Exodus 32:32-33

32:32 But now, if you will forgive their sin…, ¹  but if not, wipe me out ²  from your book that you have written.” ³  32:33 The Lord said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me – that person I will wipe out of my book.

Deuteronomy 9:14

9:14 Stand aside ⁴  and I will destroy them, obliterating their very name from memory, ⁵  and I will make you into a stronger and more numerous nation than they are.”

Deuteronomy 25:19

25:19 So when the Lord your God gives you relief from all the enemies who surround you in the land he ⁶  is giving you as an inheritance, ⁷  you must wipe out the memory of the Amalekites from under heaven ⁸  – do not forget! ⁹ 

Deuteronomy 29:20

29:20 The Lord will be unwilling to forgive him, and his intense anger ¹⁰  will rage ¹¹  against that man; all the curses ¹²  written in this scroll will fall upon him ¹³  and the Lord will obliterate his name from memory. ¹⁴ 

Psalms 69:28

69:28 May their names be deleted from the scroll of the living! ¹⁵ 

Do not let their names be listed with the godly! ¹⁶ 

Romans 11:2-12

11:2 God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew! Do you not know what the scripture says about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel? 11:3 “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars; I alone am left and they are seeking my life!” ¹⁷  11:4 But what was the divine response ¹⁸  to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand people ¹⁹  who have not bent the knee to Baal.” ²⁰ 

11:5 So in the same way at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. 11:6 And if it is by grace, it is no longer by works, otherwise grace would no longer be grace. 11:7 What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was diligently seeking, but the elect obtained it. The ²¹  rest were hardened, 11:8 as it is written,

“God gave them a spirit of stupor,

eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear,

to this very day.” ²² 

11:9 And David says,

“Let their table become a snare and trap,

a stumbling block and a retribution for them;

11:10 let their eyes be darkened so that they may not see,

and make their backs bend continually.” ²³ 

11:11 I ask then, they did not stumble into an irrevocable fall, ²⁴  did they? Absolutely not! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make Israel ²⁵  jealous. 11:12 Now if their transgression means riches for the world and their defeat means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full restoration ²⁶  bring?

Revelation 3:5

3:5 The one who conquers ²⁷  will be dressed like them ²⁸  in white clothing, ²⁹  and I will never ³⁰  erase ³¹  his name from the book of life, but ³²  will declare ³³  his name before my Father and before his angels.

[32:32]  ¹ tn The apodosis is not expressed; it would be understood as “good.” It is not stated because of the intensity of the expression (the figure is aposiopesis, a sudden silence). It is also possible to take this first clause as a desire and not a conditional clause, rendering it “Oh that you would forgive!”

[32:32]  ² tn The word “wipe” is a figure of speech indicating “remove me” (meaning he wants to die). The translation “blot” is traditional, but not very satisfactory, since it does not convey complete removal.

[32:32]  ³ sn The book that is referred to here should not be interpreted as the NT “book of life” which is portrayed (figuratively) as a register of all the names of the saints who are redeemed and will inherit eternal life. Here it refers to the names of those who are living and serving in this life, whose names, it was imagined, were on the roster in the heavenly courts as belonging to the chosen. Moses would rather die than live if these people are not forgiven (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 356).

[9:14]  ⁴ tn Heb “leave me alone.”

[9:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “from under heaven.”

[25:19]  ⁶ tn Heb “ the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[25:19]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew text includes “to possess it.”

[25:19]  ⁸ tn Or “from beneath the sky.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.

[25:19]  ⁹ sn This command is fulfilled in 1 Sam 15:1-33.

[29:20]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the wrath of the Lord and his zeal.” The expression is a hendiadys, a figure in which the second noun becomes adjectival to the first.

[29:20]  ¹¹ tn Heb “smoke,” or “smolder.”

[29:20]  ¹² tn Heb “the entire oath.”

[29:20]  ¹³ tn Or “will lie in wait against him.”

[29:20]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “blot out his name from under the sky.”

[69:28]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “let them be wiped out of the scroll of the living.”

[69:28]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and with the godly let them not be written.”

[11:3]  ¹⁷ sn A quotation from 1 Kgs 19:10, 14.

[11:4]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “the revelation,” “the oracle.”

[11:4]  ¹⁹ tn The Greek term here is ἀνήρ (anhr), which only exceptionally is used in a generic sense of both males and females. In this context, it appears to be a generic usage (“people”) since when Paul speaks of a remnant of faithful Israelites (“the elect,” v. 7), he is not referring to males only. It can also be argued, however, that it refers only to adult males here (“men”), perhaps as representative of all the faithful left in Israel.

[11:4]  ²⁰ sn A quotation from 1 Kgs 19:18.

[11:7]  ²¹ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[11:8]  ²² sn A quotation from Deut 29:4; Isa 29:10.

[11:10]  ²³ sn A quotation from Ps 69:22-23.

[11:11]  ²⁴ tn Grk “that they might fall.”

[11:11]  ²⁵ tn Grk “them”; the referent (Israel, cf. 11:7) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[11:12]  ²⁶ tn Or “full inclusion”; Grk “their fullness.”

[3:5]  ²⁷ tn Or “who overcomes.”

[3:5]  ²⁸ tn Grk “thus.”

[3:5]  ²⁹ tn Or “white robes.”

[3:5]  ³⁰ tn The negation here is with οὐ μή (ou mh), the strongest possible form of negation in Koine Greek.

[3:5]  ³¹ tn Or “will never wipe out.”

[3:5]  ³² tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.

[3:5]  ³³ tn Grk “will confess.”