Yeremia 29:11-16

29:11 For I know what I have planned for you,’ says the Lord. ¹  ‘I have plans to prosper you, not to harm you. I have plans to give you ²  a future filled with hope. ³  29:12 When you call out to me and come to me in prayer, ⁴  I will hear your prayers. ⁵  29:13 When you seek me in prayer and worship, you will find me available to you. If you seek me with all your heart and soul, ⁶  29:14 I will make myself available to you,’ ⁷  says the Lord. ⁸  ‘Then I will reverse your plight ⁹  and will regather you from all the nations and all the places where I have exiled you,’ says the Lord. ¹⁰  ‘I will bring you back to the place from which I exiled you.’

29:15 “You say, ‘The Lord has raised up prophets of good news ¹¹  for us here in Babylon.’ 29:16 But just listen to what the Lord has to say about ¹²  the king who occupies David’s throne and all your fellow countrymen who are still living in this city of Jerusalem ¹³  and were not carried off into exile with you.

Yeremia 46:27-28

A Promise of Hope for Israel

46:27 ¹⁴ “You descendants of Jacob, my servants, ¹⁵  do not be afraid;

do not be terrified, people of Israel.

For I will rescue you and your descendants

from the faraway lands where you are captives. ¹⁶ 

The descendants of Jacob will return to their land and enjoy peace.

They will be secure and no one will terrify them.

46:28 I, the Lord, tell ¹⁷  you not to be afraid,

you descendants of Jacob, my servant,

for I am with you.

Though I completely destroy all the nations where I scatter you,

I will not completely destroy you.

I will indeed discipline you but only in due measure.

I will not allow you to go entirely unpunished.” ¹⁸ 

Mazmur 102:13-14

102:13 You will rise up and have compassion on Zion. ¹⁹ 

For it is time to have mercy on her,

for the appointed time has come.

102:14 Indeed, ²⁰  your servants take delight in her stones,

and feel compassion for ²¹  the dust of her ruins. ²² 

Yesaya 6:13

6:13 Even if only a tenth of the people remain in the land, it will again be destroyed, ²³  like one of the large sacred trees ²⁴  or an Asherah pole, when a sacred pillar on a high place is thrown down. ²⁵  That sacred pillar symbolizes the special chosen family.” ²⁶ 

Yesaya 11:11-16

11:11 At that time ²⁷  the sovereign master ²⁸  will again lift his hand ²⁹  to reclaim ³⁰  the remnant of his people ³¹  from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, ³²  Cush, ³³  Elam, Shinar, ³⁴  Hamath, and the seacoasts. ³⁵ 

11:12 He will lift a signal flag for the nations;

he will gather Israel’s dispersed people ³⁶ 

and assemble Judah’s scattered people

from the four corners of the earth.

11:13 Ephraim’s jealousy will end, ³⁷ 

and Judah’s hostility ³⁸  will be eliminated.

Ephraim will no longer be jealous of Judah,

and Judah will no longer be hostile toward Ephraim.

11:14 They will swoop down ³⁹  on the Philistine hills to the west; ⁴⁰ 

together they will loot the people of the east.

They will take over Edom and Moab, ⁴¹ 

and the Ammonites will be their subjects.

11:15 The Lord will divide ⁴²  the gulf ⁴³  of the Egyptian Sea; ⁴⁴ 

he will wave his hand over the Euphrates River ⁴⁵  and send a strong wind, ⁴⁶ 

he will turn it into seven dried-up streams, ⁴⁷ 

and enable them to walk across in their sandals.

11:16 There will be a highway leading out of Assyria

for the remnant of his people, ⁴⁸ 

just as there was for Israel,

when ⁴⁹  they went up from the land of Egypt.

Ratapan 3:18

3:18 So I said, “My endurance has expired;

I have lost all hope of deliverance ⁵⁰  from the Lord.”

Ratapan 3:21

3:21 But this I call ⁵¹  to mind; ⁵² 

therefore I have hope:

Ratapan 3:26

3:26 It is good to wait patiently ⁵³ 

for deliverance from the Lord. ⁵⁴ 

Yehezkiel 37:11-14

37:11 Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are all the house of Israel. Look, they are saying, ‘Our bones are dry, our hope has perished; we are cut off.’ 37:12 Therefore prophesy, and tell them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Look, I am about to open your graves and will raise you from your graves, my people. I will bring you to the land of Israel. 37:13 Then you will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and raise you from your graves, my people. 37:14 I will place my breath ⁵⁵  in you and you will live; I will give you rest in your own land. Then you will know that I am the Lord – I have spoken and I will act, declares the Lord.’”

