Yehezkiel 37:21

37:21 Then tell them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Look, I am about to take the Israelites from among the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from round about and bring them to their land.

Ulangan 32:39

The Vindication of the Lord

32:39 “See now that I, indeed I, am he!” says the Lord, ¹ 

“and there is no other god besides me.

I kill and give life,

I smash and I heal,

and none can resist ²  my power.

Ulangan 32:1

Invocation of Witnesses

32:1 Listen, O heavens, and I will speak;

hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.

1 Samuel 2:6

2:6 The Lord both kills and gives life;

he brings down to the grave ³  and raises up.

Yesaya 26:19

26:19 ⁴ Your dead will come back to life;

your corpses will rise up.

Wake up and shout joyfully, you who live in the ground! ⁵ 

For you will grow like plants drenched with the morning dew, ⁶ 

and the earth will bring forth its dead spirits. ⁷ 

Yeremia 29:14

29:14 I will make myself available to you,’ ⁸  says the Lord. ⁹  ‘Then I will reverse your plight ¹⁰  and will regather you from all the nations and all the places where I have exiled you,’ says the Lord. ¹¹  ‘I will bring you back to the place from which I exiled you.’

Hosea 13:14

The Lord Will Not Relent from the Threatened Judgment

13:14 Will I deliver them from the power of Sheol? No, I will not! ¹² 

Will I redeem them from death? No, I will not!

O Death, bring on your plagues! ¹³ 

O Sheol, bring on your destruction! ¹⁴ 

My eyes will not show any compassion! ¹⁵ 

Amos 9:14-15

9:14 I will bring back my people, Israel; ¹⁶ 

they will rebuild the cities lying in rubble ¹⁷  and settle down. ¹⁸ 

They will plant vineyards and drink the wine they produce; ¹⁹ 

they will grow orchards ²⁰  and eat the fruit they produce. ²¹ 

9:15 I will plant them on their land

and they will never again be uprooted from the ²²  land I have given them,”

says the Lord your God.

Zefanya 3:20

3:20 At that time I will lead you –

at the time I gather you together. ²³ 

Be sure of this! ²⁴  I will make all the nations of the earth respect and admire you ²⁵ 

when you see me restore you,” ²⁶  says the Lord.

Zakharia 8:8

8:8 And I will bring them to settle within Jerusalem. They will be my people, and I will be their God, ²⁷  in truth and righteousness.’

[32:39]  ¹ tn Verses 39-42 appear to be a quotation of the Lord and so the introductory phrase “says the Lord” is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[32:39]  ² tn Heb “deliver from” (so NRSV, NLT).

[2:6]  ³ tn Heb “Sheol”; NAB “the nether world”; CEV “the world of the dead.”

[26:19]  ⁴ sn At this point the Lord (or prophet) gives the people an encouraging oracle.

[26:19]  ⁵ tn Heb “dust” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[26:19]  ⁶ tn Heb “for the dew of lights [is] your dew.” The pronominal suffix on “dew” is masculine singular, like the suffixes on “your dead” and “your corpses” in the first half of the verse. The statement, then, is addressed to collective Israel, the speaker in verse 18. The plural form אוֹרֹת (’orot) is probably a plural of respect or magnitude, meaning “bright light” (i.e., morning’s light). Dew is a symbol of fertility and life. Here Israel’s “dew,” as it were, will soak the dust of the ground and cause the corpses of the dead to spring up to new life, like plants sprouting up from well-watered soil.

[26:19]  ⁷ sn It is not certain whether the resurrection envisioned here is intended to be literal or figurative. A comparison with 25:8 and Dan 12:2 suggests a literal interpretation, but Ezek 37:1-14 uses resurrection as a metaphor for deliverance from exile and the restoration of the nation (see Isa 27:12-13).

[29:14]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[29:14]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[13:14]  ¹² tn The translation of the first two lines of this verse reflects the interpretation adopted. There are three interpretive options to v. 14: (1) In spite of Israel’s sins, the Lord will redeem them from the threat of death and destruction (e.g., 11:8). However, against this view, the last line of 13:14 probably means that the Lord will not show compassion to Israel. (2) The Lord announces the triumphant victory over death through resurrection (cf. KJV, ASV, NIV). However, although Paul uses the wording of Hosea 13:14 as an illustration of victory over death, the context of Hosea’s message is the imminent judgment in 723-722 b.c. (3) The first two lines of 13:14 are rhetorical questions without explicit interrogative markers, implying negative answers: “I will not rescue them!” (cf. NAB, NASB, NCV, NRSV, TEV, CEV, NLT). The next two lines in 13:14 are words of encouragement to Death and Sheol to destroy Israel. The final line announces that the Lord will not show compassion on Israel; he will not spare her.

[13:14]  ¹³ tn Heb “Where, O Death, are your plagues?” (so NIV).

[13:14]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “Where, O Sheol, is your destruction?” (NRSV similar).

[13:14]  sn The two rhetorical questions in 13:14b function as words of encouragement, inviting personified Death and Sheol to draw near like foreign invading armies to attack and kill Israel (cf. TEV, CEV, NLT).

[13:14]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Compassion will be hidden from my eyes” (NRSV similar; NASB “from my sight”).

[9:14]  ¹⁶ tn This line can also be translated “I will restore the fortunes of my people, Israel” and is a common idiom (e.g., Deut 30:3; Jer 30:3; Hos 6:11; Zeph 3:20). This rendering is followed by several modern English versions (e.g., NEB, NRSV, NJPS).

[9:14]  ¹⁷ tn Or “the ruined [or “desolate”] cities.”

[9:14]  ¹⁸ tn Or “and live [in them].”

[9:14]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “drink their wine.”

[9:14]  ²⁰ tn Or “gardens.”

[9:14]  ²¹ tn Heb “eat their fruit.”

[9:15]  ²² tn Heb “their.” The pronoun was replaced by the English definite article in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[3:20]  ²³ tn In this line the second person pronoun is masculine plural, indicating that the exiles are addressed.

[3:20]  ²⁴ tn Or “for.”

[3:20]  ²⁵ tn Heb “I will make you into a name and praise among all the peoples of the earth.” Here the word “name” carries the nuance of “good reputation.”

[3:20]  ²⁶ tn Heb “when I restore your fortunes to your eyes.” See the note on the phrase “restore them” in 2:7.

[8:8]  ²⁷ sn The affirmation They will be my people, and I will be their God speaks of covenant renewal, a restoration of the unbroken fellowship the Lord desired to have with his people but which their disloyalty had shattered. In the eschaton God and Israel will be in covenant union once again (cf. Jer 31:33).