Jeremiah 6:16-17

6:16 The Lord said to his people: ¹ 

“You are standing at the crossroads. So consider your path. ² 

Ask where the old, reliable paths ³  are.

Ask where the path is that leads to blessing ⁴  and follow it.

If you do, you will find rest for your souls.”

But they said, “We will not follow it!”

6:17 The Lord said, ⁵ 

“I appointed prophets as watchmen to warn you, ⁶  saying:

‘Pay attention to the warning sound of the trumpet!’” ⁷ 

But they said, “We will not pay attention!”

Jeremiah 43:1-7

43:1 Jeremiah finished telling all the people all these things the Lord their God had sent him to tell them. ⁸  43:2 Then Azariah ⁹  son of Hoshaiah, Johanan son of Kareah, and other arrogant men said to Jeremiah, “You are telling a lie! The Lord our God did not send you to tell us, ‘You must not go to Egypt and settle there.’ 43:3 But Baruch son of Neriah is stirring you up against us. ¹⁰  He wants to hand us over ¹¹  to the Babylonians ¹²  so that they will kill us or carry us off into exile in Babylon.” 43:4 So Johanan son of Kareah, all the army officers, and all the rest of the people did not obey the Lord’s command to stay in the land. 43:5 Instead Johanan son of Kareah and all the army officers led off all the Judean remnant who had come back to live in the land of Judah from all the nations where they had been scattered. ¹³  43:6 They also led off all the men, women, children, and royal princesses ¹⁴  that Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard, had left with Gedaliah, ¹⁵  the son of Ahikam and grandson of Shaphan. This included the prophet Jeremiah and Baruch son of Neriah. 43:7 They went on to Egypt ¹⁶  because they refused to obey the Lord, and came to Tahpanhes. ¹⁷ 

Jeremiah 44:16

44:16 “We will not listen to what you claim the Lord has spoken to us! ¹⁸ 

Matthew 7:24-27

Hearing and Doing

7:24 “Everyone ¹⁹  who hears these words of mine and does them is like ²⁰  a wise man ²¹  who built his house on rock. 7:25 The rain fell, the flood ²²  came, and the winds beat against that house, but it did not collapse because it had been founded on rock. 7:26 Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 7:27 The rain fell, the flood came, and the winds beat against that house, and it collapsed; it was utterly destroyed!” ²³ 

Luke 6:48-49

6:48 He is like a man ²⁴  building a house, who dug down deep, ²⁵  and laid the foundation on bedrock. When ²⁶  a flood came, the river ²⁷  burst against that house but ²⁸  could not shake it, because it had been well built. ²⁹  6:49 But the person who hears and does not put my words into practice ³⁰  is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When ³¹  the river burst against that house, ³²  it collapsed immediately, and was utterly destroyed!” ³³ 

Luke 8:21

8:21 But he replied ³⁴  to them, “My mother and my brothers are those ³⁵  who hear the word of God and do it.” ³⁶ 

Luke 11:28

11:28 But he replied, ³⁷  “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey ³⁸  it!”

James 1:22-24

1:22 But be sure you live out the message and do not merely listen to it and so deceive yourselves. 1:23 For if someone merely listens to the message and does not live it out, he is like someone ³⁹  who gazes at his own face ⁴⁰  in a mirror. 1:24 For he gazes at himself and then goes out and immediately forgets ⁴¹  what sort of person he was.

[6:16]  ¹ tn The words, “to his people” are not in the text but are implicit in the interchange of pronouns in the Hebrew of vv. 16-17. They are supplied in the translation here for clarity.

[6:16]  ² tn Heb “Stand at the crossroads and look.”

[6:16]  ³ tn Heb “the ancient path,” i.e., the path the Lord set out in ancient times (cf. Deut 32:7).

[6:16]  ⁴ tn Heb “the way of/to the good.”

[6:17]  ⁵ tn These words are not in the text but are implicit in the interchange of pronouns in the Hebrew of vv. 16-17. They are supplied in the translation here for clarity.

[6:17]  ⁶ tn Heb “I appointed watchmen over you.”

[6:17]  ⁷ tn Heb “Pay attention to the sound of the trumpet.” The word “warning” is not in the Hebrew text, but is implied.

[43:1]  ⁸ tn This sentence contains an emphasis that is impossible to translate into idiomatic English that would not sound redundant. In Hebrew the sentence reads: “When Jeremiah finished [the temporal subordination is left out here because it would make the sentence too long] telling all the people all the words [or all the things] which the Lord their God had sent him [to say] to them, namely all these words,…” The last phrase has been left out of the translation as already having been included. Though they have been left out of the translation, attention is called to their presence here.

