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  • From: peter_kirk AT sil.org
  • To: <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Jer 7:21-23
  • Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2000 19:32:28 -0500


I would interpret verse 21 as a clear example of irony, which is
unfortunately completely lost in the archaic English. Maybe there is
irony in the translation as given, but it would take a native speaker
of this dialect of English to detect it, or maybe the translator
failed to detect the irony. The translator of NRSV seems to have
failed here, but the translators of NIV and CEV have done a good job,
and the translator of TEV has made an attempt.

I think that your translation, NRSV and TEV all make a mistake in
translating KIY 'IM at the start of verse 23 with "but", and (in NRSV
and TEV) making this the start of a new sentence. (Your translation
has a colon, I note, but its use of a capital letter in a new
paragraph makes this seem even more important than a sentence break,
when it should be less important.) CEV is even worse, translating
"Instead".

The meaning of KIY 'IM is very often more like "except" or "unless"
(see GKC 163a-d and BDB), "limiting the prec. clause" (BDB), though
sometimes "the if being neglected... the clause is no longer a
limitation of the preceding clause but a contradiction of it." The
translation "but" forces the interpretation as a contradiction of the
previous (negated) clause, i.e. verse 22, and also into a clear
contradiction in another sense of the positive teaching of Jeremiah
concerning sacrifices e.g. 17:26, 33:18, and of the clear statements
in Leviticus, backed up throughout the rest of the Hebrew scriptures,
that YHWH indeed did command burnt offerings and sacrifices at Sinai.

So do we have to interpret this as Jeremiah contradicting the rest of
scripture? Or can we use this as evidence that the Bible contradicts
itself? No, because the meaning of KIY 'IM is not to contradict any
other clause, but in general only to limit it. It is thus quite in
order, and indeed preferable, to translate verses 21-22 as follows:
"...I did not give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices
except when I also gave them this command:...", or else (as in NIV)
"...I did not just give them commands about burnt offerings and
sacrifices, but I gave them this command:...". A more idiomatic
English version, taking up the irony in the context, might be "...If I
didn't command them this, I didn't command them anything!..."

Peter Kirk


______________________________ Reply Separator
_________________________________
Subject: Jer 7:21-23
Author: <RHutchin AT aol.com> at Internet
Date: 09/01/2000 20:44


In Jeremiah 7, we find--
21 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Put your burnt
offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh.
22 For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I
brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or
sacrifices:
23 But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be
your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have
commanded you, that it may be well unto you.

In context of the chapter, Israel seems to have reduced worship of God to the
giving of the specified offerings and sacrifices as one might pay a tax. We
might conclude that the writer, in the above verses, does not mean to argue
that God did not actually command that offerings and sacrifices be given but
that God required much more than just offerings and sacrifices. God required
obedience of which the giving of offerings and sacrifices were a consequence.

The translations differ on v 22, with some emphasizing this idea while others
do not. A literal translation of the verse seems awkward. Can someone
explain how v 22 should be translated and why?

Roger Hutchinson
RHutchin AT AOL.com

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