Deuteronomy 5:10

5:10 but I show covenant faithfulness ¹  to the thousands ²  who choose ³  me and keep my commandments.

Deuteronomy 5:2

5:2 The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Horeb.

Deuteronomy 30:9

30:9 The Lord your God will make the labor of your hands ⁴  abundantly successful and multiply your children, ⁵  the offspring of your cattle, and the produce of your soil. For the Lord your God will once more ⁶  rejoice over you to make you prosperous ⁷  just as he rejoiced over your ancestors,

Nehemiah 9:17

9:17 They refused to obey and did not recall your miracles that you had performed among them. Instead, they rebelled and appointed a leader to return to their bondage in Egypt. ⁸  But you are a God of forgiveness, merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and unfailing in your loyal love. ⁹  You did not abandon them,

Psalms 86:5

86:5 Certainly ¹⁰  O Lord, you are kind ¹¹  and forgiving,

and show great faithfulness to all who cry out to you.

Psalms 86:15

86:15 But you, O Lord, are a compassionate and merciful God.

You are patient ¹²  and demonstrate great loyal love and faithfulness. ¹³ 

Psalms 103:8-13

103:8 The Lord is compassionate and merciful;

he is patient ¹⁴  and demonstrates great loyal love. ¹⁵ 

103:9 He does not always accuse,

and does not stay angry. ¹⁶ 

103:10 He does not deal with us as our sins deserve; ¹⁷ 

he does not repay us as our misdeeds deserve. ¹⁸ 

103:11 For as the skies are high above the earth,

so his loyal love towers ¹⁹  over his faithful followers. ²⁰ 

103:12 As far as the eastern horizon ²¹  is from the west, ²² 

so he removes the guilt of our rebellious actions ²³  from us.

103:13 As a father has compassion on his children, ²⁴ 

so the Lord has compassion on his faithful followers. ²⁵ 

Psalms 111:4

111:4 He does ²⁶  amazing things that will be remembered; ²⁷ 

the Lord is merciful and compassionate.

Psalms 112:4

112:4 In the darkness a light ²⁸  shines for the godly,

for each one who is merciful, compassionate, and just. ²⁹ 

Psalms 116:5

116:5 The Lord is merciful and fair;

our God is compassionate.

Psalms 145:8

145:8 The Lord is merciful and compassionate;

he is patient ³⁰  and demonstrates great loyal love. ³¹ 

Joel 2:13

2:13 Return to the Lord your God,

for he is merciful and compassionate,

slow to anger and boundless in loyal love ³²  – often relenting from calamitous punishment. ³³ 

Jonah 4:2

4:2 He prayed to the Lord and said, “Oh, Lord, this is just what I thought ³⁴  would happen ³⁵  when I was in my own country. ³⁶  This is what I tried to prevent ³⁷  by attempting to escape to Tarshish! ³⁸  – because I knew ³⁹  that you are gracious and compassionate, slow to anger ⁴⁰  and abounding ⁴¹  in mercy, and one who relents concerning threatened judgment. ⁴² 

Romans 2:4

2:4 Or do you have contempt for the wealth of his kindness, forbearance, and patience, and yet do not know ⁴³  that God’s kindness leads you to repentance?

[5:10]  ¹ tn This theologically rich term (חֶסֶד, khesed) describes God’s loyalty to those who keep covenant with him. Sometimes it is used synonymously with בְּרִית (bÿrit, “covenant”; Deut 7:9), and sometimes interchangeably with it (Deut 7:12). See H.-J. Zobel, TDOT 5:44-64.

[5:10]  ² tc By a slight emendation (לַאֲלּוּפִים [la’allufim] for לַאֲלָפִים [la’alafim]) “clans” could be read in place of the MT reading “thousands.” However, no ms or versional evidence exists to support this emendation.

[5:10]  ³ tn Heb “love.” See note on the word “reject” in v. 9.

[30:9]  ⁴ tc The MT reads “hand” (singular). Most versions read the plural.

