Yeremia 7:5-9

7:5 You must change ¹  the way you have been living and do what is right. You must treat one another fairly. ²  7:6 Stop oppressing foreigners who live in your land, children who have lost their fathers, and women who have lost their husbands. ³  Stop killing innocent people ⁴  in this land. Stop paying allegiance to ⁵  other gods. That will only bring about your ruin. ⁶  7:7 If you stop doing these things, ⁷  I will allow you to continue to live in this land ⁸  which I gave to your ancestors as a lasting possession. ⁹ 

7:8 “‘But just look at you! ¹⁰  You are putting your confidence in a false belief ¹¹  that will not deliver you. ¹²  7:9 You steal. ¹³  You murder. You commit adultery. You lie when you swear on oath. You sacrifice to the god Baal. You pay allegiance to ¹⁴  other gods whom you have not previously known.

[7:5]  ¹ tn The infinitive absolute precedes the finite verb for emphasis.

[7:5]  ² tn Heb “you must do justice between a person and his fellow/neighbor.” The infinitive absolute precedes the finite verb for emphasis.

[7:6]  ³ tn Heb “Stop oppressing foreigner, orphan, and widow.”

[7:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “Stop shedding innocent blood.”

[7:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “going/following after.” See the translator’s note at 2:5 for an explanation of the idiom involved here.

[7:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “going after other gods to your ruin.”

[7:7]  ⁷ tn The translation uses imperatives in vv. 5-6 followed by the phrase, “If you do all this,” to avoid the long and complex sentence structure of the Hebrew sentence which has a series of conditional clauses in vv. 5-6 followed by a main clause in v. 7.

[7:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “live in this place, in this land.”

[7:7]  ⁹ tn Heb “gave to your fathers [with reference to] from ancient times even unto forever.”

[7:8]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Behold!”

[7:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “You are trusting in lying words.” See the similar phrase in v. 4 and the note there.

[7:8]  ¹² tn Heb “not profit [you].”

[7:9]  ¹³ tn Heb “Will you steal…then say, ‘We are safe’?” Verses 9-10 are one long sentence in the Hebrew text.

[7:9]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “You go/follow after.” See the translator’s note at 2:5 for an explanation of the idiom involved here.