Discovery BoxJeremiah 2:31 
Context2:31 You people of this generation,
listen to what the Lord says.
“Have I been like a wilderness to you, Israel?
Have I been like a dark and dangerous land to you? 1
Why then do you 2 say, ‘We are free to wander. 3
We will not come to you any more?’
Jeremiah 35:7
Context35:7 Do not build houses. Do not plant crops. Do not plant a vineyard or own one. 4 Live in tents all your lives. If you do these things you will 5 live a long time in the land that you wander about on.’ 6
1 tn Heb “a land of the darkness of Yah [= thick or deep darkness].” The idea of danger is an added connotation of the word in this context.
2 tn Heb “my people.”
3 tn Or more freely, “free to do as we please.” There is some debate about the meaning of this verb (רוּד, rud) because its usage is rare and its meaning is debated in the few passages where it does occur. The key to its meaning may rest in the emended text (reading וְרַדְתִּי [vÿradti] for וְיָרַדְתִּי [vÿyaradti]) in Judg 11:37 where it refers to the roaming of Jephthah’s daughter on the mountains of Israel.
4 tn Heb “Don’t plant a vineyard and it shall not be to you [= and you shall/must not have one].”
5 tn Heb “Don’t…and don’t…but live…in order that you might….”
6 sn Heb “where you are sojourning.” The terms “sojourn” and “sojourner” referred to a person who resided in a country not his own, without the rights and privileges of citizenship as a member of a nation, state, or principality. In the ancient Near East such people were dependent on the laws of hospitality rather than the laws of state for protection and provision of legal rights. Perhaps the best illustration of this is Abraham who “sojourned” among the Philistines and the Hittites in Canaan and was dependent upon them for grazing and water rights and for a place to bury his wife (cf. Gen 20-24). What is described here is the typical lifestyle of a nomadic tribe.
