Jeremiah 6-7

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Jeremiah 6:1 tn Heb “Flee for safety, people of Benjamin, out of the midst of Jerusalem.”sn Compare and contrast Jer 4:6. There people in the outlying areas were warned to seek safety in the fortified city of Jerusalem. Here they are told to flee it because it was about to be destroyed.
2. Jeremiah 6:1 tn Heb “ram’s horn.” But the modern equivalent is “trumpet” and is more readily understandable.
3. Jeremiah 6:1 tn Heb “leans down” or “looks down.” This verb personifies destruction leaning/looking down from its window in the sky, ready to attack.
4. Jeremiah 6:1 tn Heb “[It will be] a severe fracture.” The nation is pictured as a limb being fractured.sn This passage is emotionally charged. There are two examples of assonance or wordplay in the verse. “Sound” and “Tekoa” are built on the same root: תָּקַע (taqaʿ, “blow”). “Light” and “signal fire,” also come from the same root: נָשָׂא (nasaʾ, “lift up”). Also disaster is personified when it is said to “lurk” (Heb “look down on”) out of the north. This gives a sense of urgency and concern for the coming destruction.
5. Jeremiah 6:2 tn The verb here is another example of the Hebrew verb form that indicates the action is as good as done (a Hebrew prophetic perfect).
6. Jeremiah 6:2 sn Jerusalem is personified as a young maiden who is helpless in the hands of her enemies.
7. Jeremiah 6:2 tn Heb “The beautiful and delicate one I will destroy, the daughter of Zion.” The English versions and commentaries are divided over the rendering of this verse because (1) there are two verbs with these same consonants, one meaning “to be like” and the other meaning “to be destroyed” (intransitive) or “to destroy” (transitive), and (2) the word rendered “beautiful” (נָוָה, navah) can be understood as a noun meaning “pasture” or as a defective writing of an adjective meaning “beautiful, comely” (נָאוָה, naʾvah). Hence some render, “Fair Zion, you are like a lovely pasture,” reading the verb form as an example of the old second feminine singular perfect. Although this may fit the imagery of the next verse, that rendering ignores the absence of a preposition (לְ or אֶל, l^e or ʾel, both of which can be translated “to”) that normally goes with the verb “be like,” and it drops the conjunction in front of the adjective “delicate.” The parallel usage of the verb in Hos 4:5 argues for the meaning “destroy.”
8. Jeremiah 6:3 tn Heb “Shepherds and their flocks will attack it.” Rulers are often depicted as shepherds; see BDB 945 s.v. רָעָה 1.d(2) (cf. Jer 12:10). The translation of this verse attempts to clarify the point of this extended metaphor.
9. Jeremiah 6:3 tn Heb “They will thrust [= pitch] tents around it.” The shepherd imagery has a surprisingly ominous tone. The beautiful pasture filled with shepherds grazing their sheep is in reality a city under siege from an attacking enemy.
10. Jeremiah 6:3 tn Heb “They will graze each one his portion.” For the use of the verb “graze” to mean “strip” or “devastate” see BDB 945 s.v. רָעָה 2.c. For a similar use of the word normally meaning “hand” to mean portion, compare 2 Sam 19:43 (19:44 HT).sn There is another wordplay involving the root תָּקַע (taqaʿ). Here it is the verb for pitching tents, while in v. 1 it was used for sounding the trumpet. It is the root for the place name “Tekoa.”
11. Jeremiah 6:4 tn These words are not in the text but are implicit in the connection. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.
12. Jeremiah 6:4 tn Heb “Sanctify war.” This is probably an idiom from early Israel’s holy wars in which religious rites were to precede the battle.
13. Jeremiah 6:4 tn These words are not in the text but are supplied in the translation for clarity. Some commentaries and English versions see these not as the words of the enemy but as those of the Israelites expressing their fear that the enemy will launch a night attack against them and further destroy them. The connection with the next verse, however, fits better with them if they are the words of the enemy.
14. Jeremiah 6:4 tn For the usage of this phrase see the translator’s note on 4:13. The usage of this particle here is a little exaggerated. They have lost the most advantageous time for attack but they are scarcely in a hopeless or doomed situation. The equivalent in English slang is “Bad news!”
