Yeremia 3:1

3:1 “If a man divorces his wife

and she leaves him and becomes another man’s wife,

he may not take her back again. ¹ 

Doing that would utterly defile the land. ² 

But you, Israel, have given yourself as a prostitute to many gods. ³ 

So what makes you think you can return to me?” ⁴ 

says the Lord.

Yeremia 3:9

3:9 Because she took her prostitution so lightly, she defiled the land ⁵  through her adulterous worship of gods made of wood and stone. ⁶ 

Yeremia 16:18

16:18 Before I restore them ⁷  I will punish them in full ⁸  for their sins and the wrongs they have done. For they have polluted my land with the lifeless statues of their disgusting idols. They have filled the land I have claimed as my own ⁹  with their detestable idols.” ¹⁰ 

Imamat 18:24-28

Warning against the Abominations of the Nations

18:24 “‘Do not defile yourselves with any of these things, for the nations which I am about to drive out before you ¹¹  have been defiled with all these things. 18:25 Therefore ¹²  the land has become unclean and I have brought the punishment for its iniquity upon it, ¹³  so that the land has vomited out its inhabitants. 18:26 You yourselves must obey ¹⁴  my statutes and my regulations and must not do any of these abominations, both the native citizen and the resident foreigner in your midst, ¹⁵  18:27 for the people who were in the land before you have done all these abominations, ¹⁶  and the land has become unclean. 18:28 So do not make the land vomit you out because you defile it ¹⁷  just as it has vomited out the nations ¹⁸  that were before you.

Bilangan 35:33-34

35:33 “You must not pollute the land where you live, for blood defiles the land, and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed there, except by the blood of the person who shed it. 35:34 Therefore do not defile the land that you will inhabit, in which I live, for I the Lord live among the Israelites.”

Ulangan 21:23

21:23 his body must not remain all night on the tree; instead you must make certain you bury ¹⁹  him that same day, for the one who is left exposed ²⁰  on a tree is cursed by God. ²¹  You must not defile your land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.

Mazmur 78:58-59

78:58 They made him angry with their pagan shrines, ²² 

and made him jealous with their idols.

78:59 God heard and was angry;

he completely rejected Israel.

Mazmur 106:38-39

106:38 They shed innocent blood –

the blood of their sons and daughters,

whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan.

The land was polluted by bloodshed. ²³ 

106:39 They were defiled by their deeds,

and unfaithful in their actions. ²⁴ 

Yehezkiel 36:17

36:17 “Son of man, when the house of Israel was living on their own land, they defiled it by their behavior ²⁵  and their deeds. In my sight their behavior was like the uncleanness of a woman having her monthly period.

Mikha 2:10

2:10 But you are the ones who will be forced to leave! ²⁶ 

For this land is not secure! ²⁷ 

Sin will thoroughly destroy it! ²⁸ 

[3:1]  ¹ tn Heb “May he go back to her again?” The question is rhetorical and expects a negative answer.

[3:1]  sn For the legal background for the illustration that is used here see Deut 24:1-4.

[3:1]  ² tn Heb “Would the land not be utterly defiled?” The stative is here rendered actively to connect better with the preceding. The question is rhetorical and expects a positive answer.

[3:1]  ³ tn Heb “But you have played the prostitute with many lovers.”

[3:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “Returning to me.” The form is the bare infinitive which the KJV and ASV have interpreted as an imperative “Yet, return to me!” However, it is more likely that a question is intended, expressing surprise in the light of the law alluded to and the facts cited. For the use of the infinitive absolute in the place of a finite verb, cf. GKC 346 §113.ee. For the introduction of a question without a question marker, cf. GKC 473 §150.a.

[3:9]  ⁵ tc The translation reads the form as a causative (Hiphil, תַּהֲנֵף, tahanef) with some of the versions in place of the simple stative (Qal, תֶּחֱנַף, tekhenaf) in the MT.

[3:9]  ⁶ tn Heb “because of the lightness of her prostitution, she defiled the land and committed adultery with stone and wood.”

