Jeremiah 4:14

4:14 “Oh people of Jerusalem, purify your hearts from evil 1 

so that you may yet be delivered.

How long will you continue to harbor up

wicked schemes within you?

Jeremiah 7:7

7:7 If you stop doing these things, 2  I will allow you to continue to live in this land 3  which I gave to your ancestors as a lasting possession. 4 

Jeremiah 18:12

18:12 But they just keep saying, ‘We do not care what you say! 5  We will do whatever we want to do! We will continue to behave wickedly and stubbornly!’” 6 

Jeremiah 27:17

27:17 Do not listen to them. Be subject to the king of Babylon. Then you 7  will continue to live. Why should this city be made a pile of rubble?’” 8 

1 tn Heb “Oh, Jerusalem, wash your heart from evil.”

2 tn The translation uses imperatives in vv. 5-6 followed by the phrase, “If you do all this,” to avoid the long and complex sentence structure of the Hebrew sentence which has a series of conditional clauses in vv. 5-6 followed by a main clause in v. 7.

3 tn Heb “live in this place, in this land.”

4 tn Heb “gave to your fathers [with reference to] from ancient times even unto forever.”

5 tn Heb “It is useless!” See the same expression in a similar context in Jer 2:25.

6 tn Heb “We will follow our own plans and do each one according to the stubbornness of his own wicked heart.”

sn This has been the consistent pattern of their behavior. See 7:24; 9:13; 13:10; 16:12.

7 tn The imperative with vav (ו) here and in v. 12 after another imperative are a good example of the use of the imperative to introduce a consequence. (See GKC 324-25 §110.f and see Gen 42:18. This is a common verb in this idiom.)

8 tn According to E. W. Bullinger (Figures of Speech, 954) both this question and the one in v. 13 are examples of rhetorical questions of prohibition / “don’t let this city be made a pile of rubble.”