Exodus 6:7

6:7 I will take you to myself for a people, and I will be your God. 1  Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from your enslavement to 2  the Egyptians.

Leviticus 26:12

26:12 I will walk among you, and I will be your God and you will be my people.

Deuteronomy 4:37

4:37 Moreover, because he loved 3  your ancestors, he chose their 4  descendants who followed them and personally brought you out of Egypt with his great power

Deuteronomy 14:2

14:2 For you are a people holy 5  to the Lord your God. He 6  has chosen you to be his people, prized 7  above all others on the face of the earth.

Deuteronomy 26:18

26:18 And today the Lord has declared you to be his special people (as he already promised you) so you may keep all his commandments.

Deuteronomy 29:13

29:13 Today he will affirm that you are his people and that he is your God, 8  just as he promised you and as he swore by oath to your ancestors 9  Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

1 sn These covenant promises are being reiterated here because they are about to be fulfilled. They are addressed to the nation, not individuals, as the plural suffixes show. Yahweh was their God already, because they had been praying to him and he is acting on their behalf. When they enter into covenant with God at Sinai, then he will be the God of Israel in a new way (19:4-6; cf. Gen 17:7-8; 28:20-22; Lev 26:11-12; Jer 24:7; Ezek 11:17-20).

2 tn Heb “from under the burdens of” (so KJV, NASB); NIV “from under the yoke of.”

3 tn The concept of love here is not primarily that of emotional affection but of commitment or devotion. This verse suggests that God chose Israel to be his special people because he loved the patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob) and had promised to bless their descendants. See as well Deut 7:7-9.

4 tc The LXX, Smr, Syriac, Targum, and Vulgate read a third person masculine plural suffix for the MT’s 3rd person masculine singular, “his descendants.” Cf. Deut 10:15. Quite likely the MT should be emended in this instance.

5 tn Or “set apart.”

6 tn Heb “The Lord.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

7 tn Or “treasured.” The Hebrew term סְגֻלָּה (sÿgullah) describes Israel as God’s choice people, those whom he elected and who are most precious to him (cf. Exod 19:4-6; Deut 14:2; 26:18; 1 Chr 29:3; Ps 135:4; Eccl 2:8 Mal 3:17). See E. Carpenter, NIDOTTE 3:224.

8 tn Heb “in order to establish you today to him for a people and he will be to you for God.” Verses 10-13 are one long sentence in Hebrew. The translation divides this into two sentences for stylistic reasons.

9 tn Heb “fathers” (also in v. 25).