Jeremiah 7:4-8

7:4 Stop putting your confidence in the false belief that says, ¹  “We are safe! ²  The temple of the Lord is here! The temple of the Lord is here! The temple of the Lord is here!” ³  7:5 You must change ⁴  the way you have been living and do what is right. You must treat one another fairly. ⁵  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  7:7 If you stop doing these things, ¹⁰  I will allow you to continue to live in this land ¹¹  which I gave to your ancestors as a lasting possession. ¹² 

7:8 “‘But just look at you! ¹³  You are putting your confidence in a false belief ¹⁴  that will not deliver you. ¹⁵ 

Jeremiah 10:14

10:14 All these idolaters ¹⁶  will prove to be stupid and ignorant.

Every goldsmith will be disgraced by the idol he made.

For the image he forges is merely a sham. ¹⁷ 

There is no breath in any of those idols. ¹⁸ 

Deuteronomy 32:37-38

32:37 He will say, “Where are their gods,

the rock in whom they sought security,

32:38 who ate the best of their sacrifices,

and drank the wine of their drink offerings?

Let them rise and help you;

let them be your refuge!

Isaiah 28:15

28:15 For you say,

“We have made a treaty with death,

with Sheol ¹⁹  we have made an agreement. ²⁰ 

When the overwhelming judgment sweeps by ²¹ 

it will not reach us.

For we have made a lie our refuge,

we have hidden ourselves in a deceitful word.” ²² 

Micah 3:11

3:11 Her ²³  leaders take bribes when they decide legal cases, ²⁴ 

her priests proclaim rulings for profit,

and her prophets read omens for pay.

Yet they claim to trust ²⁵  the Lord and say,

“The Lord is among us. ²⁶ 

Disaster will not overtake ²⁷  us!”

Habakkuk 2:18-19

2:18 What good ²⁸  is an idol? Why would a craftsman make it? ²⁹ 

What good is a metal image that gives misleading oracles? ³⁰ 

Why would its creator place his trust in it ³¹ 

and make ³²  such mute, worthless things?

2:19 The one who says to wood, ‘Wake up!’ is as good as dead ³³  –

he who says ³⁴  to speechless stone, ‘Awake!’

Can it give reliable guidance? ³⁵ 

It is overlaid with gold and silver;

it has no life’s breath inside it.

[7:4]  ¹ tn Heb “Stop trusting in lying words which say.”

[7:4]  ² tn The words “We are safe!” are not in the text but are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[7:4]  ³ tn 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]  ⁴ tn The infinitive absolute precedes the finite verb for emphasis.

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

[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.”

[7:7]  ¹⁰ tn 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]  ¹¹ tn Heb “live in this place, in this land.”

[7:7]  ¹² tn Heb “gave to your fathers [with reference to] from ancient times even unto forever.”

[7:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “Behold!”

[7:8]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “You are trusting in lying words.” See the similar phrase in v. 4 and the note there.

[7:8]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “not profit [you].”

[10:14]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Every man.” But in the context this is not a reference to all people without exception but to all idolaters. The referent is made explicit for the sake of clarity.

[10:14]  ¹⁷ tn Or “nothing but a phony god”; Heb “a lie/falsehood.”

[10:14]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “There is no breath in them.” The referent is made explicit so that no one will mistakenly take it to refer to the idolaters or goldsmiths.

[28:15]  ¹⁹ sn Sheol is the underworld, land of the dead, according to the OT world view.

[28:15]  ²⁰ tn Elsewhere the noun חֹזֶה (khozeh) refers to a prophet who sees visions. In v. 18 the related term חָזוּת (khazut, “vision”) is used. The parallelism in both verses (note “treaty”) seems to demand a meaning “agreement” for both nouns. Perhaps חֹזֶה and חזוּת are used in a metonymic sense in vv. 15 and 18. Another option is to propose a homonymic root. See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:514, and HALOT 301 s.v. II חֹזֶה.

[28:15]  ²¹ tn Heb “the overwhelming scourge, when it passes by” (NRSV similar).

[28:15]  ²² sn “Lie” and “deceitful word” would not be the terms used by the people. They would likely use the words “promise” and “reliable word,” but the prophet substitutes “lie” and “deceitful word” to emphasize that this treaty with death will really prove to be disappointing.

[3:11]  ²³ sn The pronoun Her refers to Jerusalem (note the previous line).

[3:11]  ²⁴ tn Heb “judge for a bribe.”

[3:11]  ²⁵ tn Heb “they lean upon” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV); NAB “rely on.”

[3:11]  ²⁶ tn Heb “Is not the Lord in our midst?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course he is!”

[3:11]  ²⁷ tn Or “come upon” (so many English versions); NCV “happen to us”; CEV “come to us.”

[2:18]  ²⁸ tn Or “of what value.”

[2:18]  ²⁹ tn Heb “so that the one who forms it fashions it?” Here כִּי (ki) is taken as resultative after the rhetorical question. For other examples of this use, see R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 73, §450.

[2:18]  ³⁰ tn Heb “or a metal image, a teacher of lies.” The words “What good is” in the translation are supplied from the previous parallel line. “Teacher of lies” refers to the false oracles that the so-called god would deliver through a priest. See J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (OTL), 126.

[2:18]  ³¹ tn Heb “so that the one who forms his image trusts in it?” As earlier in the verse, כִּי (ki) is resultative.

[2:18]  ³² tn Heb “to make.”

[2:19]  ³³ tn Heb “Woe [to] the one who says.” On the term הוֹי (hoy) see the note on the word “dead” in v. 6.

[2:19]  ³⁴ tn The words “he who says” in the translation are supplied from the previous parallel line.

[2:19]  ³⁵ tn Though the Hebrew text has no formal interrogative marker here, the context indicates that the statement should be taken as a rhetorical question anticipating the answer, “Of course not!” (so also NIV, NRSV).