2 Kings 11:4

11:4 In the seventh year Jehoiada summoned ¹  the officers of the units of hundreds of the Carians ²  and the royal bodyguard. ³  He met with them ⁴  in the Lord’s temple. He made an agreement ⁵  with them and made them swear an oath of allegiance in the Lord’s temple. Then he showed them the king’s son.

Deuteronomy 5:2-3

5:2 The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Horeb. 5:3 He ⁶  did not make this covenant with our ancestors ⁷  but with us, we who are here today, all of us living now.

Deuteronomy 29:1-15

Narrative Interlude

29:1 (28:69) ⁸  These are the words of the covenant that the Lord commanded Moses to make with the people of Israel in the land of Moab, in addition to the covenant he had made with them at Horeb. ⁹ 

The Exodus, Wandering, and Conquest Reviewed

29:2 Moses proclaimed to all Israel as follows: “You have seen all that the Lord did ¹⁰  in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, all his servants, and his land. 29:3 Your eyes have seen the great judgments, ¹¹  those signs and mighty wonders. 29:4 But to this very day the Lord has not given you an understanding mind, perceptive eyes, or discerning ears! ¹²  29:5 I have led you through the desert for forty years. Your clothing has not worn out ¹³  nor have your sandals ¹⁴  deteriorated. 29:6 You have eaten no bread and drunk no wine or beer – all so that you might know that I ¹⁵  am the Lord your God! 29:7 When you came to this place King Sihon of Heshbon and King Og of Bashan came out to make war and we defeated them. 29:8 Then we took their land and gave it as an inheritance to Reuben, Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh.

The Present Covenant Setting

29:9 “Therefore, keep the terms ¹⁶  of this covenant and obey them so that you may be successful in everything you do. 29:10 You are standing today, all of you, before the Lord your God – the heads of your tribes, ¹⁷  your elders, your officials, every Israelite man, 29:11 your infants, your wives, and the ¹⁸  foreigners living in your encampment, those who chop wood and those who carry water – 29:12 so that you may enter by oath into the covenant the Lord your God is making with you today. ¹⁹  29:13 Today he will affirm that you are his people and that he is your God, ²⁰  just as he promised you and as he swore by oath to your ancestors ²¹  Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 29:14 It is not with you alone that I am making this covenant by oath, 29:15 but with whoever stands with us here today before the Lord our God as well as those not with us here today. ²² 

Joshua 24:25

24:25 That day Joshua drew up an agreement ²³  for the people, and he established rules and regulations ²⁴  for them in Shechem.

Joshua 24:2

24:2 Joshua told all the people, “Here is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘In the distant past your ancestors ²⁵  lived beyond the Euphrates River, ²⁶  including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor. They worshiped ²⁷  other gods,

Joshua 15:12-14

15:12 The western border was the Mediterranean Sea. ²⁸  These were the borders of the tribe of Judah and its clans. ²⁹ 

15:13 Caleb son of Jephunneh was assigned Kiriath Arba (that is Hebron) within the tribe of Judah, according to the Lord’s instructions to Joshua. (Arba was the father of Anak.) ³⁰  15:14 Caleb drove out ³¹  from there three Anakites – Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai, descendants of Anak.

Joshua 1:10

Joshua Prepares for the Invasion

1:10 Joshua instructed ³²  the leaders of the people:

Joshua 1:1

The Lord Commissions Joshua

1:1 After Moses the Lord’s servant died, the Lord said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ assistant:

Ezra 10:3

10:3 Therefore let us enact ³³  a covenant with our God to send away all these women and their offspring, in keeping with your counsel, my lord, ³⁴  and that of those who respect ³⁵  the commandments of our God. And let it be done according to the law.

