Jeremiah 12:16

12:16 But they must make sure you learn to follow the religious practices of my people. ¹  Once they taught my people to swear their oaths using the name of the god Baal. ²  But then, they must swear oaths using my name, saying, “As surely as the Lord lives, I swear.” ³  If they do these things, ⁴  then they will be included among the people I call my own. ⁵ 

Jeremiah 20:4

20:4 For the Lord says, ‘I will make both you and your friends terrified of what will happen to you. ⁶  You will see all of them die by the swords of their enemies. ⁷  I will hand all the people of Judah over to the king of Babylon. He will carry some of them away into exile in Babylon and he will kill others of them with the sword.

Jeremiah 49:2

49:2 Because you did that,

I, the Lord, affirm that ⁸  a time is coming

when I will make Rabbah, the capital city of Ammon,

hear the sound of the battle cry.

It will become a mound covered with ruins. ⁹ 

Its villages will be burned to the ground. ¹⁰ 

Then Israel will take back its land

from those who took their land from them.

I, the Lord, affirm it! ¹¹ 

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¹ tn Heb “the ways of my people.” For this nuance of the word “ways” compare 10:2 and the notes there.

² tn Heb “taught my people to swear by Baal.”

³ tn The words “I swear” are not in the text but are implicit to the oath formula. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

⁴ tn The words “If they do this” are not in the text. They are part of an attempt to break up a Hebrew sentence which is long and complex into equivalent shorter sentences consistent with contemporary English style. Verse 16 in Hebrew is all one sentence with a long complex conditional clause followed by a short consequence: “If they carefully learn the ways of my people to swear by name, ‘By the life of the Lord,’ as they taught my people to swear by Baal, then they will be built up in the midst of my people.” The translation strives to create the same contingencies and modifications by breaking up the sentence into shorter sentences in accord with contemporary English style.

⁵ tn Heb “they will be built up among my people.” The expression “be built up among” is without parallel. However, what is involved here is conceptually parallel to the ideas expressed in Isa 19:23-25 and Zech 14:16-19. That is, these people will be allowed to live on their own land, to worship the Lord there, and to come to Jerusalem to celebrate the feasts. To translate literally would be meaningless or misleading for many readers.

⁶ tn Heb “I will make you an object of terror to both you and your friends.”

⁷ tn Heb “And they will fall by the sword of their enemies and [with] your eyes seeing [it].”

⁸ tn Heb “oracle of the Lord.”

⁹ tn Heb “a desolate tel.” For the explanation of what a “tel” is see the study note on 30:18.

¹⁰ tn Heb “Its daughters will be burned with fire.” For the use of the word “daughters” to refer to the villages surrounding a larger city see BDB 123 s.v. I בַּת 4 and compare the usage in Judg 1:27.

¹¹ tn Heb “says the Lord.” The first person is used to maintain the first person address throughout.