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 4:10

4:10 In response to all this ³  I said, “Ah, Lord God, ⁴  you have surely allowed ⁵  the people of Judah and Jerusalem ⁶  to be deceived by those who say, ‘You will be safe!’ ⁷  But in fact a sword is already at our throats.” ⁸ 

Jeremiah 7:4

7:4 Stop putting your confidence in the false belief that says, ⁹  “We are safe! ¹⁰  The temple of the Lord is here! The temple of the Lord is here! The temple of the Lord is here!” ¹¹ 

Jeremiah 7:6

7:6 Stop oppressing foreigners who live in your land, children who have lost their fathers, and women who have lost their husbands. ¹²  Stop killing innocent people ¹³  in this land. Stop paying allegiance to ¹⁴  other gods. That will only bring about your ruin. ¹⁵ 

Jeremiah 7:14

7:14 So I will destroy this temple which I have claimed as my own, ¹⁶  this temple that you are trusting to protect you. I will destroy this place that I gave to you and your ancestors, ¹⁷  just like I destroyed Shiloh. ¹⁸ 

Jeremiah 23:17

23:17 They continually say ¹⁹  to those who reject what the Lord has said, ²⁰ 

‘Things will go well for you!’ ²¹ 

They say to all those who follow the stubborn inclinations of their own hearts,

‘Nothing bad will happen to you!’

Jeremiah 23:39

23:39 So ²²  I will carry you far off ²³  and throw you away. I will send both you and the city I gave to you and to your ancestors out of my sight. ²⁴ 

Jeremiah 25:6

25:6 Do not pay allegiance to ²⁵  other gods and worship and serve them. Do not make me angry by the things that you do. ²⁶  Then I will not cause you any harm.’

Jeremiah 27:10

27:10 Do not listen to them, ²⁷  because their prophecies are lies. ²⁸  Listening to them will only cause you ²⁹  to be taken far away from your native land. I will drive you out of your country and you will die in exile. ³⁰ 

Jeremiah 27:14-15

27:14 Do not listen to the prophets who are telling you that you do not need to serve ³¹  the king of Babylon. For they are prophesying lies to you. 27:15 For I, the Lord, affirm ³²  that I did not send them. They are prophesying lies to you. If you ³³  listen to them, I will drive you and the prophets who are prophesying lies out of the land and you will all die in exile.” ³⁴ 

Jeremiah 29:7

29:7 Work to see that the city where I sent you as exiles enjoys peace and prosperity. Pray to the Lord for it. For as it prospers you will prosper.’

Jeremiah 37:19

37:19 Where now are the prophets who prophesied to you that ³⁵  the king of Babylon would not attack you or this land?

Jeremiah 40:3

40:3 Now he has brought it about. The Lord has done just as he threatened to do. This disaster has happened because you people sinned against the Lord and did not obey him. ³⁶ 

[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.

[4:10]  ³ tn The words “In response to all this” are not in the text but are supplied in the translation to clarify the connection.

[4:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “Lord Yahweh.” The translation follows the ancient Jewish tradition of substituting the Hebrew word for God for the proper name Yahweh.

[4:10]  ⁵ tn Or “You have deceived.” The Hiphil of נָשָׁא (nasha’, “to deceive”) is understood in a tolerative sense here: “to allow [someone] to be deceived.” IBHS 446 §27.5c notes that this function of the hiphil describes caused activity that is welcome to the undersubject, but unacceptable or disagreeable to a third party. Jerusalem and Judah welcomed the assurances of false prophets who deceived them. Although this was detestable to God, he allowed it.

[4:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “this people and Jerusalem.”

[4:10]  ⁷ tn Heb “Jerusalem, saying, ‘You will have peace’”; or “You have deceived the people of Judah and Jerusalem, saying, ‘You will have peace.’” The words “you will be safe” are, of course, those of the false prophets (cf., Jer 6:14; 8:11; 14:13; 23:16-17). It is difficult to tell whether the charge here is meant literally as the emotional outburst of the prophet (compare for example, Jer 15:18) or whether it is to be understood as a figure of speech in which a verb of direct causation is to be understood as permissive or tolerative, i.e., God did not command the prophets to say this but allowed them to do so. While it is not beyond God to use false prophets to accomplish his will (cf., e.g., 1 Kgs 22:19-23), he elsewhere in the book of Jeremiah directly denies having sent the false prophets to say such things as this (cf., e.g., Jer 14:14-15; 23:21, 32). For examples of the use of this figure of speech, see E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 571, 823 and compare Ezek 20:25. The translation given attempts to resolve the issue.

[4:10]  ⁸ tn Heb “touches the throat/soul.” For this use of the word usually translated “soul” or “life” cf. HALOT 672 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ 1, 2 and compare the use in Ps 105:18.

[7:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “Stop trusting in lying words which say.”

[7:4]  ⁶ tn The words “We are safe!” are not in the text but are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[7:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these (i.e., these buildings).” Elsewhere triple repetition seems to mark a kind of emphasis (cf. Isa 6:3; Jer 22:29; Ezek 21:27 [32 HT]). The triple repetition that follows seems to be Jeremiah’s way of mocking the (false) sense of security that people had in the invincibility of Jerusalem because God dwelt in the temple. They appeared to be treating the temple as some kind of magical charm. A similar feeling had grown up around the ark in the time of the judges (cf. 1 Sam 3:3) and the temple and city of Jerusalem in Micah’s day (cf. Mic 3:11). It is reflected also in some of the Psalms (cf., e.g., Ps 46, especially v. 5).

[7:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “Stop oppressing foreigner, orphan, and widow.”

[7:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “Stop shedding innocent blood.”

[7:6]  ⁹ tn Heb “going/following after.” See the translator’s note at 2:5 for an explanation of the idiom involved here.

