Hosea 14:1

Prophetic Call to Genuine Repentance

14:1 Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God,

for your sin has been your downfall! ¹ 

Proverbs 1:23

1:23 If only ²  you will respond ³  to my rebuke, ⁴ 

then ⁵  I will pour ⁶  out my thoughts ⁷  to you

and ⁸  I will make ⁹  my words known to you.

Isaiah 31:6

31:6 You Israelites! Return to the one against whom you have so blatantly rebelled! ¹⁰ 

Isaiah 55:6-7

55:6 Seek the Lord while he makes himself available; ¹¹ 

call to him while he is nearby!

55:7 The wicked need to abandon their lifestyle ¹² 

and sinful people their plans. ¹³ 

They should return ¹⁴  to the Lord, and he will show mercy to them, ¹⁵ 

and to their God, for he will freely forgive them. ¹⁶ 

Jeremiah 3:14-22

3:14 “Come back to me, my wayward sons,” says the Lord, “for I am your true master. ¹⁷  If you do, ¹⁸  I will take one of you from each town and two of you from each family group, and I will bring you back to Zion. 3:15 I will give you leaders ¹⁹  who will be faithful to me. ²⁰  They will lead you with knowledge and insight. 3:16 In those days, your population will greatly increase ²¹  in the land. At that time,” says the Lord, “people will no longer talk about having the ark ²²  that contains the Lord’s covenant with us. ²³  They will not call it to mind, remember it, or miss it. No, that will not be done any more! ²⁴  3:17 At that time the city of Jerusalem ²⁵  will be called the Lord’s throne. All nations will gather there in Jerusalem to honor the Lord’s name. ²⁶  They will no longer follow the stubborn inclinations of their own evil hearts. ²⁷  3:18 At that time ²⁸  the nation of Judah and the nation of Israel will be reunited. ²⁹  Together they will come back from a land in the north to the land that I gave to your ancestors as a permanent possession. ” ³⁰ 

3:19 “I thought to myself, ³¹ 

‘Oh what a joy it would be for me to treat you like a son! ³² 

What a joy it would be for me to give ³³  you a pleasant land,

the most beautiful piece of property there is in all the world!’ ³⁴ 

I thought you would call me, ‘Father’ ³⁵ 

and would never cease being loyal to me. ³⁶ 

3:20 But, you have been unfaithful to me, nation of Israel, ³⁷ 

like an unfaithful wife who has left her husband,” ³⁸ 

says the Lord.

3:21 “A noise is heard on the hilltops.

It is the sound of the people of Israel crying and pleading to their gods.

Indeed they have followed sinful ways; ³⁹ 

they have forgotten to be true to the Lord their God. ⁴⁰ 

3:22 Come back to me, you wayward people.

I want to cure your waywardness. ⁴¹ 

Say, ⁴²  ‘Here we are. We come to you

because you are the Lord our God.

Lamentations 3:39-41

3:39 Why should any living person ⁴³  complain

when punished for his sins? ⁴⁴ 

נ (Nun)

3:40 Let us carefully examine our ways, ⁴⁵ 

and let us return to the Lord.

3:41 Let us lift up our hearts ⁴⁶  and our hands

to God in heaven:

Joel 2:13

2:13 Return to the Lord your God,

for he is merciful and compassionate,

slow to anger and boundless in loyal love ⁴⁷  – often relenting from calamitous punishment. ⁴⁸ 

Zechariah 1:3

1:3 Therefore say to the people: ⁴⁹  The Lord who rules over all ⁵⁰  says, “Turn ⁵¹  to me,” says the Lord who rules over all, “and I will turn to you,” says the Lord who rules over all.

Acts 2:38

2:38 Peter said to them, “Repent, and each one of you be baptized ⁵²  in the name of Jesus Christ ⁵³  for ⁵⁴  the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ⁵⁵ 

Acts 26:20

26:20 but I declared to those in Damascus first, and then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, ⁵⁶  and to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, ⁵⁷  performing deeds consistent with ⁵⁸  repentance.

[14:1]  ¹ tn Heb “For you have stumbled in your iniquity”; NASB, NRSV “because of your iniquity.”

[1:23]  ² tn The imperfect tense is in the conditional protasis without the conditional particle, followed by the clause beginning with הִנֵּה (hinneh, “then”). The phrase “If only…” does not appear in the Hebrew but is implied by the syntax; it is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity.

