Yeremia 15:6

15:6 I, the Lord, say: ¹  ‘You people have deserted me!

You keep turning your back on me.’ ² 

So I have unleashed my power against you ³  and have begun to destroy you. ⁴ 

I have grown tired of feeling sorry for you!” ⁵ 

Yehezkiel 7:2-9

7:2 “You, son of man – this is what the sovereign Lord says to the land of Israel: An end! The end is coming on the four corners of the land! ⁶  7:3 The end is now upon you, and I will release my anger against you; I will judge ⁷  you according to your behavior, ⁸  I will hold you accountable for ⁹  all your abominable practices. 7:4 My eye will not pity you; I will not spare ¹⁰  you. ¹¹  For I will hold you responsible for your behavior, ¹²  and you will suffer the consequences of your abominable practices. ¹³  Then you will know that I am the Lord!

7:5 “This is what the sovereign Lord says: A disaster ¹⁴  – a one-of-a-kind ¹⁵  disaster – is coming! 7:6 An end comes ¹⁶  – the end comes! ¹⁷  It has awakened against you ¹⁸  – the end is upon you! Look, it is coming! ¹⁹  7:7 Doom is coming upon you who live in the land! The time is coming, the day ²⁰  is near. There are sounds of tumult, not shouts of joy, on the mountains. ²¹  7:8 Soon now I will pour out my rage ²²  on you; I will fully vent my anger against you. I will judge you according to your behavior. I will hold you accountable for all your abominable practices. 7:9 My eye will not pity you; I will not spare ²³  you. For your behavior I will hold you accountable, ²⁴  and you will suffer the consequences of your abominable practices. Then you will know that it is I, the Lord, who is striking you. ²⁵ 

[15:6]  ¹ tn Heb “oracle of the Lord.” In the original text this phrase is found between “you have deserted me” and “you keep turning your back on me.” It is put at the beginning and converted to first person for sake of English style and clarity.

[15:6]  ² tn Heb “you are going backward.” This is the only occurrence of this adverb with this verb. It is often used with another verb meaning “turn backward” (= abandon; Heb סוּג [sug] in the Niphal). For examples see Jer 38:22; 46:5. The only other occurrence in Jeremiah has been in the unusual idiom in 7:24 where it was translated “they got worse and worse instead of better.” That is how J. Bright (Jeremiah [AB], 109) translates it here. However it is translated, it has connotations of apostasy.

[15:6]  ³ tn Heb “stretched out my hand against you.” For this idiom see notes on 6:12.

[15:6]  ⁴ tn There is a difference of opinion on how the verbs here and in the following verses are to be rendered, whether past or future. KJV, NASB, NIV for example render them as future. ASV, RSV, TEV render them as past. NJPS has past here and future in vv. 7-9. This is perhaps the best solution. The imperfect + vav consecutive here responds to the perfect in the first line. The imperfects + vav consecutives followed by perfects in vv. 7-9 and concluded by an imperfect in v. 9 pick up the perfects + vav (ו) consecutives in vv. 3-4. Verses 7-9 are further development of the theme in vv. 1-4. Verses 5-6 have been an apostrophe or a turning aside to address Jerusalem directly. For a somewhat similar alternation of the tenses see Isa 5:14-17 and consult GKC 329-30 §111.w. One could of course argue that the imperfects + vav consecutive in vv. 7-9 continue the imperfect + vav consecutive here. In this case, vv. 7-9 are not a continuation of the oracle of doom but another lament by God (cf. 14:1-6, 17-18).

[15:6]  ⁵ sn It is difficult to be sure what intertextual connections are intended by the author in his use of vocabulary. The Hebrew word translated “grown tired” is not very common. It has been used twice before. In 9:5-6b where it refers to the people being unable to repent and in 6:11 where it refers to Jeremiah being tired or unable to hold back his anger because of that inability. Now God too has worn out his patience with them (cf. Isa 7:13).

[7:2]  ⁶ tn Or “earth.” Elsewhere the expression “four corners of the earth” figuratively refers to the whole earth (Isa 11:12).

[7:3]  ⁷ tn Or “punish” (cf. BDB 1047 s.v. שָׁפַט 3.c).

[7:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “ways.”

[7:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “I will place on you.”

[7:4]  ¹⁰ tn The meaning of the Hebrew term is primarily emotional: “to pity,” which in context implies an action, as in being moved by pity in order to spare them from the horror of their punishment.

[7:4]  ¹¹ tn The pronoun “you” is not in the Hebrew text, but is implied.

[7:4]  ¹² tn “I will set your behavior on your head.”

[7:4]  ¹³ tn Heb “and your abominable practices will be among you.”

[7:5]  ¹⁴ tn The Hebrew term often refers to moral evil (see Ezek 6:10; 14:22), but in many contexts it refers to calamity or disaster, sometimes as punishment for evil behavior.

[7:5]  ¹⁵ tc So most Hebrew mss; many Hebrew mss read “disaster after disaster” (cf. NAB, NCV, NRSV, NLT).

[7:6]  ¹⁶ tn Or “has come.”

[7:6]  ¹⁷ tn Or “has come.”

[7:6]  ¹⁸ tc With different vowels the verb rendered “it has awakened” would be the noun “the end,” as in “the end is upon you.” The verb would represent a phonetic wordplay. The noun by virtue of repetition would continue to reinforce the idea of the end. Whether verb or noun, this is the only instance to occur with this preposition.

[7:6]  ¹⁹ tc For this entire verse, the LXX has only “the end is come.”

[7:6]  tn In each of the three cases of the verb translated with forms of “to come,” the form may either be a participle (“comes/is coming”) or a perfect (“has come”). Either form would indicate that the end is soon to arrive. This last form appears also to be feminine, although “end” is masculine. This shift may be looking ahead to the next verse, whose first noun (“Doom”) is feminine.

[7:7]  ²⁰ sn The day refers to the day of the Lord, a concept which, beginning in Amos 5:18-20, became a common theme in the OT prophetic books. It refers to a time when the Lord intervenes in human affairs as warrior and judge.

[7:7]  ²¹ tc The LXX reads “neither tumult nor birth pains.” The LXX varies at many points from the MT in this chapter. The context suggests that one or both of these would be present on a day of judgment, thus favoring the MT. Perhaps more significant is the absence of “the mountains” in the LXX. If the ר (resh) in הָרִים (harim, “the mountains” not “on the mountains”) were a ד (dalet), which is a common letter confusion, then it could be from the same root as the previous word, הֵד (hed), meaning “the day is near – with destruction, not joyful shouting.”

[7:8]  ²² tn The expression “to pour out rage” also occurs in Ezek 9:8; 14:19; 20:8, 13, 21; 22:31; 30:15; 36:18.

[7:9]  ²³ tn The meaning of the Hebrew term is primarily emotional: “to pity,” which in context implies an action, as in being moved by pity in order to spare them from the horror of their punishment.

[7:9]  ²⁴ tn Heb “According to your behavior I will place on you.”

[7:9]  ²⁵ tn The MT lacks “you.” It has been added for clarification.