77:7 I asked, 2 “Will the Lord reject me forever?
Will he never again show me his favor?
94:14 Certainly 3 the Lord does not forsake his people;
he does not abandon the nation that belongs to him. 4
103:8 The Lord is compassionate and merciful;
he is patient 5 and demonstrates great loyal love. 6
103:9 He does not always accuse,
and does not stay angry. 7
103:10 He does not deal with us as our sins deserve; 8
he does not repay us as our misdeeds deserve. 9
54:7 “For a short time I abandoned 10 you,
but with great compassion I will gather you.
54:8 In a burst 11 of anger I rejected you 12 momentarily,
but with lasting devotion I will have compassion on you,”
says your protector, 13 the Lord.
54:9 “As far as I am concerned, this is like in Noah’s time, 14
when I vowed that the waters of Noah’s flood 15 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 16 be displaced,”
says the Lord, the one who has compassion on you.
57:16 For I will not be hostile 17 forever
or perpetually angry,
for then man’s spirit would grow faint before me, 18
the life-giving breath I created.
31:37 The Lord says, “I will not reject all the descendants of Israel
because of all that they have done. 19
That could only happen if the heavens above could be measured
or the foundations of the earth below could all be explored,” 20
says the Lord. 21
7:18 There is no other God like you! 29
You 30 forgive sin
and pardon 31 the rebellion
of those who remain among your people. 32
You do not remain angry forever, 33
but delight in showing loyal love.
11:1 So I ask, God has not rejected his people, has he? Absolutely not! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. 11:2 God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew! Do you not know what the scripture says about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel? 11:3 “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars; I alone am left and they are seeking my life!” 34 11:4 But what was the divine response 35 to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand people 36 who have not bent the knee to Baal.” 37
11:5 So in the same way at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. 11:6 And if it is by grace, it is no longer by works, otherwise grace would no longer be grace.
1 tn Heb “on account of his great name.”
2 tn As in vv. 4 and 6a, the words of vv. 7-9 are understood as a quotation of what the psalmist said earlier. Therefore the words “I asked” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
3 tn Or “for.”
4 tn Or “his inheritance.”
5 tn Heb “slow to anger” (see Ps 86:15).
6 tn Heb “and great of loyal love” (see Ps 86:15).
7 tn The Hebrew verb נָטַר (natar) is usually taken to mean “to keep; to guard,” with “anger” being understood by ellipsis. The idiom “to guard anger” is then understood to mean “to remain angry” (see Lev 19:18; Jer 3:5, 12; Nah 1:2). However, it is possible that this is a homonymic root meaning “to be angry” (see HALOT 695 s.v. נטר).
8 tn Heb “not according to our sins does he do to us.”
9 tn Heb “and not according to our misdeeds does he repay us.”
10 tn Or “forsook” (NASB).
11 tn According to BDB 1009 s.v. שֶׁטֶף the noun שֶׁצֶף here is an alternate form of שֶׁטֶף (shetef, “flood”). Some relate the word to an alleged Akkadian cognate meaning “strength.”
12 tn Heb “I hid my face from you.”
13 tn Or “redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.
14 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 1QIsaa and all the ancient versions except LXX.
15 tn Heb “the waters of Noah” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).
16 tn Heb “peace” (so many English versions); NLT “of blessing.”
17 tn Or perhaps, “argue,” or “accuse” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).
18 tn Heb “for a spirit from before me would be faint.”
19 sn This answers Jeremiah’s question in 14:19.
20 tn Heb “If the heavens above could be measured or the foundations of the earth below be explored, then also I could reject all the seed of Israel for all they have done.”
21 tn Heb “Oracle of the
22 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.
23 tn Or “stop being gracious to them” or “stop blessing them with good”; Heb “turn back from them to do good to them.”
24 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.
25 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.
26 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.
27 tn Heb “The two families which the
28 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).
29 tn Heb “Who is a God like you?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “No one!”
30 tn Heb “one who.” The prayer moves from direct address (second person) in v. 18a to a descriptive (third person) style in vv. 18b-19a and then back to direct address (second person) in vv. 19b-20. Due to considerations of English style and the unfamiliarity of the modern reader with alternation of persons in Hebrew poetry, the entire section has been rendered as direct address (second person) in the translation.
31 tn Heb “pass over.”
32 tn Heb “of the remnant of his inheritance.”
33 tn Heb “he does not keep hold of his anger forever.”
34 sn A quotation from 1 Kgs 19:10, 14.
35 tn Grk “the revelation,” “the oracle.”
36 tn The Greek term here is ἀνήρ (anhr), which only exceptionally is used in a generic sense of both males and females. In this context, it appears to be a generic usage (“people”) since when Paul speaks of a remnant of faithful Israelites (“the elect,” v. 7), he is not referring to males only. It can also be argued, however, that it refers only to adult males here (“men”), perhaps as representative of all the faithful left in Israel.
37 sn A quotation from 1 Kgs 19:18.