2:24 You are like a wild female donkey brought up in the wilderness.
In her lust she sniffs the wind to get the scent of a male. 1
No one can hold her back when she is in heat.
None of the males need wear themselves out chasing after her.
At mating time she is easy to find. 2
15:18 Why must I continually suffer such painful anguish?
Why must I endure the sting of their insults like an incurable wound?
Will you let me down when I need you
like a brook one goes to for water, but that cannot be relied on?” 3
17:8 They will be like a tree planted near a stream
whose roots spread out toward the water.
It has nothing to fear when the heat comes.
Its leaves are always green.
It has no need to be concerned in a year of drought.
It does not stop bearing fruit.
18:18 Then some people 4 said, “Come on! Let us consider how to deal with Jeremiah! 5 There will still be priests to instruct us, wise men to give us advice, and prophets to declare God’s word. 6 Come on! Let’s bring charges against him and get rid of him! 7 Then we will not need to pay attention to anything he says.”
31:34 “People will no longer need to teach their neighbors and relatives to know me. 11 For all of them, from the least important to the most important, will know me,” 12 says the Lord. “For 13 I will forgive their sin and will no longer call to mind the wrong they have done.”
1 tn The words “to get the scent of a male” are implicit and are supplied in the translation for clarification.
2 sn The metaphor is intended to depict Israel’s irrepressible desire to worship other gods.
3 tn Heb “Will you be to me like a deceptive (brook), like waters which do not last [or are not reliable].”
sn Jeremiah is speaking of the stream beds or wadis which fill with water after the spring rains but often dry up in the summer time. A fuller picture is painted in Job 6:14-21. This contrasts with the earlier metaphor that God had used of himself in Jer 2:13.
4 tn Heb “They.” The referent is unidentified; “some people” has been used in the translation.
5 tn Heb “Let us make plans against Jeremiah.” See 18:18 where this has sinister overtones as it does here.
6 tn Heb “Instruction will not perish from priest, counsel from the wise, word from the prophet.”
sn These are the three channels through whom God spoke to his people in the OT. See Jer 8:8-10 and Ezek 7:26.
7 tn Heb “Let us smite him with our tongues.” It is clear from the context that this involved plots to kill him.
8 sn Various means of divination are alluded to in the OT. For example, Ezek 21:26-27 alludes to throwing down arrows to see which way they fall and consulting the shape of the liver of slaughtered animals. Gen 44:5 alludes to reading the future through pouring liquid in a cup. The means alluded to in this verse were all classified as pagan and prohibited as illegitimate in Deut 18:10-14. The
9 sn An example of this is seen in 1 Sam 28.
10 tn The verb in this context is best taken as a negative obligatory imperfect. See IBHS 508-9 §31.4g for discussion and examples. See Exod 4:15 as an example of positive obligation.
11 tn Heb “teach…, saying, ‘Know the
sn As mentioned in the translator’s note on 9:3 (9:2 HT) “knowing” God in covenant contexts like this involves more than just an awareness of who he is (9:23 [9:22 HT]). It involves an acknowledgment of his sovereignty and whole hearted commitment to obedience to him. This is perhaps best seen in the parallelisms in Hos 4:1; 6:6 where “the knowledge of God” is parallel with faithfulness and steadfast love and in the context of Hos 4 refers to obedience to the
12 sn This statement should be understood against the background of Jer 8:8-9 where class distinctions were drawn and certain people were considered to have more awareness and responsibility for knowing the law and also Jer 5:1-5 and 9:3-9 where the sinfulness of Israel was seen to be universal across these class distinctions and no trust was to be placed in friends, neighbors, or relatives because all without distinction had cast off God’s yoke (i.e., refused to submit themselves to his authority).
13 tn The Hebrew particle כִּי (ki) that introduces this clause refers to more than just the preceding clause (i.e., that all will know the