Kejadian 50:24

50:24 Then Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die. But God will surely come to you ¹  and lead you up from this land to the land he swore on oath to give ²  to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

Keluaran 4:31

4:31 and the people believed. When they heard ³  that the Lord had attended to ⁴  the Israelites and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed down close to the ground. ⁵ 

Yeremia 29:10

29:10 “For the Lord says, ‘Only when the seventy years of Babylonian rule ⁶  are over will I again take up consideration for you. ⁷  Then I will fulfill my gracious promise to you and restore ⁸  you to your homeland. ⁹ 

Zefanya 2:7

2:7 Those who are left from the kingdom of Judah ¹⁰  will take possession of it. ¹¹ 

By the sea ¹²  they ¹³  will graze,

in the houses of Ashkelon they will lie down in the evening,

for the Lord their God will intervene for them ¹⁴  and restore their prosperity. ¹⁵ 

[50:24]  ¹ tn The verb פָּקַד (paqad) means “to visit,” i.e., to intervene for blessing or cursing; here Joseph announces that God would come to fulfill the promises by delivering them from Egypt. The statement is emphasized by the use of the infinitive absolute with the verb: “God will surely visit you.”

[50:24]  ² tn The words “to give” are supplied in the translation for clarity and for stylistic reasons.

[4:31]  ³ tc The LXX (Greek OT) has “and they rejoiced,” probably reading וַיִּשְׂמְחוּ (vayyismÿkhu) instead of what the MT reading, וַיִּשְׂמְעוּ (vayyismÿ’u, “and they heard”). To rejoice would have seemed a natural response of the people at the news, and the words sound similar in Hebrew.

[4:31]  tn The form is the preterite with the vav consecutive, “and they heard.” It clearly is a temporal clause subordinate to the following verbs that report how they bowed and worshiped. But it is also in sequence to the preceding: they believed, and then they bowed when they heard.

[4:31]  ⁴ tn Or “intervened for.” The word פָּקַד (paqad) has traditionally been translated “visited,” which is open to many interpretations. It means that God intervened in the life of the Israelites to bless them with the fulfillment of the promises. It says more than that he took notice of them, took pity on them, or remembered them. He had not yet fulfilled the promises, but he had begun to act by calling Moses and Aaron. The translation “attended to” attempts to capture that much.

[4:31]  ⁵ tn The verb וַיִּשְׁתַּחֲוּוּ (vayyishtakhavu) is usually rendered “worshiped.” More specifically, the verbal root חָוָה (khava) in the hishtaphel stem means “to cause oneself to be low to the ground.” While there is nothing wrong with giving it a general translation of “worship,” it may be better in a passage like this to take it in conjunction with the other verb (“bow”) as a verbal hendiadys, using it as an adverb to that verb. The implication is certainly that they prayed, or praised, and performed some other aspect of worship, but the text may just be describing it from their posture of worship. With this response, all the fears of Moses are swept aside – they believed and they were thankful to God.

[29:10]  ⁶ sn See the study note on Jer 25:11 for the reckoning of the seventy years.

[29:10]  ⁷ tn See the translator’s note on Jer 27:22 for this term.

[29:10]  ⁸ tn Verse 10 is all one long sentence in the Hebrew original: “According to the fullness of Babylon seventy years I will take thought of you and I will establish my gracious word to you by bringing you back to this place.” The sentence has been broken up to conform better to contemporary English style.

[29:10]  ⁹ tn Heb “this place.” The text has probably been influenced by the parallel passage in 27:22. The term appears fifteen times in Jeremiah and is invariably a reference to Jerusalem or Judah.

[29:10]  sn See Jer 27:22 for this promise.

[2:7]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the remnant of the house of Judah.”

[2:7]  ¹¹ tn Or “the coast will belong to the remnant of the house of Judah.”

[2:7]  ¹² tc Heb “on them,” but the antecedent of the masculine pronoun is unclear. It may refer back to the “pasture lands,” though that noun is feminine. It is preferable to emend the text from עֲלֵיהֶם (’alehem) to עַל־הַיָּם (’al-hayyam, “by the sea”) an emendation that assumes a misdivision and transposition of letters in the MT (cf. NEB “They shall pasture their flocks by the sea”). See J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (OTL), 192.

[2:7]  ¹³ tn The referent of the pronominal subject (“they”) is unclear. It may refer (1) to the shepherds (in which case the first verb should be translated, “pasture their sheep,” cf. NEB), or (2) to the Judahites occupying the area, who are being compared to sheep (cf. NIV, “there they will find pasture”).

[2:7]  ¹⁴ tn Or “will care for them.”

[2:7]  ¹⁵ tn Traditionally, “restore their captivity,” i.e., bring back their captives, but it is more likely the expression means “restore their fortunes” in a more general sense (cf. NEB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).