Yeremia 2:34

2:34 Even your clothes are stained with

the lifeblood of the poor who had not done anything wrong;

you did not catch them breaking into your homes. ¹ 

Yet, in spite of all these things you have done, ² 

Yeremia 3:20

3:20 But, you have been unfaithful to me, nation of Israel, ³ 

like an unfaithful wife who has left her husband,” ⁴ 

says the Lord.

Yeremia 13:23

13:23 But there is little hope for you ever doing good,

you who are so accustomed to doing evil.

Can an Ethiopian ⁵  change the color of his skin?

Can a leopard remove its spots? ⁶ 

Yeremia 14:20

14:20 Lord, we confess that we have been wicked.

We confess that our ancestors have done wrong. ⁷ 

We have indeed ⁸  sinned against you.

Yeremia 19:2

19:2 Go out to the part of the Hinnom Valley which is near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate. ⁹  Announce there what I tell you. ¹⁰ 

Yeremia 21:8

21:8 “But ¹¹  tell the people of Jerusalem ¹²  that the Lord says, ‘I will give you a choice between two courses of action. One will result in life; the other will result in death. ¹³ 

Yeremia 27:14

27:14 Do not listen to the prophets who are telling you that you do not need to serve ¹⁴  the king of Babylon. For they are prophesying lies to you.

Yeremia 49:8

49:8 Turn and flee! Take up refuge in remote places, ¹⁵ 

you people who live in Dedan. ¹⁶ 

For I will bring disaster on the descendants of Esau.

I have decided it is time for me to punish them. ¹⁷ 

[2:34]  ¹ tn The words “for example” are implicit and are supplied in the translation for clarification. This is only one example of why their death was not legitimate.

[2:34]  sn Killing a thief caught in the act of breaking and entering into a person’s home was pardonable under the law of Moses, cf. Exod 22:2.

[2:34]  ² tn KJV and ASV read this line with 2:34. The ASV makes little sense and the KJV again erroneously reads the archaic second person feminine singular perfect as first person common singular. All the modern English versions and commentaries take this line with 2:35.

[3:20]  ³ tn Heb “house of Israel.”

[3:20]  ⁴ tn Heb “a wife unfaithful from her husband.”

[13:23]  ⁵ tn This is a common proverb in English coming from this biblical passage. For cultures where it is not proverbial perhaps it would be better to translate “Can black people change the color of their skin?” Strictly speaking these are “Cushites” inhabitants of a region along the upper Nile south of Egypt. The Greek text is responsible for the identification with Ethiopia. The term in Greek is actually a epithet = “burnt face.”

[13:23]  ⁶ tn Heb “Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? [Then] you also will be able to do good who are accustomed to do evil.” The English sentence has been restructured and rephrased in an attempt to produce some of the same rhetorical force the Hebrew original has in this context.

[14:20]  ⁷ tn Heb “We acknowledge our wickedness [and] the iniquity of our [fore]fathers.” For the use of the word “know” to mean “confess,” “acknowledge” cf. BDB 394 s.v. יָדַע, Qal.1.f and compare the usage in Jer 3:13.

[14:20]  sn For a longer example of an individual identifying with the nation and confessing their sins and the sins of their forefathers see Ps 106.

[14:20]  ⁸ tn This is another example of the intensive use of כִּי (ki). See BDB 472 s.v. כִּי 1.e.

[19:2]  ⁹ sn The exact location of the Potsherd Gate is unknown since it is nowhere else mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. It is sometimes identified with the Dung Gate mentioned in Neh 2:13; 3:13-14; 12:31 on the basis of the Jerusalem Targum. It is probably called “Potsherd Gate” because that is where the potter threw out the broken pieces of pottery which were no longer of use to him. The Valley of Ben Hinnom has already been mentioned in 7:31-32 in connection with the illicit religious practices, including child sacrifice, which took place there. The Valley of Ben Hinnom (or sometimes Valley of Hinnom) runs along the west and south sides of Jerusalem.

[19:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the words that I will speak to you.”

[21:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “And/But unto this people you shall say…” “But” is suggested here by the unusual word order which offsets what they are to say to Zedekiah (v. 3).

[21:8]  ¹² tn Heb “these people.”

[21:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “Behold I am setting before you the way of life and the way of death.”

[27:14]  ¹⁴ tn The verb in this context is best taken as a negative obligatory imperfect. See IBHS 508 §31.4g for discussion and examples. See Exod 4:15 as an example of positive obligation.

[49:8]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “make deep to dwell.” The meaning of this phrase is debated. Some take it as a reference for the Dedanites who were not native to Edom to go down from the heights of Edom and go back home (so G. L. Keown, P. J. Scalise, T. G. Smothers, Jeremiah 26-52 [WBC], 330). The majority of commentaries, however, take it as a reference to the Dedanites disassociating themselves from the Edomites and finding remote hiding places to live in (so J. A. Thompson, Jeremiah [NICOT], 718). For the options see W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah (Hermeneia), 2:375.

[49:8]  ¹⁶ sn Dedan. The Dedanites were an Arabian tribe who lived to the southeast of Edom. They are warned here to disassociate themselves from Edom because Edom is about to suffer disaster.

[49:8]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “For I will bring the disaster of Esau upon him, the time when I will punish him.” Esau was the progenitor of the tribes and nation of Edom (cf. Gen 36:1, 8, 9, 19).