Ezekiel 16:8

16:8 “‘Then I passed by you and watched you, noticing ¹  that you had reached the age for love. ²  I spread my cloak ³  over you and covered your nakedness. I swore a solemn oath to you and entered into a marriage covenant with you, declares the sovereign Lord, and you became mine.

Leviticus 26:42

26:42 I will remember my covenant with Jacob and also my covenant with Isaac and also my covenant with Abraham, ⁴  and I will remember the land.

Leviticus 26:45

26:45 I will remember for them the covenant with their ancestors ⁵  whom I brought out from the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations to be their God. I am the Lord.’”

Nehemiah 1:5-11

1:5 Then I said, “Please, O LORD God of heaven, great and awesome God, who keeps his loving covenant ⁶  with those who love him and obey ⁷  his commandments, 1:6 may your ear be attentive and your eyes be open to hear the prayer of your servant that I am praying to you today throughout both day and night on behalf of your servants the Israelites. I am confessing the sins of the Israelites that we have committed ⁸  against you – both I myself and my family ⁹  have sinned. 1:7 We have behaved corruptly against you, not obeying the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments that you commanded your servant Moses. 1:8 Please recall the word you commanded your servant Moses: ‘If you act unfaithfully, I will scatter you among the nations. ¹⁰  1:9 But if you repent ¹¹  and obey ¹²  my commandments and do them, then even if your dispersed people are in the most remote location, ¹³  I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen for my name to reside.’ 1:10 They are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your mighty strength and by your powerful hand. 1:11 Please, ¹⁴  O Lord, listen attentively ¹⁵  to the prayer of your servant and to the prayer of your servants who take pleasure in showing respect ¹⁶  to your name. Grant your servant success today and show compassion to me ¹⁷  in the presence of this man.”

Now ¹⁸  I was cupbearer for the king.

Psalms 105:8

105:8 He always remembers his covenantal decree,

the promise he made ¹⁹  to a thousand generations –

Psalms 106:45

106:45 He remembered his covenant with them,

and relented ²⁰  because of his great loyal love.

Jeremiah 2:2

2:2 “Go and declare in the hearing of the people of Jerusalem: ²¹  ‘This is what the Lord says: “I have fond memories of you, ²²  how devoted you were to me in your early years. ²³  I remember how you loved me like a new bride; you followed me through the wilderness, through a land that had never been planted.

Jeremiah 33:20-26

33:20 “I, Lord, make the following promise: ²⁴  ‘I have made a covenant with the day ²⁵  and with the night that they will always come at their proper times. Only if you people ²⁶  could break that covenant 33:21 could my covenant with my servant David and my covenant with the Levites ever be broken. So David will by all means always have a descendant to occupy his throne as king and the Levites will by all means always have priests who will minister before me. ²⁷  33:22 I will make the children who follow one another in the line of my servant David very numerous. I will also make the Levites who minister before me very numerous. I will make them all as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sands which are on the seashore.’” ²⁸ 

33:23 The Lord spoke still further to Jeremiah. ²⁹  33:24 “You have surely noticed what these people are saying, haven’t you? They are saying, ³⁰  ‘The Lord has rejected the two families of Israel and Judah ³¹  that he chose.’ So they have little regard that my people will ever again be a nation. ³²  33:25 But I, the Lord, make the following promise: ³³  I have made a covenant governing the coming of day and night. I have established the fixed laws governing heaven and earth. 33:26 Just as surely as I have done this, so surely will I never reject the descendants of Jacob. Nor will I ever refuse to choose one of my servant David’s descendants to rule over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Indeed, ³⁴  I will restore them ³⁵  and show mercy to them.”

Hosea 2:15

2:15 From there I will give back her vineyards to her,

and turn the “Valley of Trouble” ³⁶  into an “Opportunity ³⁷  for Hope.”

There she will sing as she did when she was young, ³⁸ 

when ³⁹  she came up from the land of Egypt.

Luke 1:72

1:72 He has done this ⁴⁰  to show mercy ⁴¹  to our ancestors, ⁴² 

and to remember his holy covenant ⁴³  –

¹ tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a participle.

