Ezekiel 20:5-6

20:5 and say to them:

“‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: On the day I chose Israel I swore ¹  to the descendants ²  of the house of Jacob and made myself known to them in the land of Egypt. I swore ³  to them, “I am the Lord your God.” 20:6 On that day I swore ⁴  to bring them out of the land of Egypt to a land which I had picked out ⁵  for them, a land flowing with milk and honey, ⁶  the most beautiful of all lands.

Exodus 19:4-8

19:4 ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt and how I lifted you on eagles’ wings ⁷  and brought you to myself. ⁸  19:5 And now, if you will diligently listen to me ⁹  and keep ¹⁰  my covenant, then you will be my ¹¹  special possession ¹²  out of all the nations, for all the earth is mine, 19:6 and you will be to me ¹³  a kingdom of priests ¹⁴  and a holy nation.’ ¹⁵  These are the words that you will speak to the Israelites.”

19:7 So Moses came and summoned the elders of Israel. He set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him, 19:8 and all the people answered together, “All that the Lord has commanded we will do!” ¹⁶  So Moses brought the words of the people back to the Lord.

Exodus 24:1-8

The Lord Ratifies the Covenant

24:1 ¹⁷ But to Moses the Lord ¹⁸  said, “Come up ¹⁹  to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship from a distance. ²⁰  24:2 Moses alone may come ²¹  near the Lord, but the others ²²  must not come near, ²³  nor may the people go up with him.”

24:3 Moses came ²⁴  and told the people all the Lord’s words ²⁵  and all the decisions. All the people answered together, ²⁶  “We are willing to do ²⁷  all the words that the Lord has said,” 24:4 and Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. Early in the morning he built ²⁸  an altar at the foot ²⁹  of the mountain and arranged ³⁰  twelve standing stones ³¹  – according to the twelve tribes of Israel. 24:5 He sent young Israelite men, ³²  and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls for peace offerings ³³  to the Lord. 24:6 Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and half of the blood he splashed on the altar. ³⁴  24:7 He took the Book of the Covenant ³⁵  and read it aloud ³⁶  to the people, and they said, “We are willing to do and obey ³⁷  all that the Lord has spoken.” 24:8 So Moses took the blood and splashed it on ³⁸  the people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant ³⁹  that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

Exodus 32:13

32:13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel your servants, to whom you swore by yourself and told them, ‘I will multiply your descendants ⁴⁰  like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken about ⁴¹  I will give to your descendants, ⁴²  and they will inherit it forever.’”

Deuteronomy 4:31

4:31 (for he ⁴³  is a merciful God), he will not let you down ⁴⁴  or destroy you, for he cannot ⁴⁵  forget the covenant with your ancestors that he confirmed by oath to them.

Jeremiah 2:2-3

2:2 “Go and declare in the hearing of the people of Jerusalem: ⁴⁶  ‘This is what the Lord says: “I have fond memories of you, ⁴⁷  how devoted you were to me in your early years. ⁴⁸  I remember how you loved me like a new bride; you followed me through the wilderness, through a land that had never been planted. 2:3 Israel was set apart to the Lord; they were like the first fruits of a harvest to him. ⁴⁹  All who tried to devour them were punished; disaster came upon them,” says the Lord.’”

Jeremiah 31:32

31:32 It will not be like the old ⁵⁰  covenant that I made with their ancestors ⁵¹  when I delivered them ⁵²  from Egypt. For they violated that covenant, even though I was like a faithful husband to them,” ⁵³  says the Lord. ⁵⁴ 

Hosea 2:18-20

New Covenant Relationship with Repentant Israel

2:18 “At that time ⁵⁵  I will make a covenant for them with the wild animals,

the birds of the air, and the creatures that crawl on the ground.

I will abolish ⁵⁶  the warrior’s bow and sword

– that is, every weapon of warfare ⁵⁷  – from the land,

and I will allow them to live securely.” ⁵⁸ 

2:19 I will commit myself to you ⁵⁹  forever;

I will commit myself to you in ⁶⁰  righteousness and justice,

in steadfast love and tender compassion.

2:20 I will commit myself to you in faithfulness;

then ⁶¹  you will acknowledge ⁶²  the Lord.” ⁶³ 

[20:5]  ¹ tn Heb “I lifted up my hand.”

[20:5]  ² tn Heb “seed.”

[20:5]  ³ tn Heb “I lifted up my hand.”

[20:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “I lifted up my hand to them.”

[20:6]  ⁵ tn Or “searched out.” The Hebrew word is used to describe the activity of the spies in “spying out” the land of Canaan (Num 13-14); cf. KJV “I had espied for them.”

[20:6]  ⁶ sn The phrase “a land flowing with milk and honey,” a figure of speech describing the land’s abundant fertility, occurs in v. 15 as well as Exod 3:8, 17; 13:5; 33:3; Lev 20:24; Num 13:27; Deut 6:3; 11:9; 26:9; 27:3; Josh 5:6; Jer 11:5; 32:23 (see also Deut 1:25; 8:7-9).

