Yeremia 6:19

6:19 Hear this, you peoples of the earth: ¹ 

‘Take note! ²  I am about to bring disaster on these people.

It will come as punishment for their scheming. ³ 

For they have paid no attention to what I have said, ⁴ 

and they have rejected my law.

Yeremia 20:12

20:12 O Lord who rules over all, ⁵  you test and prove the righteous.

You see into people’s hearts and minds. ⁶ 

Pay them back for what they have done

because I trust you to vindicate my cause.

Yeremia 34:11

34:11 But later ⁷  they had changed their minds. They had taken back their male and female slaves that they had freed and forced them to be slaves again. ⁸ 

[6:19]  ¹ tn Heb “earth.”

[6:19]  ² tn Heb “Behold!”

[6:19]  ³ tn Heb “disaster on these people, the fruit of their schemes.”

[6:19]  ⁴ tn Heb “my word.”

[20:12]  ⁵ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.”

[20:12]  sn See the study note on 2:19 for explanation of this title for God.

[20:12]  ⁶ tn Heb “Lord of armies, the one who tests the righteous, who sees kidneys and heart.” The sentence has been broken up to avoid a long and complex English sentence. The translation is more in keeping with contemporary English style.

[20:12]  sn This verse is almost an exact duplication of the petition in one of Jeremiah’s earlier prayers and complaints. See Jer 11:20 and notes there for explanation of the Hebrew psychology underlying the use of “kidneys and heart” here. For the thoughts expressed here see Ps 17.

[34:11]  ⁷ sn Most commentators are agreed that the incident referred to here occurred during the period of relief from the siege provided by the Babylonians going off to fight against the Egyptians who were apparently coming to Zedekiah’s aid (compare vv. 21-22 with 37:5, 7). The freeing of the slaves had occurred earlier, under the crisis of the siege while the people were more responsive to the Lord due to the threat of destruction (cf. v. 15).

[34:11]  ⁸ tn Heb “they had brought them into subjection for male and female slaves.” However, the qualification of “male and female” is already clear from the preceding and is unnecessary to the English sentence.