Jeremiah 5:3

5:3 Lord, I know you look for faithfulness. ¹ 

But even when you punish these people, they feel no remorse. ² 

Even when you nearly destroy them, they refuse to be corrected.

They have become as hardheaded as a rock. ³ 

They refuse to change their ways. ⁴ 

Jeremiah 9:16

9:16 I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their ancestors ⁵  have known anything about. I will send people chasing after them with swords ⁶  until I have destroyed them.’” ⁷ 

Jeremiah 44:27

44:27 I will indeed ⁸  see to it that disaster, not prosperity, happens to them. ⁹  All the people of Judah who are in the land of Egypt will die in war or from starvation until not one of them is left.

Jeremiah 51:63

51:63 When you finish reading this scroll aloud, tie a stone to it and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates River. ¹⁰ 

[5:3]  ¹ tn Heb “O Lord, are your eyes not to faithfulness?” The question is rhetorical and expects a positive answer.

[5:3]  ² tn Commentaries and lexicons debate the meaning of the verb here. The MT is pointed as though from a verb meaning “to writhe in anguish or contrition” (חוּל [khul]; see, e.g., BDB 297 s.v. חוּל 2.c), but some commentaries and lexicons repoint the text as though from a verb meaning “to be sick,” thus “to feel pain” (חָלָה [khalah]; see, e.g., HALOT 304 s.v. חָלָה 3). The former appears more appropriate to the context.

[5:3]  ³ tn Heb “They made their faces as hard as a rock.”

[5:3]  ⁴ tn Or “to repent”; Heb “to turn back.”

[9:16]  ⁵ tn Heb “fathers.”

[9:16]  ⁶ tn Heb “I will send the sword after them.” The sword here is probably not completely literal but refers to death by violent means, including death by the sword.

[9:16]  ⁷ sn He will destroy them but not completely. See Jer 5:18; 30:11; 46:28.

[44:27]  ⁹ tn Heb “Behold I.” For the use of this particle see the translator’s note on 1:6. Here it announces the reality of a fact.

[44:27]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Behold, I am watching over them for evil/disaster/harm not for good/prosperity/ blessing.” See a parallel usage in 31:28.

[51:63]  ¹³ tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied for clarity.