Discovery BoxJeremiah 18:18 
Context18:18 Then some people 1 said, “Come on! Let us consider how to deal with Jeremiah! 2 There will still be priests to instruct us, wise men to give us advice, and prophets to declare God’s word. 3 Come on! Let’s bring charges against him and get rid of him! 4 Then we will not need to pay attention to anything he says.”
Jeremiah 19:4
Context19:4 I will do so because these people 5 have rejected me and have defiled 6 this place. They have offered sacrifices in it to other gods which neither they nor their ancestors 7 nor the kings of Judah knew anything about. They have filled it with the blood of innocent children. 8
Jeremiah 32:23
Context32:23 But when they came in and took possession of it, they did not obey you or live as you had instructed them. They did not do anything that you commanded them to do. 9 So you brought all this disaster on them.
Jeremiah 38:14
Context38:14 Some time later 10 Zedekiah sent and had Jeremiah brought to him at the third entrance 11 of the Lord’s temple. The king said to Jeremiah, “I would like to ask you a question. Do not hide anything from me when you answer.” 12
Jeremiah 38:25
Context38:25 The officials may hear that I have talked with you. They may come to you and say, ‘Tell us what you said to the king and what the king said to you. 13 Do not hide anything from us. If you do, we will kill you.’ 14
1 tn Heb “They.” The referent is unidentified; “some people” has been used in the translation.
2 tn Heb “Let us make plans against Jeremiah.” See 18:18 where this has sinister overtones as it does here.
3 tn Heb “Instruction will not perish from priest, counsel from the wise, word from the prophet.”
sn These are the three channels through whom God spoke to his people in the OT. See Jer 8:8-10 and Ezek 7:26.
4 tn Heb “Let us smite him with our tongues.” It is clear from the context that this involved plots to kill him.
5 tn The text merely has “they.” But since a reference is made later to “they” and “their ancestors,” the referent must be to the people that the leaders of the people and leaders of the priests represent.
6 sn Heb “have made this city foreign.” The verb here is one that is built off of the noun and adjective which relate to foreign nations. Comparison may be made to Jer 2:21 where the adjective refers to the strange, wild vine as opposed to the choice vine the
7 tn Heb “fathers.”
8 tn Heb “the blood of innocent ones.” This must be a reference to child sacrifice as explained in the next verse. Some have seen a reference to the sins of social injustice alluded to in 2 Kgs 21:16 and 24:4 but those are connected with the city itself. Hence the word children is supplied in the translation to make the referent explicit.
9 tn Or “They did not do everything that you commanded them to do.” This is probably a case where the negative (לֹא, lo’) negates the whole category indicated by “all” (כָּל, kol; see BDB 482 s.v. כָּל 1.e(c) and compare usage in Deut 12:16; 28:14). Jeremiah has repeatedly emphasized that the history of Israel since their entry into the land has been one of persistent disobedience and rebellion (cf., e.g. 7:22-26; 11:7-8). The statement, of course, is somewhat hyperbolical as all categorical statements of this kind are.
10 tn The words “Some time later” are not in the text but are a way of translating the conjunction “And” or “Then” that introduces this narrative.
11 sn The precise location of this entrance is unknown since it is mentioned nowhere else in the OT. Many commentators equate this with the “king’s outer entry” (mentioned in 2 Kgs 16:18) which appears to have been a private entryway between the temple and the palace.
12 tn The words “when you answer” are not in the text but are implicit in the connection. They are supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity and smoothness of style.
13 tn The phrase “and what the king said to you” is actually at the end of the verse, but most commentators see it as also under the governance of “tell us” and many commentaries and English versions move the clause forward for the sake of English style as has been done here.
14 tn Or “lest we kill you”; Heb “and we will not kill you,” which as stated in the translator’s note on 37:20 introduces a negative purpose (or result) clause. See 37:20, 38:24 for parallel usage.
