Yeremia 7:4-8

7:4 Stop putting your confidence in the false belief that says, ¹  “We are safe! ²  The temple of the Lord is here! The temple of the Lord is here! The temple of the Lord is here!” ³  7:5 You must change ⁴  the way you have been living and do what is right. You must treat one another fairly. ⁵  7:6 Stop oppressing foreigners who live in your land, children who have lost their fathers, and women who have lost their husbands. ⁶  Stop killing innocent people ⁷  in this land. Stop paying allegiance to ⁸  other gods. That will only bring about your ruin. ⁹  7:7 If you stop doing these things, ¹⁰  I will allow you to continue to live in this land ¹¹  which I gave to your ancestors as a lasting possession. ¹² 

7:8 “‘But just look at you! ¹³  You are putting your confidence in a false belief ¹⁴  that will not deliver you. ¹⁵ 

Yeremia 10:14

10:14 All these idolaters ¹⁶  will prove to be stupid and ignorant.

Every goldsmith will be disgraced by the idol he made.

For the image he forges is merely a sham. ¹⁷ 

There is no breath in any of those idols. ¹⁸ 

[7:4]  ¹ tn Heb “Stop trusting in lying words which say.”

[7:4]  ² tn The words “We are safe!” are not in the text but are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[7:4]  ³ tn Heb “The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these (i.e., these buildings).” Elsewhere triple repetition seems to mark a kind of emphasis (cf. Isa 6:3; Jer 22:29; Ezek 21:27 [32 HT]). The triple repetition that follows seems to be Jeremiah’s way of mocking the (false) sense of security that people had in the invincibility of Jerusalem because God dwelt in the temple. They appeared to be treating the temple as some kind of magical charm. A similar feeling had grown up around the ark in the time of the judges (cf. 1 Sam 3:3) and the temple and city of Jerusalem in Micah’s day (cf. Mic 3:11). It is reflected also in some of the Psalms (cf., e.g., Ps 46, especially v. 5).

[7:5]  ⁴ tn The infinitive absolute precedes the finite verb for emphasis.

[7:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “you must do justice between a person and his fellow/neighbor.” The infinitive absolute precedes the finite verb for emphasis.

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

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

[7:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “going/following after.” See the translator’s note at 2:5 for an explanation of the idiom involved here.

[7:6]  ⁹ tn Heb “going after other gods to your ruin.”

[7:7]  ¹⁰ tn The translation uses imperatives in vv. 5-6 followed by the phrase, “If you do all this,” to avoid the long and complex sentence structure of the Hebrew sentence which has a series of conditional clauses in vv. 5-6 followed by a main clause in v. 7.

[7:7]  ¹¹ tn Heb “live in this place, in this land.”

[7:7]  ¹² tn Heb “gave to your fathers [with reference to] from ancient times even unto forever.”

[7:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “Behold!”

[7:8]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “You are trusting in lying words.” See the similar phrase in v. 4 and the note there.

[7:8]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “not profit [you].”

[10:14]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Every man.” But in the context this is not a reference to all people without exception but to all idolaters. The referent is made explicit for the sake of clarity.

[10:14]  ¹⁷ tn Or “nothing but a phony god”; Heb “a lie/falsehood.”

[10:14]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “There is no breath in them.” The referent is made explicit so that no one will mistakenly take it to refer to the idolaters or goldsmiths.