Jeremiah 28:8-9
Context28:8 From earliest times, the prophets who preceded you and me invariably 1 prophesied war, disaster, 2 and plagues against many countries and great kingdoms. 28:9 So if a prophet prophesied 3 peace and prosperity, it was only known that the Lord truly sent him when what he prophesied came true.”
1 tn The word “invariably” is not in the text but is implicit in the context and in the tense of the Hebrew verb. It is supplied in the translation for clarity and to help bring out the contrast in the next verse.
2 tc Many Hebrew
3 tn The verbs in this verse are to be interpreted as iterative imperfects in past time rather than as futures because of the explicit contrast that is drawn in the two verses by the emphatic syntactical construction of the two verses. Both verses begin with a casus pendens construction to throw the two verses into contrast: Heb “The prophets who were before me and you from ancient times, they prophesied…The prophet who prophesied peace, when the word of that prophet came true, that prophet was known that the