Yeremia 5:2

5:2 These people make promises in the name of the Lord. ¹ 

But the fact is, ²  what they swear to is really a lie.” ³ 

Yeremia 16:20

16:20 Can people make their own gods?

No, what they make are not gods at all.” ⁴ 

Yeremia 20:14

20:14 Cursed be the day I was born!

May that day not be blessed when my mother gave birth to me. ⁵ 

[5:2]  ¹ tn Heb “Though they say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives.” The idea of “swear on oath” comes from the second line.

[5:2]  ² tc The translation follows many Hebrew mss and the Syriac version in reading “surely” (אָכֵן, ’akhen) instead of “therefore” (לָכֵן, lakhen) in the MT.

[5:2]  tn Heb “Surely.”

[5:2]  ³ tn Heb “they swear falsely.”

[16:20]  ⁴ tn Heb “and they are ‘no gods.’” For the construction here compare 2:11 and a similar construction in 2 Kgs 19:18 and see BDB 519 s.v. לֹא 1.b(b).

[20:14]  ⁵ sn From the heights of exaltation, Jeremiah returns to the depths of despair. For similar mood swings in the psalms of lament compare Ps 102. Verses 14-18 are similar in tone and mood to Job 3:1-10. They are very forceful rhetorical ways of Job and Jeremiah expressing the wish that they had never been born.