Yeremia 2:25

2:25 Do not chase after other gods until your shoes wear out

and your throats become dry. ¹ 

But you say, ‘It is useless for you to try and stop me

because I love those foreign gods ²  and want to pursue them!’

Yeremia 18:12

18:12 But they just keep saying, ‘We do not care what you say! ³  We will do whatever we want to do! We will continue to behave wickedly and stubbornly!’” ⁴ 

Maleakhi 3:14

3:14 You have said, ‘It is useless to serve God. How have we been helped ⁵  by keeping his requirements and going about like mourners before the Lord who rules over all? ⁶ 

[2:25]  ¹ tn Heb “Refrain your feet from being bare and your throat from being dry/thirsty.”

[2:25]  ² tn Heb “It is useless! No!” For this idiom, see Jer 18:12; NEB “No; I am desperate.”

[18:12]  ³ tn Heb “It is useless!” See the same expression in a similar context in Jer 2:25.

[18:12]  ⁴ tn Heb “We will follow our own plans and do each one according to the stubbornness of his own wicked heart.”

[18:12]  sn This has been the consistent pattern of their behavior. See 7:24; 9:13; 13:10; 16:12.

[3:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “What [is the] profit”; NIV “What did we gain.”

[3:14]  ⁶ sn The people’s public display of self-effacing piety has gone unrewarded by the Lord. The reason, of course, is that it was blatantly hypocritical.