Deuteronomy 4:39

4:39 Today realize and carefully consider that the Lord is God in heaven above and on earth below – there is no other!

Deuteronomy 5:7

5:7 You must not have any other gods ¹  besides me. ² 

Deuteronomy 6:4

The Essence of the Covenant Principles

6:4 Listen, Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! ³ 

Isaiah 44:8

44:8 Don’t panic! Don’t be afraid! ⁴ 

Did I not tell you beforehand and decree it?

You are my witnesses! Is there any God but me?

There is no other sheltering rock; ⁵  I know of none.

Isaiah 45:5-6

45:5 I am the Lord, I have no peer, ⁶ 

there is no God but me.

I arm you for battle, ⁷  even though you do not recognize ⁸  me.

45:6 I do this ⁹  so people ¹⁰  will recognize from east to west

that there is no God but me;

I am the Lord, I have no peer.

Isaiah 45:14

The Lord is the Nations’ Only Hope

45:14 This is what the Lord says:

“The profit ¹¹  of Egypt and the revenue ¹²  of Ethiopia,

along with the Sabeans, those tall men,

will be brought to you ¹³  and become yours.

They will walk behind you, coming along in chains. ¹⁴ 

They will bow down to you

and pray to you: ¹⁵ 

‘Truly God is with ¹⁶  you; he has no peer; ¹⁷ 

there is no other God!’”

Isaiah 45:18

45:18 For this is what the Lord says,

the one who created the sky –

he is the true God, ¹⁸ 

the one who formed the earth and made it;

he established it,

he did not create it without order, ¹⁹ 

he formed it to be inhabited –

“I am the Lord, I have no peer.

Isaiah 45:21-22

45:21 Tell me! Present the evidence! ²⁰ 

Let them consult with one another!

Who predicted this in the past?

Who announced it beforehand?

Was it not I, the Lord?

I have no peer, there is no God but me,

a God who vindicates and delivers; ²¹ 

there is none but me.

45:22 Turn to me so you can be delivered, ²² 

all you who live in the earth’s remote regions!

For I am God, and I have no peer.

Isaiah 46:9

46:9 Remember what I accomplished in antiquity! ²³ 

Truly I am God, I have no peer; ²⁴ 

I am God, and there is none like me,

Jeremiah 10:10-12

10:10 The Lord is the only true God.

He is the living God and the everlasting King.

When he shows his anger the earth shakes.

None of the nations can stand up to his fury.

10:11 You people of Israel should tell those nations this:

‘These gods did not make heaven and earth.

They will disappear ²⁵  from the earth and from under the heavens.’ ²⁶ 

10:12 The Lord is the one who ²⁷  by his power made the earth.

He is the one who by his wisdom established the world.

And by his understanding he spread out the skies.

[5:7]  ¹ tn Heb “there must not be for you other gods.” The expression “for you” indicates possession.

[5:7]  ² tn Heb “upon my face,” or “before me” (עַל־פָּנָיַ, ’al-panaya). Some understand this in a locative sense: “in my sight.” The translation assumes that the phrase indicates exclusion. The idea is that of placing any other god before the Lord in the sense of taking his place. Contrary to the view of some, this does not leave the door open for a henotheistic system where the Lord is the primary god among others. In its literary context the statement must be taken in a monotheistic sense. See, e.g., 4:39; 6:13-15.

[6:4]  ³ tn Heb “the Lord, our God, the Lord, one.” (1) One option is to translate: “The Lord is our God, the Lord alone” (cf. NAB, NRSV, NLT). This would be an affirmation that the Lord was the sole object of their devotion. This interpretation finds support from the appeals to loyalty that follow (vv. 5, 14). (2) Another option is to translate: “The Lord is our God, the Lord is unique.” In this case the text would be affirming the people’s allegiance to the Lord, as well as the Lord’s superiority to all other gods. It would also imply that he is the only one worthy of their worship. Support for this view comes from parallel texts such as Deut 7:9 and 10:17, as well as the use of “one” in Song 6:8-9, where the starstruck lover declares that his beloved is unique (literally, “one,” that is, “one of a kind”) when compared to all other women.

