YOU CAN UNDERSTAND THE BIBLE

1 YOU CAN UNDERSTAND THE BIBLEJEREMIAHBOB UTLEYPROFESSOR OF HERMENEUTICS( BIBLE INTERPRETATION)STUDY GUIDE COMMENTARY SERIESOLD TESTAMENT, VOL. 13 ABIBLE LESSONS INTERNATIONALMARSHALL, 2001 by BIBLE Lessons International, Marshall, Texas (Revised 2006, 2012)All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any way or by any means without thewritten permission of the Lessons InternationalP. O. Box 1289 Marshall, TX 75671-12891-800-785-1005 ISBN 978-1-892691-45-3 The primary biblical text used in this commentary is:New American Standard BIBLE (Update, 1995)Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman FoundationP. O. Box 2279La Habra, CA 90632-2279 The paragraph divisions and summary captions as well as selected phrases are New King James Version, Copyright 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, by permission. All rights New Revised Standard Version of the BIBLE , Copyright 1989 by the Division ofChristian Education of National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.

2 S. A. Used bypermission. All rights s English Version is used by permission of the copyright owner, The American BibleSociety, 1966, 1971. Used by permission. All rights New Jerusalem BIBLE , copyright 1990 by Darton, Longman & Todd, Ltd. andDoubleday, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc. Used by permission. All rights New American Standard BIBLE Update 1995 Easier to read:} Passages with Old English thee s and thou s etc. have been updated to modern English.} Words and phrases that could be misunderstood due to changes in their meaning during the past 20 yearshave been updated to current English. } Sentences beginning with And have often been retranslated for better English, in recognition ofdifferences in style between the ancient languages and modern English. The original Greek and Hebrew didnot have punctuation as is found in English, and in many cases modern English punctuation serves as asubstitute for and in the original.

3 In some other cases, and is translated by a different word such as then or but as called for by the context, when the word in the original language allows such accurate than ever:} Recent research on the oldest and best Greek manuscripts of the New Testament has been reviewed, andsome passages have been updated for even greater fidelity to the original manuscripts.} Parallel passages have been compared and reviewed.} Verbs that have a wide range of meaning have been retranslated in some passages to better account fortheir use in the still the NASB:} The NASB update is not a change-for-the-sake-of-change translation. The original NASB stands the testof time, and change has been kept to a minimum in recognition of the standard that has been set by the NewAmerican Standard BIBLE .} The NASB update continues the NASB s tradition of literal translation of the original Greek and Hebrewwithout compromise.

4 Changes in the text have been kept within the strict parameters set forth by theLockman Foundation s Fourfold Aim.} The translators and consultants who have contributed to the NASB update are conservative BIBLE scholarswho have doctorates in Biblical languages, theology, or other advanced degrees. They represent a varietyof denominational a tradition:The original NASB has earned the reputation of being the most accurate English BIBLE translation. Othertranslations in recent years have sometimes made a claim to both accuracy and ease of reading, but anyreader with an eye for detail eventually discovers that these translations are consistently inconsistent. Whilesometimes literal, they frequently resort to paraphrase of the original, often gaining little in readability andsacrificing much in terms of fidelity. Paraphrasing is not by nature a bad thing; it can and should clarify themeaning of a passage as the translators UNDERSTAND and interpret.

5 In the end, however, a paraphrase is asmuch a commentary on the BIBLE as it is a translation. The NASB update carries on the NASB tradition ofbeing a true BIBLE translation, revealing what the original manuscripts actually say not merely what thetranslator believes they mean. The Lockman FoundationTABLE OF CONTENTSB rief Explanations of the Technical Resources used in This iBrief Definitions of Hebrew Verbal Forms that Impact Exegesis .. iiiAbbreviations Used in This Commentary .. ixA Word From the Author: How Can This Commentary Help You? .. xiA Guide to Good BIBLE Reading: A Personal Search for Verifiable xiiiCommentaryIntroduction to 1 ..7 jeremiah 2 ..25 jeremiah 3 ..49 jeremiah 4 ..65 jeremiah 5 ..87 jeremiah 6 ..101 jeremiah 7 ..115 jeremiah 8 ..135 jeremiah 9 ..145 jeremiah 10 ..155 jeremiah 11 ..167 jeremiah 12 ..181 jeremiah 13.

6 189 jeremiah 14 ..201 jeremiah 15 ..211 jeremiah 16 ..229 jeremiah 17 ..235 jeremiah 18 ..245 jeremiah 19 ..257 jeremiah 20 ..263 jeremiah 21 ..269 jeremiah 22 ..275 jeremiah 23 ..285 jeremiah 24 ..305 jeremiah 25 ..309 jeremiah 26 ..319 jeremiah 27 ..325 jeremiah 28 ..331 jeremiah 29 ..335 jeremiah 30 ..345 jeremiah 31 ..359 jeremiah 32 ..375 jeremiah 33 ..385 jeremiah 34 ..395 jeremiah 35 ..401 jeremiah 36 ..405 jeremiah 37 ..413 jeremiah 38 ..417 jeremiah 39 ..423 jeremiah 40 ..427 jeremiah 41 ..431 jeremiah 42 ..435 jeremiah 43 ..441 jeremiah 44 ..445 jeremiah 45 ..451 jeremiah 46 ..453 jeremiah 47 ..463 jeremiah 48 ..467 jeremiah 49 ..481 jeremiah 50 ..499 jeremiah 51 ..513 jeremiah 52 ..531 Appendix One: Introduction to Hebrew Two: Introduction to OT Three: A Brief Historical Survey ..547 Appendix Four: Charts1. OT Time Kings and Events of the Babylonian, Persian, and Greek Dynasties.

