Mazmur 82:5

82:5 They ¹  neither know nor understand.

They stumble ²  around in the dark,

while all the foundations of the earth crumble. ³ 

Yeremia 4:22

4:22 The Lord answered, ⁴ 

“This will happen ⁵  because my people are foolish.

They do not know me.

They are like children who have no sense. ⁶ 

They have no understanding.

They are skilled at doing evil.

They do not know how to do good.”

Yeremia 8:8

8:8 How can you say, “We are wise!

We have the law of the Lord”?

The truth is, ⁷  those who teach it ⁸  have used their writings

to make it say what it does not really mean. ⁹ 

[82:5]  ¹ sn Having addressed the defendants, God now speaks to those who are observing the trial, referring to the gods in the third person.

[82:5]  ² tn Heb “walk.” The Hitpael stem indicates iterative action, picturing these ignorant “judges” as stumbling around in the darkness.

[82:5]  ³ sn These gods, though responsible for justice, neglect their duty. Their self-imposed ignorance (which the psalmist compares to stumbling around in the dark) results in widespread injustice, which threatens the social order of the world (the meaning of the phrase all the foundations of the earth crumble).

[4:22]  ⁴ tn These words are not in the text but are supplied in the translation to show clearly the shift in speaker. Jeremiah has been speaking; now the Lord answers, giving the reason for the devastation Jeremiah foresees.

[4:22]  ⁵ tn Heb “For….” This gives the explanation for the destruction envisaged in 4:20 to which Jeremiah responds in 4:19, 21.

[4:22]  ⁶ tn Heb “They are senseless children.”

[8:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “Surely, behold!”

[8:8]  ⁸ tn Heb “the scribes.”

[8:8]  ⁹ tn Heb “The lying pen of the scribes have 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.