Jeremiah 5:2-4

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Jeremiah 5:2 tn Heb “Though they say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives.’” The idea of “swear on oath” comes from the second line.
2. Jeremiah 5:2 tc The translation follows many Hebrew mss and the Syriac version in reading “surely” (אָכֵן, ʾakhen) instead of “therefore” (לָכֵן, lakhen) in the MT. tn Heb “Surely.”
3. Jeremiah 5:2 tn Heb “they swear falsely.”
4. Jeremiah 5:3 tn Heb “O Lord, are your eyes not to faithfulness?” The question is rhetorical and expects a positive answer.
5. Jeremiah 5:3 tn Commentaries and lexicons debate the meaning of the verb here. The MT is pointed as though from a verb meaning “to writhe in anguish or contrition” (חוּל [khul]; see, e.g., BDB 297 s.v. חוּל 2.c), but some commentaries and lexicons repoint the text as though from a verb meaning “to be sick,” thus “to feel pain” (חָלָה [khalah]; see, e.g., HALOT 304 s.v. חָלָה 3). The former appears more appropriate to the context.
6. Jeremiah 5:3 tn Heb “They made their faces as hard as a rock.”
7. Jeremiah 5:3 tn Or “to repent”; Heb “to turn back.”
8. Jeremiah 5:4 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.
9. Jeremiah 5:4 tn Heb “the way of the Lord.”
10. Jeremiah 5:4 tn Heb “the judgment [or ordinance] of their God.”