Jeremiah 6:6

6:6 All of this is because ¹  the Lord who rules over all ²  has said:

‘Cut down the trees around Jerusalem

and build up a siege ramp against its walls. ³ 

This is the city which is to be punished. ⁴ 

Nothing but oppression happens in it. ⁵ 

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. ⁶  Stop killing innocent people ⁷  in this land. Stop paying allegiance to ⁸  other gods. That will only bring about your ruin. ⁹ 

Jeremiah 22:17

22:17 But you are always thinking and looking

for ways to increase your wealth by dishonest means.

Your eyes and your heart are set

on killing some innocent person

and committing fraud and oppression. ¹⁰ 

Jeremiah 6:11

6:11 I am as full of anger as you are, Lord, ¹¹ 

I am tired of trying to hold it in.”

The Lord answered, ¹² 

“Vent it, then, ¹³  on the children who play in the street

and on the young men who are gathered together.

Husbands and wives are to be included, ¹⁴ 

as well as the old and those who are advanced in years.

Jeremiah 10:25

10:25 Vent your anger on the nations that do not acknowledge you. ¹⁵ 

Vent it on the peoples ¹⁶  who do not worship you. ¹⁷ 

For they have destroyed the people of Jacob. ¹⁸ 

They have completely destroyed them ¹⁹ 

and left their homeland in utter ruin.

Jeremiah 14:16

14:16 The people to whom they are prophesying will die through war and famine. Their bodies will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem ²⁰  and there will be no one to bury them. This will happen to the men and their wives, their sons, and their daughters. ²¹  For I will pour out on them the destruction they deserve.” ²² 

Jeremiah 22:3

22:3 The Lord says, “Do what is just and right. Deliver those who have been robbed from those ²³  who oppress them. Do not exploit or mistreat foreigners who live in your land, children who have no fathers, or widows. ²⁴  Do not kill innocent people ²⁵  in this land.

[6:6]  ¹ tn Heb “For.” The translation attempts to make the connection clearer.

[6:6]  ² tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.”

[6:6]  ³ tn Heb “Cut down its trees and build up a siege ramp against Jerusalem.” The referent has been moved forward from the second line for clarity.

[6:6]  ⁴ tn Or “must be punished.” The meaning of this line is uncertain. The LXX reads, “Woe, city of falsehood!” The MT presents two anomalies: a masculine singular verb with a feminine singular subject in a verbal stem (Hophal) that elsewhere does not have the meaning “is to be punished.” Hence many follow the Greek which presupposes הוֹי עִיר הַשֶּׁקֶר (hoy ’ir hasheqer) instead of הִיא הָעִיר הָפְקַד (hi’ ha’ir hofqad). The Greek is the easier reading in light of the parallelism, and it would be hard to explain how the MT arose from it. KBL suggests reading a noun meaning “licentiousness” which occurs elsewhere only in Mishnaic Hebrew, hence “this is the city, the licentious one” (attributive apposition; cf. KBL 775 s.v. פֶּקֶר). Perhaps the Hophal perfect (הָפְקַד, hofÿqad) should be revocalized as a Niphal infinitive absolute (הִפָּקֹד, hippaqod); this would solve both anomalies in the MT since the Niphal is used in this nuance and the infinitive absolute can function in place of a finite verb (cf. GKC 346 §113.ee and ff). This, however, is mere speculation and is supported by no Hebrew ms.

[6:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “All of it oppression in its midst.”

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

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

[7:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “going/following after.” See the translator’s note at 2:5 for an explanation of the idiom involved here.

[7:6]  ⁹ tn Heb “going after other gods to your ruin.”

[22:17]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Your eyes and your heart do not exist except for dishonest gain and for innocent blood to shed [it] and for fraud and for oppression to do [them].” The sentence has been broken up to conform more to English style and the significance of “eyes” and “heart” explained before they are introduced into the translation.

[6:11]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “I am full of the wrath of the Lord.”

[6:11]  ¹⁷ tn These words are not in the text but are implicit from the words that follow. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[6:11]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “Pour it out.”

[6:11]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “are to be captured.”

[10:25]  ²¹ tn Heb “know you.” For this use of the word “know” (יָדַע, yada’) see the note on 9:3.

[10:25]  ²² tn Heb “tribes/clans.”

[10:25]  ²³ tn Heb “who do not call on your name.” The idiom “to call on your name” (directed to God) refers to prayer (mainly) and praise. See 1 Kgs 18:24-26 and Ps 116:13, 17. Here “calling on your name” is parallel to “acknowledging you.” In many locations in the OT “name” is equivalent to the person. In the OT, the “name” reflected the person’s character (cf. Gen 27:36; 1 Sam 25:25) or his reputation (Gen 11:4; 2 Sam 8:13). To speak in a person’s name was to act as his representative or carry his authority (1 Sam 25:9; 1 Kgs 21:8). To call someone’s name over something was to claim it for one’s own (2 Sam 12:28).

[10:25]  ²⁴ tn Heb “have devoured Jacob.”

[10:25]  ²⁵ tn Or “have almost completely destroyed them”; Heb “they have devoured them and consumed them.” The figure of hyperbole is used here; elsewhere Jeremiah and God refer to the fact that they will not be completely consumed. See for example 4:27; 5:10, 18.

[14:16]  ²⁶ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[14:16]  ²⁷ tn Heb “And the people to whom they are prophesying will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem and there will not be anyone to bury them, they, their wives, and their sons and their daughters.” This sentence has been restructured to break up a long Hebrew sentence and to avoid some awkwardness due to differences in the ancient Hebrew and contemporary English styles.

[14:16]  ²⁸ tn Heb “their evil.” Hebrew words often include within them a polarity of cause and effect. Thus the word for “evil” includes both the concept of wickedness and the punishment for it. Other words that function this way are “iniquity” = “guilt [of iniquity]” = “punishment [for iniquity].” Context determines which nuance is proper.

[22:3]  ³¹ tn Heb “from the hand [or power] of.”

[22:3]  ³² tn Heb “aliens, orphans, or widows” treating the terms as generic or collective. However, the term “alien” carries faulty connotations and the term “orphan” is not totally appropriate because the Hebrew term does not necessarily mean that both parents have died.

[22:3]  ³³ tn Heb “Do not shed innocent blood.”