Jeremiah 26:3-5
26:3 Maybe they will pay attention and each of them will stop living the evil way they do. 1 If they do that, then I will forgo destroying them 2 as I had intended to do because of the wicked things they have been doing. 3
26:4 Tell them that the Lord says, 4 ‘You must obey me! You must live according to the way I have instructed you in my laws. 5
26:5 You must pay attention to the exhortations of my servants the prophets. I have sent them to you over and over again. 6 But you have not paid any attention to them.
1 tn Heb “will turn from his wicked way.”
2 tn For the idiom and translation of terms involved here see 18:8 and the translator’s note there.
sn The Lord is being consistent in the application of the principle laid down in Jer 18:7-8 that reformation of character will result in the withdrawal of the punishment of “uprooting, tearing down, destroying.” His prophecies of doom are conditional threats, open to change with change in behavior.
3 tn Heb “because of the wickedness of their deeds.”
4 tn Heb “thus says the Lord, ‘…’.” The use of the indirect quotation in the translation eliminates one level of embedded quotation to avoid confusion.
5 tn Heb “by walking in my law which I set before you.”
sn Examples of those laws are found in Jer 7:5-6, 9. The law was summarized or epitomized in the ten commandments which are called the “words of the covenant” in Exod 34:28, but it contained much more. However, when Israel is taken to task by God, it often relates to their failure to live up to the standards of the ten commandments (Heb “the ten words”; see Hos 4:1-3; Jer 7:9).
6 tn See the translator’s note on 7:13 for the idiom here.