2 Chronicles 13:10

13:10 But as for us, the Lord is our God and we have not rejected him. Aaron’s descendants serve as the Lord’s priests and the Levites assist them with the work. ¹ 

2 Chronicles 15:2

15:2 He met ²  Asa and told him, “Listen to me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin! The Lord is with you when you are loyal to him. ³  If you seek him, he will respond to you, ⁴  but if you reject him, he will reject you.

Deuteronomy 32:21

32:21 They have made me jealous ⁵  with false gods, ⁶ 

enraging me with their worthless gods; ⁷ 

so I will make them jealous with a people they do not recognize, ⁸ 

with a nation slow to learn ⁹  I will enrage them.

Deuteronomy 32:1

Invocation of Witnesses

32:1 Listen, O heavens, and I will speak;

hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.

Deuteronomy 11:31

11:31 For you are about to cross the Jordan to possess the land the Lord your God is giving you, and you will possess and inhabit it.

Deuteronomy 11:1

Reiteration of the Call to Obedience

11:1 You must love the Lord your God and do what he requires; keep his statutes, ordinances, and commandments ¹⁰  at all times.

Jeremiah 2:13

2:13 “Do so because my people have committed a double wrong:

they have rejected me,

the fountain of life-giving water, ¹¹ 

and they have dug cisterns for themselves,

cracked cisterns which cannot even hold water.”

[13:10]  ¹ tn Heb “and priests serving the Lord [are] the sons of Aaron and the Levites in the work.”

[15:2]  ² tn Heb “went out before.”

[15:2]  ³ tn Heb “when you are with him.”

[15:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “he will allow himself to be found by you.”

[32:21]  ⁵ sn They have made me jealous. The “jealousy” of God is not a spirit of pettiness prompted by his insecurity, but righteous indignation caused by the disloyalty of his people to his covenant grace (see note on the word “God” in Deut 4:24). The jealousy of Israel, however (see next line), will be envy because of God’s lavish attention to another nation. This is an ironic wordplay. See H. Peels, NIDOTTE 3:938-39.

[32:21]  ⁶ tn Heb “what is not a god,” or a “nondeity.”

[32:21]  ⁷ tn Heb “their empty (things).” The Hebrew term used here to refer pejoratively to the false gods is הֶבֶל (hevel, “futile” or “futility”), used frequently in Ecclesiastes (e.g., Eccl 1:1, “Futile! Futile!” laments the Teacher, “Absolutely futile! Everything is futile!”).

[32:21]  ⁸ tn Heb “what is not a people,” or a “nonpeople.” The “nonpeople” (לֹא־עָם, lo’-’am) referred to here are Gentiles who someday would become God’s people in the fullest sense (cf. Hos 1:9; 2:23).

[32:21]  ⁹ tn Heb “a foolish nation” (so KJV, NAB, NRSV); NIV “a nation that has no understanding”; NLT “I will provoke their fury by blessing the foolish Gentiles.”

[11:1]  ¹⁰ tn This collocation of technical terms for elements of the covenant text lends support to its importance and also signals a new section of paraenesis in which Moses will exhort Israel to covenant obedience. The Hebrew term מִשְׁמָרוֹת (mishmarot, “obligations”) sums up the three terms that follow – חֻקֹּת (khuqot), מִשְׁפָּטִים (mishppatim), and מִצְוֹת (mitsot).

[2:13]  ¹¹ tn It is difficult to decide whether to translate “fresh, running water” which the Hebrew term for “living water” often refers to (e.g., Gen 26:19; Lev 14:5), or “life-giving water” which the idiom “fountain of life” as source of life and vitality often refers to (e.g., Ps 36:9; Prov 13:14; 14:27). The contrast with cisterns, which collected and held rain water, suggests “fresh, running water,” but the reality underlying the metaphor contrasts the Lord, the source of life, health, and vitality, with useless idols that cannot do anything.