Jeremiah 3:19

3:19 “I thought to myself, 1 

‘Oh what a joy it would be for me to treat you like a son! 2 

What a joy it would be for me to give 3  you a pleasant land,

the most beautiful piece of property there is in all the world!’ 4 

I thought you would call me, ‘Father’ 5 

and would never cease being loyal to me. 6 

Jeremiah 14:21

14:21 For the honor of your name, 7  do not treat Jerusalem 8  with contempt.

Do not treat with disdain the place where your glorious throne sits. 9 

Be mindful of your covenant with us. Do not break it! 10 

1 tn Heb “I, myself, said.” See note on “I thought that she might come back to me” in 3:7.

2 tn Heb “How I would place you among the sons.” Israel appears to be addressed here contextually as the Lord’s wife (see the next verse). The pronouns of address in the first two lines are second feminine singular as are the readings of the two verbs preferred by the Masoretes (the Qere readings) in the third and fourth lines. The verbs that are written in the text in the third and fourth lines (the Kethib readings) are second masculine plural as is the verb describing Israel’s treachery in the next verse.

sn The imagery here appears to be that of treating the wife as an equal heir with the sons and of giving her the best piece of property.

3 tn The words “What a joy it would be for me to” are not in the Hebrew text but are implied in the parallel structure.

4 tn Heb “the most beautiful heritage among the nations.”

5 tn Heb “my father.”

6 tn Heb “turn back from [following] after me.”

7 tn Heb “For the sake of your name.”

8 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

9 tn English versions quite commonly supply “us” as an object for the verb in the first line. This is probably wrong. The Hebrew text reads: “Do not treat with contempt for the sake of your name; do not treat with disdain your glorious throne.” This is case of poetic parallelism where the object is left hanging until the second line. For an example of this see Prov 13:1 in the original and consult E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 103-4. There has also been some disagreement whether “your glorious throne” refers to the temple (as in 17:12) or Jerusalem (as in 3:17). From the beginning of the prayer in v. 19 where a similar kind of verb has been used with respect to Zion/Jerusalem it would appear that the contextual referent is Jerusalem. The absence of an object from the first line makes it possible to retain part of the metaphor in the translation and still convey some meaning.

sn The place of God’s glorious throne was first of all the ark of the covenant where God was said to be enthroned between the cherubim, then the temple that housed it, then the city itself. See 2 Kgs 19:14-15 in the context of Sennacherib’s attack on Jerusalem.

10 tn Heb “Remember, do not break your covenant with us.”