Genesis 28:15

28:15 I am with you! ¹  I will protect you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I promised you!”

Deuteronomy 20:1

Laws Concerning War with Distant Enemies

20:1 When you go to war against your enemies and see chariotry ²  and troops ³  who outnumber you, do not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, is with you.

Psalms 27:1-2

Psalm 27 ⁴ 

By David.

27:1 The Lord delivers and vindicates me! ⁵ 

I fear no one! ⁶ 

The Lord protects my life!

I am afraid of no one! ⁷ 

27:2 When evil men attack me ⁸ 

to devour my flesh, ⁹ 

when my adversaries and enemies attack me, ¹⁰ 

they stumble and fall. ¹¹ 

Jeremiah 1:7-8

1:7 The Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am too young.’ But go ¹²  to whomever I send you and say whatever I tell you. 1:8 Do not be afraid of those to whom I send you, ¹³  for I will be with you to protect ¹⁴  you,” says the Lord.

¹ tn Heb “Look, I [am] with you.” The clause is a nominal clause; the verb to be supplied could be present (as in the translation) or future, “Look, I [will be] with you” (cf. NEB).

² tn Heb “horse and chariot.”

³ tn Heb “people.”

⁴ sn Psalm 27. The author is confident of the Lord’s protection and asks the Lord to vindicate him.

⁵ tn Heb “the Lord [is] my light and my deliverance.” “Light” is often used as a metaphor for deliverance and the life/blessings it brings. See Pss 37:6; 97:11; 112:4; Isa 49:6; 51:4; Mic 7:8. Another option is that “light” refers here to divine guidance (see Ps 43:3).

⁶ tn Heb “Whom shall I fear?” The rhetorical question anticipates the answer, “No one!”

⁷ tn Heb “Of whom shall I be afraid?” The rhetorical question anticipates the answer, “No one!”

⁸ tn Heb “draw near to me.”

⁹ sn To devour my flesh. The psalmist compares his enemies to dangerous, hungry predators (see 2 Kgs 9:36; Ezek 39:17).

¹⁰ tn Heb “my adversaries and my enemies against me.” The verb “draw near” (that is, “attack”) is understood by ellipsis; see the previous line.

¹¹ tn The Hebrew verbal forms are perfects. The translation assumes the psalmist is generalizing here, but another option is to take this as a report of past experience, “when evil men attacked me…they stumbled and fell.”

¹² tn Or “For you must go and say.” The Hebrew particle כִּי (ki) is likely adversative here after a negative statement (cf. BDB 474 s.v. כִּי 3.e). The Lord is probably not giving a rationale for the denial of Jeremiah’s objection but redirecting his focus, i.e., “do not say…but go…and say.”

¹³ tn Heb “be afraid of them.” The antecedent is the “whomever” in v. 7.

¹⁴ tn Heb “rescue.”