Discovery BoxJeremiah 2:23 
Context2:23 “How can you say, ‘I have not made myself unclean.
I have not paid allegiance to 1 the gods called Baal.’
Just look at the way you have behaved in the Valley of Hinnom! 2
Think about the things you have done there!
You are like a flighty, young female camel
that rushes here and there, crisscrossing its path. 3
Jeremiah 8:14
Context“Why are we just sitting here?
Let us gather together inside the fortified cities. 5
Let us at least die there fighting, 6
since the Lord our God has condemned us to die.
He has condemned us to drink the poison waters of judgment 7
because we have sinned against him. 8
Jeremiah 17:26
Context17:26 Then people will come here from the towns in Judah, from the villages surrounding Jerusalem, from the territory of Benjamin, from the western foothills, from the southern hill country, and from the southern part of Judah. They will come bringing offerings to the temple of the Lord: burnt offerings, sacrifices, grain offerings, and incense along with their thank offerings. 9
Jeremiah 19:5
Context19:5 They have built places here 10 for worship of the god Baal so that they could sacrifice their children as burnt offerings to him in the fire. Such sacrifices 11 are something I never commanded them to make! They are something I never told them to do! Indeed, such a thing never even entered my mind!
Jeremiah 19:11
Context19:11 Tell them the Lord who rules over all says, 12 ‘I will do just as Jeremiah has done. 13 I will smash this nation and this city as though it were a potter’s vessel which is broken beyond repair. 14 The dead will be buried here in Topheth until there is no more room to bury them.’ 15
Jeremiah 23:9
Context23:9 Here is what the Lord says concerning the false prophets: 17
My heart and my mind are deeply disturbed.
I tremble all over. 18
I am like a drunk person,
like a person who has had too much wine, 19
because of the way the Lord
and his holy word are being mistreated. 20
Jeremiah 23:38
Context23:38 But just suppose you continue to say, ‘The message of the Lord is burdensome.’ Here is what the Lord says will happen: ‘I sent word to you that you must not say, “The Lord’s message is burdensome.” But you used the words “The Lord’s message is burdensome” anyway.
Jeremiah 25:5
Context25:5 He said through them, 21 ‘Each of you must turn from your wicked ways and stop doing the evil things you are doing. 22 If you do, I will allow you to continue to live here in the land that I gave to you and your ancestors as a lasting possession. 23
Jeremiah 31:8
Context31:8 Then I will reply, 24 ‘I will bring them back from the land of the north.
I will gather them in from the distant parts of the earth.
Blind and lame people will come with them,
so will pregnant women and women about to give birth.
A vast throng of people will come back here.
Jeremiah 36:14
Context36:14 All the officials sent Jehudi, who was the son of Nethaniah and the grandson of Cushi, to Baruch. They ordered him to tell Baruch, “Come here and bring with you 25 the scroll you read in the hearing of the people.” 26 So Baruch son of Neriah went to them, carrying the scroll in his hand. 27
Jeremiah 42:2
Context42:2 They said to him, “Please grant our request 28 and pray to the Lord your God for all those of us who are still left alive here. 29 For, as you yourself can see, there are only a few of us left out of the many there were before. 30
Jeremiah 44:8
Context44:8 That is what will result from your making me angry by what you are doing. 31 You are making me angry by sacrificing to other gods here in the land of Egypt where you live. You will be destroyed for doing that! You will become an example used in curses 32 and an object of ridicule among all the nations of the earth. 33
1 tn Heb “I have not gone/followed after.” See the translator’s note on 2:5 for the meaning and usage of this idiom.
2 tn Heb “Look at your way in the valley.” The valley is an obvious reference to the Valley of Hinnom where Baal and Molech were worshiped and child sacrifice was practiced.
3 sn The metaphor is intended to depict Israel’s lack of clear direction and purpose without the
4 tn The words “The people say” are not in the text but are implicit in the shift of speakers between vv. 4-13 and vv. 14-16. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.
5 tn Heb “Gather together and let us enter into the fortified cities.”
6 tn Heb “Let us die there.” The words “at least” and “fighting” are intended to bring out the contrast of passive surrender to death in the open country and active resistance to the death implicit in the context.
7 tn The words “of judgment” are not in the text but are intended to show that “poison water” is not literal but figurative of judgment at the hands of God through the agency of the enemy mentioned in v. 16.
8 tn Heb “against the
9 tn Heb “There will come from the cities of Judah and from the environs of Jerusalem and from…those bringing…incense and those bringing thank offerings.” This sentence has been restructured from a long complex original to conform to contemporary English style.
10 tn The word “here” is not in the text. However, it is implicit from the rest of the context. It is supplied in the translation for clarity.
11 tn The words “such sacrifices” are not in the text. The text merely says “to burn their children in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal which I did not command.” The command obviously refers not to the qualification “to Baal” but to burning the children in the fire as burnt offerings. The words are supplied in the translation to avoid a possible confusion that the reference is to sacrifices to Baal. Likewise the words should not be translated so literally that they leave the impression that God never said anything about sacrificing their children to other gods. The fact is he did. See Lev 18:21; Deut 12:30; 18:10.
