Jeremiah 35:12-17
12 Then the Lord spoke to Jeremiah. 13The Lord God of Israel who rules over all ▼ told him, “Go and speak to the people of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem. Tell them, ▼▼ Heb “35:12 And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying, ‘Thus says Yahweh of armies the God of Israel, “Go and say…‘Will you not learn…’”’” The use of the indirect introduction has been chosen here as in 34:1–2 to try to cut down on the confusion created by embedding quotations within quotations.
‘I, the Lord, say: ▼▼ Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”
“You must learn a lesson from this ▼▼ The words “from this” are not in the text but are implicit from the context. They have been supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity.
about obeying what I say! ▼▼ Heb “Will you not learn a lesson…?” The rhetorical question here has the force of an imperative, made explicit in the translation.
14Jonadab son of Rechab ordered his descendants not to drink wine. His orders have been carried out. ▼▼ Heb “The words of Jonadab son of Rechab which he commanded his descendants not to drink wine have been carried out.” (For the construction of the accusative of subject after a passive verb illustrated here see GKC 388 #121.b.) The sentence has been broken down and made more direct to better conform to contemporary English style.
To this day his descendants have drunk no wine because they have obeyed what their ancestor commanded them. But I ▼▼ The vav (ו) plus the independent pronoun before the verb is intended to mark a sharp contrast. It is difficult, if not impossible to mark this in English other than “But I.”
have spoken to you over and over again, ▼ but you have not obeyed me! 15I sent all my servants the prophets to warn you over and over again. They said, “Every one of you, stop doing the evil things you have been doing and do what is right. ▼ Do not pay allegiance to other gods ▼ and worship them. Then you can continue to live in this land that I gave to you and your ancestors.” But you did not pay any attention or listen to me. 16Yes, ▼▼ This is an attempt to represent the particle כִּי (ki) which is probably not really intensive here (cf. BDB 472 s.v. כִּי 1.e) but is one of those causal uses of כִּי that BDB discusses on 473-74 s.v. כִּי 3.c where the cause is really the failure of the people of Judah and Jerusalem to listen/obey. I.e., the causal particle is at the beginning of the sentence so as not to interrupt the contrast drawn.
the descendants of Jonadab son of Rechab have carried out the orders that their ancestor gave them. But you people ▼▼ Heb “this people.” However, the speech is addressed to the people of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem, so the second person is retained in English. In addition to the stylistic difference that Hebrew exhibits in the rapid shift between persons (second to third and third to second, which have repeatedly been noted and documented from GKC 462 #144.p) there may be a subtle rhetorical reason for the shift here. The shift from direct address to indirect address which characterizes this verse and the next may reflect the Lord’s rejection of the people he is addressing. A similar shift takes place in Wisdom’s address to the simple minded, fools, and mockers in Prov 1:28–32 after the direct address of 1:22–27.
have not obeyed me! 17So I, the Lord, the God who rules over all, the God of Israel, say: ▼ “I will soon bring on Judah and all the citizens of Jerusalem all the disaster that I threatened to bring on them. I will do this because I spoke to them but they did not listen. I called out to them but they did not answer.”’”
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