Discovery BoxJeremiah 4:2 
Context4:2 You must be truthful, honest and upright
when you take an oath saying, ‘As surely as the Lord lives!’ 1
If you do, 2 the nations will pray to be as blessed by him as you are
and will make him the object of their boasting.” 3
Jeremiah 5:19
Context5:19 “So then, Jeremiah, 4 when your people 5 ask, ‘Why has the Lord our God done all this to us?’ tell them, ‘It is because you rejected me and served foreign gods in your own land. So 6 you must serve foreigners 7 in a land that does not belong to you.’
Jeremiah 10:5
Context10:5 Such idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field.
They cannot talk.
They must be carried
because they cannot walk.
Do not be afraid of them
because they cannot hurt you.
And they do not have any power to help you.” 8
Jeremiah 23:36
Context23:36 You must no longer say that the Lord’s message is burdensome. 9 For what is ‘burdensome’ 10 really pertains to what a person himself says. 11 You are misrepresenting 12 the words of our God, the living God, the Lord who rules over all. 13
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, 14 ‘Each of you must turn from your wicked ways and stop doing the evil things you are doing. 15 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. 16
Jeremiah 25:26
Context25:26 all the kings of the north, whether near or far from one another; and all the other kingdoms which are on the face of the earth. After all of them have drunk the wine of the Lord’s wrath, 17 the king of Babylon 18 must drink it.
Jeremiah 31:20
Context31:20 Indeed, the people of Israel are my dear children.
They are the children I take delight in. 19
For even though I must often rebuke them,
I still remember them with fondness.
So I am deeply moved with pity for them 20
and will surely have compassion on them.
I, the Lord, affirm it! 21
Jeremiah 34:14
Context34:14 “Every seven years each of you must free any fellow Hebrews who have sold themselves to you. After they have served you for six years, you shall set them free.” 22 But your ancestors did not obey me or pay any attention to me.
Jeremiah 35:13
Context35:13 The Lord God of Israel who rules over all 23 told him, “Go and speak to the people of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem. Tell them, 24 ‘I, the Lord, say: 25 “You must learn a lesson from this 26 about obeying what I say! 27
Jeremiah 38:4
Context38:4 So these officials said to the king, “This man must be put to death. For he is demoralizing 28 the soldiers who are left in the city as well as all the other people there by these things he is saying. 29 This 30 man is not seeking to help these people but is trying to harm them.” 31
Jeremiah 38:17
Context38:17 Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “The Lord, the God who rules over all, the God of Israel, 32 says, ‘You must surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon. If you do, your life will be spared 33 and this city will not be burned down. Indeed, you and your whole family will be spared.
Jeremiah 43:2
Context43:2 Then Azariah 34 son of Hoshaiah, Johanan son of Kareah, and other arrogant men said to Jeremiah, “You are telling a lie! The Lord our God did not send you to tell us, ‘You must not go to Egypt and settle there.’
1 tn Heb “If you [= you must, see the translator’s note on the word “do” later in this verse] swear/take an oath, ‘As the
2 tn 4:1-2a consists of a number of “if” clauses, two of which are formally introduced by the Hebrew particle אִם (’im) while the others are introduced by the conjunction “and,” followed by a conjunction (“and” = “then”) with a perfect in 4:2b which introduces the consequence. The translation “You must…. If you do,” was chosen to avoid a long and complicated sentence.
3 tn Heb “bless themselves in him and make their boasts in him.”
4 tn The word, “Jeremiah,” is not in the text but the second person address in the second half of the verse is obviously to him. The word is supplied in the translation here for clarity.
5 tn The MT reads the second masculine plural; this is probably a case of attraction to the second masculine plural pronoun in the preceding line. An alternative would be to understand a shift from speaking first to the people in the first half of the verse and then speaking to Jeremiah in the second half where the verb is second masculine singular. E.g., “When you [people] say, “Why…?” then you, Jeremiah, tell them…”
6 tn Heb “As you left me and…, so you will….” The translation was chosen so as to break up a rather long and complex sentence.
