Deuteronomy 6:10-12

Exhortation to Worship the Lord Exclusively

6:10 Then when the Lord your God brings you to the land he promised your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to give you – a land with large, fine cities you did not build, 6:11 houses filled with choice things you did not accumulate, hewn out cisterns you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant – and you eat your fill, 6:12 be careful not to forget the Lord who brought you out of Egypt, that place of slavery. ¹ 

Deuteronomy 8:10-14

8:10 You will eat your fill and then praise the Lord your God because of the good land he has given you.

Exhortation to Remember That Blessing Comes from God

8:11 Be sure you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments, ordinances, and statutes that I am giving you today. 8:12 When you eat your fill, when you build and occupy good houses, 8:13 when your cattle and flocks increase, when you have plenty of silver and gold, and when you have abundance of everything, 8:14 be sure ²  you do not feel self-important and forget the Lord your God who brought you from the land of Egypt, the place of slavery,

Deuteronomy 31:16

31:16 Then the Lord said to Moses, “You are about to die, ³  and then these people will begin to prostitute themselves with the foreign gods of the land into which they ⁴  are going. They ⁵  will reject ⁶  me and break my covenant that I have made with them. ⁷ 

Deuteronomy 31:20

31:20 For after I have brought them ⁸  to the land I promised to their ⁹  ancestors – one flowing with milk and honey – and they ¹⁰  eat their fill ¹¹  and become fat, then they ¹²  will turn to other gods and worship them; they will reject me and break my covenant.

Nehemiah 9:25

9:25 They captured fortified cities and fertile land. They took possession of houses full of all sorts of good things – wells previously dug, vineyards, olive trees, and fruit trees in abundance. They ate until they were full ¹³  and grew fat. They enjoyed to the full your great goodness.

Isaiah 1:4

1:4 ¹⁴ The sinful nation is as good as dead, ¹⁵ 

the people weighed down by evil deeds.

They are offspring who do wrong,

children ¹⁶  who do wicked things.

They have abandoned the Lord,

and rejected the Holy One of Israel. ¹⁷ 

They are alienated from him. ¹⁸ 

Jeremiah 2:5

2:5 This is what the Lord says:

“What fault could your ancestors ¹⁹  have possibly found in me

that they strayed so far from me? ²⁰ 

They paid allegiance to ²¹  worthless idols, and so became worthless to me. ²² 

Jeremiah 5:7

5:7 The Lord asked, ²³ 

“How can I leave you unpunished, Jerusalem? ²⁴ 

Your people ²⁵  have rejected me

and have worshiped gods that are not gods at all. ²⁶ 

Even though I supplied all their needs, ²⁷  they were like an unfaithful wife to me. ²⁸ 

They went flocking ²⁹  to the houses of prostitutes. ³⁰ 

Jeremiah 5:28

5:28 That is how ³¹  they have grown fat and sleek. ³² 

There is no limit to the evil things they do. ³³ 

They do not plead the cause of the fatherless in such a way as to win it.

They do not defend the rights of the poor.

Hosea 13:6

13:6 When they were fed, ³⁴  they became satisfied;

when they were satisfied, they became proud; ³⁵ 

as a result, they forgot me!

[6:12]  ¹ tn Heb “out of the house of slavery” (so NASB, NRSV).

[8:14]  ² tn The words “be sure” are not in the Hebrew text; vv. 12-14 are part of the previous sentence. For stylistic reasons a new sentence was started at the beginning of v. 12 in the translation and the words “be sure” repeated from v. 11 to indicate the connection.

[31:16]  ³ tn Heb “lie down with your fathers” (so NASB); NRSV “ancestors.”

[31:16]  ⁴ tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they,” which is necessary in any case in the translation because of contemporary English style. The third person singular also occurs in the Hebrew text twice more in this verse, three times in v. 17, once in v. 18, five times in v. 20, and four times in v. 21. Each time it is translated as third person plural for stylistic reasons.

[31:16]  ⁵ tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:16]  ⁶ tn Or “abandon” (TEV, NLT).

[31:16]  ⁷ tn Heb “him.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “them.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:20]  ⁸ tn Heb “him.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “them.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:20]  ⁹ tn Heb “his.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “their.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:20]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[31:20]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and are satisfied.”

[31:20]  ¹² tn Heb “he.” Smr, LXX, and the Targums read the plural “they.” See note on the first occurrence of “they” in v. 16.

[9:25]  ¹³ tn Heb “they ate and were sated.” This expression is a hendiadys. The first verb retains its full verbal sense, while the second functions adverbially: “they ate and were filled” = “they ate until they were full.”

[1:4]  ¹⁴ sn Having summoned the witnesses and announced the Lord’s accusation against Israel, Isaiah mourns the nation’s impending doom. The third person references to the Lord in the second half of the verse suggest that the quotation from the Lord (cf. vv. 2-3) has concluded.

[1:4]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Woe [to the] sinful nation.” The Hebrew term הוֹי, (hoy, “woe, ah”) was used in funeral laments (see 1 Kgs 13:30; Jer 22:18; 34:5) and carries the connotation of death. In highly dramatic fashion the prophet acts out Israel’s funeral in advance, emphasizing that their demise is inevitable if they do not repent soon.

[1:4]  ¹⁶ tn Or “sons” (NASB). The prophet contrasts four terms of privilege – nation, people, offspring, children – with four terms that depict Israel’s sinful condition in Isaiah’s day – sinful, evil, wrong, wicked (see J. A. Motyer, The Prophecy of Isaiah, 43).

[1:4]  ¹⁷ sn Holy One of Israel is one of Isaiah’s favorite divine titles for God. It pictures the Lord as the sovereign king who rules over his covenant people and exercises moral authority over them.

