Discovery BoxJeremiah 2:8 
Context2:8 Your priests 1 did not ask, ‘Where is the Lord?’ 2
Those responsible for teaching my law 3 did not really know me. 4
Your rulers rebelled against me.
Your prophets prophesied in the name of the god Baal. 5
They all worshiped idols that could not help them. 6
Jeremiah 9:26
Context9:26 That is, I will punish the Egyptians, the Judeans, the Edomites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, and all the desert people who cut their hair short at the temples. 7 I will do so because none of the people of those nations are really circumcised in the Lord’s sight. 8 Moreover, none of the people of Israel 9 are circumcised when it comes to their hearts.” 10
Jeremiah 23:36
Context23:36 You must no longer say that the Lord’s message is burdensome. 11 For what is ‘burdensome’ 12 really pertains to what a person himself says. 13 You are misrepresenting 14 the words of our God, the living God, the Lord who rules over all. 15
Jeremiah 27:18
Context27:18 I also told them, 16 “If they are really prophets and the Lord is speaking to them, 17 let them pray earnestly to the Lord who rules over all. 18 Let them plead with him not to let the valuable articles that are still left in the Lord’s temple, in the royal palace, and in Jerusalem be taken away 19 to Babylon.
Jeremiah 34:17
Context34:17 So I, the Lord, say: “You have not really obeyed me and granted freedom to your neighbor and fellow countryman. 20 Therefore, I will grant you freedom, the freedom 21 to die in war, or by starvation or disease. I, the Lord, affirm it! 22 I will make all the kingdoms of the earth horrified at what happens to you. 23
1 tn Heb “The priests…the ones who grasp my law…the shepherds…the prophets…they…”
2 sn See the study note on 2:6.
3 tn Heb “those who handle my law.”
sn The reference is likely to the priests and Levites who were responsible for teaching the law (so Jer 18:18; cf. Deut 33:10). According to Jer 8:8 it could possibly refer to the scribes who copied the law.
4 tn Or “were not committed to me.” The Hebrew verb rendered “know” refers to more than mere intellectual knowledge. It carries also the ideas of emotional and volitional commitment as well intimacy. See for example its use in contexts like Hos 4:1; 6:6.
5 tn Heb “by Baal.”
6 tn Heb “and they followed after those things [the word is plural] which do not profit.” The poetic structure of the verse, four lines in which a distinct subject appears at the beginning followed by a fifth line beginning with a prepositional phrase and no distinct subject, argues that this line is climactic and refers to all four classes enumerated in the preceding lines. See W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah (Hermeneia), 1:88-89. There may be a play or pun in the Hebrew text on the name for the god Baal (בַּעַל, ba’al) and the verb “cannot help you” (Heb “do not profit”) which is spelled יַעַל (ya’al).
7 tn Heb “all those who are cut off on the side of the head who live in the desert.” KJV and some other English versions (e.g., NIV “who live in the desert in distant places”; NLT “who live in distant places”) have followed the interpretation that this is a biform of an expression meaning “end or remote parts of the [far] corners [of the earth].” This interpretation is generally abandoned by the more recent commentaries and lexicons (see, e.g. BDB 802 s.v. פֵּאָה 1 and HALOT 858 s.v. פֵּאָה 1.β). It occurs also in 25:33; 49:32.
8 tn Heb “For all of these nations are uncircumcised.” The words “I will do so” are supplied in the translation to indicate the connection with the preceding statement.
sn A contrast is drawn here between circumcision as a mere external cutting of the flesh and a sign of commitment to the covenant and the God of the covenant. The people of these nations practiced circumcision but not as a sign of the covenant. The people of Israel engaged in it as a religious practice but without any obedience to the covenant that it was a sign of or any real commitment to the
9 tn Heb “house of Israel.”
10 tn Heb “And all the house of Israel is uncircumcised of heart.”
11 tn Heb “burden of the
12 tn Heb “the burden.”
13 tn Heb “The burden is [or will be] to a man his word.” There is a good deal of ambiguity regarding how this line is to be rendered. For the major options and the issues involved W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah (Hermeneia), 1:651-52 should be consulted. Most of them are excluded by the observation that מַשָּׂא probably does not mean “oracle” anywhere in this passage (see note on v. 33 regarding the use of this word). Hence it does not mean “every man’s word becomes his oracle” as in NIV or “for that ‘burden’ [= oracle] is what he entrusts to the man of his word” (W. McKane, Jeremiah [ICC], 1:600-601). The latter is also ruled out by the fact that the antecedent of “his” on “his word” is clearly the word “man” in front of it. This would be the only case where the phrase “man of his word” occurs. There is also no textual reason for repointing the noun with the article as the noun with the interrogative to read “For how can his word become a burden to anyone?” There are, of course, other options but this is sufficient to show that the translation has been chosen after looking at other alternatives.
14 tn Heb “turning.” See BDB 245 s.v. הָפַךְ Qal.1.c and Lev 13:55; Jer 13:33 “changing, altering.”
15 tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.”
sn See the study note on 2:19 for the explanation of the significance of this title.
16 tn The words “I also told them” are not in the text, but it is obvious from the fact that the
17 tn Heb “the word of the
18 tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.”
sn For the significance of this title see the study note on 2:19.
19 tn Heb “…speaking to them, let them entreat the
20 tn The Hebrew text has a compound object, the two terms of which have been synonyms in vv. 14, 15. G. L. Keown, P. J. Scalise, and T. G. Smothers (Jeremiah 26-52 [WBC], 189) make the interesting observation that these two terms (Heb “brother” and “neighbor”) emphasize the relationships that should have taken precedence over their being viewed as mere slaves.
21 sn This is, of course, a metaphorical and ironical use of the term “to grant freedom to.” It is, however, a typical statement of the concept of talionic justice which is quite often operative in God’s judgments in the OT (cf., e.g., Obad 15).
22 tn Heb “Oracle of the
23 sn Compare Jer 15:4; 24:9; 29:18.
