Jeremiah 5:7

5:7 The Lord asked, ¹ 

“How can I leave you unpunished, Jerusalem? ² 

Your people ³  have rejected me

and have worshiped gods that are not gods at all. ⁴ 

Even though I supplied all their needs, ⁵  they were like an unfaithful wife to me. ⁶ 

They went flocking ⁷  to the houses of prostitutes. ⁸ 

Jeremiah 5:2

5:2 These people make promises in the name of the Lord. ⁹ 

But the fact is, ¹⁰  what they swear to is really a lie.” ¹¹ 

Jeremiah 4:2

4:2 You must be truthful, honest and upright

when you take an oath saying, ‘As surely as the Lord lives!’ ¹² 

If you do, ¹³  the nations will pray to be as blessed by him as you are

and will make him the object of their boasting.” ¹⁴ 

Jeremiah 51:14

51:14 The Lord who rules over all ¹⁵  has solemnly sworn, ¹⁶ 

‘I will fill your land with enemy soldiers.

They will swarm over it like locusts. ¹⁷ 

They will raise up shouts of victory over it.’

Jeremiah 12:16

12:16 But they must make sure you learn to follow the religious practices of my people. ¹⁸  Once they taught my people to swear their oaths using the name of the god Baal. ¹⁹  But then, they must swear oaths using my name, saying, “As surely as the Lord lives, I swear.” ²⁰  If they do these things, ²¹  then they will be included among the people I call my own. ²² 

Jeremiah 7:9

7:9 You steal. ²³  You murder. You commit adultery. You lie when you swear on oath. You sacrifice to the god Baal. You pay allegiance to ²⁴  other gods whom you have not previously known.

Jeremiah 22:5

22:5 But, if you do not obey these commands, I solemnly swear ²⁵  that this palace will become a pile of rubble. I, the Lord, affirm it!” ²⁶ 

Jeremiah 32:22

32:22 You kept the promise that you swore on oath to their ancestors. ²⁷  You gave them a land flowing with milk and honey. ²⁸ 

Jeremiah 49:13

49:13 For I solemnly swear,” ²⁹  says the Lord, “that Bozrah ³⁰  will become a pile of ruins. It will become an object of horror and ridicule, an example to be used in curses. ³¹  All the towns around it will lie in ruins forever.”

Jeremiah 11:5

11:5 Then I will keep the promise I swore on oath to your ancestors to give them a land flowing with milk and honey.” ³²  That is the very land that you still live in today.’” ³³  And I responded, “Amen! Let it be so, ³⁴  Lord!”

Jeremiah 38:16

38:16 So King Zedekiah made a secret promise to Jeremiah and sealed it with an oath. He promised, ³⁵  “As surely as the Lord lives who has given us life and breath, ³⁶  I promise you this: I will not kill you or hand you over to those men who want to kill you.” ³⁷ 

Jeremiah 40:9

40:9 Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam and grandson of Shaphan, took an oath so as to give them and their troops some assurance of safety. ³⁸  “Do not be afraid to submit to the Babylonians. ³⁹  Settle down in the land and submit to the king of Babylon. Then things will go well for you.

Jeremiah 44:26

44:26 But ⁴⁰  listen to what the Lord has to say, all you people of Judah who are living in the land of Egypt. The Lord says, ‘I hereby swear by my own great name that none of the people of Judah who are living anywhere in Egypt will ever again invoke my name in their oaths! Never again will any of them use it in an oath saying, “As surely as the Lord God lives….” ⁴¹ 

[5:7]  ¹ tn These words are not in the text, but are supplied in the translation to make clear who is speaking.

[5:7]  ² tn Heb “How can I forgive [or pardon] you.” The pronoun “you” is second feminine singular, referring to the city. See v. 1.

[5:7]  ³ tn Heb “your children.”

[5:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “and they have sworn [oaths] by not-gods.”

[5:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “I satisfied them to the full.”

