Jeremiah 7:32-34

7:32 So, watch out!” ¹  says the Lord. “The time will soon come when people will no longer call those places Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom. But they will call that valley ²  the Valley of Slaughter and they will bury so many people in Topheth they will run out of room. ³  7:33 Then the dead bodies of these people will be left on the ground for the birds and wild animals to eat. ⁴  There will not be any survivors to scare them away. 7:34 I will put an end to the sounds of joy and gladness, or the glad celebration of brides and grooms throughout the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem. For the whole land will become a desolate wasteland.”

Jeremiah 7:1

Faulty Religion and Unethical Behavior Will Lead to Judgment

7:1 The Lord said to Jeremiah: ⁵ 

Jeremiah 13:2

13:2 So I bought the shorts as the Lord had told me to do ⁶  and put them on. ⁷ 

Jeremiah 13:2

13:2 So I bought the shorts as the Lord had told me to do ⁸  and put them on. ⁹ 

Jeremiah 23:16

23:16 The Lord who rules over all ¹⁰  says to the people of Jerusalem: ¹¹ 

“Do not listen to what

those prophets are saying to you.

They are filling you with false hopes.

They are reporting visions of their own imaginations,

not something the Lord has given them to say. ¹² 

Jeremiah 23:20

23:20 The anger of the Lord will not turn back

until he has fully carried out his intended purposes. ¹³ 

In days to come ¹⁴ 

you people will come to understand this clearly. ¹⁵ 

Jeremiah 23:2

23:2 So the Lord God of Israel has this to say about the leaders who are ruling over his people: “You have caused my people ¹⁶  to be dispersed and driven into exile. You have not taken care of them. So I will punish you for the evil that you have done. ¹⁷  I, the Lord, affirm it! ¹⁸ 

Jeremiah 34:4-5

34:4 However, listen to what I, the Lord, promise you, King Zedekiah of Judah. I, the Lord, promise that ¹⁹  you will not die in battle or be executed. ²⁰  34:5 You will die a peaceful death. They will burn incense at your burial just as they did at the burial of your ancestors, the former kings who preceded you. ²¹  They will mourn for you, saying, “Poor, poor master!” ²²  Indeed, you have my own word on this. ²³  I, the Lord, affirm it!’” ²⁴ 

Ezekiel 6:5

6:5 I will place the corpses of the people of Israel in front of their idols, ²⁵  and I will scatter your bones around your altars.

Ezekiel 37:1

The Valley of Dry Bones

37:1 The hand ²⁶  of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and placed ²⁷  me in the midst of the valley, and it was full of bones.

Amos 2:1

2:1 This is what the Lord says:

“Because Moab has committed three crimes ²⁸  –

make that four! ²⁹  – I will not revoke my decree of judgment. ³⁰ 

They burned the bones of Edom’s king into lime. ³¹ 

[7:32]  ¹ tn Heb “Therefore, behold!”

[7:32]  ² tn Heb “it will no longer be said ‘Topheth’ or ‘the Valley of Ben Hinnom’ but ‘the valley of slaughter.’

[7:32]  ³ tn Heb “And they will bury in Topheth so there is not room.”

[7:33]  ⁴ tn Heb “Their dead bodies will be food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth.”

[7:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord.”

[13:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “according to the word of the Lord.”

[13:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “upon your loins.” The “loins” were the midriff of the body from the waist to the knees. For a further discussion including the figurative uses see R. C. Dentan, “Loins,” IDB 3:149-50.

[13:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “according to the word of the Lord.”

[13:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “upon your loins.” The “loins” were the midriff of the body from the waist to the knees. For a further discussion including the figurative uses see R. C. Dentan, “Loins,” IDB 3:149-50.

[23:16]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.”

[23:16]  ¹¹ tn The words “to the people of Jerusalem” are not in the Hebrew text but are supplied in the translation to reflect the masculine plural form of the imperative and the second masculine plural form of the pronoun. These words have been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[23:16]  ¹² tn Heb “They tell of a vision of their own heart [= mind] not from the mouth of the Lord.”

[23:20]  ¹³ tn Heb “until he has done and until he has carried out the purposes of his heart.”

[23:20]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “in the latter days.” However, as BDB 31 s.v. אַחֲרִית b suggests, the meaning of this idiom must be determined from the context. Sometimes it has remote, even eschatological, reference and other times it has more immediate reference as it does here and in Jer 30:23 where it refers to the coming days of Babylonian conquest and exile.

[23:20]  ¹⁵ tn The translation is intended to reflect a Hebrew construction where a noun functions as the object of a verb from the same root word (the Hebrew cognate accusative).

[23:2]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “about the shepherds who are shepherding my people. ‘You have caused my sheep….’” For the metaphor see the study note on the previous verse.

[23:2]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Therefore, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who should be shepherding my people: You have scattered my sheep and driven them away and you have not taken care of them. Behold I will visit upon you the evil of your deeds.” “Therefore” announces the judgment which does not come until “Behold.” It is interrupted by the messenger formula and a further indictment. The original has been broken up to conform more to contemporary English style, the metaphors have been interpreted for clarity and the connections between the indictments and the judgments have been carried by “So.”

[23:2]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[34:4]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “However, hear the word of the Lord, Zedekiah king of Judah, ‘Thus says the Lord to you, “You will not die by the sword.”’” The translation has tried to avoid the complexity created by embedding quotes within quotes and has used the first person address within the Lord’s speech as has also been done elsewhere.

[34:4]  ²⁰ tn Heb “by the sword.”

[34:5]  ²¹ tn Heb “And like the burning [of incense] for your fathers, the former kings who were before you, so will they burn [incense] for you.” The sentence has been reversed for easier style and the technical use of the terms interpreted.

[34:5]  ²² sn The intent of this oracle may have been to contrast the fate of Zedekiah with that of Jehoiakim who was apparently executed, went unmourned, and was left unburied (contrast Jer 22:18-19).

[34:5]  ²³ tn Heb “For [or Indeed] I myself have spoken [this] word.”

[34:5]  ²⁴ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[6:5]  ²⁵ tc This first sentence, which explains the meaning of the last sentence of the previous verse, does not appear in the LXX and may be an instance of a marginal explanatory note making its way into the text.

[37:1]  ²⁶ tn Or “power.”

[37:1]  ²⁷ tn Heb “caused me to rest.”

[2:1]  ²⁸ tn Traditionally, “transgressions” (KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV) or “sins” (NIV). For an explanation of the atrocities outlined in this oracle as treaty violations of God’s mandate to Noah in Gen 9:5-7, see the note on the word “violations” in 1:3.

[2:1]  ²⁹ tn Heb “Because of three violations of Moab, even because of four.”

[2:1]  ³⁰ tn Heb “I will not bring it [or “him”] back.” The translation understands the pronominal object to refer to the decree of judgment that follows; the referent (the decree) has been specified in the translation for clarity. For another option see the note on the word “judgment” in 1:3.

[2:1]  ³¹ sn The Moabites apparently desecrated the tomb of an Edomite king and burned his bones into a calcined substance which they then used as plaster (cf. Deut 27:2, 4). See S. M. Paul, Amos (Hermeneia), 72. Receiving a proper burial was very important in this culture. Desecrating a tomb or a deceased individual’s bones was considered an especially heinous act.