Deuteronomy 7:22

7:22 He, ¹  the God who leads you, will expel the nations little by little. You will not be allowed to destroy them all at once lest the wild animals overrun you.

Jeremiah 12:14-15

12:14 “I, the Lord, also have something to say concerning ²  the wicked nations who surround my land ³  and have attacked and plundered ⁴  the land that I gave to my people as a permanent possession. ⁵  I say: ‘I will uproot the people of those nations from their lands and I will free the people of Judah who have been taken there. ⁶  12:15 But after I have uprooted the people of those nations, I will relent ⁷  and have pity on them. I will restore the people of each of those nations to their own lands ⁸  and to their own country.

Jeremiah 18:7

18:7 There are times, Jeremiah, ⁹  when I threaten to uproot, tear down, and destroy a nation or kingdom. ¹⁰ 

Jeremiah 24:6

24:6 I will look after their welfare ¹¹  and will restore them to this land. There I will build them up and will not tear them down. I will plant them firmly in the land ¹²  and will not uproot them. ¹³ 

Jeremiah 31:28

31:28 In the past I saw to it that they were uprooted and torn down, that they were destroyed and demolished. But now I will see to it that they are built up and firmly planted. ¹⁴  I, the Lord, affirm it!” ¹⁵ 

Jeremiah 31:40

31:40 The whole valley where dead bodies and sacrificial ashes are thrown ¹⁶  and all the terraced fields ¹⁷  out to the Kidron Valley ¹⁸  on the east as far north ¹⁹  as the Horse Gate ²⁰  will be included within this city that is sacred to the Lord. ²¹  The city will never again be torn down or destroyed.”

Jeremiah 42:10

42:10 ‘If you will just stay ²²  in this land, I will build you up. I will not tear you down. I will firmly plant you. ²³  I will not uproot you. For I am filled with sorrow because of the disaster that I have brought on you.

Daniel 7:8

7:8 “As I was contemplating the horns, another horn – a small one – came up between them, and three of the former horns were torn out by the roots to make room for it. ²⁴  This horn had eyes resembling human eyes and a mouth speaking arrogant ²⁵  things.

¹ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in 7:19.

² tn Heb “Thus says the Lord concerning….” This structure has been adopted to prevent a long dangling introduction to what the Lord has to say that does not begin until the middle of the verse in Hebrew. The first person address was adopted because the speaker is still the Lord as in vv. 7-13.

³ tn Heb “my wicked neighbors.”

⁴ tn Heb “touched.” For the nuance of this verb here see BDB 619 s.v. נָגַע Qal.3 and compare the usage in 1 Chr 16:22 where it is parallel to “do harm to” and Zech 2:8 where it is parallel to “plundered.”

⁵ tn Heb “the inheritance which I caused my people Israel to inherit.” Compare 3:18.

⁶ tn Heb “I will uproot the house of Judah from their midst.”

⁷ tn For the use of the verb “turn” (שׁוּב, shuv) in this sense, see BDB s.v. שׁוּב Qal.6.g and compare the usage in Pss 90:13; 6:4; Joel 2:14. It does not simply mean “again” as several of the English versions render it.

⁸ sn The Lord is sovereign over the nations and has allotted each of them their lands. See Deut 2:5 (Edom), Deut 2:9 (Moab), Deut 2:19 (Ammon). He promised to restore not only his own people Israel to their land (Jer 32:37) but also Moab (Jer 48:47) and Ammon (Jer 49:6).

⁹ tn The word “Jeremiah” is not in the text but it is implicit from the introduction in v. 5 that he is being addressed. It is important to see how the rhetoric of this passage is structured. The words of vv. 7-10 lead up to the conclusion “So now” in v. 11 which in turns leads to the conclusion “Therefore” in v. 13. The tense of the verb in v. 12 is very important. It is a vav consecutive perfect indicating the future (cf. GKC 333 §112.p, r); their response is predictable. The words of vv. 7-10 are addressed to Jeremiah (v. 5) in fulfillment of the Lord’s promise to speak to him (v. 2) and furnish the basis for the Lord’s words of conditional threat to a people who show no promise of responding positively (vv. 11-12). Verse six then must be seen as another example of the figure of apostrophe (the turning aside from description about someone to addressing them directly; cf., e.g., Ps 6:8-9 (6:9-10 HT). Earlier examples of this figure have been seen in 6:20; 9:4; 11:13; 12:13; 15:6.

¹⁰ tn Heb “One moment I may speak about a nation or kingdom to…” So also in v. 9. The translation is structured this way to avoid an awkward English construction and to reflect the difference in disposition. The constructions are, however, the same.

¹¹ tn Heb “I will set my eyes upon them for good.” For the nuance of “good” see Jer 21:10; Amos 9:4 (in these cases the opposite of harm; see BDB 375 s.v. טוֹבָה 1).

¹² tn The words “There” and “firmly in the land” are not in the text but are implicit from the connection and the metaphor. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

¹³ sn For these terms see Jer 1:10.

¹⁴ tn Heb “Just as I watched over them to uproot and to tear down, to destroy and demolish, so I will watch over them to build and to plant.” The words here repeat those of 1:10 and 1:12.

¹⁵ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

¹⁶ sn It is generally agreed that this refers to the Hinnom Valley which was on the southwestern and southern side of the city. It was here where the people of Jerusalem had burned their children as sacrifices and where the Lord had said that there would be so many dead bodies when he punished them that they would be unable to bury all of them (cf. Jer 7:31-32). Reference here may be to those dead bodies and to the ashes of the cremated victims. This defiled place would be included within the holy city.

¹⁷ tc The translation here follows the Qere and a number of Hebrew mss in reading שְׁדֵמוֹת (shÿdemot) for the otherwise unknown word שְׁרֵמוֹת (shÿremot) exhibiting the common confusion of ר (resh) and ד (dalet). The fields of Kidron are mentioned also in 2 Kgs 23:4 as the place where Josiah burned the cult objects of Baal.

¹⁸ sn The Kidron Valley is the valley that joins the Hinnom Valley in the southeastern corner of the city and runs northward on the east side of the city.

¹⁹ tn The words “on the east” and “north” are not in the text but are supplied in the translation to give orientation.

²⁰ sn The Horse Gate is mentioned in Neh 3:28 and is generally considered to have been located midway along the eastern wall just south of the temple area.

²¹ tn The words “will be included within this city that is” are not in the text. The text merely says that “The whole valley…will be sacred to the Lord.” These words have been supplied in the translation because they are really implicit in the description of the whole area as being included within the new city plan, not just the Hinnom and terraced fields as far as the Kidron Valley.

²² tn The word “just” is intended to reflect the infinitive absolute before the finite verb emphasizing here the condition rather than the verb root (see Joüon 2:423 §123.g, and compare the usage in Exod 15:26). The form looks like the infinitive absolute of the verb שׁוּב (shuv), but all the versions interpret it as though it is from יָשַׁב (yashav) which is the root of the verb that follows it. Either this is a textual error of the loss of a י (yod) or this is one of the cases that GKC 69 §19.i list as the possible loss of a weak consonant at the beginning of a word.

²³ tn Or “I will firmly plant you in the land,” or “I will establish you.” This is part of the metaphor that has been used of God (re)establishing Israel in the land. See 24:6; 31:28; 32:41.

²⁴ tn Aram “were uprooted from before it.”

²⁵ tn Aram “great.” So also in vv. 11, 20.