Discovery BoxJeremiah 2:5 
Context2:5 This is what the Lord says:
“What fault could your ancestors 1 have possibly found in me
that they strayed so far from me? 2
They paid allegiance to 3 worthless idols, and so became worthless to me. 4
Jeremiah 7:9
Context7:9 You steal. 5 You murder. You commit adultery. You lie when you swear on oath. You sacrifice to the god Baal. You pay allegiance to 6 other gods whom you have not previously known.
Jeremiah 16:11
Context16:11 Then tell them that the Lord says, 7 ‘It is because your ancestors 8 rejected me and paid allegiance to 9 other gods. They have served them and worshiped them. But they have rejected me and not obeyed my law. 10
Jeremiah 25:6
Context25:6 Do not pay allegiance to 11 other gods and worship and serve them. Do not make me angry by the things that you do. 12 Then I will not cause you any harm.’
1 tn Heb “fathers.”
2 tn Or “I did not wrong your ancestors in any way. Yet they went far astray from me.” Both translations are an attempt to render the rhetorical question which demands a negative answer.
3 tn Heb “They went/followed after.” This idiom is found most often in Deuteronomy or covenant contexts. It refers to loyalty to God and to his covenant or his commandments (e.g., 1 Kgs 14:8; 2 Chr 34:31) with the metaphor of a path or way underlying it (e.g., Deut 11:28; 28:14). To “follow other gods” was to abandon this way and this loyalty (i.e., to “abandon” or “forget” God, Judg 2:12; Hos 2:13) and to follow the customs or religious traditions of the pagan nations (e.g., 2 Kgs 17:15). The classic text on “following” God or another god is 1 Kgs 18:18, 21 where Elijah taunts the people with “halting between two opinions” whether the
4 tn The words “to me” are not in the Hebrew text but are implicit from the context: Heb “they followed after the worthless thing/things and became worthless.” There is an obvious wordplay on the verb “became worthless” and the noun “worthless thing,” which is probably to be understood collectively and to refer to idols as it does in Jer 8:19; 10:8; 14:22; Jonah 2:8.
5 tn Heb “Will you steal…then say, ‘We are safe’?” Verses 9-10 are one long sentence in the Hebrew text.
6 tn Heb “You go/follow after.” See the translator’s note at 2:5 for an explanation of the idiom involved here.
7 tn These two sentences have been recast in English to break up a long Hebrew sentence and incorporate the oracular formula “says the
8 tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 12, 13, 15, 19).
9 tn Heb “followed after.” See the translator’s note at 2:5 for the explanation of the idiom.
10 tn Heb “But me they have abandoned and my law they have not kept.” The objects are thrown forward to bring out the contrast which has rhetorical force. However, such a sentence in English would be highly unnatural.
11 tn Heb “follow after.” See the translator’s note on 2:5 for this idiom.
12 tn Heb “make me angry with the work of your hands.” The term “work of your own hands” is often interpreted as a reference to idolatry as is clearly the case in Isa 2:8; 37:19. However, the parallelism in 25:14 and the context in 32:30 show that it is more general and refers to what they have done. That is likely the meaning here as well.
