Exodus 20:6

20:6 and showing covenant faithfulness ¹  to a thousand generations ²  of those who love me and keep my commandments.

Deuteronomy 5:10

5:10 but I show covenant faithfulness ³  to the thousands ⁴  who choose ⁵  me and keep my commandments.

Deuteronomy 7:9

7:9 So realize that the Lord your God is the true God, ⁶  the faithful God who keeps covenant faithfully ⁷  with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations,

Deuteronomy 10:12-13

An Exhortation to Love Both God and People

10:12 Now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you except to revere him, ⁸  to obey all his commandments, ⁹  to love him, to serve him ¹⁰  with all your mind and being, ¹¹  10:13 and to keep the Lord’s commandments and statutes that I am giving ¹²  you today for your own good?

Daniel 9:4

9:4 I prayed to the LORD my God, confessing in this way:

“O Lord, ¹³  great and awesome God who is faithful to his covenant ¹⁴  with those who love him and keep his commandments,

Matthew 12:47-50

12:47 ¹⁵  Someone ¹⁶  told him, “Look, your mother and your brothers are standing outside wanting ¹⁷  to speak to you.” 12:48 To the one who had said this, Jesus ¹⁸  replied, ¹⁹  “Who is my mother and who are my brothers?” 12:49 And pointing ²⁰  toward his disciples he said, “Here ²¹  are my mother and my brothers! 12:50 For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is ²²  my brother and sister and mother.”

John 14:15

Teaching on the Holy Spirit

14:15 “If you love me, you will obey ²³  my commandments. ²⁴ 

John 14:21-24

14:21 The person who has my commandments and obeys ²⁵  them is the one who loves me. ²⁶  The one ²⁷  who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will reveal ²⁸  myself to him.”

14:22 “Lord,” Judas (not Judas Iscariot) ²⁹  said, ³⁰  “what has happened that you are going to reveal ³¹  yourself to us and not to the world?” 14:23 Jesus replied, ³²  “If anyone loves me, he will obey ³³  my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and take up residence with him. ³⁴  14:24 The person who does not love me does not obey ³⁵  my words. And the word ³⁶  you hear is not mine, but the Father’s who sent me.

John 15:10

15:10 If you obey ³⁷  my commandments, you will remain ³⁸  in my love, just as I have obeyed ³⁹  my Father’s commandments and remain ⁴⁰  in his love.

John 15:14

15:14 You are my friends ⁴¹  if you do what I command you.

John 15:2

15:2 He takes away ⁴²  every branch that does not bear ⁴³  fruit in me. He ⁴⁴  prunes ⁴⁵  every branch that bears ⁴⁶  fruit so that it will bear more fruit.

John 1:6

1:6 A man came, sent from God, whose name was John. ⁴⁷ 

[20:6]  ¹ tn Literally “doing loyal love” (עֹשֶׂה חֶסֶד, ’oseh khesed). The noun refers to God’s covenant loyalty, his faithful love to those who belong to him. These are members of the covenant, recipients of grace, the people of God, whom God will preserve and protect from evil and its effects.

[20:6]  ² tn Heb “to thousands” or “to thousandth.” After “tenth,” Hebrew uses cardinal numbers for ordinals also. This statement is the antithesis of the preceding line. The “thousands” or “thousandth [generation]” are those who love Yahweh and keep his commands. These are descendants from the righteous, and even associates with them, who benefit from the mercy that God extends to his people. S. R. Driver (Exodus, 195) says that this passage teaches that God’s mercy transcends his wrath; in his providence the beneficial consequences of a life of goodness extend indefinitely further than the retribution that is the penalty for persisting in sin. To say that God’s loyal love extends to thousands of generations or the thousandth generation is parallel to saying that it endures forever (Ps. 118). See also Exod 34:7; Deut 5:10; 7:9; Ps 18:51; Jer 32:18.

[5:10]  ³ 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]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn Heb “love.” See note on the word “reject” in v. 9.

[7:9]  ⁶ tn Heb “the God.” The article here expresses uniqueness; cf. TEV “is the only God”; NLT “is indeed God.”

[7:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “who keeps covenant and loyalty.” The syndetic construction of בְּרִית (bÿrit) and חֶסֶד (khesed) should be understood not as “covenant” plus “loyalty” but as an adverbial construction in which חֶסֶד (“loyalty”) modifies the verb שָׁמַר (shamar, “keeps”).

[10:12]  ⁸ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in 10:4.

[10:12]  ⁹ tn Heb “to walk in all his ways” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV); NAB “follow his ways exactly”; NLT “to live according to his will.”

[10:12]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in 10:4.

[10:12]  ¹¹ tn Heb “heart and soul” or “heart and being”; NCV “with your whole being.” See note on the word “being” in Deut 6:5.