[1:4]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “they are estranged backward.” The LXX omits this statement, which presents syntactical problems and seems to be outside the synonymous parallelistic structure of the verse.

[2:5]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “fathers.”

[2:5]  ²⁰ tn Or “I did not wrong your ancestors in any way. Yet they went far astray from me.” Both translations are an attempt to render the rhetorical question which demands a negative answer.

[2:5]  ²¹ tn Heb “They went/followed after.” This idiom is found most often in Deuteronomy or covenant contexts. It refers to loyalty to God and to his covenant or his commandments (e.g., 1 Kgs 14:8; 2 Chr 34:31) with the metaphor of a path or way underlying it (e.g., Deut 11:28; 28:14). To “follow other gods” was to abandon this way and this loyalty (i.e., to “abandon” or “forget” God, Judg 2:12; Hos 2:13) and to follow the customs or religious traditions of the pagan nations (e.g., 2 Kgs 17:15). The classic text on “following” God or another god is 1 Kgs 18:18, 21 where Elijah taunts the people with “halting between two opinions” whether the Lord was the true God or Baal was. The idiom is often found followed by “to serve and to worship” or “they served and worshiped” such and such a god or entity (see, e.g., Jer 8:2; 11:10; 13:10; 16:11; 25:6; 35:15).

[2:5]  ²² tn The words “to me” are not in the Hebrew text but are implicit from the context: Heb “they followed after the worthless thing/things and became worthless.” There is an obvious wordplay on the verb “became worthless” and the noun “worthless thing,” which is probably to be understood collectively and to refer to idols as it does in Jer 8:19; 10:8; 14:22; Jonah 2:8.

[5:7]  ²³ tn These words are not in the text, but are supplied in the translation to make clear who is speaking.

[5:7]  ²⁴ tn Heb “How can I forgive [or pardon] you.” The pronoun “you” is second feminine singular, referring to the city. See v. 1.

[5:7]  ²⁵ tn Heb “your children.”

[5:7]  ²⁶ tn Heb “and they have sworn [oaths] by not-gods.”

[5:7]  ²⁷ tn Heb “I satisfied them to the full.”

[5:7]  ²⁸ tn Heb “they committed adultery.” It is difficult to decide whether literal adultery with other women or spiritual adultery with other gods is meant. The word for adultery is used for both in the book of Jeremiah. For examples of its use for spiritual adultery see 3:8, 9; 9:2. For examples of its use for literal adultery see 7:9; 23:14. The context here could argue for either. The swearing by other gods and the implicit contradiction in their actions in contrast to the expected gratitude for supplying their needs argues for spiritual adultery. However, the reference to prostitution in the next line and the reference to chasing after their neighbor’s wives argues for literal adultery. The translation opts for spiritual adultery because of the contrast implicit in the concessive clause.

[5:7]  ²⁹ tn There is a great deal of debate about the meaning of this word. Most of the modern English versions follow the lead of lexicographers who relate this word to a noun meaning “troop” and understand it to mean “they trooped together” (cf. BDB 151 s.v. גָּדַד Hithpo.2 and compare the usage in Mic 5:1 [4:14 HT]). A few of the modern English versions and commentaries follow the reading of the Greek and read a word meaning “they lodged” (reading ִיתְגּוֹרְרוּ [yitggorÿru] from I גּוּר [gur; cf. HALOT 177 s.v. Hithpo. and compare the usage in 1 Kgs 17:20] instead of יִתְגֹּדָדוּ [yitggodadu]). W. L. Holladay (Jeremiah [Hermeneia], 1:180) sees a reference here to the cultic practice of cutting oneself in supplication to pagan gods (cf. BDB 151 s.v. גָּדַד Hithpo.1 and compare the usage in 1 Kgs 18:28). The houses of prostitutes would then be a reference to ritual prostitutes at the pagan shrines. The translation follows BDB and the majority of modern English versions.

[5:7]  ³⁰ tn Heb “to a house of a prostitute.”

[5:28]  ³¹ tn These words are not in the text but are supplied in the translation to show that this line is parallel with the preceding.

[5:28]  ³² tn The meaning of this word is uncertain. This verb occurs only here. The lexicons generally relate it to the word translated “plate” in Song 5:14 and understand it to mean “smooth, shiny” (so BDB 799 s.v. I עֶשֶׁת) or “fat” (so HALOT 850 s.v. II עֶשֶׁת). The word in Song 5:14 more likely means “smooth” than “plate” (so TEV). So “sleek” is most likely here.

[5:28]  ³³ tn Heb “they cross over/transgress with respect to matters of evil.”

[13:6]  ³⁴ tc The MT reads כְּמַרְעִיתָם (kÿmar’itam, “according to their pasturage”; preposition כְּ (kaf) + noun מַרְעִית, mar’it, “pasture” + 3rd person masculine plural suffix). Text-critics propose: (1) כְּמוֹ רְעִיתִים (kÿmo rÿ’itim, “as I pastured them”; preposition כְּמוֹ (kÿmo) + Qal perfect 1st person common singular from רָעַה, ra’ah, “to pasture, feed” + 3rd person masculine plural suffix) and (2) כִּרְעוֹתָם (“when they had pastured”; preposition כְּ + Qal perfect 3rd person masculine plural from רָעַה). Some English versions follow the MT: “according to their pasture” (KJV), “as they had their pasture” (NASB), “when you entered the good land” (TEV). Others adopt the first emendation: “when I fed them” (NIV, NRSV), “I fed you [sic = them]” (CEV). Still others follow the second emendation: “but when they had fed to the full” (RSV), “when they grazed” (NJPS).

[13:6]  ³⁵ tn Heb “their heart became exalted”; KJV, ASV “was exalted.”