Jeremiah 2:37

2:37 Moreover, you will come away from Egypt

with your hands covering your faces in sorrow and shame ¹ 

because the Lord will not allow your reliance on them to be successful

and you will not gain any help from them. ² 

Jeremiah 7:3

7:3 The Lord God of Israel who rules over all ³  says: Change the way you have been living and do what is right. ⁴  If you do, I will allow you to continue to live in this land. ⁵ 

Jeremiah 29:6

29:6 Marry and have sons and daughters. Find wives for your sons and allow your daughters get married so that they too can have sons and daughters. Grow in number; do not dwindle away.

Jeremiah 32:37

32:37 ‘I will certainly regather my people from all the countries where I will have exiled ⁶  them in my anger, fury, and great wrath. I will bring them back to this place and allow them to live here in safety.

Jeremiah 50:6

50:6 “My people have been lost sheep.

Their shepherds ⁷  have allow them to go astray.

They have wandered around in the mountains.

They have roamed from one mountain and hill to another. ⁸ 

They have forgotten their resting place.

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¹ tn Heb “with your hands on your head.” For the picture here see 2 Sam 13:19.

² tn Heb “The Lord has rejected those you trust in; you will not prosper by/from them.”

³ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God Israel.”

sn Compare the use of similar titles in 2:19; 5:14; 6:6 and see the explanation in the study note at 2:19. In this instance the title appears to emphasize the Lord as the heavenly King who drags his disobedient vassals into court (and threatens them with judgment).

⁴ tn Or “Make good your ways and your actions.” J. Bright’s translation (“Reform the whole pattern of your conduct”; Jeremiah [AB], 52) is excellent.

⁵ tn Heb “place” but this might be misunderstood to refer to the temple.

⁶ tn The verb here should be interpreted as a future perfect; though some of the people have already been exiled (in 605 and 597 b.c.), some have not yet been exiled at the time this prophesy is given (see study note on v. 1 for the date). However, contemporary English style does not regularly use the future perfect, choosing instead to use the simple future or the simple perfect as the present translation has done here.

⁷ sn The shepherds are the priests, prophets, and leaders who have led Israel into idolatry (2:8).

⁸ sn The allusion here, if it is not merely a part of the metaphor of the wandering sheep, is to the worship of the false gods on the high hills (2:20, 3:2).