Jeremiah 2:7-9 New English Translation
7 I brought you[a] into a fertile land
so you could enjoy[b] its fruits and its rich bounty.
But when you entered my land, you defiled it;[c]
you made the land I call my own[d] loathsome to me.
8 Your priests[e] did not ask, ‘Where is the Lord?’[f]
Those responsible for teaching my law[g] did not really know me.[h]
Your rulers rebelled against me.
Your prophets prophesied in the name of the god Baal.[i]
They all worshiped idols that could not help them.[j]
The Lord Charges Contemporary Israel with Spiritual Adultery
9 “So, once more I will state my case[k] against you,” says the Lord.
“I will also state it against your children and grandchildren.[l]
Footnotes
- Jeremiah 2:7 sn Note how contemporary Israel is again identified with her early ancestors. See the study note on 2:2.
- Jeremiah 2:7 tn Heb “eat.”
- Jeremiah 2:7 sn I.e., made it ceremonially unclean. See Lev 18:19-30; Num 35:34; Deut 21:23.
- Jeremiah 2:7 tn Heb “my inheritance.” Or “the land [i.e., inheritance] I gave you,” reading the pronoun as indicating source rather than possession. The parallelism and the common use in Jeremiah of the term to refer to the land or people as the Lord’s (e.g., 12:7, 8, 9; 16:18; 50:11) make the possessive use more likely here.sn The land belonged to the Lord; it was given to the Israelites in trust (or usufruct) as their heritage. See Lev 25:23.
- Jeremiah 2:8 tn Heb “The priests…the ones who grasp my law…the shepherds…the prophets…they…”
- Jeremiah 2:8 sn See the study note on 2:6.
- Jeremiah 2:8 tn Heb “those who handle my law.”sn The reference is likely to the priests and Levites who were responsible for teaching the law (so Jer 18:18; cf. Deut 33:10). According to Jer 8:8 it could possibly refer to the scribes who copied the law.
- Jeremiah 2:8 tn Or “were not committed to me.” The Hebrew verb rendered “know” refers to more than mere intellectual knowledge. It carries also the ideas of emotional and volitional commitment as well intimacy. See, for example, its use in contexts like Hos 4:1 and 6:6.
- Jeremiah 2:8 tn Heb “by Baal.”
- Jeremiah 2:8 tn Heb “and they followed after those things [the word is plural] which do not profit.” The poetic structure of the verse, four lines in which a distinct subject appears at the beginning followed by a fifth line beginning with a prepositional phrase and no distinct subject, argues that this line is climactic and refers to all four classes enumerated in the preceding lines. See W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah (Hermeneia), 1:88-89. There may be a play or pun in the Hebrew text on the name for the god Baal (בַּעַל, baʿal) and the verb “cannot help you” (Heb “do not profit”) which is spelled יַעַל (yaʿal).
- Jeremiah 2:9 tn Or “bring charges against you.”sn The language used here is that of the law court. In international political contexts it was the language of a great king charging his subject with breach of covenant. See for examples in earlier prophets, Isa 1:2-20 and Mic 6:1-8.
- Jeremiah 2:9 tn The words “your children and” are supplied in the translation to bring out the idea of corporate solidarity implicit in the passage.sn The passage reflects the Hebrew concept of corporate solidarity: The actions of parents had consequences for their children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. Compare the usage in the ten commandments (Deut 5:10) and note the execution of the children of Dathan and Abiram (Deut 11:6) and of Achan (Josh 7:24-25).
New English Translation (NET)
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