Jeremiah 11:4

11:4 Those are the terms that I charged your ancestors ¹  to keep ²  when I brought them out of Egypt, that place which was like an iron-smelting furnace. ³  I said at that time, ⁴  “Obey me and carry out the terms of the agreement ⁵  exactly as I commanded you. If you do, ⁶  you will be my people and I will be your God. ⁷ 

Jeremiah 11:10

11:10 They have gone back to the evil ways ⁸  of their ancestors of old who refused to obey what I told them. They, too, have paid allegiance to ⁹  other gods and worshiped them. Both the nation of Israel and the nation of Judah ¹⁰  have violated the covenant I made with their ancestors.

Jeremiah 13:10-11

13:10 These wicked people refuse to obey what I have said. ¹¹  They follow the stubborn inclinations of their own hearts and pay allegiance ¹²  to other gods by worshiping and serving them. So ¹³  they will become just like these linen shorts which are good for nothing. 13:11 For,’ I say, ¹⁴  ‘just as shorts cling tightly to a person’s body, so I bound the whole nation of Israel and the whole nation of Judah ¹⁵  tightly ¹⁶  to me.’ I intended for them to be my special people and to bring me fame, honor, and praise. ¹⁷  But they would not obey me.

Jeremiah 17:24

17:24 The Lord says, ¹⁸  ‘You must make sure to obey me. You must not bring any loads through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day. You must set the Sabbath day apart to me. You must not do any work on that day.

Jeremiah 17:27

17:27 But you must obey me and set the Sabbath day apart to me. You must not carry any loads in through ¹⁹  the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. If you disobey, I will set the gates of Jerusalem on fire. It will burn down all the fortified dwellings in Jerusalem and no one will be able to put it out.’”

Jeremiah 22:4

22:4 If you are careful to ²⁰  obey these commands, then the kings who follow in David’s succession and ride in chariots or on horses will continue to come through the gates of this palace, as will their officials and their subjects. ²¹ 

Jeremiah 32:23

32:23 But when they came in and took possession of it, they did not obey you or live as you had instructed them. They did not do anything that you commanded them to do. ²²  So you brought all this disaster on them.

Jeremiah 34:14

34:14 “Every seven years each of you must free any fellow Hebrews who have sold themselves to you. After they have served you for six years, you shall set them free.” ²³  But your ancestors did not obey me or pay any attention to me.

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¹ tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 5, 7, 10).

² tn Heb “does not listen…this covenant which I commanded your fathers.” The sentence is broken up this way in conformity with contemporary English style.

³ tn Heb “out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron-smelting furnace.”

⁴ tn In place of the words “I said at that time” the Hebrew text has “saying.” The sentence is again being restructured in English to avoid the long, confusing style of the Hebrew original.

⁵ tn Heb “Obey me and carry them out.” The “them” refers back to the terms of the covenant which they were charged to keep according to the preceding. The referent is made specific to avoid ambiguity.

⁶ tn The words, “If you do” are not in the text. They have been supplied in the translation to break up a long sentence consisting of an imperative followed by a consequential sentence.

⁷ sn Obey me and carry out the terms of the agreement…and I will be your God. This refers to the Mosaic law which was instituted at Sinai and renewed on the Plains of Moab before Israel entered into the land. The words “the terms of the covenant” are explicitly used for the Ten Commandments in Exod 34:28 and for the additional legislation given in Deut 28:69; 29:8. The formulation here is reminiscent of Deut 29:9-14 (29:10-15 HT). The book of Deuteronomy is similar in its structure and function to an ancient Near Eastern treaty. In these the great king reminded his vassal of past benefits that he had given to him, charged him with obligations (the terms or stipulations of the covenant) chief among which was absolute loyalty and sole allegiance, promised him future benefits for obeying the stipulations (the blessings), and placed him under a curse for disobeying them. Any disobedience was met with stern warnings of punishment in the form of destruction and exile. Those who had witnessed the covenant were called in to confirm the continuing goodness of the great king and the disloyalty of the vassal. The vassal was then charged with a list of particular infringements of the stipulations and warned to change his actions or suffer the consequences. This is the background for Jer 11:1-9. Jeremiah is here functioning as a messenger from the Lord, Israel’s great king, and charging both the fathers and the children with breach of covenant.

⁸ tn Or “They have repeated the evil actions of….”

⁹ tn Heb “have walked/followed after.” See the translator’s note at 2:5 for the idiom.

¹⁰ tn Heb “house of Israel and house of Judah.”

¹¹ tn Heb “to listen to my words.”

¹² tn Heb “and [they follow] after.” See the translator’s note at 2:5 for the idiom.

¹³ tn The structure of this verse is a little unusual. It consists of a subject, “this wicked people” qualified by several “which” clauses preceding a conjunction and a form which would normally be taken as a third person imperative (a Hebrew jussive; וִיהִי, vihi). This construction, called casus pendens by Hebrew grammarians, lays focus on the subject, here calling attention to the nature of Israel’s corruption which makes it rotten and useless to God. See GKC 458 §143.d for other examples of this construction.

¹⁴ tn The words “I say” are “Oracle of the Lord” in Hebrew, and are located at the end of this statement in the Hebrew text rather than the beginning. However, they are rendered in the first person and placed at the beginning for smoother English style.

¹⁵ tn Heb “all the house of Israel and all the house of Judah.”

¹⁶ tn It would be somewhat unnatural in English to render the play on the word translated here “cling tightly” and “bound tightly” in a literal way. They are from the same root word in Hebrew (דָּבַק, davaq), a word that emphasizes the closest of personal relationships and the loyalty connected with them. It is used, for example, of the relationship of a husband and a wife and the loyalty expected of them (cf. Gen 2:24; for other similar uses see Ruth 1:14; 2 Sam 20:2; Deut 11:22).

¹⁷ tn Heb “I bound them…in order that they might be to me for a people and for a name and for praise and for honor.” The sentence has been separated from the preceding and an equivalent idea expressed which is more in keeping with contemporary English style.

¹⁸ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

¹⁹ tn Heb “carry loads on the Sabbath and bring [them] in through.” The translation treats the two verbs “carry” and “bring in” are an example of hendiadys (see the note on “through” in 17:21).

²⁰ tn The translation here reflects the emphasizing infinitive absolute before the verb.

²¹ tn Heb “There will come through the gates of this city the kings…riding in chariots and on horses, they and their officials…” The structure of the original text is broken up here because of the long compound subject which would make the English sentence too long. Compare 17:25 for the structure and wording of this sentence.

²² tn Or “They did not do everything that you commanded them to do.” This is probably a case where the negative (לֹא, lo’) negates the whole category indicated by “all” (כָּל, kol; see BDB 482 s.v. כָּל 1.e(c) and compare usage in Deut 12:16; 28:14). Jeremiah has repeatedly emphasized that the history of Israel since their entry into the land has been one of persistent disobedience and rebellion (cf., e.g. 7:22-26; 11:7-8). The statement, of course, is somewhat hyperbolical as all categorical statements of this kind are.

²³ sn Compare Deut 15:12-18 for the complete statement of this law. Here only the first part of it is cited.