Psalms 18:21

18:21 For I have obeyed the Lord’s commands; ¹ 

I have not rebelled against my God. ² 

Psalms 119:102

119:102 I do not turn aside from your regulations,

for you teach me.

Isaiah 30:11

30:11 Turn aside from the way,

stray off the path. ³ 

Remove from our presence the Holy One of Israel.” ⁴ 

Isaiah 59:13

59:13 We have rebelled and tried to deceive the Lord;

we turned back from following our God.

We stir up ⁵  oppression and rebellion;

we tell lies we concocted in our minds. ⁶ 

Jeremiah 17:5

Individuals Are Challenged to Put Their Trust in the Lord ⁷ 

17:5 The Lord says,

“I will put a curse on people

who trust in mere human beings,

who depend on mere flesh and blood for their strength, ⁸ 

and whose hearts ⁹  have turned away from the Lord.

Jeremiah 17:13

17:13 You are the one in whom Israel may find hope. ¹⁰ 

All who leave you will suffer shame.

Those who turn away from you ¹¹  will be consigned to the nether world. ¹² 

For they have rejected you, the Lord, the fountain of life. ¹³ 

Ezekiel 44:10

44:10 “‘But the Levites who went far from me, straying off from me after their idols when Israel went astray, will be responsible for ¹⁴  their sin.

Daniel 9:5-6

9:5 we have sinned! We have done what is wrong and wicked; we have rebelled by turning away from your commandments and standards. 9:6 We have not paid attention to your servants the prophets, who spoke by your authority ¹⁵  to our kings, our leaders, and our ancestors, ¹⁶  and to all the inhabitants ¹⁷  of the land as well.

Hebrews 3:12

3:12 See to it, ¹⁸  brothers and sisters, ¹⁹  that none of you has ²⁰  an evil, unbelieving heart that forsakes ²¹  the living God. ²² 

¹ tn Heb “for I have kept the ways of the Lord.” The phrase “ways of the Lord” refers here to the “conduct required” by the Lord. In Ps 25 the Lord’s “ways” are associated with his covenantal demands (see vv. 4, 9-10). See also Ps 119:3 (cf. vv. 1, 4), as well as Deut 8:6; 10:12; 11:22; 19:9; 26:17; 28:9; 30:16.

² tn Heb “I have not acted wickedly from my God.” The statement is elliptical; the idea is, “I have not acted wickedly and, in so doing, departed from my God.”

³ sn The imagery refers to the way or path of truth, as revealed by God to the prophet.

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

⁵ tn Heb “speaking.” A new sentence was started here in the translation for stylistic reasons.

⁶ tn Heb “conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.”

⁷ sn Verses 5-11 are a collection of wisdom-like sayings (cf. Ps 1) which set forth the theme of the two ways and their consequences. It has as its background the blessings and the curses of Deut 28 and the challenge to faith in Deut 29-30 which climaxes in Deut 30:15-20. The nation is sinful and God is weary of showing them patience. However, there is hope for individuals within the nation if they will trust in him.

⁸ tn Heb “who make flesh their arm.” The “arm” is the symbol of strength and the flesh is the symbol of mortal man in relation to the omnipotent God. The translation “mere flesh and blood” reflects this.

⁹ sn In the psychology of ancient Hebrew thought the heart was the center not only of the emotions but of the thoughts and motivations. It was also the seat of moral conduct (cf. its placement in the middle of the discussion of moral conduct in Prov 4:20-27, i.e., in v. 23).

¹⁰ tn Heb “O glorious throne, O high place from the beginning, O hope of Israel, O Lord.” Commentators and translators generally understand these four lines (which are three in the Hebrew original) as two predications, one eulogizing the temple and the other eulogizing God. However, that does not fit the context very well and does not take into account the nature of Jeremiah’s doxology in Jeremiah 16:19-20 (and compare also 10:6-7). There the doxology is context motivated, focused on God, and calls on relevant attributes in the form of metaphorical epithets. That fits nicely here as well. For the relevant parallel passages see the study note.

¹¹ tc The translation is based on an emendation suggested in W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah (Hermeneia), 1:500, n. b-b. The emendation involves following the reading preferred by the Masoretes (the Qere) and understanding the preposition with the following word as a corruption of the suffix on it. Thus the present translation reads וּסוּרֶיךָ אֶרֶץ (usurekha ’erets) instead of וּסוּרַי בָּאֶרֶץ (usuray ba’erets, “and those who leave me will be written in the earth”), a reading which is highly improbable since all the other pronouns are second singular.

¹² tn Or “to the world of the dead.” An alternative interpretation is: “will be as though their names were written in the dust”; Heb “will be written in the dust.” The translation follows the nuance of “earth” listed in HALOT 88 s.v. אֶרֶץ 4 and found in Jonah 2:6 (2:7 HT); Job 10:21-22. For the nuance of “enrolling, registering among the number” for the verb translated here “consign” see BDB 507 s.v. כָּתַב Qal.3 and 508 s.v. Niph.2 and compare usage in Ezek 13:9 and Ps 69:28 (69:29 HT).

¹³ tn Heb “The fountain of living water.” For an earlier use of this metaphor and the explanation of it see Jer 2:13 and the notes there. There does not appear to be any way to retain this metaphor in the text without explaining it. In the earlier text the context would show that literal water was not involved. Here it might still be assumed that the Lord merely gives life-giving water.

¹⁴ tn Heb “will bear.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “in your name.” Another option is to translate, “as your representatives.”

¹⁶ tn Heb “our fathers” (also in vv. 8, 16). The Hebrew term translated “father” can refer to more distant relationships such as grandfathers or ancestors.

¹⁷ tn Heb “people.”

¹⁸ tn Or “take care.”

¹⁹ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 2:11.

²⁰ tn Grk “that there not be in any of you.”

²¹ tn Or “deserts,” “rebels against.”

²² tn Grk “in forsaking the living God.”