Isaiah 12:1

12:1 At that time ¹  you will say:

“I praise you, O Lord,

for even though you were angry with me,

your anger subsided, and you consoled me.

Isaiah 55:11

55:11 In the same way, the promise that I make

does not return to me, having accomplished nothing. ² 

No, it is realized as I desire

and is fulfilled as I intend.” ³ 

Genesis 8:21

8:21 And the Lord smelled the soothing aroma ⁴  and said ⁵  to himself, ⁶  “I will never again curse ⁷  the ground because of humankind, even though ⁸  the inclination of their minds ⁹  is evil from childhood on. ¹⁰  I will never again destroy everything that lives, as I have just done.

Genesis 9:11-16

9:11 I confirm ¹¹  my covenant with you: Never again will all living things ¹²  be wiped out ¹³  by the waters of a flood; ¹⁴  never again will a flood destroy the earth.”

9:12 And God said, “This is the guarantee ¹⁵  of the covenant I am making ¹⁶  with you ¹⁷  and every living creature with you, a covenant ¹⁸  for all subsequent ¹⁹  generations: 9:13 I will place ²⁰  my rainbow ²¹  in the clouds, and it will become ²²  a guarantee of the covenant between me and the earth. 9:14 Whenever ²³  I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 9:15 then I will remember my covenant with you ²⁴  and with all living creatures of all kinds. ²⁵  Never again will the waters become a flood and destroy ²⁶  all living things. ²⁷  9:16 When the rainbow is in the clouds, I will notice it and remember ²⁸  the perpetual covenant between God and all living creatures of all kinds that are on the earth.”

Psalms 104:9

104:9 You set up a boundary for them that they could not cross,

so that they would not cover the earth again. ²⁹ 

Jeremiah 31:35-36

The Lord Guarantees Israel’s Continuance

31:35 The Lord has made a promise to Israel.

He promises it as the one who fixed the sun to give light by day

and the moon and stars to give light by night.

He promises it as the one who stirs up the sea so that its waves roll.

He promises it as the one who is known as the Lord who rules over all. ³⁰ 

31:36 The Lord affirms, ³¹  “The descendants of Israel will not

cease forever to be a nation in my sight.

That could only happen if the fixed ordering of the heavenly lights

were to cease to operate before me.” ³² 

Jeremiah 33:20-26

33:20 “I, Lord, make the following promise: ³³  ‘I have made a covenant with the day ³⁴  and with the night that they will always come at their proper times. Only if you people ³⁵  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. ³⁶  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.’” ³⁷ 

33:23 The Lord spoke still further to Jeremiah. ³⁸  33:24 “You have surely noticed what these people are saying, haven’t you? They are saying, ³⁹  ‘The Lord has rejected the two families of Israel and Judah ⁴⁰  that he chose.’ So they have little regard that my people will ever again be a nation. ⁴¹  33:25 But I, the Lord, make the following promise: ⁴²  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, ⁴³  I will restore them ⁴⁴  and show mercy to them.”

Ezekiel 39:20

39:20 You will fill up at my table with horses and charioteers, ⁴⁵  with warriors and all the soldiers,’ declares the sovereign Lord.

Hebrews 6:16-18

6:16 For people ⁴⁶  swear by something greater than themselves, ⁴⁷  and the oath serves as a confirmation to end all dispute. ⁴⁸  6:17 In the same way ⁴⁹  God wanted to demonstrate more clearly to the heirs of the promise that his purpose was unchangeable, ⁵⁰  and so he intervened with an oath, 6:18 so that we who have found refuge in him ⁵¹  may find strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us through two unchangeable things, since it is impossible for God to lie.

¹ tn Or “in that day” (KJV).

² tn Heb “so is the word which goes out from my mouth, it does not return to empty.” “Word” refers here to divine promises, like the ones made just prior to and after this (see vv. 7b, 12-13).

³ tn Heb “but it accomplishes what I desire, and succeeds [on the mission] which I send it.”

⁴ tn The Lord “smelled” (וַיָּרַח, vayyarakh) a “soothing smell” (רֵיחַ הַנִּיהֹחַ, reakh hannihoakh). The object forms a cognate accusative with the verb. The language is anthropomorphic. The offering had a sweet aroma that pleased or soothed. The expression in Lev 1 signifies that God accepts the offering with pleasure, and in accepting the offering he accepts the worshiper.

⁵ tn Heb “and the Lord said.”

⁶ tn Heb “in his heart.”

⁷ tn Here the Hebrew word translated “curse” is קָלָל (qalal), used in the Piel verbal stem.

⁸ tn The Hebrew particle כִּי (ki) can be used in a concessive sense (see BDB 473 s.v. כִּי), which makes good sense in this context. Its normal causal sense (“for”) does not fit the context here very well.

⁹ tn Heb “the inclination of the heart of humankind.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “from his youth.”