15. Jeremiah 6:6 tn Heb “For.” The translation attempts to make the connection clearer.
16. Jeremiah 6:6 tn Heb “Yahweh of Armies.”sn For an explanation of the significance of this title see the study note on 2:19.
17. Jeremiah 6:6 tn Heb “Cut down its trees and build up a siege ramp against Jerusalem.” The referent has been moved forward from the second line for clarity.
18. Jeremiah 6:6 tn Or “has been appointed.” The meaning of this line is uncertain. The LXX reads, “Woe, city of falsehood!” The MT presents a masculine singular verb with a feminine singular subject. The verb פָּקַד (paqad) in the Hophal verbal stem elsewhere means “to be appointed, designated.” It is used of officials who have been appointed to tasks or of leaving something deposited with someone. Hence many follow the Greek, which presupposes הוֹי עִיר הַשֶּׁקֶר (hoy ʿir hasheqer) instead of הִיא הָעִיר הָפְקַד (hiʾ haʿir hofqad). The Greek is the easier reading in light of the parallelism, and it would be hard to explain how the MT arose from it. KBL suggests reading a noun meaning “licentiousness” that occurs elsewhere only in Mishnaic Hebrew, hence “this is the city, the licentious one” (attributive apposition; cf. KBL 775 s.v. פֶּקֶר). Perhaps the Hophal perfect (הָפְקַד, hofqad) should be revocalized as a Niphal infinitive absolute (הִפָּקֹד, hippaqod), which would solve both anomalies in the MT since the Niphal is used in this nuance and the infinitive absolute can function in place of a finite verb (cf. GKC 346 §113.ee and ff). This change, however, is mere speculation and is supported by no Hebrew ms.
19. Jeremiah 6:6 tn Heb “All of it oppression in its midst.”
20. Jeremiah 6:7 tc Heb “As a well makes cool/fresh its water, she makes cool/fresh her wickedness.” The translation follows the reading proposed by the Masoretes (Qere) which reads a rare form of the word “well” (בַּיִר [bayir] for בְּאֵר [b^eʾer]) in place of the form written in the text (Kethib, בּוֹר [bor]), which means “cistern.” The latter noun is masculine and the pronoun “its” is feminine. If indeed בַּיִר (bayir) is a byform of בְּאֵר (b^eʾer), which is feminine, it would agree in gender with the pronoun. It also forms a more appropriate comparison since cisterns do not hold fresh water.
21. Jeremiah 6:7 tn Heb “Violence and destruction are heard in it.”
22. Jeremiah 6:7 tn Heb “Sickness and wound are continually before my face.”
23. Jeremiah 6:8 tn This word is not in the text but is supplied in the translation. Jeremiah uses a figure of speech (enallage) where the speaker turns from talking about someone to address him/her directly.
24. Jeremiah 6:8 tn Heb “lest my soul [= I] becomes disgusted with you.”sn The wordplay begun with “sound…in Tekoa” in v. 1 and continued with “encamp” (they will pitch [their tents]) in v. 3 is concluded here with “turn away in disgust” (תֵּקַע [teqaʿ]), which uses the same consonants although built now on the root יָקַע (yaqaʿ).
25. Jeremiah 6:9 tn Heb “Yahweh of Armies.”sn For an explanation of the significance of this title see the study note on 2:19.
26. Jeremiah 6:9 tn The words “to me” are not in the text but are supplied in the translation for clarity.
27. Jeremiah 6:9 tn Heb “They will thoroughly glean those who are left in Israel like a vine.” That is, they will be carried off by judgment. It is not necessary to read the verb forms here the way some English versions and commentaries do: as two imperatives, or as an infinitive absolute followed by an imperative. “Glean” is an example of a third plural verb used impersonally and translated as a passive (cf. GKC 460 §144.g).
28. Jeremiah 6:9 tn Heb “Pass your hand back over the branches like a grape harvester.” The translation is intended to clarify the metaphor that Jeremiah should try to rescue some from the coming destruction.