7 5573. Kings of the divided Monarchy ..563 Appendix Five: Doctrinal Statement ..567 SPECIAL TOPICS TABLE OF CONTENTSN ames For Deity, 1:1 ..9 Old Testament Prophecy, 1 , 1 , 1 s Evangelical Biases, 1:5 ..18 God Described As Human (Anthropomorphism), 1 , 1 (hesed), 2:2 ..27 The Wilderness Experience of Exodus 1 (the Name), 2 , 2 of the Exodus, 2 , 2:7 ..33 Apostasy, 2:19 ..37 Fertility Worship of the Ancient Near East, 2 in the OT, 2:22 ..42 Molech, 2:23 ..43 Salvation, 2 Rites, 2:37 ..48 The Fatherhood of God, 3 , 3:7 ..55 Amen, 3 of the Covenant, 3:16 ..60 Judge, Judgment, and Justice ( ) in Isaiah, 4:2 ..67 Righteousness, 4:2 ..68 Fire, 4:4 ..73 Where Are the Dead?, 4:4 ..74 Horns Used By Israel, 4:5 ..77 That Day, 4:9 ..77 Salvation (OT Term), 4 , 4:19-22 ..82 Terms For God s Revelation, 5 (three Senses), 5:10-13 ..94 Peace (Shalom), 6:14 ..108 Land, Country, Earth, 6 ( Olam), 7:7.

8 118 Insights to Exodus 20:12-16 (The Ten Commandments), 7 Prayer, 7:16 ..128 Boasting, 9:24 ..152 Satan, 10:3 .. 157 Spirit in the BIBLE , 10 Healing God s Plan for Every Age?, 10:19 ..164 Hittite (Suzerian) Treaties, 11 Source Criticism (J,E,D,P), 11 in Mesopotamia and Israel and Their Significance, 11 of Israel s God, 12 Weights and Volumes (meterology), 13:12 ..193 Symbolic Numbers in Scripture, 15:9 ..216 The Lord of Hosts, 15:15-18 ..220 Believe, Trust, Faith and Faithfulness in the OT ( ), 15:18 ..221 Ransom, Redeem, 15:21 ..225 Blessing, 17 Two Books of God, 17 (Calvinism) vs. Human Freewill (Arminianism), 18:8, and the Need for a Theological Balance, 18 , 19:1 ..258 Moon Worship, 19 Things, 21 the Nazarene, 23:5 ..289 Messiah, 23:5 ..291 Biblical Attitudes Toward Alcohol and Alcoholism, 23 , 23 , 23 Predictions of the Future vs. NT Predictions, 30:3 ..347 The Trinity, 30:5.

9 353 The Name of YHWH, 33:2 ..386 The Name of the Lord, 33 , 47:5 ..465 Edom, 49:7 ..486 Son of Man, 49:18 ..491 The Red Sea, 49:21 ..492 BRIEF EXPLANATIONS OF THE TECHNICAL RESOURCESUSED IN THIS OLD TESTAMENT COMMENTARY are several excellent lexicons available for ancient and English Lexicon of the Old Testament by Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and CharlesA. Briggs. It is based on the German lexicon by William Gesenius. It is known by theabbreviation Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament by Ludwig Koehler and WalterBaumgartner, translated by M. E. J. Richardson. It is known by the abbreviation Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament by William L. Holladay and isbased on the above German new five volume theological word study entitled The New International Dictionary of OldTestament Theology and Exegesis, edited by Willem A.

10 Van Gemeren. It is known by theabbreviation there is significant lexical variety, I have shown several English translations (NASB,NKJV, NRSV, TEV, NJB) from both word-for-word and dynamic equivalent translations ( Fee & Douglas Stuart, How to Read the BIBLE For All Its Worth, pp. 28-44). grammatical identification is usually based on John Joseph Owens Analytical Key to the OldTestament in four volumes. This is cross checked with Benjamin Davidson s Analytical Hebrew andChaldee Lexicon of the Old helpful resource for grammatical and syntactical features which is used in most of the OTvolumes of You Can UNDERSTAND the BIBLE Series is The Helps for Translators Series from theUnited BIBLE Societies. They are entitled A Handbook on _____. III. TextualI am committed to the inspiration of the consonantal Hebrew text (not the Masoretic vowel pointsand comments). As in all hand-copied, ancient texts, there are some questionable passages.