Romans 11:29

11:29 For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable.

Numbers 23:19

23:19 God is not a man, that he should lie,

nor a human being, ¹  that he should change his mind.

Has he said, and will he not do it?

Or has he spoken, and will he not make it happen? ² 

Numbers 23:1

Balaam Blesses Israel

23:1 ³ Balaam said to Balak, “Build me seven altars here, and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams.”

Numbers 15:29

15:29 You must have one law for the person who sins unintentionally, both for the native-born among the Israelites and for the resident foreigner who lives among them.

Isaiah 54:9-10

54:9 “As far as I am concerned, this is like in Noah’s time, ⁴ 

when I vowed that the waters of Noah’s flood ⁵  would never again cover the earth.

In the same way I have vowed that I will not be angry at you or shout at you.

54:10 Even if the mountains are removed

and the hills displaced,

my devotion will not be removed from you,

nor will my covenant of friendship ⁶  be displaced,”

says the Lord, the one who has compassion on you.

Isaiah 55:11

55:11 In the same way, the promise that I make

does not return to me, having accomplished nothing. ⁷ 

No, it is realized as I desire

and is fulfilled as I intend.” ⁸ 

Isaiah 65:15-16

65:15 Your names will live on in the curse formulas of my chosen ones. ⁹ 

The sovereign Lord will kill you,

but he will give his servants another name.

65:16 Whoever pronounces a blessing in the earth ¹⁰ 

will do so in the name of the faithful God; ¹¹ 

whoever makes an oath in the earth

will do so in the name of the faithful God. ¹² 

For past problems will be forgotten;

I will no longer think about them. ¹³ 

Jeremiah 33:24-26

33:24 “You have surely noticed what these people are saying, haven’t you? They are saying, ¹⁴  ‘The Lord has rejected the two families of Israel and Judah ¹⁵  that he chose.’ So they have little regard that my people will ever again be a nation. ¹⁶  33:25 But I, the Lord, make the following promise: ¹⁷  I have made a covenant governing the coming of day and night. I have established the fixed laws governing heaven and earth. 33:26 Just as surely as I have done this, so surely will I never reject the descendants of Jacob. Nor will I ever refuse to choose one of my servant David’s descendants to rule over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Indeed, ¹⁸  I will restore them ¹⁹  and show mercy to them.”

Matthew 24:35

24:35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. ²⁰ 

Matthew 24:2

24:2 And he said to them, ²¹  “Do you see all these things? I tell you the truth, ²²  not one stone will be left on another. ²³  All will be torn down!” ²⁴ 

Matthew 2:13

The Escape to Egypt

2:13 After they had gone, an ²⁵  angel of the Lord ²⁶  appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you, for Herod ²⁷  is going to look for the child to kill him.”

Hebrews 6:13-18

6:13 Now when God made his promise to Abraham, since he could swear by no one greater, he swore by himself, 6:14 saying, “Surely I will bless you greatly and multiply your descendants abundantly.” ²⁸  6:15 And so by persevering, Abraham ²⁹  inherited the promise. 6:16 For people ³⁰  swear by something greater than themselves, ³¹  and the oath serves as a confirmation to end all dispute. ³²  6:17 In the same way ³³  God wanted to demonstrate more clearly to the heirs of the promise that his purpose was unchangeable, ³⁴  and so he intervened with an oath, 6:18 so that we who have found refuge in him ³⁵  may find strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us through two unchangeable things, since it is impossible for God to lie.

[23:19]  ¹ tn Heb “son of man.”

[23:19]  ² tn The verb is the Hiphil of קוּם (qum, “to cause to rise; to make stand”). The meaning here is more of the sense of fulfilling the promises made.

[23:1]  ³ sn The first part of Balaam’s activity ends in disaster for Balak – he blesses Israel. The chapter falls into four units: the first prophecy (vv. 1-10), the relocation (vv. 11-17), the second prophecy (vv. 18-24), and a further location (vv. 25-30).

[54:9]  ⁴ tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “For [or “indeed”] the waters of Noah [is] this to me.” כִּי־מֵי (ki-me, “for the waters of”) should be emended to כְּמֵי (kÿmey, “like the days of”), which is supported by the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a and all the ancient versions except LXX.

[54:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “the waters of Noah” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).

[54:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “peace” (so many English versions); NLT “of blessing.”

[55:11]  ⁷ tn Heb “so is the word which goes out from my mouth, it does not return to empty.” “Word” refers here to divine promises, like the ones made just prior to and after this (see vv. 7b, 12-13).

[55:11]  ⁸ tn Heb “but it accomplishes what I desire, and succeeds [on the mission] which I send it.”

[65:15]  ⁹ tn Heb “you will leave your name for an oath to my chosen ones.”

