Yeremia 8:2

8:2 They will be spread out and exposed to the sun, the moon and the stars. ¹  These are things they ²  adored and served, things to which they paid allegiance, ³  from which they sought guidance, and worshiped. The bones of these people ⁴  will never be regathered and reburied. They will be like manure used to fertilize the ground. ⁵ 

Yeremia 12:14

12:14 “I, the Lord, also have something to say concerning ⁶  the wicked nations who surround my land ⁷  and have attacked and plundered ⁸  the land that I gave to my people as a permanent possession. ⁹  I say: ‘I will uproot the people of those nations from their lands and I will free the people of Judah who have been taken there. ¹⁰ 

Yeremia 35:7

35:7 Do not build houses. Do not plant crops. Do not plant a vineyard or own one. ¹¹  Live in tents all your lives. If you do these things you will ¹²  live a long time in the land that you wander about on.’ ¹³ 

[8:2]  ¹ tc MT, 4QJer^a and LXX read “the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven,” but 4QJer^c reads “the sun and all the stars.”

[8:2]  tn Heb “the host of heaven.”

[8:2]  ² tn Heb “the sun, moon, and host of heaven which they…”

[8:2]  ³ tn Heb “followed after.” See the translator’s note at 2:5 for the idiom.

[8:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “they will not” but the referent is far enough removed that it might be ambiguous.

[8:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “like dung/manure on the surface of the ground.”

[12:14]  ⁶ tn Heb “Thus says the Lord concerning….” This structure has been adopted to prevent a long dangling introduction to what the Lord has to say that does not begin until the middle of the verse in Hebrew. The first person address was adopted because the speaker is still the Lord as in vv. 7-13.

[12:14]  ⁷ tn Heb “my wicked neighbors.”

[12:14]  ⁸ tn Heb “touched.” For the nuance of this verb here see BDB 619 s.v. נָגַע Qal.3 and compare the usage in 1 Chr 16:22 where it is parallel to “do harm to” and Zech 2:8 where it is parallel to “plundered.”

[12:14]  ⁹ tn Heb “the inheritance which I caused my people Israel to inherit.” Compare 3:18.

[12:14]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “I will uproot the house of Judah from their midst.”

[12:14]  sn There appears to be an interesting play on the Hebrew word translated “uproot” in this verse. In the first instance it refers to “uprooting the nations from upon their lands,” i.e., to exiling them. In the second instance it refers to “uprooting the Judeans from the midst of them,” i.e., to rescue them.

[35:7]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Don’t plant a vineyard and it shall not be to you [= and you shall/must not have one].”

[35:7]  ¹² tn Heb “Don’t…and don’t…but live…in order that you might….”

[35:7]  ¹³ sn Heb “where you are sojourning.” The terms “sojourn” and “sojourner” referred to a person who resided in a country not his own, without the rights and privileges of citizenship as a member of a nation, state, or principality. In the ancient Near East such people were dependent on the laws of hospitality rather than the laws of state for protection and provision of legal rights. Perhaps the best illustration of this is Abraham who “sojourned” among the Philistines and the Hittites in Canaan and was dependent upon them for grazing and water rights and for a place to bury his wife (cf. Gen 20-24). What is described here is the typical lifestyle of a nomadic tribe.