Jeremiah 11:4

11:4 Those are the terms that I charged your ancestors ¹  to keep ²  when I brought them out of Egypt, that place which was like an iron-smelting furnace. ³  I said at that time, ⁴  “Obey me and carry out the terms of the agreement ⁵  exactly as I commanded you. If you do, ⁶  you will be my people and I will be your God. ⁷ 

Jeremiah 11:7

11:7 For I solemnly warned your ancestors to obey me. ⁸  I warned them again and again, ⁹  ever since I delivered them out of Egypt until this very day.

Exodus 15:26

15:26 He said, “If you will diligently obey ¹⁰  the Lord your God, and do what is right ¹¹  in his sight, and pay attention ¹²  to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, then all ¹³  the diseases ¹⁴  that I brought on the Egyptians I will not bring on you, for I, the Lord, am your healer.” ¹⁵ 

Exodus 19:5-6

19:5 And now, if you will diligently listen to me ¹⁶  and keep ¹⁷  my covenant, then you will be my ¹⁸  special possession ¹⁹  out of all the nations, for all the earth is mine, 19:6 and you will be to me ²⁰  a kingdom of priests ²¹  and a holy nation.’ ²²  These are the words that you will speak to the Israelites.”

Leviticus 26:3-12

The Benefits of Obedience

26:3 “‘If you walk in my statutes and are sure to obey my commandments, ²³  26:4 I will give you your rains in their time so that ²⁴  the land will give its yield and the trees of the field will produce their fruit. ²⁵  26:5 Threshing season will extend for you until the season for harvesting grapes, ²⁶  and the season for harvesting grapes will extend until sowing season, so ²⁷  you will eat your bread until you are satisfied, ²⁸  and you will live securely in your land. 26:6 I will grant peace in the land so that ²⁹  you will lie down to sleep without anyone terrifying you. ³⁰  I will remove harmful animals ³¹  from the land, and no sword of war ³²  will pass through your land. 26:7 You will pursue your enemies and they will fall before you by the sword. ³³  26:8 Five of you will pursue a hundred, and a hundred of you will pursue ten thousand, and your enemies will fall before you by the sword. 26:9 I will turn to you, make you fruitful, multiply you, and maintain ³⁴  my covenant with you. 26:10 You will still be eating stored produce from the previous year ³⁵  and will have to clean out what is stored from the previous year to make room for new. ³⁶ 

26:11 “‘I will put my tabernacle ³⁷  in your midst and I will not abhor you. ³⁸  26:12 I will walk among you, and I will be your God and you will be my people.

Deuteronomy 5:29

5:29 If only it would really be their desire to fear me and obey ³⁹  all my commandments in the future, so that it may go well with them and their descendants forever.

Deuteronomy 5:33

5:33 Walk just as he ⁴⁰  has commanded you so that you may live, that it may go well with you, and that you may live long ⁴¹  in the land you are going to possess.

Deuteronomy 6:3

6:3 Pay attention, Israel, and be careful to do this so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in number ⁴²  – as the Lord, God of your ancestors, ⁴³  said to you, you will have a land flowing with milk and honey.

Deuteronomy 11:27

11:27 the blessing if you take to heart ⁴⁴  the commandments of the Lord your God that I am giving you today,

Deuteronomy 13:4

13:4 You must follow the Lord your God and revere only him; and you must observe his commandments, obey him, serve him, and remain loyal to him.

Deuteronomy 30:2

30:2 Then if you and your descendants ⁴⁵  turn to the Lord your God and obey him with your whole mind and being ⁴⁶  just as ⁴⁷  I am commanding you today,

Deuteronomy 30:8

30:8 You will return and obey the Lord, keeping all his commandments I am giving ⁴⁸  you today.

Deuteronomy 30:20

30:20 I also call on you ⁴⁹  to love the Lord your God, to obey him and be loyal to him, for he gives you life and enables you to live continually ⁵⁰  in the land the Lord promised to give to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

Romans 16:26

16:26 but now is disclosed, and through the prophetic scriptures has been made known to all the nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith –

Romans 16:2

16:2 so that you may welcome her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints and provide her with whatever help she may need from you, for she has been a great help to many, including me.

Colossians 1:5

1:5 Your faith and love have arisen ⁵¹  from the hope laid up ⁵²  for you in heaven, which you have heard about in the message of truth, the gospel ⁵³ 

Hebrews 5:9

5:9 And by being perfected in this way, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him,

[11:4]  ¹ tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 5, 7, 10).

[11:4]  ² tn Heb “does not listen…this covenant which I commanded your fathers.” The sentence is broken up this way in conformity with contemporary English style.

[11:4]  ³ tn Heb “out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron-smelting furnace.”

[11:4]  ⁴ tn In place of the words “I said at that time” the Hebrew text has “saying.” The sentence is again being restructured in English to avoid the long, confusing style of the Hebrew original.

