Yeremia 2:3-4
Konteks2:3 Israel was set apart to the Lord; they were like the first fruits of a harvest to him. 1 All who tried to devour them were punished; disaster came upon them,” says the Lord.’”
2:4 Now listen to what the Lord has to say, you descendants 2 of Jacob,
all you family groups from the nation 3 of Israel.
Yeremia 2:7
Konteks2:7 I brought you 4 into a fertile land
so you could enjoy 5 its fruits and its rich bounty.
But when you entered my land, you defiled it; 6
you made the land I call my own 7 loathsome to me.
Yeremia 2:10
Konteks2:10 Go west 8 across the sea to the coasts of Cyprus 9 and see.
Send someone east to Kedar 10 and have them look carefully.
See if such a thing as this has ever happened:
Yeremia 2:18
Konteks2:18 What good will it do you 11 then 12 to go down to Egypt
to seek help from the Egyptians? 13
What good will it do you 14 to go over to Assyria
to seek help from the Assyrians? 15
Yeremia 2:24
Konteks2:24 You are like a wild female donkey brought up in the wilderness.
In her lust she sniffs the wind to get the scent of a male. 16
No one can hold her back when she is in heat.
None of the males need wear themselves out chasing after her.
At mating time she is easy to find. 17
[2:3] 1 sn Heb “the first fruits of his harvest.” Many commentators see the figure here as having theological significance for the calling of the Gentiles. It is likely, however, that in this context the metaphor – here rendered as a simile – is intended to bring out the special relationship and inviolability that Israel had with God. As the first fruits were the special possession of the
[2:7] 4 sn Note how contemporary Israel is again identified with her early ancestors. See the study note on 2:2.
[2:7] 6 sn I.e., made it ceremonially unclean. See Lev 18:19-30; Num 35:34; Deut 21:23.
[2:7] 7 tn Heb “my inheritance.” Or “the land [i.e., inheritance] I gave you,” reading the pronoun as indicating source rather than possession. The parallelism and the common use in Jeremiah of the term to refer to the land or people as the
[2:7] sn The land belonged to the
[2:10] 8 tn Heb “For go west.”
[2:10] 9 tn Heb “pass over to the coasts of Kittim.” The words “west across the sea” in this line and “east of” in the next are implicit in the text and are supplied in the translation to give geographical orientation.
[2:10] sn The Hebrew term translated Cyprus (“Kittim”) originally referred to the island of Cyprus but later was used for the lands in the west, including Macedonia (1 Macc 1:1; 8:5) and Rome (Dan 11:30). It is used here as part of a figure called merism to denote the lands in the west as opposed to Kedar which was in the east. The figure includes polar opposites to indicate totality, i.e., everywhere from west to east.
[2:10] 10 sn Kedar is the home of the Bedouin tribes in the Syro-Arabian desert. See Gen 25:18 and Jer 49:38. See also the previous note for the significance of the reference here.
[2:18] 11 tn Heb “What to you to the way.”
[2:18] 12 tn The introductory particle וְעַתָּה (vÿ’attah, “and now”) carries a logical, not temporal, connotation here (cf. BDB 274 s.v. עַתָּה 2.b).
[2:18] 13 tn Heb “to drink water from the Shihor [a branch of the Nile].” The reference is to seeking help through political alliance with Egypt as opposed to trusting in God for help. This is an extension of the figure in 2:13.
[2:18] 14 tn Heb “What to you to the way.”
[2:18] 15 tn Heb “to drink water from the River [a common designation in biblical Hebrew for the Euphrates River].” This refers to seeking help through political alliance. See the preceding note.
[2:24] 16 tn The words “to get the scent of a male” are implicit and are supplied in the translation for clarification.
[2:24] 17 sn The metaphor is intended to depict Israel’s irrepressible desire to worship other gods.