[19:4]  ⁷ tn The figure compares the way a bird would teach its young to fly and leave the nest with the way Yahweh brought Israel out of Egypt. The bird referred to could be one of several species of eagles, but more likely is the griffin-vulture. The image is that of power and love.

[19:4]  ⁸ sn The language here is the language of a bridegroom bringing the bride to the chamber. This may be a deliberate allusion to another metaphor for the covenant relationship.

[19:5]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ tn The lamed preposition expresses possession here: “to me” means “my.”

[19:5]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ tn Or “for me” (NIV, NRSV), or, if the lamed (ל) preposition has a possessive use, “my kingdom” (so NCV).

[19:6]  ¹⁴ 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]  ¹⁵ 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.

[19:8]  ¹⁶ tn The verb is an imperfect. The people are not being presumptuous in stating their compliance – there are several options open for the interpretation of this tense. It may be classified as having a desiderative nuance: “we are willing to do” or, “we will do.”

[24:1]  ¹⁷ sn Exod 24 is the high point of the book in many ways, but most importantly, here Yahweh makes a covenant with the people – the Sinaitic Covenant. The unit not only serves to record the event in Israel’s becoming a nation, but it provides a paradigm of the worship of God’s covenant people – entering into the presence of the glory of Yahweh. See additionally W. A. Maier, “The Analysis of Exodus 24 According to Modern Literary, Form, and Redaction Critical Methodology,” Springfielder 37 (1973): 35-52. The passage may be divided into four parts for exposition: vv. 1-2, the call for worship; vv. 3-8, the consecration of the worshipers; vv. 9-11, the confirmation of the covenant; and vv. 12-18, the communication with Yahweh.

[24:1]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “And he;” the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[24:1]  ¹⁹ sn They were to come up to the Lord after they had made the preparations that are found in vv. 3-8.

[24:1]  ²⁰ sn These seventy-four people were to go up the mountain to a certain point. Then they were to prostrate themselves and worship Yahweh as Moses went further up into the presence of Yahweh. Moses occupies the lofty position of mediator (as Christ in the NT), for he alone ascends “to Yahweh” while everyone waits for his return. The emphasis of “bowing down” and that from “far off” stresses again the ominous presence that was on the mountain. This was the holy God – only the designated mediator could draw near to him.

[24:2]  ²¹ tn The verb is a perfect tense with a vav (ו) consecutive; it and the preceding perfect tense follow the imperative, and so have either a force of instruction, or, as taken here, are the equivalent of an imperfect tense (of permission).

[24:2]  ²² tn Heb “they.”

[24:2]  ²³ tn Now the imperfect tense negated is used; here the prohibition would fit (“they will not come near”), or the obligatory (“they must not”) in which the subjects are obliged to act – or not act in this case.

[24:3]  ²⁴ sn The general consensus among commentators is that this refers to Moses’ coming from the mountain after he made the ascent in 20:21. Here he came and told them the laws (written in 20:22-23:33), and of the call to come up to Yahweh.

[24:3]  ²⁵ sn The Decalogue may not be included here because the people had heard those commands themselves earlier.

[24:3]  ²⁶ tn The text simply has “one voice” (קוֹל אֶחָד, qol ’ekhad); this is an adverbial accusative of manner, telling how the people answered – “in one voice,” or unanimously (see GKC 375 §118.q).

[24:3]  ²⁷ tn The verb is the imperfect tense (נַעֲשֶׂה, na’aseh), although the form could be classified as a cohortative. If the latter, they would be saying that they are resolved to do what God said. If it is an imperfect, then the desiderative would make the most sense: “we are willing to do.” They are not presumptuously saying they are going to do all these things.

[24:4]  ²⁸ tn The two preterites quite likely form a verbal hendiadys (the verb “to get up early” is frequently in such constructions). Literally it says, “and he got up early [in the morning] and he built”; this means “early [in the morning] he built.” The first verb becomes the adverb.

[24:4]  ²⁹ tn “under.”

[24:4]  ³⁰ tn The verb “arranged” is not in the Hebrew text but has been supplied to clarify exactly what Moses did with the twelve stones.

[24:4]  ³¹ tn The thing numbered is found in the singular when the number is plural – “twelve standing-stone.” See GKC 433 §134.f. The “standing-stone” could be a small piece about a foot high, or a huge column higher than men. They served to commemorate treaties (Gen 32), or visions (Gen 28) or boundaries, or graves. Here it will function with the altar as a place of worship.

[24:5]  ³² tn The construct has “young men of the Israelites,” and so “Israelite” is a genitive that describes them.