[44:8]  ⁴ tn BDB 923 s.v. רָהָה derives this verb from an otherwise unattested root, while HALOT 403 s.v. יָרָה defines it as “be stupefied” on the basis of an Arabic cognate. The form is likely a corruption of תיראו, the reading attested in the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a.

[44:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “rock” or “rocky cliff,” a title that depicts God as a protective refuge in his role as sovereign king; thus the translation “sheltering rock.”

[45:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “and there is none besides.” On the use of עוֹד (’od) here, see BDB 729 s.v. 1.c.

[45:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “gird you” (so NASB) or “strengthen you” (so NIV).

[45:5]  ⁸ tn Or “know” (NAB, NCV, NRSV, TEV, CEV, NLT); NIV “have not acknowledged.”

[45:6]  ⁹ tn The words “I do this” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[45:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “they” (so KJV, ASV); TEV, CEV “everyone”; NLT “all the world.”

[45:14]  ¹¹ tn Heb “labor,” which stands metonymically for the fruits of labor, either “monetary profit,” or “products.”

[45:14]  ¹² tn Or perhaps, “merchandise” (so KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); NAB “the gain of Ethiopia”; CEV “the treasures of Ethiopia.”

[45:14]  ¹³ tn Heb “they will pass over to you”; NASB, NIV “will come over to you”; CEV “will belong to you.”

[45:14]  ¹⁴ sn Restored Israel is depicted here in typical ancient Near Eastern fashion as an imperial power that receives riches and slaves as tribute.

[45:14]  ¹⁵ sn Israel’s vassals are portrayed as so intimidated and awed that they treat Israel as an intermediary to God or sub-deity.

[45:14]  ¹⁶ tn Or perhaps, “among.” Cf. KJV, ASV “Surely God is in thee.”

[45:14]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “there is no other” (so NIV, NRSV). The same phrase occurs at the end of v. 18, in v. 21, and at the end of v. 22.

[45:18]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “he [is] the God.” The article here indicates uniqueness.

[45:18]  ¹⁹ tn Or “unformed.” Gen 1:2 describes the world as “unformed” (תֹהוּ, tohu) prior to God’s creative work, but God then formed the world and made it fit for habitation.

[45:21]  ²⁰ tn Heb “Declare! Bring near!”; NASB “Declare and set forth your case.” See 41:21.

[45:21]  ²¹ tn Or “a righteous God and deliverer”; NASB, NIV, NRSV “a righteous God and a Savior.”

[45:22]  ²² tn The Niphal imperative with prefixed vav (ו) indicates purpose after the preceding imperative. The Niphal probably has a tolerative sense, “allow yourselves to be delivered, accept help.”

[46:9]  ²³ tn Heb “remember the former things, from antiquity”; KJV, ASV “the former things of old.”

[46:9]  ²⁴ tn Heb “and there is no other” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[10:11]  ²⁵ tn Aram “The gods who did not make…earth will disappear…” The sentence is broken up in the translation to avoid a long, complex English sentence in conformity with contemporary English style.

[10:11]  ²⁶ tn This verse is in Aramaic. It is the only Aramaic sentence in Jeremiah. Scholars debate the appropriateness of this verse to this context. Many see it as a gloss added by a postexilic scribe which was later incorporated into the text. Both R. E. Clendenen (“Discourse Strategies in Jeremiah 10,” JBL 106 [1987]: 401-8) and W. L. Holladay (Jeremiah [Hermeneia], 1:324-25, 334-35) have given detailed arguments that the passage is not only original but the climax and center of the contrast between the Lord and idols in vv. 2-16. Holladay shows that the passage is a very carefully constructed chiasm (see accompanying study note) which argues that “these” at the end is the subject of the verb “will disappear” not the attributive adjective modifying heaven. He also makes a very good case that the verse is poetry and not prose as it is rendered in the majority of modern English versions.

[10:12]  ²⁷ tn The words “The Lord is” are not in the text. They are implicit from the context. They are supplied in the translation here because of the possible confusion of who the subject is due to the parenthetical address to the people of Israel in v. 11. The first two verbs are participles and should not merely be translated as the narrative past. They are predicate nominatives of an implied copula intending to contrast the Lord as the one who made the earth with the idols which did not.