Yeremia 9:13-16

9:13 The Lord answered, “This has happened because these people have rejected my laws which I gave them. They have not obeyed me or followed those laws. ¹  9:14 Instead they have followed the stubborn inclinations of their own hearts. They have paid allegiance to ²  the gods called Baal, ³  as their fathers ⁴  taught them to do. 9:15 So then, listen to what I, the Lord God of Israel who rules over all, ⁵  say. ⁶  ‘I will make these people eat the bitter food of suffering and drink the poison water of judgment. ⁷  9:16 I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their ancestors ⁸  have known anything about. I will send people chasing after them with swords ⁹  until I have destroyed them.’” ¹⁰ 

Yeremia 16:17

16:17 For I see everything they do. Their wicked ways are not hidden from me. Their sin is not hidden away where I cannot see it. ¹¹ 

Yeremia 23:24

23:24 “Do you really think anyone can hide himself

where I cannot see him?” the Lord asks. ¹² 

“Do you not know that I am everywhere?” ¹³ 

the Lord asks. ¹⁴ 

[9:13]  ¹ tn Heb “and they have not walked in it (with “it” referring to “my law”).

[9:14]  ² tn Heb “they have gone/followed after.” See the translator’s note at 2:5 for the idiom.

[9:14]  ³ tn Heb “the Baals,” referring either to the pagan gods called “Baals” or the images of Baal (so NLT).

[9:14]  ⁴ tn Or “forefathers,” or “ancestors.” Here the referent could be the immediate parents or, by their example, more distant ancestors.

[9:15]  ⁵ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.”

[9:15]  sn See the study notes on 2:9 and 7:3.

[9:15]  ⁶ tn Heb “Therefore, thus says the Lord…” The person is shifted from third to first to better conform with English style.

[9:15]  ⁷ tn Heb “I will feed this people wormwood and make them drink poison water.” “Wormwood” and “poison water” are not to be understood literally here but are symbolic of judgment and suffering. See, e.g., BDB 542 s.v. לַעֲנָה.

[9:16]  ⁸ tn Heb “fathers.”

[9:16]  ⁹ tn Heb “I will send the sword after them.” The sword here is probably not completely literal but refers to death by violent means, including death by the sword.

[9:16]  ¹⁰ sn He will destroy them but not completely. See Jer 5:18; 30:11; 46:28.

[16:17]  ¹¹ tn Heb “For my eyes are upon all their ways. They are not hidden from before me. And their sin is not hidden away from before my eyes.”

[23:24]  ¹² tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[23:24]  ¹³ tn The words “Don’t you know” are not in the text. They are a way of conveying the idea that the question which reads literally “Do I not fill heaven and earth?” expects a positive answer. They follow the pattern used at the beginning of the previous two questions and continue that thought. The words are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[23:24]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”