[24:5]  ³³ tn The verbs and their respective accusatives are cognates. First, they offered up burnt offerings (see Lev 1), which is וַיַּעֲלוּ עֹלֹת (vayya’alu ’olot); then they sacrificed young bulls as peace sacrifices (Lev 3), which is in Hebrew וַיִּזְבְּחוּ זְבָחִים (vayyizbÿkhu zÿvakhim). In the first case the cognate accusative is the direct object; in the second it is an adverbial accusative of product. See on this covenant ritual H. M. Kamsler, “The Blood Covenant in the Bible,” Dor le Dor 6 (1977): 94-98; E. W. Nicholson, “The Covenant Ritual in Exodus 24:3-8,” VT 32 (1982): 74-86.

[24:6]  ³⁴ sn The people and Yahweh through this will be united by blood, for half was spattered on the altar and the other half spattered on/toward the people (v. 8).

[24:7]  ³⁵ 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]  ³⁶ tn Heb “read it in the ears of.”

[24:7]  ³⁷ 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.

[24:8]  ³⁸ tn Given the size of the congregation, the preposition might be rendered here “toward the people” rather than on them (all).

[24:8]  ³⁹ sn The construct relationship “the blood of the covenant” means “the blood by which the covenant is ratified” (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 254). The parallel with the inauguration of the new covenant in the blood of Christ is striking (see, e.g., Matt 26:28, 1 Cor 11:25). When Jesus was inaugurating the new covenant, he was bringing to an end the old.

[32:13]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “your seed.”

[32:13]  ⁴¹ tn “about” has been supplied.

[32:13]  ⁴² tn Heb “seed.”

[4:31]  ⁴³ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in 4:3.

[4:31]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “he will not drop you,” i.e., “will not abandon you” (cf. NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[4:31]  ⁴⁵ tn Or “will not.” The translation understands the imperfect verbal form to have an added nuance of capability here.

[2:2]  ⁴⁶ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[2:2]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “I remember to/for you.”

[2:2]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “the loyal love of your youth.”

[2:3]  ⁴⁹ sn Heb “the first fruits of his harvest.” Many commentators see the figure here as having theological significance for the calling of the Gentiles. It is likely, however, that in this context the metaphor – here rendered as a simile – is intended to bring out the special relationship and inviolability that Israel had with God. As the first fruits were the special possession of the Lord, to be eaten only by the priests and off limits to the common people, so Israel was God’s special possession and was not to be “eaten” by the nations.

[31:32]  ⁵⁰ tn The word “old” is not in the text but is implicit in the use of the word “new.” It is supplied in the translation for greater clarity.

[31:32]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “fathers.”

[31:32]  ⁵² tn Heb “when I took them by the hand and led them out.”

[31:32]  ⁵³ tn Or “I was their master.” See the study note on 3:14.

[31:32]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[2:18]  ⁵⁵ tn Heb “And in that day” (so KJV, ASV).

[2:18]  ⁵⁶ tn Heb “I will break”; NAB “I will destroy”; NCV “I will smash”; NLT “I will remove.”

[2:18]  ⁵⁷ tn Heb “bow and sword and warfare.” The first two terms in the triad וְקֶשֶׁת וְחֶרֶב וּמִלְחָמָה (vÿqeshet vÿkherev umilkhamah, literally, “bow and sword and warfare”) are examples of synecdoche of specific (bow and sword) for general (weapons of war, so CEV). However, they might be examples of metonymy (bow and sword) of association (warfare).

[2:18]  ⁵⁸ tn Heb “and I will cause them to lie down in safety.” The causative nuance (“will make them”) is retained in several English versions (e.g., KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV).

[2:19]  ⁵⁹ tn Heb “I will betroth you to me” (so NIV) here and in the following lines. Cf. NRSV “I will take you for my wife forever.”

[2:19]  ⁶⁰ tn The preposition בְּ (bet), which is repeated throughout 2:19-20 [21-22], denotes price paid (BDB 90 s.v. בְּ III.3; e.g., Ezek 3:14). The text contains an allusion to the payment of bridal gifts. The Lord will impute the moral character to Israel that will be necessary for a successful covenant relationship (contra 4:1).

[2:20]  ⁶¹ tn The vav consecutive on the suffix conjugation verb וְיָדַעַתְּ (véyada’at, “then you will know”) introduces a result clause (cf. NASB, CEV).

[2:20]  ⁶² tn Or “know.” The term יָדַע (yada’, “know, acknowledge”) is often used in covenant contexts. It can refer to the suzerain’s acknowledgment of his covenant obligations to his vassal or to the vassal’s acknowledgment of his covenant obligations to his suzerain. When used in reference to a vassal, the verb “know” is metonymical (cause for effect) for “obey.” See H. Huffmann, “The Treaty Background of Hebrew ya„daà,” BASOR 181 (1966): 31-37.

[2:20]  ⁶³ tc The MT reads יְהוָה (yÿhvah, “the Lord”); however, many Hebrew mss read כִּי אָנִי (ki ’ani, “that it is I”), as also reflected in the Latin Vulgate (cf. CEV “know who I am”).