1 Kings 8:27

8:27 “God does not really live on the earth! ¹  Look, if the sky and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this temple I have built!

Exodus 25:8

25:8 Let them make ²  for me a sanctuary, ³  so that I may live among them.

Leviticus 26:11

26:11 “‘I will put my tabernacle ⁴  in your midst and I will not abhor you. ⁵ 

Psalms 68:18

68:18 You ascend on high, ⁶ 

you have taken many captives. ⁷ 

You receive tribute ⁸  from ⁹  men,

including even sinful rebels.

Indeed the Lord God lives there! ¹⁰ 

Psalms 132:12-13

132:12 If your sons keep my covenant

and the rules I teach them,

their sons will also sit on your throne forever.”

132:13 Certainly ¹¹  the Lord has chosen Zion;

he decided to make it his home. ¹² 

Isaiah 57:15

57:15 For this is what the high and exalted one says,

the one who rules ¹³  forever, whose name is holy:

“I dwell in an exalted and holy place,

but also with the discouraged and humiliated, ¹⁴ 

in order to cheer up the humiliated

and to encourage the discouraged. ¹⁵ 

Ezekiel 37:26-28

37:26 I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be a perpetual covenant with them. ¹⁶  I will establish them, ¹⁷  increase their numbers, and place my sanctuary among them forever. 37:27 My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be my people. 37:28 Then, when my sanctuary is among them forever, the nations will know that I, the Lord, sanctify Israel.’” ¹⁸ 

Ezekiel 37:2

37:2 He made me walk all around among them. ¹⁹  I realized ²⁰  there were a great many bones in the valley and they were very dry.

Colossians 1:16

1:16 for all things in heaven and on earth were created by him – all things, whether visible or invisible, whether thrones or dominions, ²¹  whether principalities or powers – all things were created through him and for him.

Revelation 21:3

21:3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying: “Look! The residence ²²  of God is among human beings. ²³  He ²⁴  will live among them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them. ²⁵ 

[8:27]  ¹ tn Heb “Indeed, can God really live on the earth?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course not,” the force of which the translation above seeks to reflect.

[25:8]  ² tn The verb is a perfect with vav (ו) consecutive; it follows in the sequence initiated by the imperative in v. 2 and continues with the force of a command.

[25:8]  ³ tn The word here is מִקְדּשׁ (miqdash), “a sanctuary” or “holy place”; cf. NLT “sacred residence.” The purpose of building it is to enable Yahweh to reside (וְשָׁכַנְתִּי, vÿshakhanti) in their midst. U. Cassuto reminds the reader that God did not need a place to dwell, but the Israelites needed a dwelling place for him, so that they would look to it and be reminded that he was in their midst (Exodus, 327).

[26:11]  ⁴ tn LXX codexes Vaticanus and Alexandrinus have “my covenant” rather than “my tabernacle.” Cf. NAB, NASB, NRSV “my dwelling.”

[26:11]  ⁵ tn Heb “and my soul [נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh] will not abhor you.”

[68:18]  ⁶ tn Heb “to the elevated place”; or “on high.” This probably refers to the Lord’s throne on Mount Zion.

[68:18]  ⁷ tn Heb “you have taken captives captive.”

[68:18]  ⁸ tn Or “gifts.”

[68:18]  ⁹ tn Or “among.”

[68:18]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “so that the Lord God might live [there].” Many take the infinitive construct with -לְ (lamed) as indicating purpose here, but it is unclear how the offering of tribute enables the Lord to live in Zion. This may be an occurrence of the relatively rare emphatic lamed (see HALOT 510-11 s.v. II לְ, though this text is not listed as an example there). If so, the statement corresponds nicely to the final line of v. 16, which also affirms emphatically that the Lord lives in Zion.

[132:13]  ¹¹ tn Or “for.”

[132:13]  ¹² tn Heb “he desired it for his dwelling place.”

[57:15]  ¹³ tn Heb “the one who dwells forever.” שֹׁכֵן עַד (shokhen ’ad) is sometimes translated “the one who lives forever,” and understood as a reference to God’s eternal existence. However, the immediately preceding and following descriptions (“high and exalted” and “holy”) emphasize his sovereign rule. In the next line, he declares, “I dwell in an exalted and holy [place],” which refers to the place from which he rules. Therefore it is more likely that שֹׁכֵן עַד (shokhen ’ad) means “I dwell [in my lofty palace] forever” and refers to God’s eternal kingship.

[57:15]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and also with the crushed and lowly of spirit.” This may refer to the repentant who have humbled themselves (see 66:2) or more generally to the exiles who have experienced discouragement and humiliation.

[57:15]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “to restore the lowly of spirit and to restore the heart of the crushed.”

[37:26]  ¹⁶ sn See Isa 24:5; 55:3; 61:8; Jer 32:40; 50:5; Ezek 16:60, for other references to perpetual covenants.

[37:26]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “give them.”

[37:28]  ¹⁸ sn The sanctuary of Israel becomes the main focus of Ezek 40-48.

[37:2]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and he made me pass over them, around, around.”

[37:2]  ²⁰ tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and is here translated as “I realized” because it results from Ezekiel’s recognition of the situation around him. In Hebrew, the exclamation is repeated in the following sentence.

[1:16]  ²¹ tn BDAG 579 s.v. κυριότης 3 suggests “bearers of the ruling powers, dominions” here.

[21:3]  ²² tn Or “dwelling place”; traditionally, “tabernacle”; literally “tent.”

[21:3]  ²³ tn Or “people”; Grk “men” (ἀνθρώπων, anqrwpwn), a generic use of the term. In the translation “human beings” was used here because “people” occurs later in the verse and translates a different Greek word (λαοί, laoi).

[21:3]  ²⁴ tn Grk “men, and he.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[21:3]  ²⁵ tc ‡ Most mss (א Ï^K) do not add the words “[as] their God” (αὐτῶν θεός, autwn qeos) after “he will be with them.” The mss with these words include A 2030 2050 2329 al. The Andreas group (Ï^A) also has the words, but in a different arrangement with the preceding (ἔσται μετ᾿ αὐτῶν θεὸς αὐτῶν, estai met’ autwn qeo" autwn). Not only do the words float, but scribes may have been motivated to make a connection here more directly with Isa 7:14; 8:8; Jer 24:7; 31:33; Zech 8:8. In light of sufficient external evidence as well as the possibility that the longer reading is theologically motivated, the shorter reading is preferred. NA²⁷ places the words in brackets, indicating doubts as to their authenticity.