Jeremiah 7:23

7:23 I also explicitly commanded them: “Obey me. If you do, I will be your God and you will be my people. Live exactly the way I tell you and things will go well with you.”

Deuteronomy 5:29

5:29 If only it would really be their desire to fear me and obey all my commandments in the future, so that it may go well with them and their descendants forever.

Deuteronomy 5:33

5:33 Walk just as he has commanded you so that you may live, that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land you are going to possess.

Deuteronomy 6:2-3

6:2 and that you may so revere the Lord your God that you will keep all his statutes and commandments that I am giving you – you, your children, and your grandchildren – all your lives, to prolong your days. 6:3 Pay attention, Israel, and be careful to do this so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in number – as the Lord, God of your ancestors, 10  said to you, you will have a land flowing with milk and honey.

Psalms 81:13-16

81:13 If only my people would obey me! 11 

If only Israel would keep my commands! 12 

81:14 Then I would quickly subdue their enemies,

and attack 13  their adversaries.”

81:15 (May those who hate the Lord 14  cower in fear 15  before him!

May they be permanently humiliated!) 16 

81:16 “I would feed Israel the best wheat, 17 

and would satisfy your appetite 18  with honey from the rocky cliffs.” 19 

Psalms 128:2

128:2 You 20  will eat what you worked so hard to grow. 21 

You will be blessed and secure. 22 

Isaiah 3:10

3:10 Tell the innocent 23  it will go well with them, 24 

for they will be rewarded for what they have done. 25 


tn Verses 22-23a read in Hebrew, “I did not speak with your ancestors and I did not command them when I brought them out of Egypt about words/matters concerning burnt offering and sacrifice, but I commanded them this word:” Some modern commentators have explained this passage as an evidence for the lateness of the Pentateuchal instruction regarding sacrifice or a denial that sacrifice was practiced during the period of the wilderness wandering. However, it is better explained as an example of what R. de Vaux calls a dialectical negative, i.e., “not so much this as that” or “not this without that” (Ancient Israel, 454-56). For other examples of this same argument see Isa 1:10-17; Hos 6:4-6; Amos 5:21-25.

tn Heb “Obey me and I will be.” The translation is equivalent syntactically but brings out the emphasis in the command.

tn Heb “Walk in all the way that I command you.”

tn Heb “keep” (so KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV).

tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

tn Heb “may prolong your days”; NAB “may have long life”; TEV “will continue to live.”

tn Here the terms are not the usual חֻקִּים (khuqqim) and מִשְׁפָּטִים (mishpatim; as in v. 1) but חֻקֹּת (khuqqot, “statutes”) and מִצְוֹת (mitsot, “commandments”). It is clear that these terms are used interchangeably and that their technical precision ought not be overly stressed.

tn Heb “commanding.” For stylistic reasons, to avoid redundancy, “giving” has been used in the translation.

tn Heb “may multiply greatly” (so NASB, NRSV); the words “in number” have been supplied in the translation for clarity.

10 tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 10, 18, 23).

11 tn Heb “if only my people were listening to me.” The Hebrew particle לוּ (lu, “if not”) introduces a purely hypothetical or contrary to fact condition (see 2 Sam 18:12).

12 tn Heb “[and if only] Israel would walk in my ways.”

13 tn Heb “turn my hand against.” The idiom “turn the hand against” has the nuance of “strike with the hand, attack” (see Isa 1:25; Ezek 38:12; Amos 1:8; Zech 13:7).

14 tn “Those who hate the Lord” are also mentioned in 2 Chr 19:2 and Ps 139:21.

15 tn See Deut 33:29; Ps 66:3 for other uses of the verb כָּחַשׁ (kakhash) in the sense “cower in fear.” In Ps 18:44 the verb seems to carry the nuance “to be weak; to be powerless” (see also Ps 109:24). The prefixed verbal form is taken as a jussive, parallel to the jussive form in the next line.

16 tc Heb “and may their time be forever.” The Hebrew term עִתָּם (’ittam, “their time”) must refer here to the “time” of the demise and humiliation of those who hate the Lord. Some propose an emendation to בַּעֲתָתָם (baatatam) or בִּעֻתָם (biutam; “their terror”; i.e., “may their terror last forever”), but the omission of bet (ב) in the present Hebrew text is difficult to explain, making the proposed emendation unlikely.

17 tn Heb “and he fed him from the best of the wheat.” The Hebrew text has a third person form of the preterite with a vav (ו) consecutive attached. However, it is preferable, in light of the use of the first person in v. 14 and in the next line, to emend the verb to a first person form and understand the vav as conjunctive, continuing the apodosis of the conditional sentence of vv. 13-14. The third masculine singular pronominal suffix refers to Israel, as in v. 6.

18 tn Heb “you.” The second person singular pronominal suffix refers to Israel, as in vv. 7-10.

19 sn The language in this verse, particularly the references to wheat and honey, is reminiscent of Deut 32:13-14.

20 tn The psalmist addresses the representative God-fearing man, as indicated by the references to “your wife” (v. 3) and “the man” (v. 4), as well as the second masculine singular pronominal and verbal forms in vv. 2-6.

21 tn Heb “the work of your hands, indeed you will eat.”

22 tn Heb “how blessed you [will be] and it will be good for you.”

23 tn Or “the righteous” (KJV, NASB, NIV, TEV); NLT “those who are godly.”

24 tn Heb “that it is good.”

25 tn Heb “for the fruit of their deeds they will eat.”