Yeremia 7:6-7

7:6 Stop oppressing foreigners who live in your land, children who have lost their fathers, and women who have lost their husbands. ¹  Stop killing innocent people ²  in this land. Stop paying allegiance to ³  other gods. That will only bring about your ruin. ⁴  7:7 If you stop doing these things, ⁵  I will allow you to continue to live in this land ⁶  which I gave to your ancestors as a lasting possession. ⁷ 

Yeremia 22:3-4

22:3 The Lord says, “Do what is just and right. Deliver those who have been robbed from those ⁸  who oppress them. Do not exploit or mistreat foreigners who live in your land, children who have no fathers, or widows. ⁹  Do not kill innocent people ¹⁰  in this land. 22:4 If you are careful to ¹¹  obey these commands, then the kings who follow in David’s succession and ride in chariots or on horses will continue to come through the gates of this palace, as will their officials and their subjects. ¹² 

[7:6]  ¹ tn Heb “Stop oppressing foreigner, orphan, and widow.”

[7:6]  ² tn Heb “Stop shedding innocent blood.”

[7:6]  ³ tn Heb “going/following after.” See the translator’s note at 2:5 for an explanation of the idiom involved here.

[7:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “going after other gods to your ruin.”

[7:7]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn Heb “live in this place, in this land.”

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

[22:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “from the hand [or power] of.”

[22:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “aliens, orphans, or widows” treating the terms as generic or collective. However, the term “alien” carries faulty connotations and the term “orphan” is not totally appropriate because the Hebrew term does not necessarily mean that both parents have died.

[22:3]  sn These were classes of people who had no one to look out for their rights. The laws of Israel, however, were careful to see that their rights were guarded (cf. Deut 10:18) and that provision was made for meeting their needs (cf. Deut 24:19-21). The Lord promised to protect them (cf. Ps 146:9) and a curse was called down on any who deprived them of justice (cf. Deut 27:19).

[22:3]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Do not shed innocent blood.”

[22:3]  sn Do not kill innocent people. For an example of one of the last kings who did this see Jer 36:20-23. Manasseh was notorious for having done this and the book of 2 Kgs attributes the ultimate destruction of Judah to this crime and his sin of worshiping false gods (2 Kgs 21:16; 24:4).

[22:4]  ¹¹ tn The translation here reflects the emphasizing infinitive absolute before the verb.

[22:4]  ¹² tn Heb “There will come through the gates of this city the kings…riding in chariots and on horses, they and their officials…” The structure of the original text is broken up here because of the long compound subject which would make the English sentence too long. Compare 17:25 for the structure and wording of this sentence.