Jeremiah 49:13

49:13 For I solemnly swear,” ¹  says the Lord, “that Bozrah ²  will become a pile of ruins. It will become an object of horror and ridicule, an example to be used in curses. ³  All the towns around it will lie in ruins forever.”

Amos 6:8

6:8 The sovereign Lord confirms this oath by his very own life. ⁴ 

The Lord, the God who commands armies, is speaking:

“I despise Jacob’s arrogance;

I hate their ⁵  fortresses.

I will hand over to their enemies ⁶  the city of Samaria ⁷  and everything in it.”

Hebrews 6:13

6:13 Now when God made his promise to Abraham, since he could swear by no one greater, he swore by himself,

¹ tn Heb “I swear by myself.” See 22:5 and the study note there.

² sn Bozrah appears to have been the chief city in Edom, its capital city (see its parallelism with Edom in Isa 34:6; 63:1; Jer 49:22). The reference to “its towns” (translated here “all the towns around it”) could then be a reference to all the towns in Edom. It was located about twenty-five miles southeast of the southern end of the Dead Sea apparently in the district of Teman (see the parallelism in Amos 1:12).

³ tn See the study note on 24:9 for the rendering of this term.

⁴ tn Heb “swears by his life”; or “swears by himself.”

⁵ tn Heb “his,” referring to Jacob, which stands here for the nation of Israel.

⁶ tn The words “to their enemies” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

⁷ tn Heb “the city”; this probably refers to the city of Samaria (cf. 6:1), which in turn, by metonymy, represents the entire northern kingdom.