Nehemiah 5:12-13

5:12 They replied, “We will return these things, ³⁶  and we will no longer demand anything from them. We will do just as you say.” Then I called the priests and made the wealthy and the officials ³⁷  swear to do what had been promised. ³⁸  5:13 I also shook out my garment, ³⁹  and I said, “In this way may God shake out from his house and his property every person who does not carry out ⁴⁰  this matter. In this way may he be shaken out and emptied!” All the assembly replied, “So be it!” and they praised the LORD. Then the people did as they had promised. ⁴¹ 

Nehemiah 9:38

The People Pledge to be Faithful

9:38 (10:1) ⁴²  “Because of all of this we are entering into a binding covenant ⁴³  in written form; ⁴⁴  our leaders, our Levites, and our priests have affixed their names ⁴⁵  on the sealed document.”

Nehemiah 10:28-29

10:28 “Now the rest of the people – the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the temple attendants, and all those who have separated themselves from the neighboring peoples ⁴⁶  because of the law of God, along with their wives, their sons, and their daughters, all of whom are able to understand – 10:29 hereby participate with their colleagues the town leaders ⁴⁷  and enter into a curse and an oath ⁴⁸  to adhere to ⁴⁹  the law of God which was given through Moses the servant of God, and to obey ⁵⁰  carefully all the commandments of the LORD our Lord, ⁵¹  along with his ordinances and his statutes.

Nehemiah 10:2

10:2 Seraiah, Azariah, Jeremiah,

Colossians 1:5

1:5 Your faith and love have arisen ⁵²  from the hope laid up ⁵³  for you in heaven, which you have heard about in the message of truth, the gospel ⁵⁴ 

[11:4]  ¹ tn Heb “Jehoiada sent and took.”

[11:4]  ² sn The Carians were apparently a bodyguard, probably comprised of foreigners. See HALOT 497 s.v. כָּרִי and M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 126.

[11:4]  ³ tn Heb “the runners.”

[11:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “he brought them to himself.”

[11:4]  ⁵ tn Or “covenant.”

[5:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “the Lord.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[5:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “fathers.”

[29:1]  ⁸ sn Beginning with 29:1, the verse numbers through 29:29 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 29:1 ET = 28:69 HT, 29:2 ET = 29:1 HT, 29:3 ET = 29:2 HT, etc., through 29:29 ET = 29:28 HT. With 30:1 the verse numbers in the ET and HT are again the same.

[29:1]  ⁹ sn Horeb is another name for Mount Sinai (which some English versions substitute here for clarity, cf. NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT).

[29:2]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew text includes “to your eyes,” but this is redundant in English style (cf. the preceding “you have seen”) and is omitted in the translation.

[29:3]  ¹¹ tn Heb “testings.” This is a reference to the plagues; see note at 4:34.

[29:4]  ¹² tn Heb “a heart to know, eyes to see and ears to hear” (NASB similar); NAB, NRSV “a mind to understand, or eyes to see, or ears to hear.”

[29:5]  ¹³ tn The Hebrew text includes “on you.” This has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[29:5]  ¹⁴ tn The Hebrew text includes “from on your feet.”

[29:6]  ¹⁵ tc The LXX reads “that he is the Lord your God.”

[29:9]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “words.”

[29:10]  ¹⁷ tc Heb “your heads, your tribes.” The Syriac presupposes either “heads of your tribes” or “your heads, your judges,” etc. (reading שֹׁפְטֵכֶם [shofÿtekhem] for שִׁבְטֵיכֶם [shivtekhem]). Its comparative difficulty favors the originality of the MT reading. Cf. KJV “your captains of your tribes”; NRSV “the leaders of your tribes”; NLT “your tribal leaders.”

[29:11]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “your.”

[29:12]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “for you to pass on into the covenant of the Lord your God and into his oath, which the Lord your God is cutting with you today.”

[29:13]  ²⁰ tn Heb “in order to establish you today to him for a people and he will be to you for God.” Verses 10-13 are one long sentence in Hebrew. The translation divides this into two sentences for stylistic reasons.

[29:13]  ²¹ tn Heb “fathers” (also in v. 25).

[29:15]  ²² tn This is interpreted by some English versions as a reference to generations not yet born (cf. TEV, CEV, NLT).

