Discovery BoxJeremiah 10:25 
Context10:25 Vent your anger on the nations that do not acknowledge you. 1
Vent it on the peoples 2 who do not worship you. 3
For they have destroyed the people of Jacob. 4
They have completely destroyed them 5
and left their homeland in utter ruin.
Jeremiah 12:6
Context12:6 As a matter of fact, 6 even your own brothers
and the members of your own family have betrayed you too.
Even they have plotted to do away with you. 7
So do not trust them even when they say kind things 8 to you.
1 tn Heb “know you.” For this use of the word “know” (יָדַע, yada’) see the note on 9:3.
2 tn Heb “tribes/clans.”
3 tn Heb “who do not call on your name.” The idiom “to call on your name” (directed to God) refers to prayer (mainly) and praise. See 1 Kgs 18:24-26 and Ps 116:13, 17. Here “calling on your name” is parallel to “acknowledging you.” In many locations in the OT “name” is equivalent to the person. In the OT, the “name” reflected the person’s character (cf. Gen 27:36; 1 Sam 25:25) or his reputation (Gen 11:4; 2 Sam 8:13). To speak in a person’s name was to act as his representative or carry his authority (1 Sam 25:9; 1 Kgs 21:8). To call someone’s name over something was to claim it for one’s own (2 Sam 12:28).
4 tn Heb “have devoured Jacob.”
5 tn Or “have almost completely destroyed them”; Heb “they have devoured them and consumed them.” The figure of hyperbole is used here; elsewhere Jeremiah and God refer to the fact that they will not be completely consumed. See for example 4:27; 5:10, 18.
6 tn This is an attempt to give some contextual sense to the particle “for, indeed” (כִּי, ki).
sn If the truth be known, Jeremiah wasn’t safe even in the context of his own family. They were apparently part of the plot by the people of Anathoth to kill him.
7 tn Heb “they have called after you fully”; or “have lifted up loud voices against you.” The word “against” does not seem quite adequate for the preposition “after.” The preposition “against” would be Hebrew עַל (’al). The idea appears to be that they are chasing after him, raising their voices along with those of the conspirators to have him killed.
8 tn Heb “good things.” See BDB 373 s.v. II טוֹב 2 for this nuance and compare Prov 12:25 for usage.
