Yeremia 5:7

5:7 The Lord asked, ¹ 

“How can I leave you unpunished, Jerusalem? ² 

Your people ³  have rejected me

and have worshiped gods that are not gods at all. ⁴ 

Even though I supplied all their needs, ⁵  they were like an unfaithful wife to me. ⁶ 

They went flocking ⁷  to the houses of prostitutes. ⁸ 

Yeremia 7:6

7:6 Stop oppressing foreigners who live in your land, children who have lost their fathers, and women who have lost their husbands. ⁹  Stop killing innocent people ¹⁰  in this land. Stop paying allegiance to ¹¹  other gods. That will only bring about your ruin. ¹² 

Yeremia 7:9

7:9 You steal. ¹³  You murder. You commit adultery. You lie when you swear on oath. You sacrifice to the god Baal. You pay allegiance to ¹⁴  other gods whom you have not previously known.

Yeremia 23:36

23:36 You must no longer say that the Lord’s message is burdensome. ¹⁵  For what is ‘burdensome’ ¹⁶  really pertains to what a person himself says. ¹⁷  You are misrepresenting ¹⁸  the words of our God, the living God, the Lord who rules over all. ¹⁹ 

Yeremia 25:6

25:6 Do not pay allegiance to ²⁰  other gods and worship and serve them. Do not make me angry by the things that you do. ²¹  Then I will not cause you any harm.’

[5:7]  ¹ tn These words are not in the text, but are supplied in the translation to make clear who is speaking.

[5:7]  ² tn Heb “How can I forgive [or pardon] you.” The pronoun “you” is second feminine singular, referring to the city. See v. 1.

[5:7]  ³ tn Heb “your children.”

[5:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “and they have sworn [oaths] by not-gods.”

[5:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “I satisfied them to the full.”

[5:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “they committed adultery.” It is difficult to decide whether literal adultery with other women or spiritual adultery with other gods is meant. The word for adultery is used for both in the book of Jeremiah. For examples of its use for spiritual adultery see 3:8, 9; 9:2. For examples of its use for literal adultery see 7:9; 23:14. The context here could argue for either. The swearing by other gods and the implicit contradiction in their actions in contrast to the expected gratitude for supplying their needs argues for spiritual adultery. However, the reference to prostitution in the next line and the reference to chasing after their neighbor’s wives argues for literal adultery. The translation opts for spiritual adultery because of the contrast implicit in the concessive clause.

[5:7]  ⁷ tn There is a great deal of debate about the meaning of this word. Most of the modern English versions follow the lead of lexicographers who relate this word to a noun meaning “troop” and understand it to mean “they trooped together” (cf. BDB 151 s.v. גָּדַד Hithpo.2 and compare the usage in Mic 5:1 [4:14 HT]). A few of the modern English versions and commentaries follow the reading of the Greek and read a word meaning “they lodged” (reading ִיתְגּוֹרְרוּ [yitggorÿru] from I גּוּר [gur; cf. HALOT 177 s.v. Hithpo. and compare the usage in 1 Kgs 17:20] instead of יִתְגֹּדָדוּ [yitggodadu]). W. L. Holladay (Jeremiah [Hermeneia], 1:180) sees a reference here to the cultic practice of cutting oneself in supplication to pagan gods (cf. BDB 151 s.v. גָּדַד Hithpo.1 and compare the usage in 1 Kgs 18:28). The houses of prostitutes would then be a reference to ritual prostitutes at the pagan shrines. The translation follows BDB and the majority of modern English versions.

[5:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “to a house of a prostitute.”

[5:7]  sn This could be a reference to cultic temple prostitution connected with the pagan shrines. For allusion to this in the OT, see, e.g., Deut 23:17 and 2 Kgs 23:7.

[7:6]  ⁹ tn Heb “Stop oppressing foreigner, orphan, and widow.”

[7:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Stop shedding innocent blood.”

[7:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “going/following after.” See the translator’s note at 2:5 for an explanation of the idiom involved here.

[7:6]  ¹² tn Heb “going after other gods to your ruin.”

[7:9]  ¹³ tn Heb “Will you steal…then say, ‘We are safe’?” Verses 9-10 are one long sentence in the Hebrew text.

[7:9]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “You go/follow after.” See the translator’s note at 2:5 for an explanation of the idiom involved here.

[23:36]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “burden of the Lord.”

[23:36]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the burden.”

[23:36]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “The burden is [or will be] to a man his word.” There is a good deal of ambiguity regarding how this line is to be rendered. For the major options and the issues involved W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah (Hermeneia), 1:651-52 should be consulted. Most of them are excluded by the observation that מַשָּׂא probably does not mean “oracle” anywhere in this passage (see note on v. 33 regarding the use of this word). Hence it does not mean “every man’s word becomes his oracle” as in NIV or “for that ‘burden’ [= oracle] is what he entrusts to the man of his word” (W. McKane, Jeremiah [ICC], 1:600-601). The latter is also ruled out by the fact that the antecedent of “his” on “his word” is clearly the word “man” in front of it. This would be the only case where the phrase “man of his word” occurs. There is also no textual reason for repointing the noun with the article as the noun with the interrogative to read “For how can his word become a burden to anyone?” There are, of course, other options but this is sufficient to show that the translation has been chosen after looking at other alternatives.

[23:36]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “turning.” See BDB 245 s.v. הָפַךְ Qal.1.c and Lev 13:55; Jer 13:33 “changing, altering.”

[23:36]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.”

[23:36]  sn See the study note on 2:19 for the explanation of the significance of this title.

[25:6]  ²⁰ tn Heb “follow after.” See the translator’s note on 2:5 for this idiom.

[25:6]  ²¹ tn Heb “make me angry with the work of your hands.” The term “work of your own hands” is often interpreted as a reference to idolatry as is clearly the case in Isa 2:8; 37:19. However, the parallelism in 25:14 and the context in 32:30 show that it is more general and refers to what they have done. That is likely the meaning here as well.