Jeremiah 7:13

7:13 You also have done all these things, says the Lord, and I have spoken to you over and over again.¹ But you have not listened! You have refused to respond when I called you to repent!²

Jeremiah 7:23-25

7:23 I also explicitly commanded them:³ “Obey me. If you do, I⁴ will be your God and you will be my people. Live exactly the way I tell you⁵ and things will go well with you.” 7:24 But they did not listen to me or pay any attention to me. They followed the stubborn inclinations of their own wicked hearts. They acted worse and worse instead of better.⁶ 7:25 From the time your ancestors departed the land of Egypt until now,⁷ I sent my servants the prophets to you again and again,⁸ day after day.⁹

¹tn This reflects a Hebrew idiom (e.g., 7:25; 11:7; 25:3, 4), i.e., an infinitive of a verb meaning “to do something early [or eagerly]” followed by an infinitive of another verb of action. Cf. HALOT 1384 s.v. שָׁכַם Hiph.2.

²tn Heb “I called to you and you did not answer.” The words “to repent” are not in the text but are supplied in the translation for clarity.

³tn Verses 22-23a read in Hebrew, “I did not speak with your ancestors and I did not command them when I brought them out of Egypt about words/matters concerning burnt offering and sacrifice, but I commanded them this word:” Some modern commentators have explained this passage as an evidence for the lateness of the Pentateuchal instruction regarding sacrifice or a denial that sacrifice was practiced during the period of the wilderness wandering. However, it is better explained as an example of what R. de Vaux calls a dialectical negative, i.e., “not so much this as that” or “not this without that” (Ancient Israel, 454-56). For other examples of this same argument see Isa 1:10-17; Hos 6:4-6; Amos 5:21-25.

⁴tn Heb “Obey me and I will be.” The translation is equivalent syntactically but brings out the emphasis in the command.

⁵tn Heb “Walk in all the way that I command you.”

⁶tn Or “They went backward and not forward”; Heb “They were to the backward and not to the forward.” The two phrases used here appear nowhere else in the Bible and the latter preposition plus adverb elsewhere is used temporally meaning “formerly” or “previously.” The translation follows the proposal of J. Bright, Jeremiah (AB), 57. Another option is “they turned their backs to me, not their faces,” understanding the line as a variant of a line in 2:27.

⁷tn Heb “from the day your ancestors…until this very day.” However, “day” here is idiomatic for “the present time.”

⁸tn On the Hebrew idiom see the note at 7:13.

⁹tc There is some textual debate about the legitimacy of this expression here. The text reads merely “day” (יוֹם, yom). BHS suggests the word is to be deleted as a dittography of the plural ending of the preceding word. The word is in the Greek and Latin, and the Syriac represents the typical idiom “day after day” as though the noun were repeated. Either יוֹם has dropped out by haplography or a ם (mem) has been left out, i.e., reading יוֹמָם (yomam, “daily”).