Isaiah 31:1

Egypt Will Disappoint

31:1 Those who go down to Egypt for help are as good as dead, ¹ 

those who rely on war horses,

and trust in Egypt’s many chariots ² 

and in their many, many horsemen. ³ 

But they do not rely on the Holy One of Israel ⁴ 

and do not seek help from the Lord.

Deuteronomy 4:29

4:29 But if you seek the Lord your God from there, you will find him, if, indeed, you seek him with all your heart and soul. ⁵ 

Jeremiah 29:11

29:11 For I know what I have planned for you,’ says the Lord. ⁶  ‘I have plans to prosper you, not to harm you. I have plans to give you ⁷  a future filled with hope. ⁸ 

Jeremiah 50:4-5

50:4 “When that time comes,” says the Lord, ⁹ 

“the people of Israel and Judah will return to the land together.

They will come back with tears of repentance

as they seek the Lord their God. ¹⁰ 

50:5 They will ask the way to Zion;

they will turn their faces toward it.

They will come ¹¹  and bind themselves to the Lord

in a lasting covenant that will never be forgotten. ¹² 

Hosea 3:4-5

3:4 For the Israelites ¹³  must live many days without a king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred fertility pillar, without ephod or idols. 3:5 Afterward, the Israelites will turn and seek the Lord their God and their Davidic king. ¹⁴  Then they will submit to the Lord in fear and receive his blessings ¹⁵  in the future. ¹⁶ 

¹ tn Heb “Woe [to] those who go down to Egypt for help.”

² tn Heb “and trust in chariots for they are many.”

³ tn Heb “and in horsemen for they are very strong [or “numerous”].”

⁴ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

⁵ tn Or “mind and being.” See Deut 6:5.

⁹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “I know the plans that I am planning for you, oracle of the Lord, plans of well-being and not for harm to give to you….”

¹¹ tn Or “the future you hope for”; Heb “a future and a hope.” This is a good example of hendiadys where two formally coordinated nouns (adjectives, verbs) convey a single idea where one of the terms functions as a qualifier of the other. For this figure see E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 658-72. This example is discussed on p. 661.

¹³ tn Heb “oracle of the Lord.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “and the children of Israel will come, they and the children of Judah together. They shall go, weeping as they go, and they will seek the Lord their God.” The concept of “seeking” the Lord often has to do with seeking the Lord in worship (by sacrifice [Hos 5:6; 2 Chr 11:16]; prayer [Zech 8:21, 22; 2 Sam 12:16; Isa 65:1; 2 Chr 15:4]). In Hos 7:10 it is in parallel with returning to the Lord. In Ps 69:6 it is in parallel with hoping in or trusting in the Lord. Perhaps the most helpful parallels here, however, are Hos 3:5 (in comparison with Jer 30:9) and 2 Chr 15:15 where it is in the context of a covenant commitment to be loyal to the Lord which is similar to the context here (see the next verse). The translation is admittedly paraphrastic but “seeking the Lord” does not mean here looking for God as though he were merely a person to be found.

¹⁷ tc The translation here assumes that the Hebrew בֹּאוּ (bo’u; a Qal imperative masculine plural) should be read בָּאוּ (ba’u; a Qal perfect third plural). This reading is presupposed by the Greek version of Aquila, the Latin version, and the Targum (see BHS note a, which mistakenly assumes that the form must be imperfect).

¹⁸ sn See Jer 32:40 and the study note there for the nature of this lasting agreement.

²¹ tn Heb “sons of Israel” (so NASB); KJV “children of Israel”; NAB “people of Israel” (likewise in the following verse).

²⁵ tn Heb “David their king”; cf. NCV “the king from David’s family”; TEV “a descendant of David their king”; NLT “David’s descendant, their king.”

²⁶ tn Heb “his goodness”; NLT “his good gifts.”

²⁷ tn Heb “in the end of the days.” Cf. NAB, NASB, NIV, NCV, NLT “in the last days.”