Yehezkiel 37:25

37:25 They will live in the land I gave to my servant Jacob, in which your fathers lived; they will live in it – they and their children and their grandchildren forever. David my servant will be prince over them forever.

Yehezkiel 39:28

39:28 Then they will know that I am the Lord their God, because I sent them into exile among the nations, and then gathered them into their own land. I will not leave any of them in exile ⁵⁶  any longer.

Hosea 2:15

2:15 From there I will give back her vineyards to her,

and turn the “Valley of Trouble” ⁵⁷  into an “Opportunity ⁵⁸  for Hope.”

There she will sing as she did when she was young, ⁵⁹ 

when ⁶⁰  she came up from the land of Egypt.

Hosea 3:5

3:5 Afterward, the Israelites will turn and seek the Lord their God and their Davidic king. ⁶¹  Then they will submit to the Lord in fear and receive his blessings ⁶²  in the future. ⁶³ 

Amos 9:8-9

9:8 Look, the sovereign Lord is watching ⁶⁴  the sinful nation, ⁶⁵ 

and I will destroy it from the face of the earth.

But I will not completely destroy the family ⁶⁶  of Jacob,” says the Lord.

9:9 “For look, I am giving a command

and I will shake the family of Israel together with all the nations.

It will resemble a sieve being shaken,

when not even a pebble falls to the ground. ⁶⁷ 

Matius 24:22

24:22 And if those days had not been cut short, no one would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.

Roma 11:23-26

11:23 And even they – if they do not continue in their unbelief – will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. 11:24 For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree?

11:25 For I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, ⁶⁸  so that you may not be conceited: A partial hardening has happened to Israel ⁶⁹  until the full number ⁷⁰  of the Gentiles has come in. 11:26 And so ⁷¹  all Israel will be saved, as it is written:

“The Deliverer will come out of Zion;

he will remove ungodliness from Jacob.

[29:11]  ¹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[29:11]  ² tn Heb “I know the plans that I am planning for you, oracle of the Lord, plans of well-being and not for harm to give to you….”

[29:11]  ³ tn Or “the future you hope for”; Heb “a future and a hope.” This is a good example of hendiadys where two formally coordinated nouns (adjectives, verbs) convey a single idea where one of the terms functions as a qualifier of the other. For this figure see E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 658-72. This example is discussed on p. 661.

[29:12]  ⁴ tn Heb “come and pray to me.” This is an example of verbal hendiadys where two verb formally joined by “and” convey a main concept with the second verb functioning as an adverbial qualifier.

[29:12]  ⁵ tn Or “You will call out to me and come to me in prayer and I will hear your prayers.” The verbs are vav consecutive perfects and can be taken either as unconditional futures or as contingent futures. See GKC 337 §112.kk and 494 §159.g and compare the usage in Gen 44:22 for the use of the vav consecutive perfects in contingent futures. The conditional clause in the middle of 29:13 and the deuteronomic theology reflected in both Deut 30:1-5 and 1 Kgs 8:46-48 suggest that the verbs are continent futures here. For the same demand for wholehearted seeking in these contexts which presuppose exile see especially Deut 30:2, 1 Kgs 8:48.

[29:13]  ⁶ tn Or “If you wholeheartedly seek me”; Heb “You will seek me and find [me] because you will seek me with all your heart.” The translation attempts to reflect the theological nuances of “seeking” and “finding” and the psychological significance of “heart” which refers more to intellectual and volitional concerns in the OT than to emotional ones.

[29:14]  ⁷ tn Heb “I will let myself be found by you.” For this nuance of the verb see BDB 594 s.v. מָצָא Niph.1.f and compare the usage in Isa 65:1; 2 Chr 15:2. The Greek version already noted that nuance when it translated the phrase “I will manifest myself to you.”

[29:14]  ⁸ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[29:14]  ⁹ tn Heb “restore your fortune.” Alternately, “I will bring you back from exile.” This idiom occurs twenty-six times in the OT and in several cases it is clearly not referring to return from exile but restoration of fortunes (e.g., Job 42:10; Hos 6:11–7:1; Jer 33:11). It is often followed as here by “regather” or “bring back” (e.g., Jer 30:3; Ezek 29:14) so it is often misunderstood as “bringing back the exiles.” The versions (LXX, Vulg., Tg., Pesh.) often translate the idiom as “to go away into captivity,” deriving the noun from שְׁבִי (shÿvi, “captivity”). However, the use of this expression in Old Aramaic documents of Sefire parallels the biblical idiom: “the gods restored the fortunes of the house of my father again” (J. A. Fitzmyer, The Aramaic Inscriptions of Sefire [BibOr], 100-101, 119-20). The idiom means “to turn someone's fortune, bring about change” or “to reestablish as it was” (HALOT 1386 s.v. 3.c). In Ezek 16:53 it is paralleled by the expression “to restore the situation which prevailed earlier.” This amounts to restitutio in integrum, which is applicable to the circumstances surrounding the return of the exiles.

