Jeremiah 2:19
Context2:19 Your own wickedness will bring about your punishment.
Your unfaithful acts will bring down discipline on you. 1
Know, then, and realize how utterly harmful 2
it was for you to reject me, the Lord your God, 3
to show no respect for me,” 4
says the Lord God who rules over all. 5
Jeremiah 6:19
Context6:19 Hear this, you peoples of the earth: 6
‘Take note! 7 I am about to bring disaster on these people.
It will come as punishment for their scheming. 8
For they have paid no attention to what I have said, 9
and they have rejected my law.
Jeremiah 32:35
Context32:35 They built places of worship for the god Baal in the Valley of Ben Hinnom so that they could sacrifice their sons and daughters to the god Molech. 10 Such a disgusting practice was not something I commanded them to do! It never even entered my mind to command them to do such a thing! So Judah is certainly liable for punishment.’ 11
1 tn Or “teach you a lesson”; Heb “rebuke/chide you.”
2 tn Heb “how evil and bitter.” The reference is to the consequences of their acts. This is a figure of speech (hendiadys) where two nouns or adjectives joined by “and” introduce a main concept modified by the other noun or adjective.
3 tn Heb “to leave the
4 tn Heb “and no fear of me was on you.”
5 tn Heb “the Lord Yahweh, [the God of] hosts.” For the title Lord
6 tn Heb “earth.”
7 tn Heb “Behold!”
8 tn Heb “disaster on these people, the fruit of their schemes.”
9 tn Heb “my word.”
10 sn Compare Jer 7:30-31; 19:5 and the study notes on 7:30. The god Molech is especially associated with the practice of child sacrifice (Lev 18:21; 20:2-5; 2 Kgs 23:10). In 1 Kgs 11:7 this god is identified as the god of the Ammonites who is also called Milcom in 1 Kgs 11:5; 2 Kgs 23:13. Child sacrifice, however, was not confined to this god; it was also made to the god Baal (Jer 19:5) and to other idols that the Israelites had set up (Ezek 16:20-21). This practice was, however, strictly prohibited in Israel (Lev 18:21; 20:2-5; Deut 12:31; 18:10). It was this practice as well as other pagan rites that Manasseh had instituted in Judah that ultimately led to Judah’s demise (2 Kgs 24:3-4). Though Josiah tried to root these pagan practices (2 Kgs 23:4-14) out of Judah he could not do so. The people had only made a pretense of following his reforms; their hearts were still far from God (Jer 3:10; 12:2).
11 tn Heb “They built high places to Baal which are in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to cause their sons and daughters to pass through [the fire] to Molech [a thing] which I did not command them and [which] did not go up into my heart [= “mind” in modern psychology] to do this abomination so as to make Judah liable for punishment.” For the use of the Hiphil of חָטָא (khata’) to refer to the liability for punishment see BDB s.v. חָטָא Hiph.3 and compare the usage in Deut 24:8. Coming at the end as this does, this nuance is much more likely than “cause Judah to sin” which is the normal translation assigned to the verb here. The particle לְמַעַן (lÿma’an) that precedes it is here once again introducing a result and not a purpose (compare other clear examples in 27:10, 15). The sentence has been broken down in conformity to contemporary English style and an attempt has been made to make clear that what is detestable and not commanded is not merely child sacrifice to Molech but child sacrifice in general.