[10:13]  ¹² tn Heb “commanding” (so NASB, NRSV). For stylistic reasons, to avoid redundancy, “giving” has been used in the translation.

[9:4]  ¹³ tn The Hebrew term translated “Lord” here and in vv. 7, 9, 15, 16, and 19 is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[9:4]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “who keeps the covenant and the loyal love.” The expression is a hendiadys.

[12:47]  ¹⁵ tc A few ancient mss and versions lack this verse (א* B L Γ pc ff¹ k sy^s,c sa). The witness of א and B is especially strong, but internal considerations override this external evidence. Both v. 46 and 47 end with the word λαλῆσαι (“to speak”), so early scribes probably omitted the verse through homoioteleuton. The following verses make little sense without v. 47; its omission is too hard a reading. Thus v. 47 was most likely part of the original text.

[12:47]  ¹⁶ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[12:47]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “seeking.”

[12:48]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[12:48]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “And answering, he said to the one who had said this.” This construction is somewhat redundant in English and has been simplified in the translation. Here δέ (de) at the beginning of the clause has not been translated.

[12:49]  ²⁰ tn Grk “extending his hand.”

[12:49]  ²¹ tn Grk “Behold my mother and my brothers.”

[12:50]  ²² tn The pleonastic pronoun αὐτός (autos, “he”) which precedes this verb has not been translated.

[14:15]  ²³ tn Or “will keep.”

[14:15]  ²⁴ sn Jesus’ statement If you love me, you will obey my commandments provides the transition between the promises of answered prayer which Jesus makes to his disciples in vv. 13-14 and the promise of the Holy Spirit which is introduced in v. 16. Obedience is the proof of genuine love.

[14:21]  ²⁵ tn Or “keeps.”

[14:21]  ²⁶ tn Grk “obeys them, that one is the one who loves me.”

[14:21]  ²⁷ tn Grk “And the one.” Here the conjunction καί (kai) has not been translated to improve the English style.

[14:21]  ²⁸ tn Or “will disclose.”

[14:22]  ²⁹ tn Grk “(not Iscariot).” The proper noun (Judas) has been repeated for clarity and smoothness in English style.

[14:22]  ³⁰ tn Grk “said to him.”

[14:22]  ³¹ tn Or “disclose.”

[14:23]  ³² tn Grk “answered and said to him.”

[14:23]  ³³ tn Or “will keep.”

[14:23]  ³⁴ tn Grk “we will come to him and will make our dwelling place with him.” The context here is individual rather than corporate indwelling, so the masculine singular pronoun has been retained throughout v. 23. It is important to note, however, that the pronoun is used generically here and refers equally to men, women, and children.

[14:24]  ³⁵ tn Or “does not keep.”

[14:24]  ³⁶ tn Or “the message.”

[15:10]  ³⁷ tn Or “keep.”

[15:10]  ³⁸ tn Or “reside.”

[15:10]  ³⁹ tn Or “kept.”

[15:10]  ⁴⁰ tn Or “reside.”

[15:14]  ⁴¹ sn This verse really explains John 15:10 in another way. Those who keep Jesus’ commandments are called his friends, those friends for whom he lays down his life (v. 13). It is possible to understand this verse as referring to a smaller group within Christianity as a whole, perhaps only the apostles who were present when Jesus spoke these words. Some have supported this by comparing it to the small group of associates and advisers to the Roman Emperor who were called “Friends of the Emperor.” Others would see these words as addressed only to those Christians who as disciples were obedient to Jesus. In either case the result would be to create a sort of “inner circle” of Christians who are more privileged than mere “believers” or average Christians. In context, it seems clear that Jesus’ words must be addressed to all true Christians, not just some narrower category of believers, because Jesus’ sacrificial death, which is his act of love toward his friends (v. 13) applies to all Christians equally (cf. John 13:1).

[15:2]  ⁴² tn Or “He cuts off.”

[15:2]  ⁴³ tn Or “does not yield.”

[15:2]  ⁴⁴ tn Grk “And he”; the conjunction καί (kai, “and”) has been omitted in the translation in keeping with the tendency in contemporary English style to use shorter sentences.

[15:2]  ⁴⁵ tn Or “trims”; Grk “cleanses” (a wordplay with “clean” in v. 3). Καθαίρει (kaqairei) is not the word one would have expected here, but it provides the transition from the vine imagery to the disciples – there is a wordplay (not reproducible in English) between αἴρει (airei) and καθαίρει in this verse. While the purpose of the Father in cleansing his people is clear, the precise means by which he does so is not immediately obvious. This will become clearer, however, in the following verse.

[15:2]  ⁴⁶ tn Or “that yields.”

[1:6]  ⁴⁷ sn John refers to John the Baptist.