[11:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “Obey me and carry them out.” The “them” refers back to the terms of the covenant which they were charged to keep according to the preceding. The referent is made specific to avoid ambiguity.

[11:4]  ⁶ tn The words, “If you do” are not in the text. They have been supplied in the translation to break up a long sentence consisting of an imperative followed by a consequential sentence.

[11:4]  ⁷ sn Obey me and carry out the terms of the agreement…and I will be your God. This refers to the Mosaic law which was instituted at Sinai and renewed on the Plains of Moab before Israel entered into the land. The words “the terms of the covenant” are explicitly used for the Ten Commandments in Exod 34:28 and for the additional legislation given in Deut 28:69; 29:8. The formulation here is reminiscent of Deut 29:9-14 (29:10-15 HT). The book of Deuteronomy is similar in its structure and function to an ancient Near Eastern treaty. In these the great king reminded his vassal of past benefits that he had given to him, charged him with obligations (the terms or stipulations of the covenant) chief among which was absolute loyalty and sole allegiance, promised him future benefits for obeying the stipulations (the blessings), and placed him under a curse for disobeying them. Any disobedience was met with stern warnings of punishment in the form of destruction and exile. Those who had witnessed the covenant were called in to confirm the continuing goodness of the great king and the disloyalty of the vassal. The vassal was then charged with a list of particular infringements of the stipulations and warned to change his actions or suffer the consequences. This is the background for Jer 11:1-9. Jeremiah is here functioning as a messenger from the Lord, Israel’s great king, and charging both the fathers and the children with breach of covenant.

[11:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “warned them…saying, ‘Obey me.’” However, it allows the long sentence to be broken up easier if the indirect quote is used.

[11:7]  ⁹ tn For the explanation for this rendering see the note on 7:13.

[15:26]  ¹⁰ tn The construction uses the infinitive absolute and the imperfect tense of שָׁמַע (shama’). The meaning of the verb is idiomatic here because it is followed by “to the voice of Yahweh your God.” When this is present, the verb is translated “obey.” The construction is in a causal clause. It reads, “If you will diligently obey.” Gesenius points out that the infinitive absolute in a conditional clause also emphasizes the importance of the condition on which the consequence depends (GKC 342-43 §113.o).

[15:26]  ¹¹ tn The word order is reversed in the text: “and the right in his eyes you do,” or, “[if] you do what is right in his eyes.” The conditional idea in the first clause is continued in this clause.

[15:26]  ¹² tn Heb “give ear.” This verb and the next are both perfect tenses with the vav (ו) consecutive; they continue the sequence of the original conditional clause.

[15:26]  ¹³ tn The substantive כָּל־ (kol, “all of”) in a negative clause can be translated “none of.”

[15:26]  ¹⁴ sn The reference is no doubt to the plagues that Yahweh has just put on them. These will not come on God’s true people. But the interesting thing about a conditional clause like this is that the opposite is also true – “if you do not obey, then I will bring these diseases.”

[15:26]  ¹⁵ tn The form is רֹפְאֶךָ (rofÿ’ekha), a participle with a pronominal suffix. The word is the predicate after the pronoun “I”: “I [am] your healer.” The suffix is an objective genitive – the Lord heals them.

[19:5]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “listen to my voice.” The construction uses the imperfect tense in the conditional clause, preceded by the infinitive absolute from the same verb. The idiom “listen to the voice of” implies obedience, not just mental awareness of sound.

[19:5]  ¹⁷ tn The verb is a perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive; it continues the idea in the protasis of the sentence: “and [if you will] keep.”

[19:5]  ¹⁸ tn The lamed preposition expresses possession here: “to me” means “my.”

[19:5]  ¹⁹ tn The noun is סְגֻלָּה (sÿgullah), which means a special possession. Israel was to be God’s special possession, but the prophets will later narrow it to the faithful remnant. All the nations belong to God, but Israel was to stand in a place of special privilege and enormous responsibility. See Deut 7:6; 14:2; 26:18; Ps 135:4; and Mal 3:17. See M. Greenburg, “Hebrew sÿgulla: Akkadian sikiltu,” JAOS 71 (1951): 172ff.

[19:6]  ²⁰ tn Or “for me” (NIV, NRSV), or, if the lamed (ל) preposition has a possessive use, “my kingdom” (so NCV).