[24:25]  ²³ tn Heb “cut a covenant.”

[24:25]  ²⁴ tn Heb “a statute and a judgment.”

[24:2]  ²⁵ tn Heb “your fathers.”

[24:2]  ²⁶ tn Heb “the river,” referring to the Euphrates. This has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[24:2]  ²⁷ tn Or “served.”

[15:12]  ²⁸ tn Heb “the Great Sea,” the typical designation for the Mediterranean Sea.

[15:12]  ²⁹ tn Heb “this was the border of the sons of Judah round about, by their clans.”

[15:13]  ³⁰ tn Heb “To Caleb son of Jephunneh he gave a portion in the midst of the sons of Judah according to the mouth [i.e., command] of the Lord to Joshua, Kiriath Arba (the father of Anak), it is Hebron.”

[15:14]  ³¹ tn Or “dispossessed.”

[1:10]  ³² tn Or “commanded.”

[10:3]  ³³ tn Heb “cut.”

[10:3]  ³⁴ tn The MT vocalizes this word as a plural, which could be understood as a reference to God. But the context seems to suggest that a human lord is intended. The apparatus of BHS suggests repointing the word as a singular (“my lord”), but this is unnecessary. The plural (“my lords”) can be understood in an honorific sense even when a human being is in view. Most English versions regard this as a reference to Ezra, so the present translation supplies “your” before “counsel” to make this clear.

[10:3]  ³⁵ tn Heb “who tremble at”; NAB, NIV “who fear.”

[5:12]  ³⁶ tn The words “these things” are not included in the Hebrew text, but have been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[5:12]  ³⁷ tn Heb “took an oath from them”; the referents (the wealthy and the officials, cf. v. 7) have been specified in the translation for clarity.

[5:12]  ³⁸ tn Heb “according to this word.”

[5:13]  ³⁹ tn Heb “my bosom.”

[5:13]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “cause to stand.”

[5:13]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “according to this word.”

[9:38]  ⁴² sn Beginning with 9:38, the verse numbers through 10:39 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 9:38 ET = 10:1 HT, 10:1 ET = 10:2 HT, 10:2 ET = 10:3 HT, etc., through 10:39 ET = 10:40 HT. Beginning with 11:1 the verse numbers in the ET and HT are again the same.

[9:38]  ⁴³ tn Heb “we are cutting.”

[9:38]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “and writing.”

[9:38]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “our leaders, our Levites, and our priests on the sealed document.” The Hebrew text is elliptical here; the words “have affixed their names” are supplied in the translation for clarity and for stylistic reasons. Cf. v. 2.

[10:28]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “from the peoples of the lands.” Cf. vv. 30, 31.

[10:29]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “the nobles.”

[10:29]  ⁴⁸ tn The expression “a curse and an oath” may be a hendiadys, meaning “an oath with penalties.”

[10:29]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “to walk in.”

[10:29]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “keep.” See the note on the word “obey” in Neh 1:5.

[10:29]  ⁵¹ tn The Hebrew term translated “Lord” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[1:5]  ⁵² tn Col 1:3-8 form one long sentence in the Greek text and have been divided at the end of v. 4 and v. 6 and within v. 6 for clarity, in keeping with the tendency in contemporary English toward shorter sentences. Thus the phrase “Your faith and love have arisen from the hope” is literally “because of the hope.” The perfect tense “have arisen” was chosen in the English to reflect the fact that the recipients of the letter had acquired this hope at conversion in the past, but that it still remains and motivates them to trust in Christ and to love one another.

[1:5]  ⁵³ tn BDAG 113 s.v. ἀπόκειμαι 2 renders ἀποκειμένην (apokeimenhn) with the expression “reserved” in this verse.

[1:5]  ⁵⁴ tn The term “the gospel” (τοῦ εὐαγγελίου, tou euangeliou) is in apposition to “the word of truth” (τῷ λόγῳ τῆς ἀληθείας, tw logw th" alhqeia") as indicated in the translation.