Jeremiah 26:4-6

26:4 Tell them that the Lord says, 1  ‘You must obey me! You must live according to the way I have instructed you in my laws. 2  26:5 You must pay attention to the exhortations of my servants the prophets. I have sent them to you over and over again. 3  But you have not paid any attention to them. 26:6 If you do not obey me, 4  then I will do to this temple what I did to Shiloh. 5  And I will make this city an example to be used in curses by people from all the nations on the earth.’”

1 tn Heb “thus says the Lord, ‘…’.” The use of the indirect quotation in the translation eliminates one level of embedded quotation to avoid confusion.

2 tn Heb “by walking in my law which I set before you.”

sn Examples of those laws are found in Jer 7:5-6, 9. The law was summarized or epitomized in the ten commandments which are called the “words of the covenant” in Exod 34:28, but it contained much more. However, when Israel is taken to task by God, it often relates to their failure to live up to the standards of the ten commandments (Heb “the ten words”; see Hos 4:1-3; Jer 7:9).

3 tn See the translator’s note on 7:13 for the idiom here.

4 tn 26:4-6 are all one long sentence containing a long condition with subordinate clauses (vv. 4-5) and a compound consequence in v. 6: Heb “If you will not obey me by walking in my law…by paying attention to the words of the prophets which…and you did not pay heed, then I will make…and I will make…” The sentence has been broken down in conformity to contemporary English style but an attempt has been made to reflect all the subordinations in the English translation.

5 sn See the study note on Jer 7:13.