29. Jeremiah 6:10 tn These words are not in the text but are supplied in the translation for clarity.
30. Jeremiah 6:10 tn Heb “To whom shall I speak and give warning that they may listen?”
31. Jeremiah 6:10 tn Heb “are uncircumcised.”
32. Jeremiah 6:10 tn Heb “Behold!”
33. Jeremiah 6:10 tn Heb “They do not take pleasure in it.”
34. Jeremiah 6:11 tn Heb “I am full of the wrath of the Lord.”
35. Jeremiah 6:11 tn These words are not in the text but are implicit from the words that follow. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.
36. Jeremiah 6:11 tn Heb “Pour it out.”
37. Jeremiah 6:11 tn Heb “are to be captured.”
38. Jeremiah 6:12 tn Heb “I will reach out my hand.” This figure involves both comparing God to a person (anthropomorphism) and substituting the hand for its actions or exertions (metonymy). A common use of “hand” is for the exertion of power or strength (cf. BDB 290 s.v. יָד 2 and 289-90 s.v. יָד 1.e(2); cf. Deut 34:12; Ps 78:42; Jer 16:21).
39. Jeremiah 6:14 tn Heb “They heal [= bandage] the wound of my people lightly”; TEV “They act as if my people’s wounds were only scratches.”
40. Jeremiah 6:14 tn Heb “They say, ‘Peace! Peace!’ and there is no peace!”
41. Jeremiah 6:15 tn Heb “They will fall among the fallen.”
42. Jeremiah 6:16 tn The words, “to his people” are not in the text but are implicit in the interchange of pronouns in the Hebrew of vv. 16-17. They are supplied in the translation here for clarity.
43. Jeremiah 6:16 tn Heb “Stand at the crossroads and look.”
44. Jeremiah 6:16 tn Heb “the ancient path,” i.e., the path the Lord set out in ancient times (cf. Deut 32:7).
45. Jeremiah 6:16 tn Heb “the way of/to the good.”
46. Jeremiah 6:17 tn These words are not in the text but are implicit in the interchange of pronouns in the Hebrew of vv. 16-17. They are supplied in the translation here for clarity.
47. Jeremiah 6:17 tn Heb “I appointed watchmen over you.”
48. Jeremiah 6:17 tn Heb “Pay attention to the sound of the trumpet.” The word “warning” is not in the Hebrew text but is implied.
49. Jeremiah 6:18 tn These words are not in the text but are implicit from the flow of the context. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.
50. Jeremiah 6:18 tn Heb “Know, congregation [or witness], what in [or against] them.” The meaning of this line is somewhat uncertain. The meaning of the noun of address in the second line (“witness,” rendered as an imperative in the translation, “Be witnesses”) is greatly debated. It is often taken as “congregation” but the lexicons and commentaries generally question the validity of reading that word since it is nowhere else applied to the nations. BDB 417 s.v. עֵדָה 3 says that the text is dubious. HALOT 747 s.v. I עֵדָה, 4 emends the text to דֵּעָה (deʿah, “wisdom”). Several modern English versions (e.g., NIV, NCV, God’s Word) take it as the feminine singular noun “witness” (cf. BDB 729 s.v. II עֵדָה) and understand it as a collective. This solution is also proposed by J. A. Thompson (Jeremiah [NICOT], 259, n. 3) and appears to make the best sense in the context. The end of the line is very elliptical, but on the basis of the following context it is generally taken as either “what I will do with/to them” or “what is coming against them” (= “what will happen to them”).
51. Jeremiah 6:19 tn Heb “earth.”
52. Jeremiah 6:19 tn Heb “Behold!”
53. Jeremiah 6:19 tn Heb “disaster on these people, the fruit of their schemes.”
54. Jeremiah 6:19 tn Heb “my word.”
55. Jeremiah 6:20 tn Heb “To what purpose is it to me?” The question is rhetorical and expects a negative answer.
56. Jeremiah 6:20 tn The words “when they offer up to me” are not in the text but are implicit from the following context. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.
57. Jeremiah 6:20 tn Heb “Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, and your sacrifices are not pleasing to me.” The shift from “their” to “your” is an example of the figure of speech (apostrophe) where the speaker turns from talking about someone to addressing him/her directly. Though common in Hebrew style, it is not common in English. The shift to the third person in the translation is an accommodation to English style.