[29:14]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[29:15]  ¹¹ tn The words “of good news” are not in the text but are implicit from the context. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[29:16]  ¹² tn Heb “But thus says the Lord about.” The words “just listen to what” are supplied in the translation to help show the connection with the preceding.

[29:16]  sn Jeremiah answers their claims that the Lord has raised up prophets to encourage them that their stay will be short by referring to the Lord’s promise that the Lord’s plans are not for restoration but for further destruction.

[29:16]  ¹³ tn The words “of Jerusalem” are not in the text but are supplied in the translation to identify the referent and avoid the possible confusion that “this city” refers to Babylon.

[46:27]  ¹⁴ sn Jer 46:27-28 are virtually the same as 30:10-11. The verses are more closely related to that context than to this. But the presence of a note of future hope for the Egyptians may have led to a note of encouragement also to the Judeans who were under threat of judgment at the same time (cf. the study notes on 46:2, 13 and 25:1-2 for the possible relative dating of these prophecies).

[46:27]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “And/But you do not be afraid, my servant Jacob.” Here and elsewhere in the verse the terms Jacob and Israel are poetic for the people of Israel descended from the patriarch Jacob. The terms have been supplied throughout with plural referents for greater clarity.

[46:27]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “For I will rescue you from far away, your descendants from the land of their captivity.”

[46:28]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.” Again the first person is adopted because the Lord is speaking and the indirect quotation is used to avoid an embedded quotation with quotation marks on either side.

[46:28]  ¹⁸ tn The translation “entirely unpunished” is intended to reflect the emphatic construction of the infinitive absolute before the finite verb.

[102:13]  ¹⁹ tn The imperfect verbal forms are understood as expressing the psalmist’s confidence in God’s intervention. Another option is to take them as expressing the psalmist’s request or wish, “You, rise up and have compassion!”

[102:14]  ²⁰ tn Or “for.”

[102:14]  ²¹ tn The Poel of חָנַן (khanan) occurs only here and in Prov 14:21, where it refers to having compassion on the poor.

[102:14]  ²² tn Heb “her dust,” probably referring to the dust of the city’s rubble.

[6:13]  ²³ tn Or “be burned” (NRSV); NIV “laid waste.”

[6:13]  ²⁴ tn Heb “like a massive tree or like a big tree” (perhaps, “like a terebinth or like an oak”).

[6:13]  ²⁵ tn The Hebrew text has “which in the felling, a sacred pillar in them.” Some take מַצֶּבֶת (matsevet) as “stump,” and translate, “which, when chopped down, have a stump remaining in them.” But elsewhere מַצֶּבֶת refers to a memorial pillar (2 Sam 18:18) and the word resembles מַצֶּבָה (matsevah, “sacred pillar”). בָּם (bam, “in them”) may be a corruption of בָּמָה (bamah, “high place”; the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has במה). אֳשֶׁר (’asher, “which”) becomes a problem in this case, but one might emend the form to וּכְּאֲשֵׁרָה (ukÿ’asherah, “or like an Asherah pole”) and translate, “like one of the large sacred trees or an Asherah pole.” Though the text is difficult, the references to sacred trees and a sacred pillar suggest that the destruction of a high place is in view, an apt metaphor for the judgment of idolatrous Judah.

[6:13]  ²⁶ tn Heb “a holy offspring [is] its sacred pillar.” If מַצֶּבֶת (matsevet) is taken as “stump,” one can see in this statement a brief glimpse of hope. The tree (the nation) is chopped down, but the stump (a righteous remnant) remains from which God can restore the nation. However, if מַצֶּבֶת is taken as “sacred pillar” (מַצֶּבָה, matsevah; see the previous note), it is much more difficult to take the final statement in a positive sense. In this case “holy offspring” alludes to God’s ideal for his covenant people, the offspring of the patriarchs. Ironically that “holy” nation is more like a “sacred pillar” and it will be thrown down like a sacred pillar from a high place and its land destroyed like the sacred trees located at such shrines. Understood in this way, the ironic statement is entirely negative in tone, just like the rest of the preceding announcement of judgment. It also reminds the people of their failure; they did not oppose pagan religion, instead they embraced it. Now they will be destroyed in the same way they should have destroyed paganism.

