Jeremiah 5:5

5:5 I will go to the leaders ¹ 

and speak with them.

Surely they know what the Lord demands. ² 

Surely they know what their God requires of them.” ³ 

Yet all of them, too, have rejected his authority

and refuse to submit to him. ⁴ 

Jeremiah 10:5

10:5 Such idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field.

They cannot talk.

They must be carried

because they cannot walk.

Do not be afraid of them

because they cannot hurt you.

And they do not have any power to help you.” ⁵ 

Jeremiah 12:6

12:6 As a matter of fact, ⁶  even your own brothers

and the members of your own family have betrayed you too.

Even they have plotted to do away with you. ⁷ 

So do not trust them even when they say kind things ⁸  to you.

Jeremiah 14:15

14:15 I did not send those prophets, though they claim to be prophesying in my name. They may be saying, ‘No war or famine will happen in this land.’ But I, the Lord, say this about ⁹  them: ‘War and starvation will kill those prophets.’ ¹⁰ 

Jeremiah 31:33

31:33 “But I will make a new covenant with the whole nation of Israel ¹¹  after I plant them back in the land,” ¹²  says the Lord. ¹³  “I will ¹⁴  put my law within them ¹⁵  and write it on their hearts and minds. ¹⁶  I will be their God and they will be my people. ¹⁷ 

Jeremiah 50:4

50:4 “When that time comes,” says the Lord, ¹⁸ 

“the people of Israel and Judah will return to the land together.

They will come back with tears of repentance

as they seek the Lord their God. ¹⁹ 

[5:5]  ¹ tn Or “people in power”; Heb “the great ones.”

[5:5]  ² tn Heb “the way of the Lord.”

[5:5]  ³ tn Heb “the judgment [or ordinance] of their God.”

[5:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “have broken the yoke and torn off the yoke ropes.” Compare Jer 2:20 and the note there.

[10:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “And it is not in them to do good either.”

[12:6]  ⁹ tn This is an attempt to give some contextual sense to the particle “for, indeed” (כִּי, ki).

[12:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “they have called after you fully”; or “have lifted up loud voices against you.” The word “against” does not seem quite adequate for the preposition “after.” The preposition “against” would be Hebrew עַל (’al). The idea appears to be that they are chasing after him, raising their voices along with those of the conspirators to have him killed.

[12:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “good things.” See BDB 373 s.v. II טוֹב 2 for this nuance and compare Prov 12:25 for usage.

[14:15]  ¹³ tn Heb “Thus says the Lord about.” The first person construction has been used in the translation for better English style.

[14:15]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who are prophesying in my name and I did not send them [= whom I did not send] and they are saying [= who are saying], ‘Sword and famine…’, by sword and famine those prophets will be killed.” This sentence has been restructured to conform to contemporary English style.

[31:33]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “with the house of Israel.” All commentators agree that the term here refers to both the whole nation which was divided into the house of Israel and the house of Judah in v. 30.

[31:33]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “after those days.” Commentators are generally agreed that this refers to the return from exile and the repopulation of the land referred to in vv. 27-28 and not to something subsequent to the time mentioned in v. 30. This is the sequencing that is also presupposed in other new covenant passages such as Deut 30:1-6; Ezek 11:17-20; 36:24-28.

[31:33]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[31:33]  ²⁰ tn Heb “‘But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after these days:’ says the Lord, ‘I will….’” The sentence has been reworded and restructured to avoid the awkwardness of the original style.

[31:33]  ²¹ tn Heb “in their inward parts.” The Hebrew word here refers to the seat of the thoughts, emotions, and decisions (Jer 9:8 [9:7 HT]). It is essentially synonymous with “heart” in Hebrew psychological terms.

[31:33]  ²² tn The words “and minds” is not in the text but is supplied in the translation to bring the English psychology more into line with the Hebrew where the “heart” is the center both of knowing/thinking/reflecting and deciding/willing.

[31:33]  ²³ sn Compare Jer 24:7; 30:22; 31:1 and see the study note on 30:2.

[50:4]  ²¹ tn Heb “oracle of the Lord.”

[50:4]  ²² tn Heb “and the children of Israel will come, they and the children of Judah together. They shall go, weeping as they go, and they will seek the Lord their God.” The concept of “seeking” the Lord often has to do with seeking the Lord in worship (by sacrifice [Hos 5:6; 2 Chr 11:16]; prayer [Zech 8:21, 22; 2 Sam 12:16; Isa 65:1; 2 Chr 15:4]). In Hos 7:10 it is in parallel with returning to the Lord. In Ps 69:6 it is in parallel with hoping in or trusting in the Lord. Perhaps the most helpful parallels here, however, are Hos 3:5 (in comparison with Jer 30:9) and 2 Chr 15:15 where it is in the context of a covenant commitment to be loyal to the Lord which is similar to the context here (see the next verse). The translation is admittedly paraphrastic but “seeking the Lord” does not mean here looking for God as though he were merely a person to be found.