Jeremiah 13:10-11

13:10 These wicked people refuse to obey what I have said. 1  They follow the stubborn inclinations of their own hearts and pay allegiance 2  to other gods by worshiping and serving them. So 3  they will become just like these linen shorts which are good for nothing. 13:11 For,’ I say, 4  ‘just as shorts cling tightly to a person’s body, so I bound the whole nation of Israel and the whole nation of Judah 5  tightly 6  to me.’ I intended for them to be my special people and to bring me fame, honor, and praise. 7  But they would not obey me.

1 tn Heb “to listen to my words.”

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

3 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.

4 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.

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

6 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).

7 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.