Jeremiah 7:8

7:8 “‘But just look at you! ¹  You are putting your confidence in a false belief ²  that will not deliver you. ³ 

Jeremiah 7:4

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 

Jeremiah 3:23

3:23 We know our noisy worship of false gods

on the hills and mountains did not help us. ⁷ 

We know that the Lord our God

is the only one who can deliver Israel. ⁸ 

Jeremiah 15:18

15:18 Why must I continually suffer such painful anguish?

Why must I endure the sting of their insults like an incurable wound?

Will you let me down when I need you

like a brook one goes to for water, but that cannot be relied on?” ⁹ 

Jeremiah 8:5

8:5 Why, then, do these people of Jerusalem ¹⁰ 

continually turn away from me in apostasy?

They hold fast to their deception. ¹¹ 

They refuse to turn back to me. ¹² 

Jeremiah 9:6

9:6 They do one act of violence after another,

and one deceitful thing after another. ¹³ 

They refuse to pay attention to me,” ¹⁴ 

says the Lord.

Jeremiah 3:10

3:10 In spite of all this, ¹⁵  Israel’s sister, unfaithful Judah, has not turned back to me with any sincerity; she has only pretended to do so,” ¹⁶  says the Lord.

Jeremiah 23:26

23:26 Those prophets are just prophesying lies. They are prophesying the delusions of their own minds. ¹⁷ 

Jeremiah 14:14

14:14 Then the Lord said to me, “Those prophets are prophesying lies while claiming my authority! ¹⁸  I did not send them. I did not commission them. ¹⁹  I did not speak to them. They are prophesying to these people false visions, worthless predictions, ²⁰  and the delusions of their own mind.

[7:8]  ¹ tn Heb “Behold!”

[7:8]  ² tn Heb “You are trusting in lying words.” See the similar phrase in v. 4 and the note there.

[7:8]  ³ tn Heb “not profit [you].”

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

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

[7:4]  ⁶ 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).

[3:23]  ⁷ tn Heb “Truly in vain from the hills the noise/commotion [and from] the mountains.” The syntax of the Hebrew sentence is very elliptical here.

[3:23]  ⁸ tn Heb “Truly in the Lord our God is deliverance for Israel.”

[15:18]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Will you be to me like a deceptive (brook), like waters which do not last [or are not reliable].”

[8:5]  ¹³ tc The text is quite commonly emended, changing שׁוֹבְבָה הָעָם (shovÿvah ha’am) to שׁוֹבָב הָעָם (shovav ha’am) and omitting יְרוּשָׁלַםִ (yÿrushalaim); this is due to the anomaly of a feminine singular verb with a masculine singular subject and the fact that the word “Jerusalem” is absent from one Hebrew ms and the LXX. However, it is possible that this is a case where the noun “Jerusalem” is a defining apposition to the word “these people,” an apposition which GKC 425 §131.k calls “permutation.” In this case the verb could be attracted to the appositional noun and there would be no reason to emend the text. The MT is undoubtedly the harder reading and is for that reason to be preferred.

[8:5]  ¹⁴ tn Or “to their allegiance to false gods,” or “to their false professions of loyalty”; Heb “to deceit.” Either “to their mistaken beliefs” or “to their allegiance to false gods” would fit the preceding context. The former is more comprehensive than the latter and was chosen for that reason.

[8:5]  ¹⁵ sn There is a continuing play on the same root word used in the preceding verse. Here the words “turn away from me,” “apostasy,” and “turn back to me” are all forms from the root that was translated “go the wrong way” and “turn around” in v. 4. The intended effect is to contrast Judah’s recalcitrant apostasy with the usual tendency to try and correct one’s mistakes.

[9:6]  ¹⁶ tc An alternate reading for vv. 5d-6b is: “They wear themselves out doing wrong. Jeremiah, you live in the midst of deceitful people. They deceitfully refuse to take any thought of/acknowledge me.” The translation which has been adopted is based on a redivision of the lines, a redivision of some of the words, and a revocalization of some of the consonants. The MT reads literally “doing wrong they weary themselves. Your sitting in the midst of deceit; in deceit they refuse to know me” (הַעֲוֵה נִלְאוּ׃ שִׁבְתְּךָ בְּתוֹךְ מִרְמָה בְּמִרְמָה מֵאֲנוּ דַעַת־אוֹתִי). The Greek version reads literally “they do wrong and they do not cease to turn themselves around. Usury upon usury and deceit upon deceit. They do not want to know me.” This suggests that one should read the Hebrew text as שֻׁב׃ תֹּךְ בְּתוֹךְ מִרְ־מָה בְּמִרְ־מָה מֵאֲנוּ דַעַת אוֹתִי הַעֲוֵה נִלְאוּ, which translated literally yields “doing evil [= “they do evil” using the Hiphil infinitive absolute as a finite verb (cf. GKC 346 §113.ff)] they are not able [cf. KBL 468 s.v. לָאָה Niph.3 and see Exod 7:18 for parallel use] to repent. Oppression on oppression [cf. BDB 1067 s.v. תֹּךְ, II תּוֹךְ]; deceit on deceit. They refuse to know me.” This reading has ancient support and avoids the introduction of an unexpected second masculine suffix into the context. It has been adopted here along with a number of modern commentaries (cf., e.g., W. McKane, Jeremiah [ICC], 1:201) and English versions as the more likely reading.

[9:6]  ¹⁷ tn Or “do not acknowledge me”; Heb “do not know me.” See the note on the phrase “do not take any thought of me” in 9:3.

[3:10]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “And even in all this.”

[3:10]  ²⁰ tn Heb “ has not turned back to me with all her heart but only in falsehood.”

[23:26]  ²² sn See the parallel passage in Jer 14:13-15.

[14:14]  ²⁵ tn Heb “Falsehood those prophets are prophesying in my name.” 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 someone’s name was to act as his representative or carry his authority (1 Sam 25:9; 1 Kgs 21:8).

[14:14]  ²⁶ tn Heb “I did not command them.” Compare 1 Chr 22:12 for usage.

[14:14]  ²⁷ tn Heb “divination and worthlessness.” The noun “worthlessness” stands as a qualifying “of” phrase (= to an adjective; an attributive genitive in Hebrew) after a noun in Zech 11:17; Job 13:4. This is an example of hendiadys where two nouns are joined by “and” with one serving as the qualifier of the other.