Discovery BoxJeremiah 12:2 
Context12:2 You plant them like trees and they put down their roots. 1
They grow prosperous and are very fruitful. 2
They always talk about you,
but they really care nothing about you. 3
Jeremiah 24:6
Context24:6 I will look after their welfare 4 and will restore them to this land. There I will build them up and will not tear them down. I will plant them firmly in the land 5 and will not uproot them. 6
Jeremiah 29:28
Context29:28 For he has even sent a message to us here in Babylon. He wrote and told us, 7 “You will be there a long time. Build houses and settle down. Plant gardens and eat what they produce.”’” 8
1 tn Heb “You planted them and they took root.”
2 tn Heb “they grow and produce fruit.” For the nuance “grow” for the verb which normally means “go, walk,” see BDB 232 s.v. חָלַךְ Qal.I.3 and compare Hos 14:7.
3 tn Heb “You are near in their mouths, but far from their kidneys.” The figure of substitution is being used here, “mouth” for “words” and “kidneys” for passions and affections. A contemporary equivalent might be, “your name is always on their lips, but their hearts are far from you.”
4 tn Heb “I will set my eyes upon them for good.” For the nuance of “good” see Jer 21:10; Amos 9:4 (in these cases the opposite of harm; see BDB 375 s.v. טוֹבָה 1).
5 tn The words “There” and “firmly in the land” are not in the text but are implicit from the connection and the metaphor. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.
6 sn For these terms see Jer 1:10.
7 tn Heb “For he has sent to us in Babylon, saying….” The quote, however, is part of the earlier letter.
