1 Chronicles 16:14-22

16:14 He is the Lord our God;

he carries out judgment throughout the earth. ¹ 

16:15 Remember ²  continually his covenantal decree,

the promise he made ³  to a thousand generations –

16:16 the promise ⁴  he made to Abraham,

the promise he made by oath to Isaac! ⁵ 

16:17 He gave it to Jacob as a decree,

to Israel as a lasting promise, ⁶ 

16:18 saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan

as the portion of your inheritance.”

16:19 When they were few in number,

just a very few, and foreign residents within it,

16:20 they wandered from nation to nation,

and from one kingdom to another. ⁷ 

16:21 He let no one oppress them,

he disciplined kings for their sake,

16:22 saying, ⁸  “Don’t touch my anointed ones!

Don’t harm my prophets!”

[16:14]  ¹ tn Heb “in all the earth [are] his judgments.”

[16:15]  ² tn The Hebrew text has a masculine plural imperative, addressed to the people. Some LXX mss harmonize the wording here to Ps 105:8, which has זָכַר (zakhar), the perfect third masculine singular form of the verb, “He (the Lord) remembers” (so NIV; NEB reads “He called to mind his covenant”).

[16:15]  ³ tn Heb “[the] word he commanded.” The text refers here to God’s unconditional covenantal promise to Abraham and the patriarchs, as vv. 16-18 make clear.

[16:16]  ⁴ tn Heb “which.”

[16:16]  ⁵ tn Heb “his oath to Isaac.”

[16:17]  ⁶ tn Or “eternal covenant.”

[16:20]  ⁷ tn Heb “and from a kingdom to another nation.”

[16:22]  ⁸ tn The word “saying” is supplied in the translation for clarification and for stylistic reasons.