Jeremiah 35:13

35:13 The Lord God of Israel who rules over all 1  told him, “Go and speak to the people of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem. Tell them, 2  ‘I, the Lord, say: 3  “You must learn a lesson from this 4  about obeying what I say! 5 

Jeremiah 12:16

12:16 But they must make sure you learn to follow the religious practices of my people. 6  Once they taught my people to swear their oaths using the name of the god Baal. 7  But then, they must swear oaths using my name, saying, “As surely as the Lord lives, I swear.” 8  If they do these things, 9  then they will be included among the people I call my own. 10 

1 tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.” For this title see 7:3 and the study note on 2:19.

2 tn Heb “35:12 And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying, ‘Thus says Yahweh of armies the God of Israel, “Go and say…‘Will you not learn…’”’” The use of the indirect introduction has been chosen here as in 34:1-2 to try to cut down on the confusion created by embedding quotations within quotations.

3 tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

4 tn The words “from this” are not in the text but are implicit from the context. They have been supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity.

5 tn Heb “Will you not learn a lesson…?” The rhetorical question here has the force of an imperative, made explicit in the translation.

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

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

8 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.

9 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.

10 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.