[7:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “going after other gods to your ruin.”

[7:14]  ⁹ tn Heb “over which my name is called.” For this nuance of this idiom cf. BDB 896 s.v. קָרָא Niph.2.d(4) and see the usage in 2 Sam 12:28.

[7:14]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 22, 25, 26).

[7:14]  ¹¹ tn Heb “I will do to this house which I…in which you put…and to this place which…as I did to Shiloh.”

[23:17]  ¹¹ tn The translation reflects an emphatic construction where the infinitive absolute follows a participle (cf. GKC 343 §113.r).

[23:17]  ¹² tc The translation follows the Greek version. The Hebrew text reads, “who reject me, ‘The Lord has spoken, “Things…”’” The Greek version is to be preferred here because of (1) the parallelism of the lines “reject what the Lord has said” // “follow the stubborn inclinations of their own hearts;” (2) the preceding context which speaks of “visions of their own imaginations not of what the Lord has given them;” (3) the following context which denies that they have ever had access to the Lord’s secrets; (4) the general contexts earlier regarding false prophecy where rejection of the Lord’s word is in view (6:14 [see there v. 10]; 8:11 [see there v. 9]); (5) the meter of the poetic lines (the Hebrew meter is 3/5/4/3; the meter presupposed by the translation is 5/3/4/3 with the 3’s being their words). The difference is one of vocalization of the same consonants. The vocalization of the MT is יְהוָה מְנַאֲצַי דִּבֶּר [mÿna’atsay dibber yÿhvah]; the Hebrew Vorlage behind the Greek would be vocalized as מְנַאֲצֵי דְּבַר יְהוָה (mÿna’atsey dÿvar yÿhvah).

[23:17]  ¹³ tn Heb “You will have peace.” But see the note on 14:13. See also 6:14 and 8:11.

[23:39]  ¹³ tn The translation of v. 38 and the first part of v. 39 represents the restructuring of a long and complex Hebrew sentence: Heb “But if you say, ‘The burden of the Lord,’ therefore this is what the Lord says, ‘Because you said this word, “The burden of the Lord,” even though I sent unto saying, “you shall not say, ‘The burden of the Lord,’ therefore…” The first “therefore” picks up the “if” (BDB 487 s.v. כֵּן 3.d) and the second answer the “because” (BDB 774 s.v. יַעַן 1).

[23:39]  ¹⁴ tc The translation follows a few Hebrew mss and the major versions. The majority of Hebrew mss read “I will totally forget [or certainly forget] you.” In place of וְנָשִׁיתִי (vÿnashiti) a few Hebrew mss, LXX, Aquila, Symmachus, Syriac, and Vulgate read וְנָשָׂאתִי (vÿnasa’ti). Instead of the infinitive absolute נָשׁאֹ (nasho’) a number of Hebrew mss, Aquila, Symmachus, Syriac, and Vulgate read נָשׂאֹ (naso’). For the confusion of III א and III ה verbs presupposed by the miswriting of the Hebrew text see GKC 216 §75.qq and compare the forms of נָבָא (nava’) in Jer 26:9 and 1 Sam 10:6. While the verb “forget” would not be totally inappropriate here it does not fit the concept of “throwing away from my presence” as well as “pick up” does. For the verb נָשָׂא (nasa’) meaning “carry you off” compare the usage in 1 Kgs 15:22; 18:12 (and see BDB 671 s.v. נָשָׂא 3.b). Many see the nuance “pick you up” carrying through on the wordplay in v. 33. While that may be appropriate for the repetition of the verb “throw away” (נָטַשׁ, natash) that follows, it does not seem as appropriate for the use of the infinitive absolute that follows the verb which expresses some kind of forcefulness (see GKC 343 §113.q).

[23:39]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “throw you and the city that I gave you and your fathers out of my presence.” The English sentences have been broken down to conform to contemporary English style.

[25:6]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “follow after.” See the translator’s note on 2:5 for this idiom.

[25:6]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “make me angry with the work of your hands.” The term “work of your own hands” is often interpreted as a reference to idolatry as is clearly the case in Isa 2:8; 37:19. However, the parallelism in 25:14 and the context in 32:30 show that it is more general and refers to what they have done. That is likely the meaning here as well.

[27:10]  ¹⁷ tn The words “Don’t listen to them” have been repeated from v. 9a to pick up the causal connection between v. 9a and v. 10 that is formally introduced by a causal particle in v. 10 in the original text.

[27:10]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “they are prophesying a lie.”

[27:10]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “lies will result in your being taken far…” (לְמַעַן [lÿma’an] + infinitive). This is a rather clear case of the particle לְמַעַן introducing result (contra BDB 775 s.v. מַעַן note 1. There is no irony in this statement; it is a bold prediction).

[27:10]  ²⁰ tn The words “out of your country” are not in the text but are implicit in the meaning of the verb. The words “in exile” are also not in the text but are implicit in the context. These words have been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[27:14]  ¹⁹ tn The verb in this context is best taken as a negative obligatory imperfect. See IBHS 508 §31.4g for discussion and examples. See Exod 4:15 as an example of positive obligation.

[27:15]  ²¹ tn Heb “oracle of the Lord.”

[27:15]  ²² sn The verbs are again plural referring to the king and his royal advisers.

[27:15]  ²³ tn Heb “…drive you out and you will perish, you and the prophets who are prophesying lies.”

[37:19]  ²³ tn Heb “And where are your prophets who prophesied to you, saying, ‘The king of Babylon will not come against you or against this land?’” The indirect quote has been used in the translation because of its simpler, more direct style.

[40:3]  ²⁵ tn Heb “Because you [masc. pl.] sinned against the Lord and did not hearken to his voice [a common idiom for “obey him”], this thing has happened to you [masc. pl.].”