58. Jeremiah 6:21 tn This is an attempt to render the Hebrew particle rendered “behold,” which has a first person pronominal suffix.
59. Jeremiah 6:21 tn Heb “I will put stumbling blocks in front of these people.” In this context the stumbling blocks are the invading armies.
60. Jeremiah 6:21 tn The words “and fall to their destruction” are implicit in the metaphor and are supplied in the translation for clarity.
61. Jeremiah 6:22 tn Heb “people.”
62. Jeremiah 6:23 sn Jerualem is personified as a young maiden helpless before enemy attackers.
63. Jeremiah 6:24 tn These words are not in the text, but the context indicates that someone other than God is speaking for and to the people (either Jeremiah or the people themselves). These words are supplied in the translation for clarity.
64. Jeremiah 6:24 tn Or “We have lost our strength to do battle”; Heb “Our hands hang limp [or helpless at our sides].” According to BDB 951 s.v. רָפָה Qal.2, this idiom is used figuratively for losing heart or energy. The best example of its figurative use of loss of strength or the feeling of helplessness is in Ezek 21:12, where it appears in the context of the heart (courage) melting, the spirit sinking, and the knees becoming like water. For other examples compare 2 Sam 4:1; Zeph 3:16. In Neh 6:9 it is used literally of the builders “dropping their hands from the work” out of fear. The words “with fear” are supplied in the translation because they are implicit in the context.
65. Jeremiah 6:25 tn Heb “For the enemy has a sword.”
66. Jeremiah 6:25 tn Heb “Terror is all around!”
67. Jeremiah 6:26 tn These words are not in the text but are implicit from the context.
68. Jeremiah 6:26 tn Heb “daughter of my people.” For the translation given here see 4:11 and the translator’s note there.
69. Jeremiah 6:26 tn Heb “suddenly.”
70. Jeremiah 6:26 tn Heb “the destroyer.”
71. Jeremiah 6:27 tn These words are not in the text but are supplied in the translation for clarity. Note “I have made you.” Cf. Jer 1:18.
72. Jeremiah 6:27 tn Heb “I have made you an assayer of my people, a tester [?].” The meaning of the words translated “assayer” (בָּחוֹן, bakhon) and “tester” (מִבְצָר, mivtsar) is uncertain. The word בָּחוֹן (bakhon) can mean “tower” (cf. BDB 103 s.v. בָּחוֹן; cf. Isa 23:13 for the only other use) or “assayer” (cf. BDB 103 s.v. בָּחוֹן). The latter would be the more expected nuance because of the other uses of nouns and verbs from this root. The word מִבְצָר (mivtsar) normally means “fortress” (cf. BDB 131 s.v. מִבְצָר), but most modern commentaries and lexicons deem that nuance inappropriate here. HALOT follows a proposal that the word is to be repointed to מְבַצֵּר (m^evatser) and derived from a root בָּצַר (batsar) meaning “to test” (cf. HALOT 143 s.v. IV בָּצַר). That proposal makes the most sense in the context, but the root appears nowhere else in the OT.
73. Jeremiah 6:27 tn Heb “test their way.”
74. Jeremiah 6:28 tn These words are not in the text but are supplied in the translation for clarity. Some takes these words to be the continuation of the Lord’s commission of Jeremiah to the task of testing them. However, since this is the evaluation, the task appears to be complete. The words are better taken as Jeremiah’s report after he has completed the task.
75. Jeremiah 6:28 tn Or “arch rebels,” or “hardened rebels.” Literally “rebels of rebels.”
76. Jeremiah 6:29 tn Heb “The bellows blow fiercely; the lead is consumed by the fire.” The translation tries to clarify a metaphor involving ancient metallurgy. In the ancient refining process lead was added as a flux to remove impurities from silver ore in the process of oxidizing the lead. Jeremiah says that the lead has been used up and the impurities have not been removed. The translation is based on the recognition of an otherwise unused verb root meaning “blow” (נָחַר [nakhar]; cf. BDB 1123 s.v. I חָרַר and HALOT 651 s.v. נָחַר) and the Masoretes’ suggestion that the consonants מאשׁתם be read מֵאֵשׁ תַּם (meʾesh tam, “from fire it is consumed”) rather than as מֵאֶשָּׁתָם (meʾeshatam, “from their fire”) from an otherwise unattested noun אֶשָּׁה (ʾeshah).