[16:18]  ⁷ tn Heb “First.” Many English versions and commentaries delete this word because it is missing from the Greek version and is considered a gloss added by a postexilic editor who is said to be responsible also for vv. 14-16. This is not the place to resolve issues of authorship and date. It is the task of the translator to translate the “original” which in this case is the MT supported by the other versions. The word here refers to order in rank or order of events. Compare Gen 38:28; 1 Kgs 18:25. Here allusion is made to the restoration previously mentioned. First in order of events is the punishment of destruction and exile, then restoration.

[16:18]  ⁸ tn Heb “double.” However, usage in Deut 15:18 and probably Isa 40:2 argues for “full compensation.” This is supported also by usage in a tablet from Alalakh in Syria. See P. C. Craigie, P. H. Kelley, J. F. Drinkard, Jeremiah 1-25 (WBC), 218, for bibliography.

[16:18]  ⁹ tn Heb “my inheritance.”

[16:18]  sn For earlier references to the term used here see Jer 2:7 where it applies as here to the land, Jer 10:16; 12:8-9 where it applies to the people, and Jer 12:7 where it applies to the temple.

[16:18]  ¹⁰ tn Many of the English versions take “lifeless statues of their detestable idols” with “filled” as a compound object. This follows the Masoretic punctuation but violates usage. The verb “fill” never takes an object preceded by the preposition בְּ (bet).

[18:24]  ¹¹ tn Heb “which I am sending away (Piel participle of שָׁלַח [shalakh, “to send”]) from your faces.” The rendering here takes the participle as anticipatory of the coming conquest events.

[18:25]  ¹² tn Heb “And.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative or even inferential force here.

[18:25]  ¹³ tn Heb “and I have visited its [punishment for] iniquity on it.” See the note on Lev 17:16 above.

[18:26]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “And you shall keep, you.” The latter emphatic personal pronoun “you” is left out of a few medieval Hebrew mss, Smr, the LXX, Syriac, and Vulgate.

[18:26]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the native and the sojourner”; NIV “The native-born and the aliens”; NAB “whether natives or resident aliens.”

[18:27]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “for all these abominations the men of the land who were before you have done.”

[18:28]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “And the land will not vomit you out in your defiling it.”

[18:28]  ¹⁸ tc The MT reads the singular “nation” and is followed by ASV, NASB, NRSV; the LXX, Syriac, and Targum have the plural “nations” (cf. v. 24).

[21:23]  ¹⁹ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates by “make certain.”

[21:23]  ²⁰ tn Heb “hung,” but this could convey the wrong image in English (hanging with a rope as a means of execution). Cf. NCV “anyone whose body is displayed on a tree.”

[21:23]  ²¹ sn The idea behind the phrase cursed by God seems to be not that the person was impaled because he was cursed but that to leave him exposed there was to invite the curse of God upon the whole land. Why this would be so is not clear, though the rabbinic idea that even a criminal is created in the image of God may give some clue (thus J. H. Tigay, Deuteronomy [JPSTC], 198). Paul cites this text (see Gal 3:13) to make the point that Christ, suspended from a cross, thereby took upon himself the curse associated with such a display of divine wrath and judgment (T. George, Galatians [NAC], 238-39).

[78:58]  ²² tn Traditionally, “high places.”

[106:38]  ²³ sn Num 35:33-34 explains that bloodshed defiles a land.

[106:39]  ²⁴ tn Heb “and they committed adultery in their actions.” This means that they were unfaithful to the Lord (see Ps 73:27).

[36:17]  ²⁵ tn Heb “way.”

[2:10]  ²⁶ tn Heb “Arise and go!” These imperatives are rhetorical. Those who wrongly drove widows and orphans from their homes and land inheritances will themselves be driven out of the land (cf. Isa 5:8-17). This is an example of poetic justice.

[2:10]  ²⁷ tn Heb “for this is no resting place.” The Lord speaks to the oppressors.

[2:10]  ²⁸ tn Heb “uncleanness will destroy, and destruction will be severe.”