45:13 It is me – I stir him up and commission him; 1
I will make all his ways level.
He will rebuild my city;
he will send my exiled people home,
but not for a price or a bribe,”
says the Lord who commands armies.
50:1 This is what the Lord says:
“Where is your mother’s divorce certificate
by which I divorced her?
Or to which of my creditors did I sell you? 2
Look, you were sold because of your sins; 3
because of your rebellious acts I divorced your mother. 4
44:12 You sold 5 your people for a pittance; 6
you did not ask a high price for them. 7
15:13 I will give away your wealth and your treasures as plunder.
I will give it away free of charge for the sins you have committed throughout your land.
15:1 Then the Lord said to me, “Even if Moses and Samuel stood before me pleading for 8 these people, I would not feel pity for them! 9 Get them away from me! Tell them to go away! 10
7:21 So, I find the law that when I want to do good, evil is present with me. 7:22 For I delight in the law of God in my inner being. 7:23 But I see a different law in my members waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that is in my members. 7:24 Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 7:25 Thanks be 18 to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, 19 I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but 20 with my flesh I serve 21 the law of sin.
1 tn Heb “I stir him up in righteousness”; NASB “I have aroused him.” See the note at 41:2. Cyrus (cf. 44:28) is in view here.
2 sn The Lord challenges the exiles (Zion’s children) to bring incriminating evidence against him. The rhetorical questions imply that Israel accused the Lord of divorcing his wife (Zion) and selling his children (the Israelites) into slavery to pay off a debt.
3 sn The Lord admits that he did sell the Israelites, but it was because of their sins, not because of some debt he owed. If he had sold them to a creditor, they ought to be able to point him out, but the preceding rhetorical question implies they would not be able to do so.
4 sn The Lord admits he did divorce Zion, but that too was the result of the nation’s sins. The force of the earlier rhetorical question comes into clearer focus now. The question does not imply that a certificate does not exist and that no divorce occurred. Rather, the question asks for the certificate to be produced so the accuser can see the reason for the divorce in black and white. The Lord did not put Zion away arbitrarily.
5 tn The prefixed verbal form is a preterite (without vav [ו] consecutive).
6 tn Heb “for what is not wealth.”
7 tn Heb “you did not multiply their purchase prices.”
8 tn The words “pleading for” have been supplied in the translation to explain the idiom (a metonymy). For parallel usage see BDB 763 s.v. עָמַד Qal.1.a and compare usage in Gen 19:27, Deut 4:10.
9 tn Heb “my soul would not be toward them.” For the usage of “soul” presupposed here see BDB 660 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ 6 in the light of the complaints and petitions in Jeremiah’s prayer in 14:19, 21.
10 tn Heb “Send them away from my presence and let them go away.”
11 tn See the note on “Jeremiah” at the beginning of v. 17.
12 tn Heb “today I have made you.” The Hebrew verb form here emphasizes the certainty of a yet future act; the
13 tn Heb “I make you a fortified city…against all the land….” The words “as strong as” and “so you will be able to stand against all the people of…” are given to clarify the meaning of the metaphor.
14 tn Grk “under sin.”
15 tn Grk “but what I hate, this I do.”
16 tn Grk “I agree with the law that it is good.”
17 tn Grk “For to wish is present in/with me, but not to do it.”
18 tc ‡ Most
19 tn There is a double connective here that cannot be easily preserved in English: “consequently therefore,” emphasizing the conclusion of what he has been arguing.
20 tn Greek emphasizes the contrast between these two clauses more than can be easily expressed in English.
21 tn The words “I serve” have been repeated here for clarity.