77. Jeremiah 6:29 tn Heb “The refiner refines them in vain.”
78. Jeremiah 6:30 tn This translation is intended to reflect the wordplay in the Hebrew text where the same root word is repeated in the two lines.
79. Jeremiah 7:1 tn Heb “The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord.”
80. Jeremiah 7:2 tn Heb “Proclaim there…” The adverb is unnecessary in English style.
81. Jeremiah 7:2 sn That is, all those who have passed through the gates of the outer court and are standing in the courtyard of the temple.
82. Jeremiah 7:3 tn Heb “Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel.” sn Compare the use of similar titles in 2:19; 5:14; 6:6 and see the explanation in the study note at 2:19. In this instance the title appears to emphasize the Lord as the heavenly King who drags his disobedient vassals into court (and threatens them with judgment).
83. Jeremiah 7:3 tn Or “Make good your ways and your actions.” J. Bright’s translation (“Reform the whole pattern of your conduct”; Jeremiah [AB], 52) is excellent.
84. Jeremiah 7:3 tn Heb “place.” But this might be misunderstood to refer to the temple.
85. Jeremiah 7:4 tn Heb “Stop trusting in lying words which say.”
86. Jeremiah 7:4 tn The words “We are safe!” are not in the text but are supplied in the translation for clarity.
87. Jeremiah 7:4 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).
88. Jeremiah 7:5 tn The infinitive absolute precedes the finite verb for emphasis.
89. Jeremiah 7:5 tn Heb “you must do justice between a person and his fellow/neighbor.” The infinitive absolute precedes the finite verb for emphasis.
90. Jeremiah 7:6 tn Heb “Stop oppressing resident foreigner, orphan, and widow.”sn Cf. Exod 22:21; Lev 19:33-34; Deut 10:18-19; 24:14, 17; 27:19.
91. Jeremiah 7:6 tn Heb “Stop shedding innocent blood.”
92. Jeremiah 7:6 tn Heb “going/following after.” See the translator’s note at 2:5 for an explanation of the idiom involved here.
93. Jeremiah 7:6 tn Heb “going after other gods to your ruin.”
94. Jeremiah 7:7 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.
95. Jeremiah 7:7 tn Heb “live in this place, in this land.”
96. Jeremiah 7:7 tn Heb “gave to your fathers [with reference to] from ancient times even unto forever.”
97. Jeremiah 7:8 tn Heb “Behold!”
98. Jeremiah 7:8 tn Heb “You are trusting in lying words.” See the similar phrase in v. 4 and the note there.
99. Jeremiah 7:8 tn Heb “not profit [you].”
100. Jeremiah 7:9 tn Heb “Will you steal…then say, ‘We are safe’?” Verses 9-10 are one long sentence in the Hebrew text.
101. Jeremiah 7:9 tn Heb “You go/follow after.” See the translator’s note at 2:5 for an explanation of the idiom involved here.
102. Jeremiah 7:10 tn Heb “over which my name is called.” For this nuance of this idiom cf. BDB 896 s.v. קָרָא Niph.2.d(4) and see the usage in 2 Sam 12:28.
103. Jeremiah 7:10 tn Or “‘We are safe!’—safe, you think, to go on doing all those hateful things.” Verses 9-10 are all one long sentence in the Hebrew text. It has been broken up for English stylistic reasons. Somewhat literally it reads “Will you steal…then come and stand…and say, ‘We are safe’ so as to/in order to do…” The Hebrew of v. 9 has a series of infinitives which emphasize the bare action of the verb without the idea of time or agent. The effect is to place a kind of staccato-like emphasis on the multitude of their sins, all of which are violations of one of the Ten Commandments. The final clause in v. 8 expresses purpose or result (probably result) through another infinitive. This long sentence is introduced by a marker (ה interrogative in Hebrew) introducing a rhetorical question in which God expresses his incredulity that they could do these sins, come into the temple and claim the safety of his protection, and then go right back out and commit the same sins. J. Bright (Jeremiah [AB], 52) catches the force nicely: “What? You think you can steal, murder…and then come and stand…and say, ‘We are safe…’ just so that you can go right on…”
104. Jeremiah 7:11 tn Heb “over which my name is called.” For this nuance of this idiom see BDB 896 s.v. קָרָא Niph.2.d(4) and compare the usage in 2 Sam 12:28.
