Exodus 33:19

33:19 And the Lord ¹  said, “I will make all my goodness ²  pass before your face, and I will proclaim the Lord by name ³  before you; I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy.” ⁴ 

Exodus 34:5-7

34:5 The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the Lord by name. ⁵  34:6 The Lord passed by before him and proclaimed: ⁶  “The Lord, the Lord, ⁷  the compassionate and gracious ⁸  God, slow to anger, ⁹  and abounding in loyal love and faithfulness, ¹⁰  34:7 keeping loyal love for thousands, ¹¹  forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. But he by no means leaves the guilty unpunished, responding to the transgression ¹²  of fathers by dealing with children and children’s children, to the third and fourth generation.”

Psalms 48:10

48:10 The praise you receive as far away as the ends of the earth

is worthy of your reputation, O God. ¹³ 

You execute justice! ¹⁴ 

Ezekiel 20:44

20:44 Then you will know that I am the Lord, when I deal with you for the sake of my reputation and not according to your wicked conduct and corrupt deeds, O house of Israel, declares the sovereign Lord.’”

Ezekiel 37:13-14

37:13 Then you will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and raise you from your graves, my people. 37:14 I will place my breath ¹⁵  in you and you will live; I will give you rest in your own land. Then you will know that I am the Lord – I have spoken and I will act, declares the Lord.’”

Ezekiel 39:27-29

39:27 When I have brought them back from the peoples and gathered them from the countries of their enemies, I will magnify myself among them in the sight of many nations. 39:28 Then they will know that I am the Lord their God, because I sent them into exile among the nations, and then gathered them into their own land. I will not leave any of them in exile ¹⁶  any longer. 39:29 I will no longer hide my face from them, when I pour out my Spirit on the house of Israel, ¹⁷  declares the sovereign Lord.”

Zechariah 10:9-12

10:9 Though I scatter ¹⁸  them among the nations, they will remember in far-off places – they and their children will sprout forth and return. 10:10 I will bring them back from Egypt and gather them from Assyria. ¹⁹  I will bring them to the lands of Gilead and Lebanon, for there will not be enough room for them in their own land. 10:11 The Lord ²⁰  will cross the sea of storms and will calm its turbulence. The depths of the Nile will dry up, the pride of Assyria will be humbled, and the domination ²¹  of Egypt will be no more. 10:12 Thus I will strengthen them by my power, ²²  and they will walk about ²³  in my name,” says the Lord.

Hebrews 8:10-11

8:10 “For this is the covenant that I will establish with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put ²⁴  my laws in their minds ²⁵  and I will inscribe them on their hearts. And I will be their God and they will be my people. ²⁶ 

8:11 “And there will be no need at all ²⁷  for each one to teach his countryman or each one to teach his brother saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ since they will all know me, from the least to the greatest. ²⁸ 

[33:19]  ¹ tn Heb “and he said”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[33:19]  ² sn The word “goodness” refers to the divine appearance in summary fashion.

[33:19]  ³ tn The expression “make proclamation in the name of Yahweh” (here a perfect tense with vav [ו] consecutive for future) means to declare, reveal, or otherwise make proclamation of who Yahweh is. The “name of Yahweh” (rendered “the name of the Lord” throughout) refers to his divine attributes revealed to his people, either in word or deed. What will be focused on first will be his grace and compassion.

[33:19]  ⁴ sn God declares his mercy and grace in similar terms to his earlier self-revelation (“I am that I am”): “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious.” In other words, the grace and mercy of God are bound up in his own will. Obviously, in this passage the recipients of that favor are the penitent Israelites who were forgiven through Moses’ intercession. The two words are at the heart of God’s dealings with people. The first is חָנַן (khanan, “to be gracious, show favor”). It means to grant favor or grace to someone, grace meaning unmerited favor. All of God’s dealings are gracious, but especially in forgiving sins and granting salvation it is critical. Parallel to this is רָחַם (rakham), a word that means “show compassion, tender mercy.” It is a word that is related to the noun “womb,” the connection being in providing care and protection for that which is helpless and dependent – a motherly quality. In both of these constructions the verbs simply express what God will do, without explaining why. See further, J. R. Lundbom, “God’s Use of the Idem per idem to Terminate Debate,” HTR 71 (1978): 193-201; and J. Piper, “Prolegomena to Understanding Romans 9:14-15: An Interpretation of Exodus 33:19,” JETS 22 (1979): 203-16.

[34:5]  ⁵ tn Some commentaries wish to make Moses the subject of the second and the third verbs, the first because he was told to stand there and this verb suggests he did it, and the last because it sounds like he was worshiping Yahweh (cf. NASB). But it is clear from v. 6 that Yahweh was the subject of the last clause of v. 5 – v. 6 tells how he did it. So if Yahweh is the subject of the first and last clauses of v. 5, it seems simpler that he also be the subject of the second. Moses took his stand there, but God stood by him (B. Jacob, Exodus, 981; U. Cassuto, Exodus, 439). There is no reason to make Moses the subject in any of the verbs of v. 5.

