Jeremiah 7:3-7

Context
7:3 The Lord God of Israel who rules over all¹ says: Change the way you have been living and do what is right.² If you do, I will allow you to continue to live in this land.³ 7:4 Stop putting your confidence in the false belief that says,⁴ “We are safe!⁵ The temple of the Lord is here! The temple of the Lord is here! The temple of the Lord is here!”⁶ 7:5 You must change⁷ the way you have been living and do what is right. You must treat one another fairly.⁸ 7:6 Stop oppressing foreigners who live in your land, children who have lost their fathers, and women who have lost their husbands.⁹ Stop killing innocent people¹⁰ in this land. Stop paying allegiance to¹¹ other gods. That will only bring about your ruin.¹² 7:7 If you stop doing these things,¹³ I will allow you to continue to live in this land¹⁴ which I gave to your ancestors as a lasting possession.¹⁵

Jeremiah 7:23

Context
7:23 I also explicitly commanded them:¹⁶ “Obey me. If you do, I¹⁷ will be your God and you will be my people. Live exactly the way I tell you¹⁸ and things will go well with you.”

[7:3] ¹tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God Israel.”

[7:3] ²tn Or “Make good your ways and your actions.” J. Bright’s translation (“Reform the whole pattern of your conduct”; Jeremiah [AB], 52) is excellent.

[7:3] ³tn Heb “place” but this might be misunderstood to refer to the temple.

[7:4] ⁴tn Heb “Stop trusting in lying words which say.”

[7:4] ⁵tn The words “We are safe!” are not in the text but are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[7:4] ⁶tn Heb “The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these (i.e., these buildings).” Elsewhere triple repetition seems to mark a kind of emphasis (cf. Isa 6:3; Jer 22:29; Ezek 21:27 [32 HT]). The triple repetition that follows seems to be Jeremiah’s way of mocking the (false) sense of security that people had in the invincibility of Jerusalem because God dwelt in the temple. They appeared to be treating the temple as some kind of magical charm. A similar feeling had grown up around the ark in the time of the judges (cf. 1 Sam 3:3) and the temple and city of Jerusalem in Micah’s day (cf. Mic 3:11). It is reflected also in some of the Psalms (cf., e.g., Ps 46, especially v. 5).

[7:5] ⁷tn The infinitive absolute precedes the finite verb for emphasis.

[7:5] ⁸tn Heb “you must do justice between a person and his fellow/neighbor.” The infinitive absolute precedes the finite verb for emphasis.

[7:6] ⁹tn Heb “Stop oppressing foreigner, orphan, and widow.”

[7:6] ¹⁰tn Heb “Stop shedding innocent blood.”

[7:6] ¹¹tn Heb “going/following after.” See the translator’s note at 2:5 for an explanation of the idiom involved here.

[7:6] ¹²tn Heb “going after other gods to your ruin.”

[7:7] ¹³tn The translation uses imperatives in vv. 5-6 followed by the phrase, “If you do all this,” to avoid the long and complex sentence structure of the Hebrew sentence which has a series of conditional clauses in vv. 5-6 followed by a main clause in v. 7.

[7:7] ¹⁴tn Heb “live in this place, in this land.”

[7:7] ¹⁵tn Heb “gave to your fathers [with reference to] from ancient times even unto forever.”

[7:23] ¹⁶tn Verses 22-23a read in Hebrew, “I did not speak with your ancestors and I did not command them when I brought them out of Egypt about words/matters concerning burnt offering and sacrifice, but I commanded them this word:” Some modern commentators have explained this passage as an evidence for the lateness of the Pentateuchal instruction regarding sacrifice or a denial that sacrifice was practiced during the period of the wilderness wandering. However, it is better explained as an example of what R. de Vaux calls a dialectical negative, i.e., “not so much this as that” or “not this without that” (Ancient Israel, 454-56). For other examples of this same argument see Isa 1:10-17; Hos 6:4-6; Amos 5:21-25.

[7:23] ¹⁷tn Heb “Obey me and I will be.” The translation is equivalent syntactically but brings out the emphasis in the command.

[7:23] ¹⁸tn Heb “Walk in all the way that I command you.”