[30:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV); NRSV “of your body.”

[30:9]  ⁶ tn Heb “return and.” The Hebrew verb is used idiomatically here to indicate the repetition of the following action.

[30:9]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew text includes “for good.”

[9:17]  ⁸ tc The present translation follows a few medieval Hebrew MSS and the LXX in reading בְּמִצְרָיִם (bÿmitsrayim, “in Egypt”; so also NAB, NASB, NRSV, TEV, NLT) rather than the MT reading בְּמִרְיָם (bÿmiryam, “in their rebellion”).

[9:17]  ⁹ tc The translation follows the Qere reading חֶסֶד (khesed, “loyal love”) rather than the Kethib reading וְחֶסֶד (vÿkhesed, “and loyal love”) of the MT.

[86:5]  ¹⁰ tn Or “for.”

[86:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “good.”

[86:15]  ¹² tn Heb “slow to anger.”

[86:15]  ¹³ tn Heb “and great of loyal love and faithfulness.”

[103:8]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “slow to anger” (see Ps 86:15).

[103:8]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and great of loyal love” (see Ps 86:15).

[103:9]  ¹⁶ tn The Hebrew verb נָטַר (natar) is usually taken to mean “to keep; to guard,” with “anger” being understood by ellipsis. The idiom “to guard anger” is then understood to mean “to remain angry” (see Lev 19:18; Jer 3:5, 12; Nah 1:2). However, it is possible that this is a homonymic root meaning “to be angry” (see HALOT 695 s.v. נטר).

[103:10]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “not according to our sins does he do to us.”

[103:10]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and not according to our misdeeds does he repay us.”

[103:11]  ¹⁹ tn For this sense of the verb גָבַר (gavar), see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 17, 19.

[103:11]  ²⁰ tn Heb “those who fear him.”

[103:12]  ²¹ tn Heb “sunrise.”

[103:12]  ²² tn Or “sunset.”

[103:12]  ²³ tn The Hebrew term פֶּשַׁע (pesha’, rebellious act”) is here used metonymically for the guilt such actions produce.

[103:13]  ²⁴ tn Or “sons,” but the Hebrew term sometimes refers to children in general.

[103:13]  ²⁵ tn Heb “those who fear him.”

[111:4]  ²⁶ tn Or “did,” if this refers primarily to the events of the exodus and conquest period (see vv. 6, 9).

[111:4]  ²⁷ tn Heb “a memorial he had made for his amazing deeds.”

[112:4]  ²⁸ tn In this context “light” symbolizes divine blessing in its various forms (see v. 2), including material prosperity and stability.

[112:4]  ²⁹ tn Heb “merciful and compassionate and just.” The Hebrew text has three singular adjectives, which are probably substantival and in apposition to the “godly” (which is plural, however). By switching to the singular, the psalmist focuses on each individual member of the group known as the “godly.” Note how vv. 5-9, like vv. 1-2a, use the singular to describe the representative godly individual who typifies the whole group.

[145:8]  ³⁰ tn Heb “slow to anger” (see Pss 86:15; 103:8).

[145:8]  ³¹ tn Heb “and great of loyal love” (see Pss 86:15; 103:8).

[2:13]  ³² tn Heb “and great of loyal love.”

[2:13]  ³³ tn Heb “and he relents from calamity.”

[4:2]  ³⁴ tn Heb “my saying?” The first common singular suffix on דְבָרִי (dÿvari, “my saying”) functions as a subjective genitive: “I said.” The verb אָמַר (’amar, “to say”) here refers to the inner speech and thoughts of Jonah (see HALOT 66 s.v. אמר 4; BDB 56 s.v. אָמַר 2; e.g., Gen 17:17; Ruth 4:4; 1 Sam 20:26; Esth 6:6; Jonah 2:4). There is no hint anywhere else in the book that Jonah had argued with God when he was originally commissioned. While most English versions render it “I said” or “my saying,” a few take it as inner speech: “This is what I feared” (NEB), “It is just as I feared” (REB), “I knew from the very beginning” (CEV).