[19:6]  ²¹ tn The construction “a kingdom of priests” means that the kingdom is made up of priests. W. C. Kaiser (“Exodus,” EBC 2:417) offers four possible renderings of the expression: 1) apposition, viz., “kings, that is, priests; 2) as a construct with a genitive of specification, “royal priesthood”; 3) as a construct with the genitive being the attribute, “priestly kingdom”; and 4) reading with an unexpressed “and” – “kings and priests.” He takes the latter view that they were to be kings and priests. (Other references are R. B. Y. Scott, “A Kingdom of Priests (Exodus xix. 6),” OTS 8 [1950]: 213-19; William L. Moran, “A Kingdom of Priests,” The Bible in Current Catholic Thought, 7-20). However, due to the parallelism of the next description which uses an adjective, this is probably a construct relationship. This kingdom of God will be composed of a priestly people. All the Israelites would be living wholly in God’s service and enjoying the right of access to him. And, as priests, they would have the duty of representing God to the nations, following what they perceived to be the duties of priests – proclaiming God’s word, interceding for people, and making provision for people to find God through atonement (see Deut 33:9,10).

[19:6]  ²² tn They are also to be “a holy nation.” They are to be a nation separate and distinct from the rest of the nations. Here is another aspect of their duty. It was one thing to be God’s special possession, but to be that they had to be priestly and holy. The duties of the covenant will specify what it would mean to be a holy nation. In short, they had to keep themselves free from everything that characterized pagan people (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 171). So it is a bilateral covenant: they received special privileges but they must provide special services by the special discipline. See also H. Kruse, “Exodus 19:5 and the Mission of Israel,” North East Asian Journal of Theology 24/25 (1980): 239-42.

[26:3]  ²³ tn Heb “and my commandments you shall keep and do them.” This appears to be a kind of verbal hendiadys, where the first verb is a modifier of the action of the second verb (see GKC 386 §120.d, although שָׁמַר [shamar, “to keep”] is not cited there; cf. Lev 20:8; 25:18, etc.).

[26:4]  ²⁴ tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here.

[26:4]  ²⁵ tn Heb “the tree of the field will give its fruit.” As a collective singular this has been translated as plural.

[26:5]  ²⁶ tn Heb “will reach for you the vintage season.”

[26:5]  ²⁷ tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here.

[26:5]  ²⁸ tn Heb “to satisfaction”; KJV, ASV, NASB “to the full.”

[26:6]  ²⁹ tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here.

[26:6]  ³⁰ tn Heb “and there will be no one who terrifies.” The words “to sleep” have been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[26:6]  ³¹ tn Heb “harmful animal,” singular, but taken here as a collective plural (so almost all English versions).

[26:6]  ³² tn Heb “no sword”; the words “of war” are supplied in the translation to indicate what the metaphor of the sword represents.

[26:7]  ³³ tn Heb “to the sword.”

[26:9]  ³⁴ tn Heb “cause to arise,” but probably used here for the Lord’s intention of confirming or maintaining the covenant commitment made at Sinai. Cf. KJV “establish”; NASB “will confirm”; NAB “carry out”; NIV “will keep.”

[26:10]  ³⁵ tn Heb “old [produce] growing old.”

[26:10]  ³⁶ tn Heb “and old from the presence of new you will bring out.”

[26:11]  ³⁷ tn LXX codexes Vaticanus and Alexandrinus have “my covenant” rather than “my tabernacle.” Cf. NAB, NASB, NRSV “my dwelling.”

[26:11]  ³⁸ tn Heb “and my soul [נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh] will not abhor you.”

[5:29]  ³⁹ tn Heb “keep” (so KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV).

[5:33]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[5:33]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “may prolong your days”; NAB “may have long life”; TEV “will continue to live.”

[6:3]  ⁴² tn Heb “may multiply greatly” (so NASB, NRSV); the words “in number” have been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[6:3]  ⁴³ tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 10, 18, 23).

[11:27]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “listen to,” that is, obey.

[30:2]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “sons” (so NASB); KJV, ASV, NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT “children.”

[30:2]  ⁴⁶ tn Or “heart and soul” (also in vv. 6, 10).

[30:2]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “according to all.”

[30:8]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “commanding”; NAB “which I now enjoin on you.”

[30:20]  ⁴⁹ tn The words “I also call on you” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. In the Hebrew text vv. 19-20 are one long sentence, which the translation divides into two.

[30:20]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “he is your life and the length of your days to live.”

[1:5]  ⁵¹ tn Col 1:3-8 form one long sentence in the Greek text and have been divided at the end of v. 4 and v. 6 and within v. 6 for clarity, in keeping with the tendency in contemporary English toward shorter sentences. Thus the phrase “Your faith and love have arisen from the hope” is literally “because of the hope.” The perfect tense “have arisen” was chosen in the English to reflect the fact that the recipients of the letter had acquired this hope at conversion in the past, but that it still remains and motivates them to trust in Christ and to love one another.

[1:5]  ⁵² tn BDAG 113 s.v. ἀπόκειμαι 2 renders ἀποκειμένην (apokeimenhn) with the expression “reserved” in this verse.

[1:5]  ⁵³ tn The term “the gospel” (τοῦ εὐαγγελίου, tou euangeliou) is in apposition to “the word of truth” (τῷ λόγῳ τῆς ἀληθείας, tw logw th" alhqeia") as indicated in the translation.