Psalms 78:34

78:34 When he struck them down, ¹  they sought his favor; ² 

they turned back and longed for God.

Jeremiah 18:4

18:4 Now and then ³  there would be something wrong ⁴  with the pot he was molding from the clay ⁵  with his hands. So he would rework ⁶  the clay into another kind of pot as he saw fit. ⁷ 

Jeremiah 18:2

18:2 “Go down at once ⁸  to the potter’s house. I will speak to you further there.” ⁹ 

Jeremiah 3:13

3:13 However, you must confess that you have done wrong, ¹⁰ 

and that you have rebelled against the Lord your God.

You must confess ¹¹  that you have given yourself to ¹²  foreign gods under every green tree,

and have not obeyed my commands,’ says the Lord.

[78:34]  ¹ tn Or “killed them,” that is, killed large numbers of them.

[78:34]  ² tn Heb “they sought him.”

[18:4]  ³ tn The verbs here denote repeated action. They are the Hebrew perfect with the vav (ו) consecutive. The text then reads somewhat literally, “Whenever the vessel he was molding…was ruined, he would remold…” For this construction see Joüon 2:393-94 §118.n and 2:628-29 §167.b, and compare the usage in Amos 4:7-8.

[18:4]  ⁴ sn Something was wrong with the clay – either there was a lump in it, or it was too moist or not moist enough, or it had some other imperfection. In any case the vessel was “ruined” or “spoiled” or defective in the eyes of the potter. This same verb has been used of the linen shorts that were “ruined” and hence were “good for nothing” in Jer 13:7. The nature of the clay and how it responded to the potter’s hand determined the kind of vessel that he made of it. He did not throw the clay away. This is the basis for the application in vv. 7-10 to any nation and to the nation of Israel in particular vv. 10-17.

[18:4]  ⁵ tn The usage of the preposition בְּ (bet) to introduce the material from which something is made in Exod 38:8 and 1 Kgs 15:22 should lay to rest the rather forced construction that some (like J. Bright, Jeremiah [AB], 121) put on the variant כַּחֹמֶר (kakhomer) found in a few Hebrew mss. Bright renders that phrase as an elliptical “as clay sometimes will.” The phrase is missing from the Greek version.

[18:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “he would turn and work.” This is an example of hendiadys where one of the two verbs joined by “and” becomes the adverbial modifier of the other. The verb “turn” is very common in this construction (see BDB 998 s.v. שׁוּב Qal.8 for references).

[18:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “as it was right in his eyes to do [or work it].” For this idiom see Judg 14:3, 7; 1 Sam 18:20, 26; 2 Sam 17:4.

[18:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “Get up and go down.” The first verb is not literal but is idiomatic for the initiation of an action. See 13:4, 6 for other occurrences of this idiom.

[18:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “And I will cause you to hear my word there.”

[3:13]  ⁷ tn Heb “Only acknowledge your iniquity.”

[3:13]  ⁸ tn The words “You must confess” are repeated to convey the connection. The Hebrew text has an introductory “that” in front of the second line and a coordinative “and” in front of the next two lines.

[3:13]  ⁹ tc MT reads דְּרָכַיִךְ (dÿrakhayikh, “your ways”), but the BHS editors suggest דּוֹדַיִךְ (dodayikh, “your breasts”) as an example of orthographic confusion. While the proposal makes sense, it remains a conjectural emendation since it is not supported by any actual manuscripts or ancient versions.