Yeremia 12:2

12:2 You plant them like trees and they put down their roots. ¹ 

They grow prosperous and are very fruitful. ² 

They always talk about you,

but they really care nothing about you. ³ 

Yehezkiel 33:31

33:31 They come to you in crowds, ⁴  and they sit in front of you as ⁵  my people. They hear your words, but do not obey ⁶  them. For they talk lustfully, ⁷  and their heart is set on ⁸  their own advantage. ⁹ 

[12:2]  ¹ tn Heb “You planted them and they took root.”

[12:2]  ² tn Heb “they grow and produce fruit.” For the nuance “grow” for the verb which normally means “go, walk,” see BDB 232 s.v. חָלַךְ Qal.I.3 and compare Hos 14:7.

[12:2]  ³ tn Heb “You are near in their mouths, but far from their kidneys.” The figure of substitution is being used here, “mouth” for “words” and “kidneys” for passions and affections. A contemporary equivalent might be, “your name is always on their lips, but their hearts are far from you.”

[33:31]  ⁴ tn Heb “as people come.” Apparently this is an idiom indicating that they come in crowds. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 2:264.

[33:31]  ⁵ tn The word “as” is supplied in the translation.

[33:31]  ⁶ tn Heb “do.”

[33:31]  ⁷ tn Heb “They do lust with their mouths.”

[33:31]  ⁸ tn Heb “goes after.”

[33:31]  ⁹ tn The present translation understands the term often used for “unjust gain” in a wider sense, following M. Greenberg, who also notes that the LXX uses a term which can describe either sexual or ritual pollution. See M. Greenberg, Ezekiel (AB), 2:687.