Add parallel Print Page Options

29 Why do you try to refute me?[a]
All of you have rebelled against me,”
says the Lord.
30 “It did no good for me to punish your people.
They did not respond to such correction.
You slaughtered your prophets
like a voracious lion.[b]
31 You people of this generation,
listen to the Lord’s message:
“Have I been like a wilderness to you, Israel?
Have I been like a dark and dangerous land to you?[c]
Why then do you[d] say, ‘We are free to wander.[e]
We will not come to you anymore?’

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 2:29 sn This is still part of the Lord’s case against Israel. See 2:9 for the use of the same Hebrew verb. The Lord here denies their counterclaims that they do not deserve to be punished.
  2. Jeremiah 2:30 tn Heb “Your sword devoured your prophets like a destroying lion.” However, the reference to the sword in this and many similar idioms is merely idiomatic for death by violent means.
  3. Jeremiah 2:31 tn Heb “a land of the darkness of Yah [= thick or deep darkness].” The idea of danger is an added connotation in this context.
  4. Jeremiah 2:31 tn Heb “my people.”
  5. Jeremiah 2:31 tn Or more freely, “free to do as we please.” The meaning of this verb (רוּד, rud) is debated in the few passages where it occurs. The key to its meaning may rest in the emended text (reading וְרַדְתִּי [veradti] for וְיָרַדְתִּי [veyaradti]) in Judg 11:37, where it refers to the roaming of Jephthah’s daughter on the mountains of Israel.