Imamat 26:18

26:18 “‘If, in spite of all these things, ¹  you do not obey me, I will discipline you seven times more on account of your sins. ² 

Imamat 26:21

26:21 “‘If you walk in hostility against me ³  and are not willing to obey me, I will increase your affliction ⁴  seven times according to your sins.

Imamat 26:24

26:24 I myself will also walk in hostility against you and strike you ⁵  seven times on account of your sins.

Imamat 26:28

26:28 I will walk in hostile rage against you ⁶  and I myself will also discipline you seven times on account of your sins.

Ulangan 32:23

32:23 I will increase their ⁷  disasters,

I will use up my arrows on them.

Yeremia 4:20

4:20 I see ⁸  one destruction after another taking place,

so that the whole land lies in ruins.

I see our ⁹  tents suddenly destroyed,

their ¹⁰  curtains torn down in a mere instant. ¹¹ 

[26:18]  ¹ tn Heb “And if until these.”

[26:18]  ² tn Heb “I will add to discipline you seven [times] on your sins.”

[26:21]  ³ tn Heb “hostile with me,” but see the added preposition בְּ (bet) on the phrase “in hostility” in v. 24 and 27.

[26:21]  ⁴ tn Heb “your blow, stroke”; cf. TEV “punishment”; NLT “I will inflict you with seven more disasters.”

[26:24]  ⁵ tn Heb “and I myself will also strike you.”

[26:28]  ⁶ tn Heb “in rage of hostility with you”; NASB “with wrathful hostility”; NRSV “I will continue hostile to you in fury”; CEV “I’ll get really furious.”

[32:23]  ⁷ tn Heb “upon them.”

[4:20]  ⁸ tn The words, “I see” are not in the text here or at the beginning of the third line. They are supplied in the translation to show that this is Jeremiah’s vision of what will happen as a result of the invasion announced in 4:5-9, 11-17a.

[4:20]  ⁹ tn Heb “my.” This is probably not a reference to Jeremiah’s own tents since he foresees the destruction of the whole land. Jeremiah so identifies with the plight of his people that he sees the destruction of their tents as though they were his very own. It would probably lead to confusion to translate literally and it is not uncommon in Hebrew laments for the community or its representative to speak of the community as an “I.” See for example the interchange between first singular and first plural pronouns in Ps 44:4-8.

[4:20]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “my.”

[4:20]  ¹¹ tn It is not altogether clear what Jeremiah intends by the use of this metaphor. In all likelihood he means that the defenses of Israel’s cities and towns have offered no more resistance than nomads’ tents. However, in light of the fact that the word “tent” came to be used generically for a person’s home (cf. 1 Kgs 8:66; 12:16), it is possible that Jeremiah is here referring to the destruction of their homes and the resultant feeling of homelessness and loss of even elementary protection. Given the lack of certainty the present translation is rather literal here.