Jeremiah 10:12-16
New English Translation
12 The Lord is the one who[a] by his power made the earth.
He is the one who by his wisdom established the world.
And by his understanding he spread out the skies.
13 When his voice thunders,[b] the heavenly ocean roars.
He makes the clouds rise from the far-off horizons.[c]
He makes the lightning flash out in the midst of the rain.
He unleashes the wind from the places where he stores it.[d]
14 All these idolaters[e] will prove to be stupid and ignorant.
Every goldsmith will be disgraced by the idol he made.
For the image he forges is merely a sham.[f]
There is no breath in any of those idols.[g]
15 They are worthless, mere objects to be mocked.[h]
When the time comes to punish them, they will be destroyed.
16 The Lord, who is the inheritance[i] of Jacob’s descendants,[j] is not like them.
He is the one who created everything.
And the people of Israel are those he claims as his own.[k]
His name is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.”[l]
Footnotes
- Jeremiah 10:12 tn The words “The Lord is” are not in the text. They are implicit from the context. They are supplied in the translation here because of possible confusion about who the subject is due to the parenthetical address to the people of Israel in v. 11. The first two verbs are participles and should not merely be translated as the narrative past. They are predicate nominatives of an implied copula intending to contrast the Lord, as the one who made the earth, with the idols, which did not.
- Jeremiah 10:13 tn Heb “At the voice of his giving.” The idiom “to give the voice” is often used for thunder (cf. BDB 679 s.v. נָתַן Qal.1.x).
- Jeremiah 10:13 tn Heb “from the ends of the earth.”
- Jeremiah 10:13 tn Heb “he brings out the winds from his storehouses.”
- Jeremiah 10:14 tn Heb “Every man.” But in the context this is not a reference to all people without exception but to all idolaters. The referent is made explicit for the sake of clarity.
- Jeremiah 10:14 tn Or “nothing but a phony god”; Heb “a lie/falsehood.”
- Jeremiah 10:14 tn Heb “There is no breath in them.” The referent is made explicit so that no one will mistakenly take it to refer to the idolaters or goldsmiths.
- Jeremiah 10:15 tn Or “objects of mockery.”
- Jeremiah 10:16 tn The words “The Lord who is” are not in the text. They are supplied in the translation for clarity. For the significance of the words after them see the study note that follows.sn In the phrase the inheritance of Jacob’s descendants, “inheritance” could be translated “portion.” Applied to God here, the phrase has its background in Joshua’s division of the land of Canaan (Palestine), where each tribe received a land portion except the tribe of Levi, whose “portion” was the Lord. As the other tribes lived off what their portion of the land provided, the tribe of Levi lived off what the Lord provided, i.e., the tithes and offerings dedicated to him. Hence to have the Lord as one’s portion, one’s inheritance, is to have him provide for all one’s needs (see Ps 16:5 in the context of vv. 2, 6, and Lam 3:24 in the context of vv. 22-23).
- Jeremiah 10:16 tn Heb “The Portion of Jacob.” “Descendants” is implied, and is supplied in the translation for clarity.
- Jeremiah 10:16 tn Heb “And Israel is the tribe of his possession.”
- Jeremiah 10:16 tn Heb “Yahweh of Armies.”sn For this rendering of the name for God and its significance see 2:19 and the study note there.
NET Bible® copyright ©1996-2017 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://netbible.com All rights reserved.