4:22 The Lord answered, 1
“This will happen 2 because my people are foolish.
They do not know me.
They are like children who have no sense. 3
They have no understanding.
They are skilled at doing evil.
They do not know how to do good.”
5:5 I will go to the leaders 4
and speak with them.
Surely they know what the Lord demands. 5
Surely they know what their God requires of them.” 6
Yet all of them, too, have rejected his authority
and refuse to submit to him. 7
9:24 If people want to boast, they should boast about this:
They should boast that they understand and know me.
They should boast that they know and understand
that I, the Lord, act out of faithfulness, fairness, and justice in the earth
and that I desire people to do these things,” 8
says the Lord.
31:34 “People will no longer need to teach their neighbors and relatives to know me. 9 For all of them, from the least important to the most important, will know me,” 10 says the Lord. “For 11 I will forgive their sin and will no longer call to mind the wrong they have done.”
1 tn These words are not in the text but are supplied in the translation to show clearly the shift in speaker. Jeremiah has been speaking; now the
2 tn Heb “For….” This gives the explanation for the destruction envisaged in 4:20 to which Jeremiah responds in 4:19, 21.
3 tn Heb “They are senseless children.”
4 tn Or “people in power”; Heb “the great ones.”
5 tn Heb “the way of the
6 tn Heb “the judgment [or ordinance] of their God.”
7 tn Heb “have broken the yoke and torn off the yoke ropes.” Compare Jer 2:20 and the note there.
8 tn Or “fairness and justice, because these things give me pleasure.” Verse 24 reads in Hebrew, “But let the one who brags brag in this: understanding and knowing me that I, the
9 tn Heb “teach…, saying, ‘Know the
sn As mentioned in the translator’s note on 9:3 (9:2 HT) “knowing” God in covenant contexts like this involves more than just an awareness of who he is (9:23 [9:22 HT]). It involves an acknowledgment of his sovereignty and whole hearted commitment to obedience to him. This is perhaps best seen in the parallelisms in Hos 4:1; 6:6 where “the knowledge of God” is parallel with faithfulness and steadfast love and in the context of Hos 4 refers to obedience to the
10 sn This statement should be understood against the background of Jer 8:8-9 where class distinctions were drawn and certain people were considered to have more awareness and responsibility for knowing the law and also Jer 5:1-5 and 9:3-9 where the sinfulness of Israel was seen to be universal across these class distinctions and no trust was to be placed in friends, neighbors, or relatives because all without distinction had cast off God’s yoke (i.e., refused to submit themselves to his authority).
11 tn The Hebrew particle כִּי (ki) that introduces this clause refers to more than just the preceding clause (i.e., that all will know the