7 sn This is probably a case of deliberate ambiguity (double entendre). The adjective “foreigners” is used for both foreign people (so Jer 30:8; 51:51) and foreign gods (so Jer 2:25; 3:13). See also Jer 16:13 for the idea of having to serve other gods in the lands of exile.
8 tn Heb “And it is not in them to do good either.”
9 tn Heb “burden of the
10 tn Heb “the burden.”
11 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.
12 tn Heb “turning.” See BDB 245 s.v. הָפַךְ Qal.1.c and Lev 13:55; Jer 13:33 “changing, altering.”
13 tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.”
sn See the study note on 2:19 for the explanation of the significance of this title.
14 tn Heb “saying.” The infinitive goes back to “he sent”; i.e., “he sent, saying.”
15 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.
16 tn Heb “gave to you and your fathers with reference to from ancient times even unto forever.” See the same idiom in 7:7.
17 tn The words “have drunk the wine of the
18 tn Heb “the king of Sheshach.” “Sheshach” is a code name for Babylon formed on the principle of substituting the last letter of the alphabet for the first, the next to the last for the second, and so on. On this principle Hebrew שׁ (shin) is substituted for Hebrew ב (bet) and Hebrew כ (kaf) is substituted for Hebrew ל (lamed). On the same principle “Leb Kamai” in Jer 51:1 is a code name for Chasdim or Chaldeans which is Jeremiah’s term for the Babylonians. No explanation is given for why the code names are used. The name “Sheshach” for Babylon also occurs in Jer 51:41 where the term Babylon is found in parallelism with it.
19 tn Heb “Is Ephraim a dear son to me or a child of delight?” For the substitution of Israel for Ephraim and the plural pronouns for the singular see the note on v. 18. According to BDB 210 s.v. הֲ 1.c the question is rhetorical having the force of an impassioned affirmation. See 1 Sam 2:27; Job 41:9 (41:1 HT) for parallel usage.
20 tn Heb “my stomach churns for him.” The parallelism shows that this refers to pity or compassion.
21 tn Heb “Oracle of the
22 sn Compare Deut 15:12-18 for the complete statement of this law. Here only the first part of it is cited.
23 tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.” For this title see 7:3 and the study note on 2:19.
24 tn Heb “35:12 And the word of the
25 tn Heb “Oracle of the
26 tn The words “from this” are not in the text but are implicit from the context. They have been supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity.
27 tn Heb “Will you not learn a lesson…?” The rhetorical question here has the force of an imperative, made explicit in the translation.
28 tn Heb “weakening the hands of.” For this idiom see BDB 951 s.v. רָפָה Pi. and compare the usage in Isa 13:7; Ezek 21:7 (21:12 HT).
29 tn Heb “by saying these things.”
30 tn The Hebrew particle כִּי (ki) has not been rendered here because it is introducing a parallel causal clause to the preceding one. To render “For” might be misunderstood as a grounds for the preceding statement. To render “And” or “Moreover” sounds a little odd here. If it must be represented, “Moreover” is perhaps the best rendering.
31 tn Or “is not looking out for these people’s best interests but is really trying to do them harm”; Heb “is not seeking the welfare [or “well-being”; Hebrew shalom] of this people but [their] harm [more literally, evil].”
32 tn Heb “Yahweh, the God of armies, the God of Israel.” Compare 7:3 and 35:17 and see the study note on 2:19.
33 tn Heb “Your life/soul will live.” The quote is a long condition-consequence sentence with compound consequential clauses. It reads, “If you will only go out to the officers of the king of Babylon, your soul [= you yourself; BDB 660 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ 4.a] will live and this city will not be burned with fire and you and your household will live.” The sentence has been broken down and restructured to better conform with contemporary English style. The infinitive absolute in the condition emphasizes the one condition, i.e., going out or surrendering (cf. Joüon 2:423 §123.g, and compare usage in Exod 15:26). For the idiom “go out to” = “surrender to” see the full idiom in 21:9 “go out and fall over to” which is condensed in 38:2 to “go out to.” The expression here is the same as in 38:2.
34 sn See the study note on 42:1 for the possible identification of this man with Jezaniah son of Hoshaiah and Jezaniah the son of the Maacathite.
