Isaiah 54:8

54:8 In a burst ¹  of anger I rejected you ²  momentarily,

but with lasting devotion I will have compassion on you,”

says your protector, ³  the Lord.

Isaiah 61:8

61:8 For I, the Lord, love justice

and hate robbery and sin.

I will repay them because of my faithfulness; ⁴ 

I will make a permanent covenant with them.

Genesis 17:7

17:7 I will confirm ⁵  my covenant as a perpetual ⁶  covenant between me and you. It will extend to your descendants after you throughout their generations. I will be your God and the God of your descendants after you. ⁷ 

Genesis 17:2

17:2 Then I will confirm my covenant ⁸  between me and you, and I will give you a multitude of descendants.” ⁹ 

Genesis 23:5

23:5 The sons of Heth answered Abraham, ¹⁰ 

Jeremiah 32:40

32:40 I will make a lasting covenant ¹¹  with them that I will never stop doing good to them. ¹²  I will fill their hearts and minds with respect for me so that ¹³  they will never again turn ¹⁴  away from me.

Jeremiah 50:5

50:5 They will ask the way to Zion;

they will turn their faces toward it.

They will come ¹⁵  and bind themselves to the Lord

in a lasting covenant that will never be forgotten. ¹⁶ 

Hebrews 13:20

Benediction and Conclusion

13:20 Now may the God of peace who by the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep, our Lord Jesus Christ,

¹ tn According to BDB 1009 s.v. שֶׁטֶף the noun שֶׁצֶף here is an alternate form of שֶׁטֶף (shetef, “flood”). Some relate the word to an alleged Akkadian cognate meaning “strength.”

² tn Heb “I hid my face from you.”

³ tn Or “redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.

⁴ tn Heb “in faithfulness”; NASB, NRSV, NLT “faithfully.”

⁵ tn The verb קוּם (qum, “to arise, to stand up”) in the Hiphil verbal stem means “to confirm, to give effect to, to carry out” (i.e., a covenant or oath; see BDB 878-79 s.v. קוּם).

⁶ tn Or “as an eternal.”

⁷ tn Heb “to be to you for God and to your descendants after you.”

⁸ tn Following the imperative, the cohortative indicates consequence. If Abram is blameless, then the Lord will ratify the covenant. Earlier the Lord ratified part of his promise to Abram (see Gen 15:18-21), guaranteeing him that his descendants would live in the land. But the expanded form of the promise, which includes numerous descendants and eternal possession of the land, remains to be ratified. This expanded form of the promise is in view here (see vv. 2b, 4-8). See the note at Gen 15:18 and R. B. Chisholm, “Evidence from Genesis,” A Case for Premillennialism, 35-54.

⁹ tn Heb “I will multiply you exceedingly, exceedingly.” The repetition is emphatic.

¹⁰ tn Heb “answered Abraham saying to him.”

¹¹ tn Heb “an everlasting covenant.” For the rationale for the rendering “agreement” and the nature of the biblical covenants see the study note on 11:2.

¹² tn Or “stop being gracious to them” or “stop blessing them with good”; Heb “turn back from them to do good to them.”

¹³ tn Or “I will make them want to fear and respect me so much that”; Heb “I will put the fear of me in their hearts.” However, as has been noted several times, “heart” in Hebrew is more the center of the volition (and intellect) than the center of emotions as it is in English. Both translations are intended to reflect the difference in psychology.

¹⁴ tn The words “never again” are not in the text but are implicit from the context and are supplied not only by this translation but by a number of others.

¹⁵ 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).

¹⁶ sn See Jer 32:40 and the study note there for the nature of this lasting agreement.