Exodus 32:32-33

32:32 But now, if you will forgive their sin…, ¹  but if not, wipe me out ²  from your book that you have written.” ³  32:33 The Lord said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me – that person I will wipe out of my book.

Isaiah 65:16

65:16 Whoever pronounces a blessing in the earth ⁴ 

will do so in the name of the faithful God; ⁵ 

whoever makes an oath in the earth

will do so in the name of the faithful God. ⁶ 

For past problems will be forgotten;

I will no longer think about them. ⁷ 

Hosea 1:9

1:9 Then the Lord ⁸  said: “Name him ‘Not My People’ (Lo-Ammi), because you ⁹  are not my people and I am not your ¹⁰  God.” ¹¹ 

Revelation 3:5

3:5 The one who conquers ¹²  will be dressed like them ¹³  in white clothing, ¹⁴  and I will never ¹⁵  erase ¹⁶  his name from the book of life, but ¹⁷  will declare ¹⁸  his name before my Father and before his angels.

Revelation 22:19

22:19 And if anyone takes away from the words of this book of prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life ¹⁹  and in the holy city that are described in this book.

¹ tn The apodosis is not expressed; it would be understood as “good.” It is not stated because of the intensity of the expression (the figure is aposiopesis, a sudden silence). It is also possible to take this first clause as a desire and not a conditional clause, rendering it “Oh that you would forgive!”

² tn The word “wipe” is a figure of speech indicating “remove me” (meaning he wants to die). The translation “blot” is traditional, but not very satisfactory, since it does not convey complete removal.

³ sn The book that is referred to here should not be interpreted as the NT “book of life” which is portrayed (figuratively) as a register of all the names of the saints who are redeemed and will inherit eternal life. Here it refers to the names of those who are living and serving in this life, whose names, it was imagined, were on the roster in the heavenly courts as belonging to the chosen. Moses would rather die than live if these people are not forgiven (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 356).

⁴ tn Or “in the land” (NIV, NCV, NRSV). The same phrase occurs again later in this verse, with the same options.

⁵ tn Heb “will pronounce a blessing by the God of truth.”

⁶ tn Heb “will take an oath by the God of truth.”

⁷ tn Heb “for the former distresses will be forgotten, and they will be hidden from my eyes.”

⁸ tn Heb “Then he said”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity. As in v. 6, many English versions specify the speaker here.

⁹ tn The independent personal pronoun אַתֶּם (’attem, “you”) is a plural form, referring to the people of Israel as a whole. To make this clear TEV translates this as third person: “the people of Israel are not my people” (cf. CEV, NLT).

¹⁰ tn The pronominal suffix on the preposition לָכֶם (lakhem, “your”) is a plural form, referring to the people of Israel as a whole.

¹¹ tc The MT reads לֹא־אֶהְיֶה לָכֶם (lo’-’ehyeh lakhem, “I will not be yours”). The editors of BHS suggest emending the text to לֹא־אֱלֹהֵיכֶם (lo’-’elohekhem, “I will not be your God”). The emendation creates a tighter parallel with the preceding אַתֶּם לֹא עַמִּי (’attem lo’ ’ammi, “you are not my people”). Because of a lack of external evidence, however, the reading of the MT should be retained.

¹² tn Or “who overcomes.”

¹³ tn Grk “thus.”

¹⁴ tn Or “white robes.”

¹⁵ tn The negation here is with οὐ μή (ou mh), the strongest possible form of negation in Koine Greek.

¹⁶ tn Or “will never wipe out.”

¹⁷ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.

¹⁸ tn Grk “will confess.”

¹⁹ tc The Textus Receptus, on which the KJV rests, reads “the book” of life (ἀπὸ βίβλου, apo biblou) instead of “the tree” of life. When the Dutch humanist Desiderius Erasmus translated the NT he had access to no Greek mss for the last six verses of Revelation. So he translated the Latin Vulgate back into Greek at this point. As a result he created seventeen textual variants which were not in any Greek mss. The most notorious of these is this reading. It is thus decidedly inauthentic, while “the tree” of life, found in the best and virtually all Greek mss, is clearly authentic. The confusion was most likely due to an intra-Latin switch: The form of the word for “tree” in Latin in this passage is ligno; the word for “book” is libro. The two-letter difference accounts for an accidental alteration in some Latin mss; that “book of life” as well as “tree of life” is a common expression in the Apocalypse probably accounts for why this was not noticed by Erasmus or the KJV translators. (This textual problem is not discussed in NA²⁷.)