Deuteronomy 6:12

6:12 be careful not to forget the Lord who brought you out of Egypt, that place of slavery. ¹ 

Deuteronomy 29:25

29:25 Then people will say, “Because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.

Deuteronomy 31:20

31:20 For after I have brought them ²  to the land I promised to their ³  ancestors – one flowing with milk and honey – and they ⁴  eat their fill ⁵  and become fat, then they ⁶  will turn to other gods and worship them; they will reject me and break my covenant.

Joshua 23:16

23:16 If you violate the covenantal laws of the Lord your God which he commanded you to keep, ⁷  and follow, worship, and bow down to other gods, ⁸  the Lord will be very angry with you and you will disappear ⁹  quickly from the good land which he gave to you.”

Joshua 23:1

Joshua Challenges Israel to be Faithful

23:1 A long time ¹⁰  passed after the Lord made Israel secure from all their enemies, ¹¹  and Joshua was very old. ¹² 

Joshua 16:1

Joseph’s Tribal Lands

16:1 The land allotted to Joseph’s descendants extended from the Jordan at Jericho ¹³  to the waters of Jericho to the east, through the desert and on up from Jericho into the hill country of Bethel. ¹⁴ 

Isaiah 24:5

24:5 The earth is defiled by ¹⁵  its inhabitants, ¹⁶ 

for they have violated laws,

disregarded the regulation, ¹⁷ 

and broken the permanent treaty. ¹⁸ 

Jeremiah 31:22

31:22 How long will you vacillate, ¹⁹ 

you who were once like an unfaithful daughter? ²⁰ 

For I, the Lord, promise ²¹  to bring about something new ²²  on the earth,

something as unique as a woman protecting a man!’” ²³ 

Ezekiel 16:59

16:59 “‘For this is what the sovereign Lord says: I will deal with you according to what you have done when you despised your oath by breaking your covenant.

¹ tn Heb “out of the house of slavery” (so NASB, NRSV).

² tn Heb “him.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “them.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

³ tn Heb “his.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “their.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

⁴ tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

⁵ tn Heb “and are satisfied.”

⁶ tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

⁷ tn Heb “when you violate the covenant of the Lord your God which he commanded you.”

⁸ tn Heb “and you walk and serve other gods and bow down to them.”

⁹ tn Or “perish.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “many days.”

¹¹ tn Heb “the Lord had given rest to Israel from their enemies all around.”

¹² tn Heb “was old, coming into the days.” This expression, referring to advancing in years, also occurs in the following verse.

¹³ map For location see Map5-B2; Map6-E1; Map7-E1; Map8-E3; Map10-A2; Map11-A1.

¹⁴ tn Heb “The lot went out to the sons of Joseph from the Jordan [at] Jericho to the waters of Jericho to the east, the desert going up from Jericho into the hill country of Bethel.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “beneath”; cf. KJV, ASV, NRSV “under”; NAB “because of.”

¹⁶ sn Isa 26:21 suggests that the earth’s inhabitants defiled the earth by shedding the blood of their fellow human beings. See also Num 35:33-34, which assumes that bloodshed defiles a land.

¹⁷ tn Heb “moved past [the?] regulation.”

¹⁸ tn Or “everlasting covenant” (KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); NAB “the ancient covenant”; CEV “their agreement that was to last forever.”

¹⁹ tn The translation “dilly-dally” is suggested by J. Bright, Jeremiah (AB), 276. The verb occurs only here in this stem (the Hitpael) and only one other time in any other stem (the Qal in Song 5:6). The dictionaries define it as “to turn this way and that” (cf., e.g., BDB 330 s.v. חָמַק Hithp.). In the context it refers to turning this way and that looking for the way back.

²⁰ sn Israel’s backsliding is forgotten and forgiven. They had once been characterized as an apostate people (3:14, 22; the word “apostate” and “unfaithful” are the same in Hebrew) and figuratively depicted as an adulterous wife (3:20). Now they are viewed as having responded to his invitation (compare 31:18-19 with 3:22-25). Hence they are no longer depicted as an unfaithful daughter but as an unsullied virgin (see the literal translation of “my dear children” in vv. 4, 21 and the study note on v. 4.)

²¹ tn Heb “For the Lord will create.” The person has been shifted to avoid the possible confusion for some readers of a third person reference to the Lord in what has otherwise been a first person address. The verb “will create” is another one of the many examples of the prophetic perfect that have been seen in the book of Jeremiah. For the significance of the verb “create” here see the study note on “bring about something new.”

²² sn Heb “create.” This word is always used with God as the subject and refers to the production of something new or unique, like the creation of the world and the first man and woman (Gen 1:1; 2:3; 1:27; 5:1) or the creation of a new heavens and a new earth in a new age (Isa 65:17), or the bringing about of new and unique circumstances (Num 16:30). Here reference is made contextually to the new exodus, that marvelous deliverance which will be so great that the old will pale in comparison (see the first note on v. 9).

²³ tn The meaning of this last line is uncertain. The translation has taken it as proverbial for something new and unique. For a fairly complete discussion of most of the options see C. Feinberg, “Jeremiah,” EBC 6:571. For the nuance of “protecting” for the verb here see BDB 686 s.v. סָבַב Po‘ 1 and compare the usage in Deut 32:10.