Yeremia 7:22-23

7:22 Consider this: ¹  When I spoke to your ancestors after I brought them out of Egypt, I did not merely give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices. 7:23 I also explicitly commanded them: ²  “Obey me. If you do, I ³  will be your God and you will be my people. Live exactly the way I tell you ⁴  and things will go well with you.”

Yeremia 26:4-6

26:4 Tell them that the Lord says, ⁵  ‘You must obey me! You must live according to the way I have instructed you in my laws. ⁶  26:5 You must pay attention to the exhortations of my servants the prophets. I have sent them to you over and over again. ⁷  But you have not paid any attention to them. 26:6 If you do not obey me, ⁸  then I will do to this temple what I did to Shiloh. ⁹  And I will make this city an example to be used in curses by people from all the nations on the earth.’”

[7:22]  ¹ tn Heb “For” but this introduces a long explanation about the relative importance of sacrifice and obedience.

[7:23]  ² 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.

[7:23]  ³ tn Heb “Obey me and I will be.” The translation is equivalent syntactically but brings out the emphasis in the command.

[7:23]  ⁴ tn Heb “Walk in all the way that I command you.”

[26:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “thus says the Lord, ‘…’.” The use of the indirect quotation in the translation eliminates one level of embedded quotation to avoid confusion.

[26:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “by walking in my law which I set before you.”

[26:4]  sn Examples of those laws are found in Jer 7:5-6, 9. The law was summarized or epitomized in the ten commandments which are called the “words of the covenant” in Exod 34:28, but it contained much more. However, when Israel is taken to task by God, it often relates to their failure to live up to the standards of the ten commandments (Heb “the ten words”; see Hos 4:1-3; Jer 7:9).

[26:5]  ⁷ tn See the translator’s note on 7:13 for the idiom here.

[26:6]  ⁸ tn 26:4-6 are all one long sentence containing a long condition with subordinate clauses (vv. 4-5) and a compound consequence in v. 6: Heb “If you will not obey me by walking in my law…by paying attention to the words of the prophets which…and you did not pay heed, then I will make…and I will make…” The sentence has been broken down in conformity to contemporary English style but an attempt has been made to reflect all the subordinations in the English translation.

[26:6]  ⁹ sn See the study note on Jer 7:13.