[5:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “they committed adultery.” It is difficult to decide whether literal adultery with other women or spiritual adultery with other gods is meant. The word for adultery is used for both in the book of Jeremiah. For examples of its use for spiritual adultery see 3:8, 9; 9:2. For examples of its use for literal adultery see 7:9; 23:14. The context here could argue for either. The swearing by other gods and the implicit contradiction in their actions in contrast to the expected gratitude for supplying their needs argues for spiritual adultery. However, the reference to prostitution in the next line and the reference to chasing after their neighbor’s wives argues for literal adultery. The translation opts for spiritual adultery because of the contrast implicit in the concessive clause.

[5:7]  ⁷ tn There is a great deal of debate about the meaning of this word. Most of the modern English versions follow the lead of lexicographers who relate this word to a noun meaning “troop” and understand it to mean “they trooped together” (cf. BDB 151 s.v. גָּדַד Hithpo.2 and compare the usage in Mic 5:1 [4:14 HT]). A few of the modern English versions and commentaries follow the reading of the Greek and read a word meaning “they lodged” (reading ִיתְגּוֹרְרוּ [yitggorÿru] from I גּוּר [gur; cf. HALOT 177 s.v. Hithpo. and compare the usage in 1 Kgs 17:20] instead of יִתְגֹּדָדוּ [yitggodadu]). W. L. Holladay (Jeremiah [Hermeneia], 1:180) sees a reference here to the cultic practice of cutting oneself in supplication to pagan gods (cf. BDB 151 s.v. גָּדַד Hithpo.1 and compare the usage in 1 Kgs 18:28). The houses of prostitutes would then be a reference to ritual prostitutes at the pagan shrines. The translation follows BDB and the majority of modern English versions.

[5:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “to a house of a prostitute.”

[5:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “Though they say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives.” The idea of “swear on oath” comes from the second line.

[5:2]  ¹⁰ tc The translation follows many Hebrew mss and the Syriac version in reading “surely” (אָכֵן, ’akhen) instead of “therefore” (לָכֵן, lakhen) in the MT.

[5:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “they swear falsely.”

[4:2]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “If you [= you must, see the translator’s note on the word “do” later in this verse] swear/take an oath, ‘As the Lord lives,’ in truth, justice, and righteousness…”

[4:2]  ¹⁸ tn 4:1-2a consists of a number of “if” clauses, two of which are formally introduced by the Hebrew particle אִם (’im) while the others are introduced by the conjunction “and,” followed by a conjunction (“and” = “then”) with a perfect in 4:2b which introduces the consequence. The translation “You must…. If you do,” was chosen to avoid a long and complicated sentence.

[4:2]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “bless themselves in him and make their boasts in him.”

[51:14]  ²⁵ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.” For an explanation of this rendering see the study note on 2:19.

[51:14]  ²⁶ tn Heb “has sworn by himself.” See the study note on 22:5 for background.

[51:14]  ²⁷ tn Heb “I will fill you with men like locusts.” The “you” refers to Babylon (Babylon is both the city and the land it ruled, Babylonia) which has been alluded to in the preceding verses under descriptive titles. The words “your land” have been used because of the way the preceding verse has been rendered, alluding to people rather than to the land or city. The allusion of “men” is, of course, to enemy soldiers and they are here compared to locusts both for their quantity and their destructiveness (see Joel 1:4). For the use of the particles כִּי אִם (ki ’im) to introduce an oath see BDB 475 s.v. כִּי אִם 2.c and compare usage in 2 Kgs 5:20; one would normally expect אִם לֹא (cf. BDB 50 s.v. אִם 1.b[2]).

[12:16]  ³³ tn Heb “the ways of my people.” For this nuance of the word “ways” compare 10:2 and the notes there.

[12:16]  ³⁴ tn Heb “taught my people to swear by Baal.”

[12:16]  ³⁵ tn The words “I swear” are not in the text but are implicit to the oath formula. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[12:16]  ³⁶ tn The words “If they do this” are not in the text. They are part of an attempt to break up a Hebrew sentence which is long and complex into equivalent shorter sentences consistent with contemporary English style. Verse 16 in Hebrew is all one sentence with a long complex conditional clause followed by a short consequence: “If they carefully learn the ways of my people to swear by name, ‘By the life of the Lord,’ as they taught my people to swear by Baal, then they will be built up in the midst of my people.” The translation strives to create the same contingencies and modifications by breaking up the sentence into shorter sentences in accord with contemporary English style.