[34:6]  ⁶ tn Here is one of the clearest examples of what it means “to call on the name of the Lord,” as that clause has been translated traditionally (וַיִּקְרָא בְשֵׁם יְהוָה, vayyiqra’ vÿshem yÿhvah). It seems more likely that it means “to make proclamation of Yahweh by name.” Yahweh came down and made a proclamation – and the next verses give the content of what he said. This cannot be prayer or praise; it is a proclamation of the nature or attributes of God (which is what his “name” means throughout the Bible). Attempts to make Moses the subject of the verb are awkward, for the verb is repeated in v. 6 with Yahweh clearly doing the proclaiming.

[34:6]  ⁷ sn U. Cassuto (Exodus, 439) suggests that these two names be written as a sentence: “Yahweh, He is Yahweh.” In this manner it reflects “I am that I am.” It is impossible to define his name in any other way than to make this affirmation and then show what it means.

[34:6]  ⁸ tn See Exod 33:19.

[34:6]  ⁹ sn This is literally “long of anger.” His anger prolongs itself, allowing for people to repent before punishment is inflicted.

[34:6]  ¹⁰ sn These two words (“loyal love” and “truth”) are often found together, occasionally in a hendiadys construction. If that is the interpretation here, then it means “faithful covenant love.” Even if they are left separate, they are dual elements of a single quality. The first word is God’s faithful covenant love; the second word is God’s reliability and faithfulness.

[34:7]  ¹¹ tn That is, “for thousands of generations.”

[34:7]  ¹² sn As in the ten commandments (20:5-6), this expression shows that the iniquity and its punishment will continue in the family if left unchecked. This does not go on as long as the outcomes for good (thousands versus third or fourth generations), and it is limited to those who hate God.

[48:10]  ¹³ tn Heb “like your name, O God, so [is] your praise to the ends of the earth.” Here “name” refers to God’s reputation and revealed character.

[48:10]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “your right hand is full of justice.” The “right hand” suggests activity and power.

[37:14]  ¹⁵ tn Or “spirit.” This is likely an allusion to Gen 2 and God’s breath which creates life.

[39:28]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “there,” referring to the foreign nations to which they were exiled. The translation makes the referent clear.

[39:29]  ¹⁷ sn See Ezek 11:19; 37:14.

[10:9]  ¹⁸ tn Or “sow” (so KJV, ASV). The imagery is taken from the sowing of seed by hand.

[10:10]  ¹⁹ sn I will bring them back from Egypt…from Assyria. The gathering of God’s people to their land in eschatological times will be like a reenactment of the exodus, but this time they will come from all over the world (cf. Isa 40:3-5; 43:1-7, 14-21; 48:20-22; 51:9-11).

[10:11]  ²⁰ tn Heb “he,” in which case the referent is the Lord. This reading is followed by KJV, ASV, NAB (which renders it as first person), and NASB. The LXX reads “they,” referring to the Israelites themselves, a reading followed by many modern English versions (e.g., NIV, NRSV, TEV, NLT).

[10:11]  ²¹ tn Heb “scepter,” referring by metonymy to the dominating rule of Egypt (cf. NLT).

[10:12]  ²² tc Heb “I will strengthen them in the Lord.” Because of the perceived problem of the Lord saying he will strengthen the people “in the Lord,” both BHK and BHS suggest emending גִּבַּרְתִּים (gibbartim, “I will strengthen them”) to גְּבֻרָתָם (gevuratam, “their strength”). This is unnecessary, however, for the Lord frequently refers to himself in that manner (see Zech 2:11).

[10:12]  ²³ tc The LXX and Syriac presuppose יִתְהַלָּלוּ (yithallalu, “they will glory”) for יִתְהַלְּכוּ (yithallÿkhu, “they will walk about”). Since walking about is a common idiom in Zechariah (cf. 1:10, 11; 6:7 [3x]) to speak of dominion, and dominion is a major theme of the present passage, there is no reason to reject the MT reading, which is followed by most modern English versions.

[8:10]  ²⁴ tn Grk “putting…I will inscribe.”

[8:10]  ²⁵ tn Grk “mind.”

[8:10]  ²⁶ tn Grk “I will be to them for a God and they will be to me for a people,” following the Hebrew constructions of Jer 31.

[8:11]  ²⁷ tn Grk “they will not teach, each one his fellow citizen…” The Greek makes this negation emphatic: “they will certainly not teach.”

[8:11]  ²⁸ tn Grk “from the small to the great.”