Ezekiel 36:8-9

36:8 “‘But you, mountains of Israel, will grow your branches, and bear your fruit for my people Israel; for they will arrive soon. ¹  36:9 For indeed, I am on your side; ²  I will turn to you, and you will be plowed and planted.

Ezekiel 34:27-29

34:27 The trees of the field will yield their fruit and the earth will yield its crops. They will live securely on their land; they will know that I am the Lord, when I break the bars of their yoke and rescue them from the hand of those who enslaved them. 34:28 They will no longer be prey for the nations and the wild beasts will not devour them. They will live securely and no one will make them afraid. 34:29 I will prepare for them a healthy ³  planting. They will no longer be victims ⁴  of famine in the land and will no longer bear the insults of the nations.

Psalms 105:6

105:6 O children ⁵  of Abraham, ⁶  God’s ⁷  servant,

you descendants ⁸  of Jacob, God’s ⁹  chosen ones!

Hosea 2:21-23

Agricultural Fertility Restored to the Repentant Nation

2:21 “At that time, ¹⁰  I will willingly respond,” ¹¹  declares the Lord.

“I will respond to the sky,

and the sky ¹²  will respond to the ground;

2:22 then the ground will respond to the grain, the new wine, and the olive oil;

and they will respond to ‘God Plants’ (Jezreel)! ¹³ 

2:23 Then I will plant her as my own ¹⁴  in the land.

I will have pity on ‘No Pity’ (Lo-Ruhamah).

I will say to ‘Not My People’ (Lo-Ammi), ‘You are my people!’

And he ¹⁵  will say, ‘You are ¹⁶  my God!’”

Matthew 6:33

6:33 But above all pursue his kingdom ¹⁷  and righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

[36:8]  ¹ tn Heb “they draw near to arrive.”

[36:9]  ² tn Heb “I (am) toward you.”

[34:29]  ³ tc The MT reads לְשֵׁם (lÿshem, “for a name”), meaning perhaps a renowned planting (place). The translation takes this to be a metathesis of שָׁלֹם (shalom) as was read by the LXX.

[34:29]  ⁴ tn Heb “those gathered” for famine.

[105:6]  ⁵ tn Or “offspring”; Heb “seed.”

[105:6]  ⁶ tc Some mss have “Israel,” which appears in the parallel version of this psalm in 1 Chr 16:13.

[105:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “his”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[105:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “sons.”

[105:6]  ⁹ tn Heb “his”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[2:21]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “And in that day”; NAB, NRSV “On that day.”

[2:21]  ¹¹ tn The verb עָנָה, (’anah) which is used throughout 2:23-24, is related to the root I עָנָה (’anah), “to answer, listen attentively, react willingly” (BDB 772 s.v. 1.b; HALOT 852 s.v. ענה 3.b).

[2:21]  ¹² tn Heb “and they.” In the Hebrew text the plural pronoun is used because it refers back to the term translated “sky,” which is a dual form in Hebrew. Many English versions (e.g., NAB, NASB, NRSV) use the plural term “heavens” here, which agrees with a plural pronoun (cf. also NIV, NCV “skies”).

[2:22]  ¹³ tn Heb “Jezreel.” The use of the name יִזְרְעֶאל (yizré’e’l, “Jezreel”) creates a powerful three-fold wordplay: (1) The proper name יִזְרְעֶאל (“Jezreel”) is a phonetic wordplay on the similar sounding name יִשְׂרָאֵל (yisra’el, “Israel”): God will answer Israel, that is, Jezreel. (2) The name יִזְרְעֶאל (“Jezreel”) plays on the verb זָרַע (zara’, “to sow, plant”), the immediately following word: וּזְרַעְתִּיהָ (uzéra’tiha, vav + Qal perfect 1st person common singular + 3rd person feminine singular suffix: “I will sow/plant her”). This wordplay creates a popular etymology for יִזְרְעֶאל meaning, “God sows/plants,” which fits well into the agricultural fertility imagery in 2:21-23 [2:23-25]. (3) This positive connotation of יִזְרְעֶאל (“Jezreel”) in 2:21-23[23-25] reverses the negative connotation of יִזְרְעֶאל (“Jezreel”) in 1:4-5 (bloodshed of Jehu in the Jezreel Valley).

[2:23]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “for myself.”

[2:23]  ¹⁵ tn The Hebrew text, carrying out the reference to the son born in 1:8-9, uses the third person masculine singular pronoun here; some English translations use third person plural (“they,” so KJV, NASB, NIV, CEV) in keeping with the immediate context, which refers to reestablished Israel.

[2:23]  ¹⁶ tn The words “You are” do not appear in the Hebrew text, but are implied. It is necessary to supply the phrase in the translation to prevent the reader from understanding the predicate “my God” as an exclamation (cf. NAB).

[6:33]  ¹⁷ tc ‡ Most mss (L W Θ 0233 Ë^1,13 33 Ï lat sy mae) read τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ τὴν δικαιοσύνην αὐτοῦ (thn basileian tou qeou kai thn dikaiosunhn aujtou, “the kingdom of God and his righteousness”) here, but the words “of God” are lacking in א B pc sa bo Eus. On the one hand, there is the possibility of accidental omission on the part of these Alexandrian witnesses, but it seems unlikely that the scribe’s eye would skip over both words (especially since τοῦ θεοῦ is bracketed by first declension nouns). Intrinsically, the author generally has a genitive modifier with βασιλεία – especially θεοῦ or οὐρανῶν (ouranwn) – but this argument cuts both ways: Although he might be expected to use such an adjunct here, scribes might also be familiar with his practice and would thus naturally insert it if it were missing in their copy of Matthew. Although a decision is difficult, the omission of τοῦ θεοῦ is considered most likely to be original. NA²⁷ includes the words in brackets, indicating doubt as to their authenticity.