[12:16]  ³⁷ tn Heb “they will be built up among my people.” The expression “be built up among” is without parallel. However, what is involved here is conceptually parallel to the ideas expressed in Isa 19:23-25 and Zech 14:16-19. That is, these people will be allowed to live on their own land, to worship the Lord there, and to come to Jerusalem to celebrate the feasts. To translate literally would be meaningless or misleading for many readers.

[7:9]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “Will you steal…then say, ‘We are safe’?” Verses 9-10 are one long sentence in the Hebrew text.

[7:9]  ⁴² tn Heb “You go/follow after.” See the translator’s note at 2:5 for an explanation of the idiom involved here.

[22:5]  ⁴⁹ sn Heb “I swear by myself.” Oaths were guaranteed by invoking the name of a god or swearing by “his life.” See Jer 12:16; 44:26. Since the Lord is incomparably great, he could swear by no higher (see Heb 6:13-16) than to swear by himself or his own great name.

[22:5]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[32:22]  ⁵⁷ tn Heb “fathers.”

[32:22]  ⁵⁸ tn For an alternative translation of the expression “a land flowing with milk and honey” see the translator’s note on 11:5.

[49:13]  ⁶⁵ tn Heb “I swear by myself.” See 22:5 and the study note there.

[49:13]  ⁶⁶ sn Bozrah appears to have been the chief city in Edom, its capital city (see its parallelism with Edom in Isa 34:6; 63:1; Jer 49:22). The reference to “its towns” (translated here “all the towns around it”) could then be a reference to all the towns in Edom. It was located about twenty-five miles southeast of the southern end of the Dead Sea apparently in the district of Teman (see the parallelism in Amos 1:12).

[49:13]  ⁶⁷ tn See the study note on 24:9 for the rendering of this term.

[11:5]  ⁷³ tn The phrase “a land flowing with milk and honey” is very familiar to readers in the Jewish and Christian traditions as a proverbial description of the agricultural and pastoral abundance of the land of Israel. However, it may not mean too much to readers outside those traditions; an equivalent expression would be “a land of fertile fields and fine pastures.” E. W. Bullinger (Figures of Speech, 626) identifies this as a figure of speech called synecdoche where the species is put for the genus, “a region…abounding with pasture and fruits of all kinds.”

[11:5]  ⁷⁴ tn Heb “‘a land flowing with milk and honey,’ as at this day.” However, the literal reading is too elliptical and would lead to confusion.

[11:5]  ⁷⁵ tn The words “Let it be so” are not in the text; they are an explanation of the significance of the term “Amen” for those who may not be part of the Christian or Jewish tradition.

[38:16]  ⁸¹ tn Heb “So King Zedekiah secretly swore an oath to Jeremiah, saying.”

[38:16]  ⁸² tn Heb “who has made this life/soul/ breath [נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh] for us.” The Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ refers to the living, breathing substance of a person which constitutes his very life (cf. BDB 659 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ 1; 3).

[38:16]  ⁸³ tn Heb “who are seeking your life.”

[40:9]  ⁸⁹ tn The words “so as to give them some assurance of safety” are not in the text but are generally understood by all commentators. This would be a case of substitution of cause for effect, the oath, put for the effect, the assurance of safety (NJPS translates directly “reassured them”).

[40:9]  ⁹⁰ tn Heb “Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for explanation.

[44:26]  ⁹⁷ tn Heb “Therefore.” This particle quite often introduces the announcement of judgment after an indictment or accusation of a crime. That is its function here after the statement of cause in vv. 24-25. However, it would not sound right after the immediately preceding ironical or sarcastic commands to go ahead and fulfill their vows. “But” is a better transition unless one wants to paraphrase “Therefore, since you are so determined to do that….”

[44:26]  ⁹⁸ tn Heb “Behold I swear by…that my name will no more be pronounced in the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt saying, ‘As the Lord Yahweh lives.’” The sentence has been broken up and restructured to better conform with contemporary English style and the significance of pronouncing the name has been interpreted for the sake of readers who might not be familiar with this biblical idiom.