Yeremia 7:23

7:23 I also explicitly commanded them: ¹  “Obey me. If you do, I ²  will be your God and you will be my people. Live exactly the way I tell you ³  and things will go well with you.”

Yeremia 14:22

14:22 Do any of the worthless idols ⁴  of the nations cause rain to fall?

Do the skies themselves send showers?

Is it not you, O Lord our God, who does this? ⁵ 

So we put our hopes in you ⁶ 

because you alone do all this.”

[7:23]  ¹ 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]  ² tn Heb “Obey me and I will be.” The translation is equivalent syntactically but brings out the emphasis in the command.

[7:23]  ³ tn Heb “Walk in all the way that I command you.”

[14:22]  ⁴ tn The word הֶבֶל (hevel), often translated “vanities”, is a common pejorative epithet for idols or false gods. See already in 8:19 and 10:8.

[14:22]  ⁵ tn Heb “Is it not you, O Lord our God?” The words “who does” are supplied in the translation for English style.

[14:22]  ⁶ tn The rhetorical negatives are balanced by a rhetorical positive.