Exodus 23:22

23:22 But if you diligently obey him ¹  and do all that I command, then I will be an enemy to your enemies, and I will be an adversary to your adversaries.

Exodus 24:7

24:7 He took the Book of the Covenant ²  and read it aloud ³  to the people, and they said, “We are willing to do and obey ⁴  all that the Lord has spoken.”

Deuteronomy 11:27

11:27 the blessing if you take to heart ⁵  the commandments of the Lord your God that I am giving you today,

Deuteronomy 28:1

The Covenant Blessings

28:1 “If you indeed ⁶  obey the Lord your God and are careful to observe all his commandments I am giving ⁷  you today, the Lord your God will elevate you above all the nations of the earth.

Joshua 24:24

24:24 The people said to Joshua, “We will worship ⁸  the Lord our God and obey him.” ⁹ 

Joshua 24:1

Israel Renews its Commitment to the Lord

24:1 Joshua assembled all the Israelite tribes at Shechem. He summoned Israel’s elders, rulers, judges, and leaders, and they appeared before God.

Joshua 15:22

15:22 Kinah, Dimonah, Adadah,

Isaiah 1:19

1:19 If you have a willing attitude and obey, ¹⁰ 

then you will again eat the good crops of the land.

Jeremiah 7:23

7:23 I also explicitly commanded them: ¹¹  “Obey me. If you do, I ¹²  will be your God and you will be my people. Live exactly the way I tell you ¹³  and things will go well with you.”

Jeremiah 11:4-7

11:4 Those are the terms that I charged your ancestors ¹⁴  to keep ¹⁵  when I brought them out of Egypt, that place which was like an iron-smelting furnace. ¹⁶  I said at that time, ¹⁷  “Obey me and carry out the terms of the agreement ¹⁸  exactly as I commanded you. If you do, ¹⁹  you will be my people and I will be your God. ²⁰  11:5 Then I will keep the promise I swore on oath to your ancestors to give them a land flowing with milk and honey.” ²¹  That is the very land that you still live in today.’” ²²  And I responded, “Amen! Let it be so, ²³  Lord!”

11:6 The Lord said to me, “Announce all the following words in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem: ‘Listen to the terms of my covenant with you ²⁴  and carry them out! 11:7 For I solemnly warned your ancestors to obey me. ²⁵  I warned them again and again, ²⁶  ever since I delivered them out of Egypt until this very day.

Hebrews 11:8

11:8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place he would later receive as an inheritance, and he went out without understanding where he was going.

[23:22]  ¹ tn The infinitive absolute here does not add as great an emphasis as normal, but emphasizes the condition that is being set forth (see GKC 342-43 §113.o).

[24:7]  ² tn The noun “book” would be the scroll just written containing the laws of chaps. 20-23. On the basis of this scroll the covenant would be concluded here. The reading of this book would assure the people that it was the same that they had agreed to earlier. But now their statement of willingness to obey would be more binding, because their promise would be confirmed by a covenant of blood.

[24:7]  ³ tn Heb “read it in the ears of.”

[24:7]  ⁴ tn A second verb is now added to the people’s response, and it is clearly an imperfect and not a cohortative, lending support for the choice of desiderative imperfect in these commitments – “we want to obey.” This was their compliance with the covenant.

[11:27]  ⁵ tn Heb “listen to,” that is, obey.

[28:1]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates with “indeed.”

[28:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “commanding”; NAB “which I enjoin on you today” (likewise in v. 15).

[24:24]  ⁸ tn Or “will serve.”

[24:24]  ⁹ tn Heb “and listen to his voice.”

[1:19]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “listen”; KJV “obedient”; NASB “If you consent and obey.”

[7:23]  ¹¹ tn Verses 22-23a read in Hebrew, “I did not speak with your ancestors and I did not command them when I brought them out of Egypt about words/matters concerning burnt offering and sacrifice, but I commanded them this word:” Some modern commentators have explained this passage as an evidence for the lateness of the Pentateuchal instruction regarding sacrifice or a denial that sacrifice was practiced during the period of the wilderness wandering. However, it is better explained as an example of what R. de Vaux calls a dialectical negative, i.e., “not so much this as that” or “not this without that” (Ancient Israel, 454-56). For other examples of this same argument see Isa 1:10-17; Hos 6:4-6; Amos 5:21-25.

[7:23]  ¹² tn Heb “Obey me and I will be.” The translation is equivalent syntactically but brings out the emphasis in the command.

[7:23]  ¹³ tn Heb “Walk in all the way that I command you.”

[11:4]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 5, 7, 10).

[11:4]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “does not listen…this covenant which I commanded your fathers.” The sentence is broken up this way in conformity with contemporary English style.

[11:4]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron-smelting furnace.”

[11:4]  ¹⁷ tn In place of the words “I said at that time” the Hebrew text has “saying.” The sentence is again being restructured in English to avoid the long, confusing style of the Hebrew original.

[11:4]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “Obey me and carry them out.” The “them” refers back to the terms of the covenant which they were charged to keep according to the preceding. The referent is made specific to avoid ambiguity.

[11:4]  ¹⁹ tn The words, “If you do” are not in the text. They have been supplied in the translation to break up a long sentence consisting of an imperative followed by a consequential sentence.

[11:4]  ²⁰ sn Obey me and carry out the terms of the agreement…and I will be your God. This refers to the Mosaic law which was instituted at Sinai and renewed on the Plains of Moab before Israel entered into the land. The words “the terms of the covenant” are explicitly used for the Ten Commandments in Exod 34:28 and for the additional legislation given in Deut 28:69; 29:8. The formulation here is reminiscent of Deut 29:9-14 (29:10-15 HT). The book of Deuteronomy is similar in its structure and function to an ancient Near Eastern treaty. In these the great king reminded his vassal of past benefits that he had given to him, charged him with obligations (the terms or stipulations of the covenant) chief among which was absolute loyalty and sole allegiance, promised him future benefits for obeying the stipulations (the blessings), and placed him under a curse for disobeying them. Any disobedience was met with stern warnings of punishment in the form of destruction and exile. Those who had witnessed the covenant were called in to confirm the continuing goodness of the great king and the disloyalty of the vassal. The vassal was then charged with a list of particular infringements of the stipulations and warned to change his actions or suffer the consequences. This is the background for Jer 11:1-9. Jeremiah is here functioning as a messenger from the Lord, Israel’s great king, and charging both the fathers and the children with breach of covenant.

[11:5]  ²¹ tn The phrase “a land flowing with milk and honey” is very familiar to readers in the Jewish and Christian traditions as a proverbial description of the agricultural and pastoral abundance of the land of Israel. However, it may not mean too much to readers outside those traditions; an equivalent expression would be “a land of fertile fields and fine pastures.” E. W. Bullinger (Figures of Speech, 626) identifies this as a figure of speech called synecdoche where the species is put for the genus, “a region…abounding with pasture and fruits of all kinds.”

[11:5]  ²² tn Heb “‘a land flowing with milk and honey,’ as at this day.” However, the literal reading is too elliptical and would lead to confusion.

[11:5]  ²³ tn The words “Let it be so” are not in the text; they are an explanation of the significance of the term “Amen” for those who may not be part of the Christian or Jewish tradition.

[11:6]  ²⁴ tn Heb “the terms of this covenant.” However, this was a separate message and the ambiguity of “this” could still cause some confusion.

[11:7]  ²⁵ tn Heb “warned them…saying, ‘Obey me.’” However, it allows the long sentence to be broken up easier if the indirect quote is used.

[11:7]  ²⁶ tn For the explanation for this rendering see the note on 7:13.