[11:11]  ²⁷ tn Or “in that day” (KJV). The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

[11:11]  ²⁸ tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonai).

[11:11]  ²⁹ tc The Hebrew text reads, “the sovereign master will again, a second time, his hand.” The auxiliary verb יוֹסִיף (yosif), which literally means “add,” needs a main verb to complete it. Consequently many emend שֵׁנִית (shenit, “a second time”) to an infinitive. Some propose the form שַׁנֹּת (shannot, a Piel infinitive construct from שָׁנָה, shanah) and relate it semantically to an Arabic cognate meaning “to be high.” If the Hebrew text is retained a verb must be supplied. “Second time” would allude back to the events of the Exodus (see vv. 15-16).

[11:11]  ³⁰ tn Or “acquire”; KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV “recover.”

[11:11]  ³¹ tn Heb “the remnant of his people who remain.”

[11:11]  ³² sn Perhaps a reference to Upper (i.e., southern) Egypt (so NIV, NLT; NCV “South Egypt”).

[11:11]  ³³ tn Or “Ethiopia” (NAB, NRSV, NLT).

[11:11]  ³⁴ tn Or “Babylonia” (NIV, NCV, TEV, NLT).

[11:11]  ³⁵ tn Or perhaps, “the islands of the sea.”

[11:12]  ³⁶ tn Or “the banished of Israel,” i.e., the exiles.

[11:13]  ³⁷ tn Heb “turn aside”; KJV, NASB, NRSV “depart.”

[11:13]  ³⁸ tn Heb “hostile ones of Judah.” Elsewhere when the substantival participle of צָרָר (tsarar) takes a pronominal suffix or appears in a construct relationship, the following genitive is objective. (For a list of texts see BDB 865 s.v. III צָרַר) In this case the phrase “hostile ones of Judah” means “those who are hostile toward Judah,” i.e., Judah’s enemies. However, the parallel couplet that follows suggests that Judah’s hostility toward Ephraim is in view. In this case “hostile ones of Judah” means “hostile ones from Judah.” The translation above assumes the latter, giving the immediate context priority over general usage.

[11:14]  ³⁹ tn Heb “fly.” Ephraim/Judah are compared to a bird of prey.

[11:14]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “on the shoulder of Philistia toward the sea.” This refers to the slopes of the hill country west of Judah. See HALOT 506 s.v. כָּתֵף.

[11:14]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “Edom and Moab [will be the place of] the outstretching of their hand,” i.e., included in their area of jurisdiction (see HALOT 648 s.v. ח(וֹ)מִשְׁלֹ).

[11:15]  ⁴² tn The verb is usually understood as “put under the ban, destroy,” or emended to חָרָב (kharav, “dry up”). However, HALOT 354 s.v. II חרם proposes a homonymic root meaning “divide.”

[11:15]  ⁴³ tn Heb “tongue” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV).

[11:15]  ⁴⁴ sn That is, the Red Sea.

[11:15]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “the river”; capitalized in some English versions (e.g., ASV, NASB, NRSV) as a reference to the Euphrates River.

[11:15]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “with the [?] of his wind” [or “breath”]. The Hebrew term עַיָם (’ayam) occurs only here. Some attempt to relate the word to an Arabic root and translate, “scorching [or “hot”] wind.” This interpretation fits especially well if one reads “dry up” in the previous line. Others prefer to emend the form to עֹצֶם (’otsem, “strong”). See HALOT 817 s.v. עֲצַם.

[11:15]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “seven streams.” The Hebrew term נַחַל (nakhal, “stream”) refers to a wadi, or seasonal stream, which runs during the rainy season, but is otherwise dry. The context (see v. 15b) here favors the translation, “dried up streams.” The number seven suggests totality and completeness. Here it indicates that God’s provision for escape will be thorough and more than capable of accommodating the returning exiles.

[11:16]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “and there will be a highway for the remnant of his people who remain, from Assyria.”

[11:16]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “in the day” (so KJV).

[3:18]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “and my hope from the Lord.” The hope is for deliverance. The words, “I have lost all…” have been supplied in the translation in order to clarify the Hebrew idiom for the English reader.

[3:21]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “I cause to return.”

[3:21]  ⁵² tn Heb “to my heart.” The noun לֵבָב (levav, “heart”) has a broad range of meanings, including its use as a metonymy of association, standing for thoughts and thinking = “mind” (e.g., Deut 32:46; 1 Chr 29:18; Job 17:11; Ps 73:7; Isa 10:7; Hag 1:5, 7; 2:15, 18; Zech 7:10; 8:17).

