Jeremiah 15:1

15:1 Then the Lord said to me, “Even if Moses and Samuel stood before me pleading for¹ these people, I would not feel pity for them!² Get them away from me! Tell them to go away!³

Jeremiah 18:20

18:20 Should good be paid back with evil?

Yet they are virtually digging a pit to kill me.⁴

Just remember how I stood before you

pleading on their behalf⁵

to keep you from venting your anger on them.⁶

Jeremiah 19:14

19:14 Then Jeremiah left Topheth where the Lord had sent him to give that prophecy. He went to the Lord’s temple and stood⁷ in its courtyard and called out to all the people.

Jeremiah 23:18

23:18 Yet which of them has ever stood in the Lord’s inner circle⁸

so they⁹ could see and hear what he has to say?¹⁰

Which of them have ever paid attention or listened to what he has said?

Jeremiah 23:22

23:22 But if they had stood in my inner circle,¹¹

they would have proclaimed my message to my people.

They would have caused my people to turn from their wicked ways

and stop doing the evil things they are doing.

¹tn The words “pleading for” have been supplied in the translation to explain the idiom (a metonymy). For parallel usage see BDB 763 s.v. עָמַד Qal.1.a and compare usage in Gen 19:27, Deut 4:10.

sn Moses and Samuel were well-known for their successful intercession on behalf of Israel. See Ps 99:6-8 and see, e.g., Exod 32:11-14, 30-34; 1 Sam 7:5-9. The Lord is here rejecting Jeremiah’s intercession on behalf of the people (14:19-22).

²tn Heb “my soul would not be toward them.” For the usage of “soul” presupposed here see BDB 660 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ 6 in the light of the complaints and petitions in Jeremiah’s prayer in 14:19, 21.

³tn Heb “Send them away from my presence and let them go away.”

⁴tn Or “They are plotting to kill me”; Heb “They have dug a pit for my soul.” This is a common metaphor for plotting against someone. See BDB 500 s.v. כָּרָה Qal and for an example see Pss 7:16 (7:15 HT) in its context.

⁵tn Heb “to speak good concerning them” going back to the concept of “good” being paid back with evil.

⁶tn Heb “to turn back your anger from them.”

sn See Jer 14:7-9, 19-21 and 15:1-4 for the idea.

⁷tn Heb “And Jeremiah entered from Topheth where the Lord had sent him to prophesy and he stood in the courtyard of the Lord’s temple.”

⁸tn Or “has been the Lord’s confidant.”

sn The Lord’s inner circle refers to the council of angels (Ps 89:7 [89:8 HT]; 1 Kgs 22:19-22; Job 1-2; Job 15:8) where God made known his counsel/plans (Amos 3:7). They and those they prophesied to will find out soon enough what the purposes of his heart are, and they are not “peace” (see v. 20). By their failure to announce the impending doom they were not turning the people away from their wicked course (vv. 21-22).

⁹tn The form here is a jussive with a vav of subordination introducing a purpose after a question (cf. GKC 322 §109.f).

¹⁰tc Heb “his word.” In the second instance (“what he has said” at the end of the verse) the translation follows the suggestion of the Masoretes (Qere) and many Hebrew mss rather than the consonantal text (Kethib) of the Leningrad Codex.

¹¹tn Or “had been my confidant.” See the note on v. 18.