Jeremiah 12:2

12:2 You plant them like trees and they put down their roots. ¹ 

They grow prosperous and are very fruitful. ² 

They always talk about you,

but they really care nothing about you. ³ 

Jeremiah 24:6

24:6 I will look after their welfare ⁴  and will restore them to this land. There I will build them up and will not tear them down. I will plant them firmly in the land ⁵  and will not uproot them. ⁶ 

Jeremiah 29:28

29:28 For he has even sent a message to us here in Babylon. He wrote and told us, ⁷  “You will be there a long time. Build houses and settle down. Plant gardens and eat what they produce.”’” ⁸ 

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¹ tn Heb “You planted them and they took root.”

² tn Heb “they grow and produce fruit.” For the nuance “grow” for the verb which normally means “go, walk,” see BDB 232 s.v. חָלַךְ Qal.I.3 and compare Hos 14:7.

³ tn Heb “You are near in their mouths, but far from their kidneys.” The figure of substitution is being used here, “mouth” for “words” and “kidneys” for passions and affections. A contemporary equivalent might be, “your name is always on their lips, but their hearts are far from you.”

⁴ tn Heb “I will set my eyes upon them for good.” For the nuance of “good” see Jer 21:10; Amos 9:4 (in these cases the opposite of harm; see BDB 375 s.v. טוֹבָה 1).

⁵ tn The words “There” and “firmly in the land” are not in the text but are implicit from the connection and the metaphor. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

⁶ sn For these terms see Jer 1:10.

⁷ tn Heb “For he has sent to us in Babylon, saying….” The quote, however, is part of the earlier letter.

⁸ sn See v. 5.