Mazmur 55:20

55:20 He ¹  attacks ²  his friends; ³ 

he breaks his solemn promises to them. ⁴ 

Yesaya 24:5

24:5 The earth is defiled by ⁵  its inhabitants, ⁶ 

for they have violated laws,

disregarded the regulation, ⁷ 

and broken the permanent treaty. ⁸ 

Yesaya 33:8

33:8 Highways are empty, ⁹ 

there are no travelers. ¹⁰ 

Treaties are broken, ¹¹ 

witnesses are despised, ¹² 

human life is treated with disrespect. ¹³ 

Yeremia 11:10

11:10 They have gone back to the evil ways ¹⁴  of their ancestors of old who refused to obey what I told them. They, too, have paid allegiance to ¹⁵  other gods and worshiped them. Both the nation of Israel and the nation of Judah ¹⁶  have violated the covenant I made with their ancestors.

Yeremia 31:32

31:32 It will not be like the old ¹⁷  covenant that I made with their ancestors ¹⁸  when I delivered them ¹⁹  from Egypt. For they violated that covenant, even though I was like a faithful husband to them,” ²⁰  says the Lord. ²¹ 

Yeremia 31:1

31:1 At that time I will be the God of all the clans of Israel ²² 

and they will be my people.

I, the Lord, affirm it!” ²³ 

Kolose 1:27

1:27 God wanted to make known to them the glorious ²⁴  riches of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Kolose 1:29

1:29 Toward this goal ²⁵  I also labor, struggling according to his power that powerfully ²⁶  works in me.

[55:20]  ¹ sn He. This must refer to the psalmist’s former friend, who was addressed previously in vv. 12-14.

[55:20]  ² tn Heb “stretches out his hand against.”

[55:20]  ³ tc The form should probably be emended to an active participle (שֹׁלְמָיו, sholÿmayv) from the verbal root שָׁלַם (shalam, “be in a covenant of peace with”). Perhaps the translation “his friends” suggests too intimate a relationship. Another option is to translate, “he attacks those who made agreements with him.”

[55:20]  ⁴ tn Heb “he violates his covenant.”

[24:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “beneath”; cf. KJV, ASV, NRSV “under”; NAB “because of.”

[24:5]  ⁶ sn Isa 26:21 suggests that the earth’s inhabitants defiled the earth by shedding the blood of their fellow human beings. See also Num 35:33-34, which assumes that bloodshed defiles a land.

[24:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “moved past [the?] regulation.”

[24:5]  ⁸ tn Or “everlasting covenant” (KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); NAB “the ancient covenant”; CEV “their agreement that was to last forever.”

[24:5]  sn For a lengthy discussion of the identity of this covenant/treaty, see R. Chisholm, “The ‘Everlasting Covenant’ and the ‘City of Chaos’: Intentional Ambiguity and Irony in Isaiah 24,” CTR 6 (1993): 237-53. In this context, where judgment comes upon both the pagan nations and God’s covenant community, the phrase “permanent treaty” is intentionally ambiguous. For the nations this treaty is the Noahic mandate of Gen 9:1-7 with its specific stipulations and central regulation (Gen 9:7). By shedding blood, the warlike nations violated this treaty, which promotes population growth and prohibits murder. For Israel, which was also guilty of bloodshed (see Isa 1:15, 21; 4:4), this “permanent treaty” would refer more specifically to the Mosaic Law and its regulations prohibiting murder (Exod 20:13; Num 35:6-34), which are an extension of the Noahic mandate.

[33:8]  ⁹ tn Or “desolate” (NAB, NASB); NIV, NRSV, NLT “deserted.”

[33:8]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the one passing by on the road ceases.”

[33:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “one breaks a treaty”; NAB “Covenants are broken.”

[33:8]  ¹² tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “he despises cities.” The term עָרִים (’arim, “cities”) is probably a corruption of an original עֵדִים (’edim, “[legal] witnesses”), a reading that is preserved in the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a. Confusion of dalet (ד) and resh (ר) is a well-attested scribal error.

[33:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “he does not regard human beings.”

[11:10]  ¹⁴ tn Or “They have repeated the evil actions of….”

[11:10]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “have walked/followed after.” See the translator’s note at 2:5 for the idiom.

[11:10]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “house of Israel and house of Judah.”

[31:32]  ¹⁷ tn The word “old” is not in the text but is implicit in the use of the word “new.” It is supplied in the translation for greater clarity.

[31:32]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “fathers.”

[31:32]  sn This refers to the Mosaic covenant which the nation entered into with God at Sinai and renewed on the plains of Moab. The primary biblical passages explicating this covenant are Exod 19–24 and the book of Deuteronomy; see as well the study note on Jer 11:2 for the form this covenant took and its relation to the warnings of the prophets. The renewed document of Deuteronomy was written down and provisions made for periodic public reading and renewal of commitment to it (Deut 31:9-13). Josiah had done this after the discovery of the book of the law (which was either Deuteronomy or a synopsis of it) early in the ministry of Jeremiah (2 Kgs 23:1-4; the date would be near 622 b.c. shortly after Jeremiah began prophesying in 627 [see the note on Jer 1:2]). But it is apparent from Jeremiah’s confrontation with Judah after that time that the commitment of the people was only superficial (cf. Jer 3:10). The prior history of the nations of Israel and Judah and Judah’s current practice had been one of persistent violation of this covenant despite repeated warnings of the prophets that God would punish them for that (see especially Jer 7, 11). Because of that, Israel had been exiled (cf., e.g., Jer 3:8), and now Judah was threatened with the same (cf., e.g., Jer 7:15). Jer 30–31 look forward to a time when both Israel and Judah will be regathered, reunited, and under a new covenant which includes the same stipulations but with a different relationship (v. 32).

[31:32]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “when I took them by the hand and led them out.”

[31:32]  ²⁰ tn Or “I was their master.” See the study note on 3:14.

[31:32]  sn The metaphor of Yahweh as husband and Israel as wife has been used already in Jer 3 and is implicit in the repeated allusions to idolatry as spiritual adultery or prostitution. The best commentary on the faithfulness of God to his “husband-like” relation is seen in the book of Hosea, especially in Hos 1-3.

[31:32]  ²¹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[31:1]  ²² sn This verse repeats v. 22 but with specific reference to all the clans of Israel, i.e., to all Israel and Judah. It functions here as a transition to the next section which will deal with the restoration of Israel (31:3-20) and Judah (31:21-25) and their reunification in the land (31:27-29) under a new covenant relation with God (31:31-37). See also the study note on 30:3 for further reference to this reunification in Jeremiah and the other prophets.

[31:1]  ²³ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[1:27]  ²⁴ tn The genitive noun τῆς δόξης (ths doxhs) is an attributive genitive and has therefore been translated as “glorious riches.”

[1:29]  ²⁵ tn The Greek phrase εἴς ὅ (eis Jo, “toward which”) implies “movement toward a goal” and has been rendered by the English phrase “Toward this goal.”

[1:29]  ²⁶ tn The prepositional phrase ἐν δυνάμει (en dunamei) seems to be functioning adverbially, related to the participle, and has therefore been translated “powerfully.”