Mazmur 149:4

149:4 For the Lord takes delight in his people;

he exalts the oppressed by delivering them. ¹ 

Yeremia 32:40-41

32:40 I will make a lasting covenant ²  with them that I will never stop doing good to them. ³  I will fill their hearts and minds with respect for me so that ⁴  they will never again turn ⁵  away from me. 32:41 I will take delight in doing good to them. I will faithfully and wholeheartedly plant them ⁶  firmly in the land.’

Zefanya 3:14

3:14 Shout for joy, Daughter Zion! ⁷ 

Shout out, Israel!

Be happy and boast with all your heart, Daughter Jerusalem!

Zefanya 3:17

3:17 The Lord your God is in your midst;

he is a warrior who can deliver.

He takes great delight in you; ⁸ 

he renews you by his love; ⁹ 

he shouts for joy over you.” ¹⁰ 

[149:4]  ¹ tn Heb “he honors the oppressed [with] deliverance.”

[32:40]  ² tn Heb “an everlasting covenant.” For the rationale for the rendering “agreement” and the nature of the biblical covenants see the study note on 11:2.

[32:40]  sn For other references to the lasting (or everlasting) nature of the new covenant see Isa 55:3; 61:8; Jer 50:5; Ezek 16:60; 37:26. The new covenant appears to be similar to the ancient Near Eastern covenants of grants whereby a great king gave a loyal vassal a grant of land or dynastic dominion over a realm in perpetuity in recognition of past loyalty. The right to such was perpetual as long as the great king exercised dominion, but the actual enjoyment could be forfeited by individual members of the vassal’s dynasty. The best example of such an covenant in the OT is the Davidic covenant where the dynasty was given perpetual right to rule over Israel. Individual kings might be disciplined and their right to enjoy dominion taken away, but the dynasty still maintained the right to rule (see 2 Sam 23:5; Ps 89:26-37 and note especially 1 Kgs 11:23-39). The new covenant appears to be the renewal of God’s promise to Abraham to always be the God of his descendants and for his descendants to be his special people (Gen 17:7) something they appear to have forfeited by their disobedience (see Hos 1:9). However, under the new covenant he promises to never stop doing them good and grants them a new heart, a new spirit, the infusion of his own spirit, and the love and reverence necessary to keep from turning away from him. The new covenant is not based on their past loyalty but on his gracious forgiveness and his gifts.

[32:40]  ³ tn Or “stop being gracious to them” or “stop blessing them with good”; Heb “turn back from them to do good to them.”

[32:40]  ⁴ tn Or “I will make them want to fear and respect me so much that”; Heb “I will put the fear of me in their hearts.” However, as has been noted several times, “heart” in Hebrew is more the center of the volition (and intellect) than the center of emotions as it is in English. Both translations are intended to reflect the difference in psychology.

[32:40]  ⁵ tn The words “never again” are not in the text but are implicit from the context and are supplied not only by this translation but by a number of others.

[32:41]  ⁶ tn Heb “will plant them in the land with faithfulness with all my heart and with all my soul.” The latter expressions are, of course, anthropomorphisms (see Deut 6:5).

[3:14]  ⁷ sn This phrase is used as an epithet for the city and the nation. “Daughter” may seem extraneous in English but consciously joins the various epithets and metaphors of Israel and Jerusalem as a woman, a device used to evoke sympathy from the reader.

[3:17]  ⁸ tn Heb “he rejoices over you with joy.”

[3:17]  ⁹ tc The MT reads, “he is silent in his love,” but this makes no sense in light of the immediately preceding and following lines. Some take the Hiphil verb form as causative (see Job 11:3) rather than intransitive and translate, “he causes [you] to be silent by his love,” that is, “he soothes [you] by his love.” The present translation follows the LXX and assumes an original reading יְחַדֵּשׁ (yÿkhaddesh, “he renews”) with ellipsis of the object (“you”).

[3:17]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “he rejoices over you with a shout of joy.”