[4:2]  ³⁵ tn The phrase “would happen” does not appear in the Hebrew text but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity and smoothness.

[4:2]  ³⁶ tn Heb “Is this not my saying while I was in my own country?” The rhetorical question implies a positive answer (“Yes, this was the very thing that Jonah had anticipated would happen all along!”) so it is rendered as an emphatic declaration in the translation.

[4:2]  ³⁷ tn Or “This is why I originally fled to Tarshish.” The verb קָדַם (qadam) in the Piel stem has a broad range of meanings and here could mean: (1) “to go before, be in front of” (1 Sam 20:25; Ps 68:26); (2) “to do [something] beforehand,” (Ps 119:147); or (3) “to anticipate, to do [something] early, forestall [something]” (Ps 119:148). The lexicons nuance Jonah 4:2 as “to do [something] for the first time” (HALOT 1069 s.v. קדם 4) or “to do [something] beforehand” (BDB 870 s.v. קָדַם 3). The phrase קִדַּמְתִּי לִבְרֹחַ (qiddamti livroakh, “I did the first time to flee”) is an idiom that probably means “I originally fled” or “I fled the first time.” The infinitive construct לִבְרֹחַ (“to flee”) functions as an object complement. This phrase is translated variously by English versions, depending on the category of meaning chosen for קָדַם: (1) “to do [something] for the first time, beforehand”: “That is why I fled beforehand” (JPS, NJPS), “I fled before” (KJV), “I fled previously” (NKJV), “I fled at the beginning” (NRSV), “I first tried to flee” (NJB), “I fled at first” (NAB); (2) “to do [something] early, to hasten to do [something]”: “That is why I was so quick to flee” (NIV), “I hastened to flee” (ASV), “I made haste to flee” (RSV), “I did my best to run away” (TEV); and (3) “to anticipate, forestall [something]”: “it was to forestall this that I tried to escape to Tarshish” (REB), “to forestall it I tried to escape to Tarshish” (NEB), “in order to forestall this I fled” (NASB). The ancient versions also handle it variously: (1) “to do [something] early, to hasten to do [something]”: “Therefore I made haste to flee” (LXX), “That is why I hastened to run away” (Tg. Jonah 4:2); and (2) “to go before, to be in front”: “Therefore I went before to flee to Tarshish” (Vulgate). The two most likely options are (1) “to do [something] the first time” = “This is why I originally fled to Tarshish” and (2) “to anticipate, forestall [something]” = “This is what I tried to forestall [= prevent] by fleeing to Tarshish.”

[4:2]  ³⁸ tn See note on the phrase “to Tarshish” in 1:3.

[4:2]  ³⁹ tn Or “know.” What Jonah knew then he still knows about the Lord’s character, which is being demonstrated in his dealings with both Nineveh and Jonah. The Hebrew suffixed tense accommodates both times here.

[4:2]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “long of nostrils.” Because the nose often expresses anger through flared nostrils it became the source of this idiom meaning “slow to anger” (e.g., Exod 34:6; Num 14:18; Neh 9:17; Pss 86:15; 103:8; 145:8; Jer 15:15; Nah 1:3; BDB 74 s.v. אָרֵךְ).

[4:2]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “great” (so KJV); ASV, NASB “abundant”; NAB “rich in clemency.”

[4:2]  ⁴² tn Heb “calamity.” The noun רָעָה (ra’ah, “calamity, disaster”) functions as a metonymy of result – the cause being the threatened judgment (e.g., Exod 32:12, 14; 2 Sam 24:16; Jer 18:8; 26:13, 19; 42:10; Joel 2:13; Jonah 4:2). The classic statement of God’s willingness to relent from judgment when a sinful people repent is Jer 18:1-11.

[2:4]  ⁴³ tn Grk “being unaware.”