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Jeremiah 8:8
New English Translation
Jeremiah 8:8
New English Translation
8 How can you say, “We are wise!
We have the law of the Lord”?
The truth is,[a] those who teach it[b] have used their writings
to make it say what it does not really mean.[c]
Footnotes
- Jeremiah 8:8 tn Heb “Surely, behold!”
- Jeremiah 8:8 tn Heb “the scribes.”
- Jeremiah 8:8 tn Heb “The lying pen of the scribes has made [it] into a lie.” The translation is an attempt to make the most common interpretation of this passage understandable for the average reader. This is, however, a difficult passage whose interpretation is greatly debated and whose syntax is capable of other interpretations. The interpretation of the NJPS, “Assuredly, for naught has the pen labored, for naught the scribes,” surely deserves consideration within the context; i.e., it hasn’t done any good for the scribes to produce a reliable copy of the law, which the people have refused to follow. That interpretation has the advantage of explaining the absence of an object for the verb “make” or “labored” but creates a very unbalanced poetic couplet.
Jeremiah 8:8
New International Version
Jeremiah 8:8
New International Version
8 “‘How can you say, “We are wise,
for we have the law(A) of the Lord,”
when actually the lying pen of the scribes
has handled it falsely?
New English Translation (NET)
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New International Version (NIV)
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NIV Reverse Interlinear Bible: English to Hebrew and English to Greek. Copyright © 2019 by Zondervan.