105. Jeremiah 7:11 tn Heb “Is this house…a den/cave of robbers in your eyes?”
106. Jeremiah 7:11 tn Heb “Behold!”
107. Jeremiah 7:12 tn Heb “where I caused my name to dwell.” The translation does not adequately represent the theology of the Lord’s deliberate identification with a place where he chose to manifest his presence and desired to be worshiped (cf. Exod 20:25; Deut 16:2, 6, 11).
108. Jeremiah 7:12 sn The place in Shiloh…see what I did to it. This refers to the destruction of Shiloh by the Philistines circa 1050 b.c. (cf. Ps 78:60). The destruction of Shiloh is pertinent to the argument. The presence of the tabernacle and ark of the covenant did not prevent Shiloh from being destroyed when Israel sinned. The people of Israel used the ark as a magic charm, but it did not prevent them from being defeated or the ark from being captured (1 Sam 4:3, 11, 21-22).
109. Jeremiah 7:13 tn This reflects a Hebrew idiom (e.g., 7:25; 11:7; 25:3, 4), i.e., an infinitive of a verb meaning “to do something early [or eagerly]” followed by an infinitive of another verb of action (cf. HALOT 1384 s.v. שָׁכַם Hiph.2).
110. Jeremiah 7:13 tn Heb “I called to you, and you did not answer.” The words “to repent” are not in the text but are supplied in the translation for clarity.
111. Jeremiah 7:14 tn Heb “over which my name is called.” For this nuance of this idiom see BDB 896 s.v. קָרָא Niph.2.d(4) and compare the usage in 2 Sam 12:28.
112. Jeremiah 7:14 tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 22, 25, 26).
113. Jeremiah 7:14 tn Heb “I will do to the house that my name is called over it, that you are trusting in it, and to the place…, as I did to Shiloh.”
114. Jeremiah 7:15 tn Heb “the descendants of Ephraim.” However, Ephraim here stands (as it often does) for all the northern tribes of Israel.
115. Jeremiah 7:16 tn The name Jeremiah has been added for specificity.
116. Jeremiah 7:16 tn Heb “a ringing cry and a prayer.” The two nouns form a hendiadys meaning a prayer in the form of a ringing cry.
117. Jeremiah 7:16 tn The words “to save them” are implied by the context of “pleading to me” and supplied in the translation for clarity.
118. Jeremiah 7:17 tn Or “Just look at…” The question is rhetorical and expects a positive answer.
119. Jeremiah 7:18 tn The form for “queen” (מְלֶכֶת [m^elekhet]), occurring 5 times in Scripture and all in Jeremiah, is not the expected construct form (מַלְכַּת [malkat]). It is as though the Masoretes wanted to read with “heaven” the word for “work” (מְלֶאכֶת [m^eleʾkhet]), i.e., the “hosts of,” a word that several Hebrew mss read and an understanding the LXX reflects. The other ancient and modern versions generally, however, accept it as a biform for the word “queen.”sn The Queen of Heaven is probably a reference to the goddess known as Ishtar in Mesopotamia, Anat in Canaan, and Ashtoreth in Israel. She was the goddess of love and fertility. For further discussion, see G. L. Keown, P. J. Scalise, T. G. Smothers, Jeremiah 26-52 (WBC), 266-68.
120. Jeremiah 7:18 tn Heb “to provoke me.” There is debate among grammarians and lexicographers about the nuance of the Hebrew particle לְמַעַן (l^emaʿan). Some say it always denotes purpose, while others say it may denote either purpose or result, depending on the context. For example, BDB 775 s.v. לְמַעַן note 1 says that it always denotes purpose, never result, but that sometimes what is really a result is represented ironically as though it were a purpose. That explanation fits nicely here in the light of the context of the next verse. The translation is intended to reflect some of that ironic sarcasm.