[43:2]  ⁹ sn See the study note on 42:1 for the possible identification of this man with Jezaniah son of Hoshaiah and Jezaniah the son of the Maacathite.

[43:3]  ¹⁰ tn Or “is inciting you against us.”

[43:3]  ¹¹ tn Heb “in order to give us into the hands of the Chaldeans.” The substitution “he wants to” as the equivalent of the purpose clause has been chosen to shorten the sentence to better conform with contemporary English style.

[43:3]  ¹² tn Heb “Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for explanation.

[43:5]  ¹³ sn These are the people who are referred to in Jer 40:11-12.

[43:6]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the daughters of the king.” See the translator’s note on 41:10.

[43:6]  ¹⁵ sn This refers to the group mentioned in Jer 40:7 and 41:10. The two groups together constituted all the people who were at Mizpah when Gedaliah was murdered, had been taken captive by Ishmael, had been rescued by Johanan and the other army officers, and had consulted Jeremiah at Geruth Chimham.

[43:7]  ¹⁶ sn This had been their intention all along (41:17). Though they consulted the Lord and promised to do what he told them whether they agreed with it or not (42:5-6), it is clear that they had no intention of doing so. Jeremiah could see that (42:19-22). They refused to believe that the Lord had really said what Jeremiah told them (43:4) and feared reprisal from the Babylonians more than any potential destruction from the Lord (43:3).

[43:7]  ¹⁷ sn Tahpanhes was an important fortress city on the northern border of Egypt in the northeastern Nile delta. It is generally equated with the Greek city of Daphne. It has already been mentioned in 2:16 in conjunction with Memphis (the Hebrew name is “Noph”) as a source of soldiers who did violence to the Israelites in the past.

[44:16]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “the word [or message] you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord.” For an explanation of the rendering of “in the name of the Lord” see the study notes on 10:25 and 23:27.

[7:24]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “Therefore everyone.” Here οὖν (oun) has not been translated.

[7:24]  ²⁰ tn Grk “will be like.” The same phrase occurs in v. 26.

[7:24]  ²¹ tn Here and in v. 26 the Greek text reads ἀνήρ (anhr), while the parallel account in Luke 6:47-49 uses ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") in vv. 48 and 49.

[7:25]  ²² tn Grk “the rivers.”

[7:27]  ²³ tn Grk “and great was its fall.”

[6:48]  ²⁴ tn Here and in v. 49 the Greek text reads ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo"), while the parallel account in Matt 7:24-27 uses ἀνήρ (anhr) in vv. 24 and 26.

[6:48]  ²⁵ tn There are actually two different Greek verbs used here: “who dug (ἔσκαψεν, eskayen) and dug deep (ἐβάθυνεν, ebaqunen).” Jesus is placing emphasis on the effort to which the man went to prepare his foundation.

[6:48]  ²⁶ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[6:48]  ²⁷ sn The picture here is of a river overflowing its banks and causing flooding and chaos.

[6:48]  ²⁸ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in the context.

[6:48]  ²⁹ tc Most mss, especially later ones (A C D Θ Ψ Ë^1,13 Ï latt), read “because he built [it] on the rock” rather than “because it had been well built” (Ì^75vid א B L W Ξ 33 579 892 1241 2542 pc sa). The reading of the later mss seems to be a harmonization to Matt 7:25, rendering it most likely secondary.

[6:49]  ³⁰ tn Grk “does not do [them].”

[6:49]  ³¹ tn Grk “against which”; because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, the relative clause was converted to a temporal clause in the translation and a new sentence started here.

[6:49]  ³² tn Grk “it”; the referent (that house) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[6:49]  ³³ tn Grk “and its crash was great.”

[8:21]  ³⁴ tn Grk “answering, he said.” This is redundant in contemporary English and has been simplified to “he replied.”

[8:21]  ³⁵ tn There is some discussion about the grammar of this verse in Greek. If “these” is the subject, then it reads, “These are my mother and brothers, those who.” If “these” is a nominative absolute, which is slightly more likely, then the verse more literally reads, “So my mother and brothers, they are those who.” The sense in either case is the same.

[8:21]  ³⁶ sn Hearing and doing the word of God is another important NT theme: Luke 6:47-49; Jas 1:22-25.

[11:28]  ³⁷ tn Grk “said.”

[11:28]  ³⁸ sn This is another reference to hearing and doing the word of God, which here describes Jesus’ teaching; see Luke 8:21.

[1:23]  ³⁹ tn The word for “man” or “individual” is ἀνήρ (anhr), which often means “male” or “man (as opposed to woman).” However, as BDAG 79 s.v. 2 says, here it is “equivalent to τὶς someone, a person.”

[1:23]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “the face of his beginning [or origin].”

[1:24]  ⁴¹ tn Grk “and he has gone out and immediately has forgotten.”