Jeremiah 2:8

2:8 Your priests ¹  did not ask, ‘Where is the Lord?’ ² 

Those responsible for teaching my law ³  did not really know me. ⁴ 

Your rulers rebelled against me.

Your prophets prophesied in the name of the god Baal. ⁵ 

They all worshiped idols that could not help them. ⁶ 

Jeremiah 11:17

11:17 For though I, the Lord who rules over all, ⁷  planted you in the land, ⁸ 

I now decree that disaster will come on you ⁹ 

because the nations of Israel and Judah have done evil

and have made me angry by offering sacrifices to the god Baal.” ¹⁰ 

Jeremiah 12:16

12:16 But they must make sure you learn to follow the religious practices of my people. ¹¹  Once they taught my people to swear their oaths using the name of the god Baal. ¹²  But then, they must swear oaths using my name, saying, “As surely as the Lord lives, I swear.” ¹³  If they do these things, ¹⁴  then they will be included among the people I call my own. ¹⁵ 

Jeremiah 32:29

32:29 The Babylonian soldiers ¹⁶  that are attacking this city will break into it and set it on fire. They will burn it down along with the houses where people have made me angry by offering sacrifices to the god Baal and by pouring out drink offerings to other gods on their rooftops. ¹⁷ 

---

¹ tn Heb “The priests…the ones who grasp my law…the shepherds…the prophets…they…”

² sn See the study note on 2:6.

³ tn Heb “those who handle my law.”

sn The reference is likely to the priests and Levites who were responsible for teaching the law (so Jer 18:18; cf. Deut 33:10). According to Jer 8:8 it could possibly refer to the scribes who copied the law.

⁴ tn Or “were not committed to me.” The Hebrew verb rendered “know” refers to more than mere intellectual knowledge. It carries also the ideas of emotional and volitional commitment as well intimacy. See for example its use in contexts like Hos 4:1; 6:6.

⁵ tn Heb “by Baal.”

⁶ tn Heb “and they followed after those things [the word is plural] which do not profit.” The poetic structure of the verse, four lines in which a distinct subject appears at the beginning followed by a fifth line beginning with a prepositional phrase and no distinct subject, argues that this line is climactic and refers to all four classes enumerated in the preceding lines. See W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah (Hermeneia), 1:88-89. There may be a play or pun in the Hebrew text on the name for the god Baal (בַּעַל, ba’al) and the verb “cannot help you” (Heb “do not profit”) which is spelled יַעַל (ya’al).

⁷ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.”

sn For the significance of the term see the notes at 2:19 and 7:3.

⁸ tn The words “in the land” are not in the text but are supplied in the translation to clarify the meaning of the metaphor.

⁹ tn Heb “For Yahweh of armies who planted you speaks disaster upon you.” Because of the way the term Lord of armies has been rendered this sentence has been restructured to avoid confusion in English style.

¹⁰ tn Heb “pronounced disaster…on account of the evil of the house of Israel and the house of Judah which they have done to make me angry [or thus making me angry] by sacrificing to Baal.” The lines have been broken up in conformity with contemporary English style.

¹¹ tn Heb “the ways of my people.” For this nuance of the word “ways” compare 10:2 and the notes there.

¹² tn Heb “taught my people to swear by Baal.”

¹³ tn The words “I swear” are not in the text but are implicit to the oath formula. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

¹⁴ tn The words “If they do this” are not in the text. They are part of an attempt to break up a Hebrew sentence which is long and complex into equivalent shorter sentences consistent with contemporary English style. Verse 16 in Hebrew is all one sentence with a long complex conditional clause followed by a short consequence: “If they carefully learn the ways of my people to swear by name, ‘By the life of the Lord,’ as they taught my people to swear by Baal, then they will be built up in the midst of my people.” The translation strives to create the same contingencies and modifications by breaking up the sentence into shorter sentences in accord with contemporary English style.

¹⁵ tn Heb “they will be built up among my people.” The expression “be built up among” is without parallel. However, what is involved here is conceptually parallel to the ideas expressed in Isa 19:23-25 and Zech 14:16-19. That is, these people will be allowed to live on their own land, to worship the Lord there, and to come to Jerusalem to celebrate the feasts. To translate literally would be meaningless or misleading for many readers.

¹⁶ tn Heb “The Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for further explanation.

¹⁷ sn Compare Jer 19:13.