says. ⁵  You are misrepresenting ⁶  the words of our God, the living God, the Lord who rules over all. ⁷ 

Jeremiah 32:19

32:19 You plan great things and you do mighty deeds. ⁸  You see everything people do. ⁹  You reward each of them for the way they live and for the things they do. ¹⁰ 

[4:3]  ¹ tn The Hebrew particle is obviously asseverative here since a causal connection appears to make little sense.

[4:3]  ² tn Heb “Plow up your unplowed ground and do not sow among the thorns.” The translation is an attempt to bring out the force of a metaphor. The idea seems to be that they are to plow over the thorns and make the ground ready for the seeds which will produce a new crop where none had been produced before.

[23:36]  ³ tn Heb “burden of the Lord.”

[23:36]  ⁴ tn Heb “the burden.”

[23:36]  ⁵ tn Heb “The burden is [or will be] to a man his word.” There is a good deal of ambiguity regarding how this line is to be rendered. For the major options and the issues involved W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah (Hermeneia), 1:651-52 should be consulted. Most of them are excluded by the observation that מַשָּׂא probably does not mean “oracle” anywhere in this passage (see note on v. 33 regarding the use of this word). Hence it does not mean “every man’s word becomes his oracle” as in NIV or “for that ‘burden’ [= oracle] is what he entrusts to the man of his word” (W. McKane, Jeremiah [ICC], 1:600-601). The latter is also ruled out by the fact that the antecedent of “his” on “his word” is clearly the word “man” in front of it. This would be the only case where the phrase “man of his word” occurs. There is also no textual reason for repointing the noun with the article as the noun with the interrogative to read “For how can his word become a burden to anyone?” There are, of course, other options but this is sufficient to show that the translation has been chosen after looking at other alternatives.

[23:36]  ⁶ tn Heb “turning.” See BDB 245 s.v. הָפַךְ Qal.1.c and Lev 13:55; Jer 13:33 “changing, altering.”

[23:36]  ⁷ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.”

[32:19]  ⁵ tn Heb “[you are] great in counsel and mighty in deed.”

[32:19]  ⁶ tn Heb “your eyes are open to the ways of the sons of men.”

[32:19]  ⁷ tn Heb “giving to each according to his way [= behavior/conduct] and according to the fruit of his deeds.”