12 tn Heb “Thus says Yahweh of armies.” For this title see the study note on 2:19. The translation attempts to avoid the confusion of embedding quotes within quotes by reducing this one to an indirect quote.
13 tn The adverb “Thus” or “Like this” normally points back to something previously mentioned. See, e.g., Exod 29:35; Num 11:15; 15:11; Deut 25:9.
14 tn Heb “Like this I will break this people and this city, just as one breaks the vessel of a potter which is not able to be repaired.”
15 sn See Jer 7:22-23 for parallels.
16 sn Jeremiah has already had a good deal to say about the false prophets and their fate. See 2:8, 26; 5:13, 31; 14:13-15. Here he parallels the condemnation of the wicked prophets and their fate (23:9-40) with that of the wicked kings (21:11-22:30).
17 tn The word “false” is not in the text, but it is clear from the context that these are whom the sayings are directed against. The words “Here is what the
18 tn Heb “My heart is crushed within me. My bones tremble.” It has already been noted several times that the “heart” in ancient Hebrew psychology was the intellectual and volitional center of the person, the kidneys were the emotional center, and the bones the locus of strength and also the subject of joy, distress, and sorrow. Here Jeremiah is speaking of his distress of heart and mind in modern psychology, a distress that leads him to trembling of body which he compares to that of a drunken person staggering around under the influence of wine.
19 tn Heb “wine has passed over him.”
20 tn Heb “wine because of the
sn The way the
21 tn Heb “saying.” The infinitive goes back to “he sent”; i.e., “he sent, saying.”
22 tn Heb “Turn [masc. pl.] each person from his wicked way and from the evil of your [masc. pl.] doings.” See the same demand in 23:22.
23 tn Heb “gave to you and your fathers with reference to from ancient times even unto forever.” See the same idiom in 7:7.
24 tn The words “And I will reply” are not in the text but the words vv. 8-9 appear to be the answer to the petition at the end of v. 7. These words are supplied in the translation for clarity.
25 tn Heb “in your hand.”
26 tn The original has another example of a prepositioned object (called casus pendens in the grammars; cf. GKC 458 §143.b) which is intended to focus attention on “the scroll.” The Hebrew sentence reads: “The scroll which you read from it in the ears of the people take it and come.” Any attempt to carry over this emphasis into the English translation would be awkward. Likewise, the order of the two imperatives has been reversed as more natural in English.
27 tn Heb “So Baruch son of Neriah took the scroll in his hand and went to them.” The clause order has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.
28 tn Heb “please let our petition fall before you.” For the idiom here see 37:20 and the translator’s note there.
29 tn Heb “on behalf of us, [that is] on behalf of all this remnant.”
sn This refers to the small remnant of people who were left of those from Mizpah who had been taken captive by Ishmael after he had killed Gedaliah and who had been rescued from him at Gibeon. There were other Judeans still left in the land of Judah who had not been killed or deported by the Babylonians.
30 tn Heb “For we are left a few from the many as your eyes are seeing us.” The words “used to be” are not in the text but are implicit. These words are supplied in the translation for clarity and smoothness of English style.
31 tn Heb “the works of your hands.” Here the phrase is qualified by the epexegetical לְ (lamed) + infinitive, לְקַטֵּר (lÿqatter, “by sacrificing [to other gods]”). For further discussion on the use of this phrase see the translator’s note on 25:6.
32 tn Heb “a curse.” For the meaning of this phrase see the translator’s note on 24:9 and see the usage in 24:9; 25:18; 26:6; 29:22.
33 tn Verses 7b-8 are all one long, complex sentence governed by the interrogative “Why.” The Hebrew text reads: “Why are you doing great harm to your souls [= “yourselves” (cf. BDB 660 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ 4.b[6])] so as to cut off [= destroy] from yourselves man and woman, child and baby [the terms are collective singulars and are to be interpreted as plurals] from the midst of Judah so as not to leave to yourselves a remnant by making me angry with the works of your hands by sacrificing to other gods in the land of Egypt where you have come to live so as to cut off [an example of result rather than purpose after the particle לְמַעַן (lÿma’an; see the translator’s note on 25:7)] yourselves and so that you may become a curse and an object of ridicule among all the nations of the earth.” The sentence has been broken down and restructured to better conform with contemporary English style. An attempt has been made to retain an equivalent for all the subordinations and qualifying phrases.
sn What is being threatened is not the total destruction of a remnant of Judah. Jeremiah recognizes those who have been carried off to Babylon as well as other places as seeds for a new beginning (e.g., 24:5-6; 29:14; 30:3). But he denies here that any of those who have gone to Egypt and are continuing to practice idolatry will be among them. All of them will be cut off (i.e., destroyed) from the midst of Judah so that not a remnant of them will be left.
