Discovery BoxJeremiah 4:4 
Context4:4 Just as ritual circumcision cuts away the foreskin
as an external symbol of dedicated covenant commitment,
you must genuinely dedicate yourselves to the Lord
and get rid of everything that hinders your commitment to me, 1
people of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem.
If you do not, 2 my anger will blaze up like a flaming fire against you
that no one will be able to extinguish.
That will happen because of the evil you have done.”
Jeremiah 44:17
Context44:17 Instead we will do everything we vowed we would do. 3 We will sacrifice and pour out drink offerings to the goddess called the Queen of Heaven 4 just as we and our ancestors, our kings, and our leaders previously did in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, were well-off, and had no troubles. 5
1 tn Heb “Circumcise yourselves to the
2 tn Heb “lest.”
3 tn Heb “that went out of our mouth.” I.e., everything we said, promised, or vowed.
4 tn Heb “sacrifice to the Queen of Heaven and pour out drink offerings to her.” The expressions have been combined to simplify and shorten the sentence. The same combination also occurs in vv. 18, 19.
sn See the translator’s note and the study note on 7:18 for the problem of translation and identification of the term translated here “the goddess called the Queen of Heaven.”
5 tn Heb “saw [or experienced] no disaster/trouble/harm.”
