Yeremia 11:6

11:6 The Lord said to me, “Announce all the following words in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem: ‘Listen to the terms of my covenant with you ¹  and carry them out!

Yeremia 11:8-12

11:8 But they did not listen to me or pay any attention to me! Each one of them followed the stubborn inclinations of his own wicked heart. So I brought on them all the punishments threatened in the covenant because they did not carry out its terms as I commanded them to do.’” ² 

11:9 The Lord said to me, “The people of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem have plotted rebellion against me! ³  11:10 They have gone back to the evil ways ⁴  of their ancestors of old who refused to obey what I told them. They, too, have paid allegiance to ⁵  other gods and worshiped them. Both the nation of Israel and the nation of Judah ⁶  have violated the covenant I made with their ancestors. 11:11 So I, the Lord, say this: ⁷  ‘I will soon bring disaster on them which they will not be able to escape! When they cry out to me for help, I will not listen to them. 11:12 Then those living in the towns of Judah and in Jerusalem will ⁸  go and cry out for help to the gods to whom they have been sacrificing. However, those gods will by no means ⁹  be able to save them when disaster strikes them.

[11:6]  ¹ tn Heb “the terms of this covenant.” However, this was a separate message and the ambiguity of “this” could still cause some confusion.

[11:8]  ² tn Heb “So I brought on them all the terms of this covenant which I commanded to do and they did not do.” There is an interesting polarity that is being exploited by two different nuances implicit in the use of the word “terms” (דִּבְרֵי [divre], literally “words”), i.e., what the Lord “brings on” them, namely, the curses that are the penalty for disobedience and the stipulations that they are “to do,” that is, to carry out. The sentence is broken up this way in keeping with contemporary English style to avoid the long and complicated style of the original.

[11:9]  ³ tn Heb “Conspiracy [a plot to rebel] is found [or exists] among the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.”

[11:10]  ⁴ tn Or “They have repeated the evil actions of….”

[11:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “have walked/followed after.” See the translator’s note at 2:5 for the idiom.

[11:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “house of Israel and house of Judah.”

[11:11]  ⁷ tn Heb “Therefore, thus, says the Lord.” The person has been shifted in the translation in accordance with the difference between Hebrew and English style.

[11:12]  ⁸ tn Heb “Then the towns of Judah and those living in Jerusalem will…”

[11:12]  ⁹ tn The Hebrew construction is emphatic involving the use of an infinitive of the verb before the verb itself (Heb “saving they will not save”). For this construction to give emphasis to an antithesis, cf. GKC 343 §113.p.