[65:16]  ¹⁰ tn Or “in the land” (NIV, NCV, NRSV). The same phrase occurs again later in this verse, with the same options.

[65:16]  ¹¹ tn Heb “will pronounce a blessing by the God of truth.”

[65:16]  ¹² tn Heb “will take an oath by the God of truth.”

[65:16]  ¹³ tn Heb “for the former distresses will be forgotten, and they will be hidden from my eyes.”

[33:24]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “Have you not seen what this people have said, saying.” The question is rhetorical and expects a positive answer. The sentence has been broken in two to better conform with contemporary English style.

[33:24]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “The two families which the Lord chose, he has rejected them.” This is an example of an object prepositioned before the verb and resumed by a redundant pronoun to throw emphasis of focus on it (called casus pendens in the grammars; cf. GKC 458 §143.d). Some commentators identify the “two families” as those of David and Levi mentioned in the previous verses, and some identify them as the families of the Israelites and of David mentioned in the next verse. However, the next clause in this verse and the emphasis on the restoration and regathering of Israel and Judah in this section (cf. 33:7, 14) show that the reference is to Israel and Judah (see also 30:3, 4; 31:27, 31 and 3:18).

[33:24]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and my people [i.e., Israel and Judah] they disdain [or look down on] from being again a nation before them.” The phrase “before them” refers to their estimation, their mental view (cf. BDB s.v. פָּנֶה II.4.a[g]). Hence it means they look with disdain on the people being a nation again (cf. BDB s.v. עוֹד 1.a[b] for the usage of עוֹד [’od] here).

[33:25]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Thus says the Lord.” See the translator’s note at the beginning of v. 20 for the style adopted here. Here the promise is in v. 26 following the contrary to fact condition in v. 25. The Hebrew text of vv. 25-26 reads: “Thus says the Lord, “If I have not established my covenant with day and night [and] the laws/statutes of heaven and earth, also I could reject the seed of Jacob and David my servant from taking from his seed as rulers over the seed of Abraham…” The syntax of the original is a little awkward because it involves the verbs “establish” and “reject” governing two objects, the first governing two similar objects “my covenant” and “the regulations” and the second governing two dissimilar objects “the seed of Jacob” and “my servant David from taking [so as not to take].” The translation has sought to remove these awkward syntactical constructions and also break down the long complex original sentence in such a way as to retain its original intent, i.e., the guarantee of the continuance of the seed of Jacob and of the rule of a line of David’s descendants over them based on the fixed order of God’s creation decrees.

[33:26]  ¹⁸ tn The Hebrew particle כִּי (ki) is probably intensive here as it has been on a number of occasions in the book of Jeremiah (see BDB 472 s.v. כִּי 1.e for the category).

[33:26]  ¹⁹ tn Or “I will make them prosperous once again,” or “I will bring them back from captivity.”

[24:35]  ²⁰ sn The words that Jesus predicts here will never pass away. They are more stable and lasting than creation itself. For this kind of image, see Isa 40:8; 55:10-11.

[24:2]  ²¹ tn Grk “answering, he said to them.” The participle ἀποκριθείς (ajpokriqei") is redundant in English and has not been translated.

[24:2]  ²² tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”

[24:2]  ²³ sn With the statement not one stone will be left on another Jesus predicted the total destruction of the temple, something that did occur in a.d. 70.

[24:2]  ²⁴ tn Grk “not one stone will be left here on another which will not be thrown down.”

[2:13]  ²⁵ tn Grk “behold, an angel.” The Greek word ἰδού (idou) has not been translated because it has no exact English equivalent here, but adds interest and emphasis (BDAG 468 s.v. 1).

[2:13]  ²⁶ tn Or “the angel of the Lord.” See the note on the word “Lord” in 1:20.

[2:13]  ²⁷ sn See the note on King Herod in 2:1. Herod the Great was particularly ruthless regarding the succession to his throne.

[6:14]  ²⁸ tn Grk “in blessing I will bless you and in multiplying I will multiply you,” the Greek form of a Hebrew idiom showing intensity.

[6:15]  ²⁹ tn Grk “he”; in the translation the referent (Abraham) has been specified for clarity.

[6:16]  ³⁰ tn The plural Greek term ἄνθρωποι (anqrwpoi) is used here in a generic sense, referring to both men and women, and is thus translated “people.”

[6:16]  ³¹ tn Grk “by something greater”; the rest of the comparison (“than themselves”) is implied.

[6:16]  ³² tn Grk “the oath for confirmation is an end of all dispute.”

[6:17]  ³³ tn Grk “in which.”

[6:17]  ³⁴ tn Or “immutable” (here and in v. 18); Grk “the unchangeableness of his purpose.”

[6:18]  ³⁵ tn Grk “have taken refuge”; the basis of that refuge is implied in the preceding verse.