Yeremia 3:14-17

3:14 “Come back to me, my wayward sons,” says the Lord, “for I am your true master. ¹  If you do, ²  I will take one of you from each town and two of you from each family group, and I will bring you back to Zion. 3:15 I will give you leaders ³  who will be faithful to me. ⁴  They will lead you with knowledge and insight. 3:16 In those days, your population will greatly increase ⁵  in the land. At that time,” says the Lord, “people will no longer talk about having the ark ⁶  that contains the Lord’s covenant with us. ⁷  They will not call it to mind, remember it, or miss it. No, that will not be done any more! ⁸  3:17 At that time the city of Jerusalem ⁹  will be called the Lord’s throne. All nations will gather there in Jerusalem to honor the Lord’s name. ¹⁰  They will no longer follow the stubborn inclinations of their own evil hearts. ¹¹ 

Yeremia 31:12-13

31:12 They will come and shout for joy on Mount Zion.

They will be radiant with joy ¹²  over the good things the Lord provides,

the grain, the fresh wine, the olive oil,

the young sheep and calves he has given to them.

They will be like a well-watered garden

and will not grow faint or weary any more.

31:13 The Lord says, ¹³  “At that time young women will dance and be glad.

Young men and old men will rejoice. ¹⁴ 

I will turn their grief into gladness.

I will give them comfort and joy in place of their sorrow.

[3:14]  ¹ tn Or “I am your true husband.”

[3:14]  sn There is a wordplay between the term “true master” and the name of the pagan god Baal. The pronoun “I” is emphatic, creating a contrast between the Lord as Israel’s true master/husband versus Baal as Israel’s illegitimate lover/master. See 2:23-25.

[3:14]  ² tn The words, “If you do” are not in the text but are implicit in the connection of the Hebrew verb with the preceding.

[3:15]  ³ tn Heb “shepherds.”

[3:15]  ⁴ tn Heb “after/according to my [own] heart.”

[3:16]  ⁵ tn Heb “you will become numerous and fruitful.”

[3:16]  ⁶ tn Or “chest.”

[3:16]  ⁷ tn Heb “the ark of the covenant.” It is called this because it contained the tables of the law which in abbreviated form constituted their covenant obligations to the Lord, cf. Exod 31:18; 32:15; 34:29.

[3:16]  ⁸ tn Or “Nor will another one be made”; Heb “one will not do/make [it?] again.”

[3:17]  ⁹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[3:17]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “will gather to the name of the Lord.”

[3:17]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the stubbornness of their evil hearts.”

[31:12]  ¹² tn Reading a Qal perfect from the root II נָהַר (nahar; so KBL 509 s.v. and HALOT 639 s.v.) rather than I נָהַר (so BDB 625 s.v.).

[31:13]  ¹³ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.” This phrase has been brought up to the beginning of v. 13 from the end of v. 14 to introduce the transition from third person description by Jeremiah to first person address by the Lord.

[31:13]  ¹⁴ tc The translation follows the reading of the LXX (Greek version). The Hebrew reads “will dance and be glad, young men and old men together.” The Greek version presupposes a Qal imperfect of a rare verb (יַחְדּוּ [yakhdu] from the verb חָדָה [khadah]; see BDB 292 s.v. II חָדָה Qal) as opposed to the Hebrew text which reads a common adverb יַחְדָּו (yakhdav). The consonantal text is the same but the vocalization is different. There are no other examples of the syntax of the adverb used this way (i.e., of a compound subject added to a third subject) and the vocalization of the Hebrew text can be explained on the basis of a scribe misvocalizing the text based on his greater familiarity with the adverb.