² tn See similar use of this term in Ezek 23:17; Prov 7:16; Song of Songs 4:10; 7:13.

³ tn Heb “wing” or “skirt.” The gesture symbolized acquiring a woman in early Arabia (similarly, see Deut 22:30; Ruth 3:9).

⁴ tn Heb “my covenant with Abraham I will remember.” The phrase “I will remember” has not been repeated in the translation for stylistic reasons.

⁵ tn Heb “covenant of former ones.”

⁶ tn Heb “the covenant and loyal love.” The phrase is a hendiadys: the first noun retains its full nominal sense, while the second noun functions adjectivally (“loyal love” = loving). Alternately, the first might function adjectivally and the second noun function as the noun: “covenant and loyal love” = covenant fidelity (see Neh 9:32).

⁷ tn Heb “keep.” The Hebrew verb שָׁמַר (shamar, “to observe; to keep”) is often used as an idiom that means “to obey” the commandments of God (e.g., Exod 20:6; Deut 5:16; 23:24; 29:8; Judg 2:22; 1 Kgs 2:43; 11:11; Ps 119:8, 17, 34; Jer 35:18; Ezek 17:14; Amos 2:4). See BDB 1036 s.v. 3.c.

⁸ tn Heb “have sinned.” For stylistic reasons – to avoid redundancy in English – this was translated as “committed.”

⁹ tn Heb “the house of my father.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “peoples.”

¹¹ tn Heb “turn to me.”

¹² tn Heb “keep.” See the note on the word “obey” in Neh 1:5.

¹³ tn Heb “at the end of the heavens.”

¹⁴ tn The interjection אָנָּא (’anna’) is an emphatic term of entreaty: “please!” (BDB 58 s.v.; HALOT 69-70 s.v.). This term is normally reserved for pleas for mercy from God in life-and-death situations (2 Kgs 20:3 = Isa 38:3; Pss 116:4; 118:25; Jonah 1:14; 4:2) and for forgiveness of heinous sins that would result or have resulted in severe judgment from God (Exod 32:31; Dan 9:4; Neh 1:5, 11).

¹⁵ tn Heb “let your ear be attentive.”

¹⁶ tn Heb “fear.”

¹⁷ tn Heb “grant compassion.” The words “to me” are supplied in the translation for the sake of smoothness and style in English.

¹⁸ tn The vav (ו) on וַאֲנִי (va’ani, “Now, I”) introduces a disjunctive parenthetical clause that provides background information to the reader.

¹⁹ tn Heb “[the] word he commanded.” The text refers here to God’s unconditional covenantal promise to Abraham and the patriarchs, as vv. 10-12 make clear.

²⁰ tn The Niphal of נָחַם (nakham) refers here to God relenting from a punishment already underway.

²¹ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

²² tn Heb “I remember to/for you.”

²³ tn Heb “the loyal love of your youth.”

²⁴ tn Heb “Thus says the Lord.” However, the Lord is speaking so the first person introduction has again been adopted. The content of the verse shows that it is a promise to David (vv. 21-22) and the Levites based on a contrary to fact condition (v. 20). See further the translator’s note at the end of the next verse for explanation of the English structure adopted here.

²⁵ tn The word יוֹמָם (yomam) is normally an adverb meaning “daytime, by day, daily.” However, here and in v. 25 and in Jer 15:9 it means “day, daytime” (cf. BDB 401 s.v. יוֹמָם 1).

²⁶ tn Heb “you.” The pronoun is plural as in 32:36, 43; 33:10.

²⁷ tn The very complex and elliptical syntax of the original Hebrew of vv. 20-21 has been broken down to better conform with contemporary English style. The text reads somewhat literally (after the addition of a couple of phrases which have been left out by ellipsis): “Thus says the Lord, ‘If you can break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night so that there is not to be daytime and night in their proper time then also my covenant can be broken with my servant David so that there is not to him a son reigning upon his throne [and also my covenant can be broken] with the Levites [so there are not] priests who minister to me.” The two phrases in brackets are elliptical, the first serving double duty for the prepositional phrase “with the Levites” as well as “with David” and the second serving double duty with the noun “priests” which parallels “a son.” The noun “priests” is not serving here as appositional because that phrase is always “the priests, the Levites,” never “the Levites, the priests.”