¹¹ tn The verb וַהֲקִמֹתִי (vahaqimoti) is a perfect with the vav (ו) consecutive and should be translated with the English present tense, just as the participle at the beginning of the speech was (v. 9). Another option is to translate both forms with the English future tense (“I will confirm”).

¹² tn Heb “all flesh.”

¹³ tn Heb “cut off.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “and all flesh will not be cut off again by the waters of the flood.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “sign.”

¹⁶ sn On the making of covenants in Genesis, see W. F. Albright, “The Hebrew Expression for ‘Making a Covenant’ in Pre-Israelite Documents,” BASOR 121 (1951): 21-22.

¹⁷ tn Heb “between me and between you.”

¹⁸ tn The words “a covenant” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

¹⁹ tn The Hebrew term עוֹלָם (’olam) means “ever, forever, lasting, perpetual.” The covenant would extend to subsequent generations.

²⁰ tn The translation assumes that the perfect verbal form is used rhetorically, emphasizing the certainty of the action. Other translation options include “I have placed” (present perfect; cf. NIV, NRSV) and “I place” (instantaneous perfect; cf. NEB).

²¹ sn The Hebrew word קֶשֶׁת (qeshet) normally refers to a warrior’s bow. Some understand this to mean that God the warrior hangs up his battle bow at the end of the flood, indicating he is now at peace with humankind, but others question the legitimacy of this proposal. See C. Westermann, Genesis, 1:473, and G. J. Wenham, Genesis (WBC), 1:196.

²² tn The perfect verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive here has the same aspectual function as the preceding perfect of certitude.

²³ tn The temporal indicator (וְהָיָה, vÿhayah, conjunction + the perfect verb form), often translated “it will be,” anticipates a future development.

²⁴ tn Heb “which [is] between me and between you.”

²⁵ tn Heb “all flesh.”

²⁶ tn Heb “to destroy.”

²⁷ tn Heb “all flesh.”

²⁸ tn The translation assumes that the infinitive לִזְכֹּר (lizkor, “to remember”) here expresses the result of seeing the rainbow. Another option is to understand it as indicating purpose, in which case it could be translated, “I will look at it so that I may remember.”

²⁹ tn Heb “a boundary you set up, they will not cross, they will not return to cover the earth.”

³⁰ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.” See the study note on 2:19 for this title. In the Hebrew text the verse reads: “Thus says the Lord who provides the sun for light by day, the fixed ordering of the moon and stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea and its waves roar, whose name is Yahweh of armies, ‘…’” The hymnic introduction to the quote which does not begin until v. 36 has been broken down to avoid a long awkward sentence in English. The word “said” has been translated “made a promise” to reflect the nature of the content in vv. 36-37. The first two lines of the Hebrew poetry are a case of complex or supplementary ellipsis where the complete idea of “providing/establishing the fixed laws” is divided between the two lines (cf. E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 110-13). The necessity for recombining the ellipsis is obvious from reference to the fixed ordering in the next verse. (Some commentators prefer to delete the word as an erroneous glossing of the word in the following line (see, e.g., J. Bright, Jeremiah [AB], 277, n. y).

³¹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

³² tn Heb “‘If these fixed orderings were to fail to be present before me,’ oracle of the Lord, ‘then the seed of Israel could cease from being a nation before me forever (or more literally, “all the days”).’” The sentence has been broken up to conform more to modern style. The connection has been maintained by reversing the order of condition and consequence and still retaining the condition in the second clause. For the meaning of “cease to operate” for the verb מוּשׁ (mush) compare the usage in Isa 54:10; Ps 55:11 (55:12 HT); Prov 17:13 where what is usually applied to persons or things is applied to abstract things like this (see HALOT 506 s.v. II מוּשׁ Qal for general usage).

³³ 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.

³⁴ 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).

³⁵ tn Heb “you.” The pronoun is plural as in 32:36, 43; 33:10.

³⁶ 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.”

³⁷ 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.

³⁸ tn Heb “And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying.” See v. 1. This is a continuation of “the second time.”

³⁹ 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.

⁴⁰ 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).

⁴¹ 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).

⁴² 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.

⁴³ 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).

⁴⁴ tn Or “I will make them prosperous once again,” or “I will bring them back from captivity.”

⁴⁵ tn Heb “chariots.”

⁴⁶ tn The plural Greek term ἄνθρωποι (anqrwpoi) is used here in a generic sense, referring to both men and women, and is thus translated “people.”

⁴⁷ tn Grk “by something greater”; the rest of the comparison (“than themselves”) is implied.

⁴⁸ tn Grk “the oath for confirmation is an end of all dispute.”

⁴⁹ tn Grk “in which.”

⁵⁰ tn Or “immutable” (here and in v. 18); Grk “the unchangeableness of his purpose.”

⁵¹ tn Grk “have taken refuge”; the basis of that refuge is implied in the preceding verse.