[3:26]  ⁵³ tn Heb “waiting and silently.” The two adjectives וְיָחִיל וְדוּמָם (vÿyakhil vÿdumam, “waiting and silently”) form a hendiadys: The first functions verbally and the second functions adverbially: “to wait silently.” The adjective דוּמָם (dumam, “silently”) also functions as a metonymy of association, standing for patience or rest (HALOT 217 s.v.). This metonymical nuance is captured well in less literal English versions: “wait in patience” (TEV) and “wait patiently” (CEV, NJPS). The more literal English versions do not express the metonymy as well: “quietly wait” (KJV, NKJV, ASV), “waits silently” (NASB), “wait quietly” (RSV, NRSV, NIV).

[3:26]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “deliverance of the Lord.” In the genitive-construct, the genitive יהוה (YHWH, “the Lord”) denotes source, that is, he is the source of the deliverance: “deliverance from the Lord.”

[37:14]  ⁵⁵ tn Or “spirit.” This is likely an allusion to Gen 2 and God’s breath which creates life.

[39:28]  ⁵⁶ tn Heb “there,” referring to the foreign nations to which they were exiled. The translation makes the referent clear.

[2:15]  ⁵⁷ tn Heb “Valley of Achor,” so named because of the unfortunate incident recorded in Josh 7:1-26 (the name is explained in v. 26; the Hebrew term Achor means “disaster” or “trouble”). Cf. TEV, CEV “Trouble Valley.”

[2:15]  ⁵⁸ tn Heb “door” or “doorway”; cf. NLT “gateway.” Unlike the days of Joshua, when Achan’s sin jeopardized Israel’s mission and cast a dark shadow over the nation, Israel’s future return to the land will be marked by renewed hope.

[2:15]  ⁵⁹ tn Heb “as in the days of her youth” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).

[2:15]  ⁶⁰ tn Heb “as in the day when” (so KJV, NASB).

[3:5]  ⁶¹ tn Heb “David their king”; cf. NCV “the king from David’s family”; TEV “a descendant of David their king”; NLT “David’s descendant, their king.”

[3:5]  sn It is not clear whether Hosea was predicting a restoration of Davidic kingship over Israel and Judah (e.g., Jer 17:25; 22:2) or referring to the ultimate Davidic king, namely, the Messiah, who will fulfill the conditions of the Davidic covenant and inaugurate/fulfill the blessings of the Davidic covenant for Israel. The Messiah is frequently pictured as the “New David” because he would fulfill the ideals of the Davidic covenant and be everything that David and his descendants were commissioned to be (e.g., Isa 9:7[6]; 16:5; Jer 23:5-6; 30:9; 33:15-16; Ezek 34:23-24; 37:24-25).

[3:5]  ⁶² tn Heb “his goodness”; NLT “his good gifts.”

[3:5]  ⁶³ tn Heb “in the end of the days.” Cf. NAB, NASB, NIV, NCV, NLT “in the last days.”

[9:8]  ⁶⁴ tn Heb “the eyes of the sovereign Lord are on.”

[9:8]  ⁶⁵ tn Or “kingdom.”

[9:8]  ⁶⁶ tn Heb “house” (also in the following verse).

[9:9]  ⁶⁷ tn Heb “like being shaken with a sieve, and a pebble does not fall to the ground.” The meaning of the Hebrew word צְרוֹר (tsÿror), translated “pebble,” is unclear here. In 2 Sam 17:13 it appears to refer to a stone. If it means “pebble,” then the sieve described in v. 6 allows the grain to fall into a basket while retaining the debris and pebbles. However, if one interprets צְרוֹר as a “kernel of grain” (cf. NASB, NIV, NKJV, NLT) then the sieve is constructed to retain the grain and allow the refuse and pebbles to fall to the ground. In either case, the simile supports the last statement in v. 8 by making it clear that God will distinguish between the righteous (the grain) and the wicked (the pebbles) when he judges, and will thereby preserve a remnant in Israel. Only the sinners will be destroyed (v. 10).

[11:25]  ⁶⁸ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:13.

[11:25]  ⁶⁹ tn Or “Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in.”

[11:25]  ⁷⁰ tn Grk “fullness.”

[11:26]  ⁷¹ tn It is not clear whether the phrase καὶ οὕτως (kai Joutws, “and so”) is to be understood in a modal sense (“and in this way”) or in a temporal sense (“and in the end”). Neither interpretation is conclusive from a grammatical standpoint, and in fact the two may not be mutually exclusive. Some, like H. Hübner, who argue strongly against the temporal reading, nevertheless continue to give the phrase a temporal significance, saying that God will save all Israel in the end (Gottes Ich und Israel [FRLANT], 118).