²⁸ tn Heb “Just as the stars in the sky cannot be numbered or the sand on the seashore cannot be measured, so I will greatly increase [or multiply] the seed of my servant David and the Levites who minister before me.” The word “seed of” does not carry over to the “the Levites” as a noun governing two genitives because “the Levites” has the accusative marker in front of it. The sentence has been broken down in conformity with contemporary English style.

²⁹ tn Heb “And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying.” See v. 1. This is a continuation of “the second time.”

³⁰ 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.

³¹ tn Heb “The two families which the Lord chose, he has rejected them.” This is an example of an object prepositioned before the verb and resumed by a redundant pronoun to throw emphasis of focus on it (called casus pendens in the grammars; cf. GKC 458 §143.d). Some commentators identify the “two families” as those of David and Levi mentioned in the previous verses, and some identify them as the families of the Israelites and of David mentioned in the next verse. However, the next clause in this verse and the emphasis on the restoration and regathering of Israel and Judah in this section (cf. 33:7, 14) show that the reference is to Israel and Judah (see also 30:3, 4; 31:27, 31 and 3:18).

³² 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).

³³ tn Heb “Thus says the Lord.” See the translator’s note at the beginning of v. 20 for the style adopted here. Here the promise is in v. 26 following the contrary to fact condition in v. 25. The Hebrew text of vv. 25-26 reads: “Thus says the Lord, “If I have not established my covenant with day and night [and] the laws/statutes of heaven and earth, also I could reject the seed of Jacob and David my servant from taking from his seed as rulers over the seed of Abraham…” The syntax of the original is a little awkward because it involves the verbs “establish” and “reject” governing two objects, the first governing two similar objects “my covenant” and “the regulations” and the second governing two dissimilar objects “the seed of Jacob” and “my servant David from taking [so as not to take].” The translation has sought to remove these awkward syntactical constructions and also break down the long complex original sentence in such a way as to retain its original intent, i.e., the guarantee of the continuance of the seed of Jacob and of the rule of a line of David’s descendants over them based on the fixed order of God’s creation decrees.

³⁴ tn The Hebrew particle כִּי (ki) is probably intensive here as it has been on a number of occasions in the book of Jeremiah (see BDB 472 s.v. כִּי 1.e for the category).

³⁵ tn Or “I will make them prosperous once again,” or “I will bring them back from captivity.”

³⁶ tn Heb “Valley of Achor,” so named because of the unfortunate incident recorded in Josh 7:1-26 (the name is explained in v. 26; the Hebrew term Achor means “disaster” or “trouble”). Cf. TEV, CEV “Trouble Valley.”

³⁷ tn Heb “door” or “doorway”; cf. NLT “gateway.” Unlike the days of Joshua, when Achan’s sin jeopardized Israel’s mission and cast a dark shadow over the nation, Israel’s future return to the land will be marked by renewed hope.

³⁸ tn Heb “as in the days of her youth” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).

³⁹ tn Heb “as in the day when” (so KJV, NASB).

⁴⁰ tn The words “He has done this” (referring to the raising up of the horn of salvation from David’s house) are not in the Greek text, but are supplied to allow a new sentence to be started in the translation. The Greek sentence is lengthy and complex at this point, while contemporary English uses much shorter sentences.

⁴¹ sn Mercy refers to God’s loyal love (steadfast love) by which he completes his promises. See Luke 1:50.

⁴² tn Or “our forefathers”; Grk “our fathers.” This begins with the promise to Abraham (vv. 55, 73), and thus refers to many generations of ancestors.

⁴³ sn The promises of God can be summarized as being found in the one promise (the oath that he swore) to Abraham (Gen 12:1-3).