121. Jeremiah 7:19 tn Heb “Is it I whom they provoke?” The rhetorical question expects a negative answer which is made explicit in the translation.
122. Jeremiah 7:19 tn Heb “Is it not themselves to their own shame?” The rhetorical question expects a positive answer which is made explicit in the translation.
123. Jeremiah 7:20 tn Heb “Lord Yahweh.” The translation follows the ancient Jewish tradition of substituting the Hebrew word for God for the proper name Yahweh.
124. Jeremiah 7:20 tn Heb “this place.” Some see this as a reference to the temple, but the context has been talking about what goes on in the towns of Judah and Jerusalem, and the words that follow, meant as a further explanation, are applied to the whole land.
125. Jeremiah 7:20 tn Heb “the trees of/in the field and the fruit of/in the ground.”
126. Jeremiah 7:21 tn Heb “Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel.”sn See the study notes on 2:19 and 7:3.
127. Jeremiah 7:21 tn The words “to the people of Judah” are not in the text but are implicit in the shift in addressee between vv. 16-20 and vv. 21-26.
128. Jeremiah 7:21 tn Heb “Add your burnt offerings to your [other] sacrifices and eat the meat!” See the following sn for explanation. This is an example of the rhetorical use of the imperative for a sarcastic challenge. See GKC 324 §110.a; cf. Amos 4:4, “Go to Bethel and sin!”sn All of the burnt offering, including the meat, was to be consumed on the altar (e.g., Lev 1:6-9). The meat of the other sacrifices could be eaten by the priest who offered the sacrifice and the person who brought it (e.g., Lev 7:16-18, 32). Since, however, the people of Judah were making a mockery of the sacrificial system by offering sacrifices while disobeying the law, the Lord rejected the sacrifices (cf. 6:20). Since they were violating the moral law, they might as well go ahead and violate the cultic law by eating the meat dedicated to God because he rejected it anyway.
129. Jeremiah 7:22 tn Heb “For.” But this introduces a long explanation about the relative importance of sacrifice and obedience.
130. Jeremiah 7:23 tn 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.
131. Jeremiah 7:23 tn Heb “Obey me and I will be.” The translation is equivalent syntactically but brings out the emphasis in the command.
132. Jeremiah 7:23 tn Heb “Walk in all the way that I command you.”
133. Jeremiah 7:24 tn Or “They went backward and not forward”; Heb “They were to the backward and not to the forward.” The two phrases used here appear nowhere else in the Bible, and the latter preposition plus adverb elsewhere is used temporally meaning “formerly” or “previously.” The translation follows the proposal of J. Bright, Jeremiah (AB), 57. Another option is, “they turned their backs to me, not their faces,” understanding the line as a variant of a line in 2:27.
134. Jeremiah 7:25 tn Heb “from the day your ancestors…until this very day.” However, “day” here is idiomatic for “the present time.”
135. Jeremiah 7:25 tn On the Hebrew idiom see the note at 7:13.
136. Jeremiah 7:25 tc There is some textual debate about the legitimacy of this expression here. The text reads merely “day” (יוֹם, yom). BHS suggests the word is to be deleted as a dittography of the plural ending of the preceding word. The word is in the Greek and Latin, and the Syriac represents the typical idiom “day after day” as though the noun were repeated. Either יוֹם has dropped out by haplography or a ם (mem) has been left out, i.e., reading יוֹמָם (yomam, “daily”).
137. Jeremiah 7:26 tn Or “But your predecessors…”; Heb “But they…” There is a confusing interchange in the pronouns in vv. 25-26 which has led to some leveling in the ancient versions and the modern English versions. What is involved here are four levels of referents, the “you” of the present generation (vv. 21-22a), the ancestors who were delivered from Egypt (i.e., the “they” of vv. 22b-24), the “you” of v. 25 that involves all the Israelites from the Exodus to the time of speaking, and the “they” of v. 26 that cannot be the ancestors of vv. 22-24 (since they cannot be more wicked than themselves) but must be an indefinite entity that is a part of the “you” of v. 25, i.e., the more immediate ancestors of the present generation. If this is kept in mind, there is no need to level the pronouns to “they” and “them” or to “you” and “your” as some of the ancient versions and modern English versions have done.
