Discovery BoxExodus 19:5-6
Context19:5 And now, if you will diligently listen to me 1 and keep 2 my covenant, then you will be my 3 special possession 4 out of all the nations, for all the earth is mine, 19:6 and you will be to me 5 a kingdom of priests 6 and a holy nation.’ 7 These are the words that you will speak to the Israelites.”
Jeremiah 31:33
Context31:33 “But I will make a new covenant with the whole nation of Israel 8 after I plant them back in the land,” 9 says the Lord. 10 “I will 11 put my law within them 12 and write it on their hearts and minds. 13 I will be their God and they will be my people. 14
Jeremiah 32:38
Context32:38 They will be my people, and I will be their God. 15
Ezekiel 11:20
Context11:20 so that they may follow my statutes and observe my regulations and carry them out. Then they will be my people, and I will be their God. 16
Ezekiel 36:28
Context36:28 Then you will live in the land I gave to your fathers; you will be my people, and I will be your God. 17
Ezekiel 37:27
Context37:27 My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be my people.
Zechariah 13:9
Context13:9 Then I will bring the remaining third into the fire;
I will refine them like silver is refined
and will test them like gold is tested.
They will call on my name and I will answer;
I will say, ‘These are my people,’
and they will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’” 18
[19:5] 1 tn Heb “listen to my voice.” The construction uses the imperfect tense in the conditional clause, preceded by the infinitive absolute from the same verb. The idiom “listen to the voice of” implies obedience, not just mental awareness of sound.
[19:5] 2 tn The verb is a perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive; it continues the idea in the protasis of the sentence: “and [if you will] keep.”
[19:5] 3 tn The lamed preposition expresses possession here: “to me” means “my.”
[19:5] 4 tn The noun is סְגֻלָּה (sÿgullah), which means a special possession. Israel was to be God’s special possession, but the prophets will later narrow it to the faithful remnant. All the nations belong to God, but Israel was to stand in a place of special privilege and enormous responsibility. See Deut 7:6; 14:2; 26:18; Ps 135:4; and Mal 3:17. See M. Greenburg, “Hebrew sÿgulla: Akkadian sikiltu,” JAOS 71 (1951): 172ff.
[19:6] 5 tn Or “for me” (NIV, NRSV), or, if the lamed (ל) preposition has a possessive use, “my kingdom” (so NCV).
[19:6] 6 tn The construction “a kingdom of priests” means that the kingdom is made up of priests. W. C. Kaiser (“Exodus,” EBC 2:417) offers four possible renderings of the expression: 1) apposition, viz., “kings, that is, priests; 2) as a construct with a genitive of specification, “royal priesthood”; 3) as a construct with the genitive being the attribute, “priestly kingdom”; and 4) reading with an unexpressed “and” – “kings and priests.” He takes the latter view that they were to be kings and priests. (Other references are R. B. Y. Scott, “A Kingdom of Priests (Exodus xix. 6),” OTS 8 [1950]: 213-19; William L. Moran, “A Kingdom of Priests,” The Bible in Current Catholic Thought, 7-20). However, due to the parallelism of the next description which uses an adjective, this is probably a construct relationship. This kingdom of God will be composed of a priestly people. All the Israelites would be living wholly in God’s service and enjoying the right of access to him. And, as priests, they would have the duty of representing God to the nations, following what they perceived to be the duties of priests – proclaiming God’s word, interceding for people, and making provision for people to find God through atonement (see Deut 33:9,10).
[19:6] 7 tn They are also to be “a holy nation.” They are to be a nation separate and distinct from the rest of the nations. Here is another aspect of their duty. It was one thing to be God’s special possession, but to be that they had to be priestly and holy. The duties of the covenant will specify what it would mean to be a holy nation. In short, they had to keep themselves free from everything that characterized pagan people (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 171). So it is a bilateral covenant: they received special privileges but they must provide special services by the special discipline. See also H. Kruse, “Exodus 19:5 and the Mission of Israel,” North East Asian Journal of Theology 24/25 (1980): 239-42.
[31:33] 8 tn Heb “with the house of Israel.” All commentators agree that the term here refers to both the whole nation which was divided into the house of Israel and the house of Judah in v. 30.
[31:33] 9 tn Heb “after those days.” Commentators are generally agreed that this refers to the return from exile and the repopulation of the land referred to in vv. 27-28 and not to something subsequent to the time mentioned in v. 30. This is the sequencing that is also presupposed in other new covenant passages such as Deut 30:1-6; Ezek 11:17-20; 36:24-28.
[31:33] 10 tn Heb “Oracle of the
[31:33] 11 tn Heb “‘But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after these days:’ says the
[31:33] 12 tn Heb “in their inward parts.” The Hebrew word here refers to the seat of the thoughts, emotions, and decisions (Jer 9:8 [9:7 HT]). It is essentially synonymous with “heart” in Hebrew psychological terms.
[31:33] 13 tn The words “and minds” is not in the text but is supplied in the translation to bring the English psychology more into line with the Hebrew where the “heart” is the center both of knowing/thinking/reflecting and deciding/willing.
[31:33] 14 sn Compare Jer 24:7; 30:22; 31:1 and see the study note on 30:2.
[32:38] 15 sn The covenant formula setting forth the basic relationship is reinstituted along with a new covenant (v. 40). See also 24:7; 30:22; 31:1 and the study note on 30:22.
[11:20] 16 sn The expression They will be my people, and I will be their God occurs as a promise to Abraham (Gen 17:8), Moses (Exod 6:7), and the nation (Exod 29:45).
[36:28] 17 sn This promise reflects the ancient covenantal ideal (see Exod 6:7).
[13:9] 18 sn The expression I will say ‘It is my people,’ and they will say ‘the
