Mazmur 78:58

78:58 They made him angry with their pagan shrines, ¹ 

and made him jealous with their idols.

Yeremia 2:20

The Lord Expresses His Exasperation at Judah’s Persistent Idolatry

2:20 “Indeed, ²  long ago you threw off my authority

and refused to be subject to me. ³ 

You said, ‘I will not serve you.’ ⁴ 

Instead, you gave yourself to other gods on every high hill

and under every green tree,

like a prostitute sprawls out before her lovers. ⁵ 

Yeremia 3:2

3:2 “Look up at the hilltops and consider this. ⁶ 

You have had sex with other gods on every one of them. ⁷ 

You waited for those gods like a thief lying in wait in the desert. ⁸ 

You defiled the land by your wicked prostitution to other gods. ⁹ 

Yeremia 44:21

44:21 “The Lord did indeed remember and call to mind what you did! He remembered the sacrifices you and your ancestors, your kings, your leaders, and all the rest of the people of the land offered to other gods ¹⁰  in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. ¹¹ 

Yehezkiel 20:28

20:28 I brought them to the land which I swore ¹²  to give them, but whenever they saw any high hill or leafy tree, they offered their sacrifices there and presented the offerings that provoke me to anger. They offered their soothing aroma there and poured out their drink offerings.

[78:58]  ¹ tn Traditionally, “high places.”

[2:20]  ² tn Or “For.” The Hebrew particle (כִּי, ki) here introduces the evidence that they had no respect for him.

[2:20]  ³ tn Heb “you broke your yoke…tore off your yoke ropes.” The metaphor is that of a recalcitrant ox or heifer which has broken free from its master.

[2:20]  ⁴ tc The MT of this verse has two examples of the old second feminine singular perfect, שָׁבַרְתִּי (shavarti) and נִתַּקְתִּי (nittaqti), which the Masoretes mistook for first singulars leading to the proposal to read אֶעֱבוֹר (’e’evor, “I will not transgress”) for אֶעֱבֹד (’e’evod, “I will not serve”). The latter understanding of the forms is accepted in KJV but rejected by almost all modern English versions as being less appropriate to the context than the reading accepted in the translation given here.

[2:20]  ⁵ tn Heb “you sprawled as a prostitute on….” The translation reflects the meaning of the metaphor.

[3:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “and see.”

[3:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “Where have you not been ravished?” The rhetorical question expects the answer “nowhere,” which suggests she has engaged in the worship of pagan gods on every one of the hilltops.

[3:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “You sat for them [the lovers, i.e., the foreign gods] beside the road like an Arab in the desert.”

[3:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “by your prostitution and your wickedness.” This is probably an example of hendiadys where, when two nouns are joined by “and,” one expresses the main idea and the other qualifies it.

[44:21]  ¹⁰ tn The words “to other gods” are not in the text but are implicit from the context (cf. v. 17). They are supplied in the translation for clarity. It was not the act of sacrifice that was wrong but the recipient.

[44:21]  ¹¹ tn Heb “The sacrifices which you sacrificed in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, you and your fathers, your kings and your leaders and the people of the land, did not the Lord remember them and [did they not] come into his mind?” The question is again rhetorical and expects a positive answer. So it is rendered here as an affirmative statement for the sake of clarity and simplicity. An attempt has been made to shorten the long Hebrew sentence to better conform with contemporary English style.

[20:28]  ¹² tn Heb “which I lifted up my hand.”