Yeremia 7:22-23

7:22 Consider this: ¹  When I spoke to your ancestors after I brought them out of Egypt, I did not merely give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices. 7:23 I also explicitly commanded them: ²  “Obey me. If you do, I ³  will be your God and you will be my people. Live exactly the way I tell you ⁴  and things will go well with you.”

Yeremia 26:13

26:13 But correct the way you have been living and do what is right. ⁵  Obey the Lord your God. If you do, the Lord will forgo destroying you as he threatened he would. ⁶ 

[7:22]  ¹ tn Heb “For” but this introduces a long explanation about the relative importance of sacrifice and obedience.

[7:23]  ² tn Verses 22-23a read in Hebrew, “I did not speak with your ancestors and I did not command them when I brought them out of Egypt about words/matters concerning burnt offering and sacrifice, but I commanded them this word:” Some modern commentators have explained this passage as an evidence for the lateness of the Pentateuchal instruction regarding sacrifice or a denial that sacrifice was practiced during the period of the wilderness wandering. However, it is better explained as an example of what R. de Vaux calls a dialectical negative, i.e., “not so much this as that” or “not this without that” (Ancient Israel, 454-56). For other examples of this same argument see Isa 1:10-17; Hos 6:4-6; Amos 5:21-25.

[7:23]  ³ tn Heb “Obey me and I will be.” The translation is equivalent syntactically but brings out the emphasis in the command.

[7:23]  ⁴ tn Heb “Walk in all the way that I command you.”

[26:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “Make good your ways and your actions.” For the same expression see 7:3, 5; 18:11.

[26:13]  ⁶ tn For the idiom and translation of terms involved here see 18:8 and the translator’s note there.

[26:13]  sn The Lord is being consistent in the application of the principle laid down in Jer 18:7-8 that reformation of character will result in the withdrawal of the punishment of “uprooting, tearing down, destroying.” His prophecies of doom are conditional threats, open to change with change in behavior.