Yeremia 13:10

13:10 These wicked people refuse to obey what I have said. ¹  They follow the stubborn inclinations of their own hearts and pay allegiance ²  to other gods by worshiping and serving them. So ³  they will become just like these linen shorts which are good for nothing.

Yeremia 23:32

23:32 I, the Lord, affirm ⁴  that I am opposed to those prophets who dream up lies and report them. They are misleading my people with their reckless lies. ⁵  I did not send them. I did not commission them. They are not helping these people at all. ⁶  I, the Lord, affirm it!” ⁷ 

[13:10]  ¹ tn Heb “to listen to my words.”

[13:10]  ² tn Heb “and [they follow] after.” See the translator’s note at 2:5 for the idiom.

[13:10]  ³ tn The structure of this verse is a little unusual. It consists of a subject, “this wicked people” qualified by several “which” clauses preceding a conjunction and a form which would normally be taken as a third person imperative (a Hebrew jussive; וִיהִי, vihi). This construction, called casus pendens by Hebrew grammarians, lays focus on the subject, here calling attention to the nature of Israel’s corruption which makes it rotten and useless to God. See GKC 458 §143.d for other examples of this construction.

[23:32]  ⁴ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[23:32]  ⁵ tn Heb “with their lies and their recklessness.” This is an example of hendiadys where two nouns (in this case a concrete and an abstract one) are joined by “and” but one is intended to be the adjectival modifier of the other.

[23:32]  ⁶ sn In the light of what has been said this is a rhetorical understatement; they are not only “not helping,” they are leading them to their doom (cf. vv. 19-22). This figure of speech is known as litotes.

[23:32]  ⁷ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”