Yeremia 5:4

5:4 I thought, “Surely it is only the ignorant poor who act this way. ¹ 

They act like fools because they do not know what the Lord demands. ² 

They do not know what their God requires of them. ³ 

Ulangan 32:6

32:6 Is this how you repay ⁴  the Lord,

you foolish, unwise people?

Is he not your father, your creator?

He has made you and established you.

Yeremia 4:22

4:22 The Lord answered, ⁵ 

“This will happen ⁶  because my people are foolish.

They do not know me.

They are like children who have no sense. ⁷ 

They have no understanding.

They are skilled at doing evil.

They do not know how to do good.”

Habakuk 2:18

2:18 What good ⁸  is an idol? Why would a craftsman make it? ⁹ 

What good is a metal image that gives misleading oracles? ¹⁰ 

Why would its creator place his trust in it ¹¹ 

and make ¹²  such mute, worthless things?

[5:4]  ¹ tn Heb “Surely they are poor.” The translation is intended to make clear the explicit contrasts and qualifications drawn in this verse and the next.

[5:4]  ² tn Heb “the way of the Lord.”

[5:4]  ³ tn Heb “the judgment [or ordinance] of their God.”

[32:6]  ⁴ tn Or “treat” (TEV).

[4:22]  ⁵ tn These words are not in the text but are supplied in the translation to show clearly the shift in speaker. Jeremiah has been speaking; now the Lord answers, giving the reason for the devastation Jeremiah foresees.

[4:22]  ⁶ tn Heb “For….” This gives the explanation for the destruction envisaged in 4:20 to which Jeremiah responds in 4:19, 21.

[4:22]  ⁷ tn Heb “They are senseless children.”

[2:18]  ⁸ tn Or “of what value.”

[2:18]  ⁹ tn Heb “so that the one who forms it fashions it?” Here כִּי (ki) is taken as resultative after the rhetorical question. For other examples of this use, see R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 73, §450.

[2:18]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “or a metal image, a teacher of lies.” The words “What good is” in the translation are supplied from the previous parallel line. “Teacher of lies” refers to the false oracles that the so-called god would deliver through a priest. See J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (OTL), 126.

[2:18]  ¹¹ tn Heb “so that the one who forms his image trusts in it?” As earlier in the verse, כִּי (ki) is resultative.

[2:18]  ¹² tn Heb “to make.”