138. Jeremiah 7:26 tn Heb “hardened [or made stiff] their neck.”
139. Jeremiah 7:27 tn The words “Then the Lord said to me” are not in the text but are implicit in the shift from the second and third person plural pronouns in vv. 21-26 to the second singular in this verse. The words are supplied in the translation for clarity.
140. Jeremiah 7:28 tn Heb “Faithfulness has vanished. It is cut off from their lips.”sn For the need for faithfulness see 5:1, 3.
141. Jeremiah 7:29 tn The word “mourn” is not in the text. It is supplied in the translation for clarity to explain the significance of the words “Cut your hair and throw it away.”sn See Mic 1:16 and Job 1:20 for other examples of this practice that was involved in mourning.
142. Jeremiah 7:29 tn The words, “you people of this nation” are not in the text. Many English versions supply “Jerusalem.” The address shifts from second masculine singular addressing Jeremiah (vv. 27-28a) to second feminine singular. It causes less disruption in the flow of the context to see the nation as a whole addressed here as a feminine singular entity (as, e.g., in 2:19, 23; 3:2, 3; 6:26) than to introduce a new entity, Jerusalem.
143. Jeremiah 7:29 tn The verbs here are the Hebrew scheduling perfects. For this use of the perfect see GKC 312 §106.m.
144. Jeremiah 7:29 tn Heb “the generation of his wrath.”
145. Jeremiah 7:30 tn The words “I have rejected them” are not in the Hebrew text, which merely says “because.” These words are supplied in the translation to show more clearly the connection to the preceding.
146. Jeremiah 7:30 tn Heb “have done the evil in my eyes.”
147. Jeremiah 7:30 sn Cf., e.g., 2 Kgs 21:3, 5, 7; 23:4, 6 and Ezek 8:3, 5, 10-12, 16. Manasseh had desecrated the temple by building altars, cult symbols, and idols in it. Josiah had purged the temple of these pagan elements. But it is obvious from both Jeremiah and Ezekiel that they had been replaced shortly after Josiah’s death. They were a primary cause of Judah’s guilt and punishment (see beside this passage, 19:5; 32:34-35).
148. Jeremiah 7:30 tn Heb “the house that is called by my name.” Cf. 7:10, 11, 14 and see the translator’s note at 7:10 for the explanation for this rendering.
149. Jeremiah 7:31 tn Heb “high places.”sn These places of worship were essentially open-air shrines often located on hills or wooded heights. They were generally connected with pagan worship and equipped with altars of sacrifice and of incense and cult objects such as wooden poles and stone pillars that were symbols of the god and/or goddess worshiped at the sight. The Israelites were commanded to tear down these Canaanite places of worship (Num 33:52), but they did not do so, often taking over the site for the worship of Yahweh but even then incorporating some of the pagan cult objects and ritual into their worship of Yahweh (1 Kgs 12:31, 32; 14:23). The prophets were especially opposed to these places, both to this kind of syncretism (Hos 10:8; Amos 7:9) and to the pagan worship that was often practiced at them (Jer 7:31; 19:5; 32:35).
150. Jeremiah 7:31 tn Heb “the high places of [or in] Topheth.”sn The noun Topheth is generally explained as an artificial formation of a word related to the Aramaic word for “cooking stove” combined with the vowels for the word for “shame.” Hence, Jewish piety viewed it as a very shameful act, one that was contrary to the law (see Lev 18:21; 20:2-6). Child sacrifice was practiced during the reigns of the wicked kings Ahaz and Manasseh and apparently during Jeremiah’s day (cf. 2 Kgs 16:3; 21:6; Jer 32:35).
151. Jeremiah 7:31 tn Heb “It never entered my heart.” The words “to command such a thing” do not appear in the Hebrew but are added for the sake of clarity.
152. Jeremiah 7:32 tn Heb “Therefore, behold!”
153. Jeremiah 7:32 tn Heb “it will no longer be said ‘Topheth’ or ‘the Valley of Ben Hinnom’ but ‘the valley of slaughter.’”
154. Jeremiah 7:32 tn Heb “And they will bury in Topheth so there is not room.”
155. Jeremiah 7:33 tn Heb “Their dead bodies will be food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth.”