1 Chronicles 16:13

16:13 O children ¹  of Israel, God’s ²  servant,

you descendants of Jacob, God’s ³  chosen ones!

Nehemiah 9:2

9:2 Those truly of Israelite descent ⁴  separated from all the foreigners, ⁵  standing and confessing their sins and the iniquities of their ancestors. ⁶ 

Isaiah 45:25

45:25 All the descendants of Israel will be vindicated by the Lord

and will boast in him. ⁷ 

Jeremiah 31:36-37

31:36 The Lord affirms, ⁸  “The descendants of Israel will not

cease forever to be a nation in my sight.

That could only happen if the fixed ordering of the heavenly lights

were to cease to operate before me.” ⁹ 

31:37 The Lord says, “I will not reject all the descendants of Israel

because of all that they have done. ¹⁰ 

That could only happen if the heavens above could be measured

or the foundations of the earth below could all be explored,” ¹¹ 

says the Lord. ¹² 

Jeremiah 33:24-26

33:24 “You have surely noticed what these people are saying, haven’t you? They are saying, ¹³  ‘The Lord has rejected the two families of Israel and Judah ¹⁴  that he chose.’ So they have little regard that my people will ever again be a nation. ¹⁵  33:25 But I, the Lord, make the following promise: ¹⁶  I have made a covenant governing the coming of day and night. I have established the fixed laws governing heaven and earth. 33:26 Just as surely as I have done this, so surely will I never reject the descendants of Jacob. Nor will I ever refuse to choose one of my servant David’s descendants to rule over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Indeed, ¹⁷  I will restore them ¹⁸  and show mercy to them.”

Jeremiah 46:28

46:28 I, the Lord, tell ¹⁹  you not to be afraid,

you descendants of Jacob, my servant,

for I am with you.

Though I completely destroy all the nations where I scatter you,

I will not completely destroy you.

I will indeed discipline you but only in due measure.

I will not allow you to go entirely unpunished.” ²⁰ 

[16:13]  ¹ tn Heb “seed.”

[16:13]  ² tn Heb “his”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[16:13]  ³ tn Heb “his”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[9:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “the seed of Israel.”

[9:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “sons of a foreigner.”

[9:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 9, 16, 23, 32, 34, 36).

[45:25]  ⁷ tn Heb “In the Lord all the offspring of Israel will be vindicated and boast.”

[31:36]  ⁸ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[31:36]  ⁹ tn Heb “‘If these fixed orderings were to fail to be present before me,’ oracle of the Lord, ‘then the seed of Israel could cease from being a nation before me forever (or more literally, “all the days”).’” The sentence has been broken up to conform more to modern style. The connection has been maintained by reversing the order of condition and consequence and still retaining the condition in the second clause. For the meaning of “cease to operate” for the verb מוּשׁ (mush) compare the usage in Isa 54:10; Ps 55:11 (55:12 HT); Prov 17:13 where what is usually applied to persons or things is applied to abstract things like this (see HALOT 506 s.v. II מוּשׁ Qal for general usage).

[31:37]  ¹⁰ sn This answers Jeremiah’s question in 14:19.

[31:37]  ¹¹ tn Heb “If the heavens above could be measured or the foundations of the earth below be explored, then also I could reject all the seed of Israel for all they have done.”

[31:37]  ¹² tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[33:24]  ¹³ tn Heb “Have you not seen what this people have said, saying.” The question is rhetorical and expects a positive answer. The sentence has been broken in two to better conform with contemporary English style.

[33:24]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “The two families which the Lord chose, he has rejected them.” This is an example of an object prepositioned before the verb and resumed by a redundant pronoun to throw emphasis of focus on it (called casus pendens in the grammars; cf. GKC 458 §143.d). Some commentators identify the “two families” as those of David and Levi mentioned in the previous verses, and some identify them as the families of the Israelites and of David mentioned in the next verse. However, the next clause in this verse and the emphasis on the restoration and regathering of Israel and Judah in this section (cf. 33:7, 14) show that the reference is to Israel and Judah (see also 30:3, 4; 31:27, 31 and 3:18).

[33:24]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and my people [i.e., Israel and Judah] they disdain [or look down on] from being again a nation before them.” The phrase “before them” refers to their estimation, their mental view (cf. BDB s.v. פָּנֶה II.4.a[g]). Hence it means they look with disdain on the people being a nation again (cf. BDB s.v. עוֹד 1.a[b] for the usage of עוֹד [’od] here).

[33:25]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Thus says the Lord.” See the translator’s note at the beginning of v. 20 for the style adopted here. Here the promise is in v. 26 following the contrary to fact condition in v. 25. The Hebrew text of vv. 25-26 reads: “Thus says the Lord, “If I have not established my covenant with day and night [and] the laws/statutes of heaven and earth, also I could reject the seed of Jacob and David my servant from taking from his seed as rulers over the seed of Abraham…” The syntax of the original is a little awkward because it involves the verbs “establish” and “reject” governing two objects, the first governing two similar objects “my covenant” and “the regulations” and the second governing two dissimilar objects “the seed of Jacob” and “my servant David from taking [so as not to take].” The translation has sought to remove these awkward syntactical constructions and also break down the long complex original sentence in such a way as to retain its original intent, i.e., the guarantee of the continuance of the seed of Jacob and of the rule of a line of David’s descendants over them based on the fixed order of God’s creation decrees.

[33:26]  ¹⁷ tn The Hebrew particle כִּי (ki) is probably intensive here as it has been on a number of occasions in the book of Jeremiah (see BDB 472 s.v. כִּי 1.e for the category).

[33:26]  ¹⁸ tn Or “I will make them prosperous once again,” or “I will bring them back from captivity.”

[46:28]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.” Again the first person is adopted because the Lord is speaking and the indirect quotation is used to avoid an embedded quotation with quotation marks on either side.

[46:28]  ²⁰ tn The translation “entirely unpunished” is intended to reflect the emphatic construction of the infinitive absolute before the finite verb.