[1:23]  ³ tn Heb “turn.” The verb is from שׁוּב (shuv, “to return; to respond; to repent”).

[1:23]  ⁴ sn The noun תּוֹכַחַת (tokhakhat, “rebuke”) is used in all kinds of disputes including rebuking, arguing, reasoning, admonishing, and chiding. The term is broad enough to include here warning and rebuke. Cf. KJV, NAB, NRSV “reproof”; TEV “when I reprimand you”; CEV “correct you.”

[1:23]  ⁵ tn Heb “Behold!”

[1:23]  ⁶ tn The Hiphil cohortative of נָבַע (nava’, “to pour out”) describes the speaker’s resolution to pour out wisdom on those who respond.

[1:23]  ⁷ tn Heb “my spirit.” The term “spirit” (רוּחַ, ruakh) functions as a metonymy (= spirit) of association (= thoughts), as indicated by the parallelism with “my words” (דְּבָרַי, dÿbaray). The noun רוּחַ (ruakh, “spirit”) can have a cognitive nuance, e.g., “spirit of wisdom” (Exod 28:3; Deut 34:9). It is used metonymically for “words” (Job 20:3) and “mind” (Isa 40:13; Ezek 11:5; 20:32; 1 Chr 28:12; see BDB 925 s.v. רוּחַ 6). The “spirit of wisdom” produces skill and capacity necessary for success (Isa 11:2; John 7:37-39).

[1:23]  ⁸ tn The conjunction “and” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for the sake of smoothness.

[1:23]  ⁹ tn Here too the form is the cohortative, stressing the resolution of wisdom to reveal herself to the one who responds.

[31:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Return to the one [against] whom the sons of Israel made deep rebellion.” The syntax is awkward here. A preposition is omitted by ellipsis after the verb (see GKC 446 §138.f, n. 2), and there is a shift from direct address (note the second plural imperative “return”) to the third person (note “they made deep”). For other examples of abrupt shifts in person in poetic style, see GKC 462 §144.p.

[55:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “while he allows himself to be found.” The Niphal form has a tolerative force here.

[55:7]  ¹² tn Heb “Let the wicked one abandon his way.” The singular is collective.

[55:7]  ¹³ tn Heb “and the man of evil his thoughts.” The singular is collective.

[55:7]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “let him return.” The singular is collective, meaning “let them.”

[55:7]  ¹⁵ tn The imperfect with vav (ו) conjunctive after the jussive indicates purpose/result.

[55:7]  ¹⁶ sn The appeal and promise of vv. 6-7 echoes the language of Deut 4:25-31; 30:1-10; and 1 Kgs 8:46-53, all of which anticipate the exile and speak of the prerequisites for restoration.

[3:14]  ¹⁷ tn Or “I am your true husband.”

[3:14]  ¹⁸ tn The words, “If you do” are not in the text but are implicit in the connection of the Hebrew verb with the preceding.

[3:15]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “shepherds.”

[3:15]  ²⁰ tn Heb “after/according to my [own] heart.”

[3:16]  ²¹ tn Heb “you will become numerous and fruitful.”

[3:16]  ²² tn Or “chest.”

[3:16]  ²³ tn Heb “the ark of the covenant.” It is called this because it contained the tables of the law which in abbreviated form constituted their covenant obligations to the Lord, cf. Exod 31:18; 32:15; 34:29.

[3:16]  ²⁴ tn Or “Nor will another one be made”; Heb “one will not do/make [it?] again.”

[3:17]  ²⁵ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[3:17]  ²⁶ tn Heb “will gather to the name of the Lord.”

[3:17]  ²⁷ tn Heb “the stubbornness of their evil hearts.”

[3:18]  ²⁸ tn Heb “In those days.”

[3:18]  ²⁹ tn Heb “the house of Judah will walk together with the house of Israel.”

[3:18]  ³⁰ tn Heb “the land that I gave your [fore]fathers as an inheritance.”

[3:19]  ³¹ tn Heb “I, myself, said.” See note on “I thought that she might come back to me” in 3:7.

[3:19]  ³² tn Heb “How I would place you among the sons.” Israel appears to be addressed here contextually as the Lord’s wife (see the next verse). The pronouns of address in the first two lines are second feminine singular as are the readings of the two verbs preferred by the Masoretes (the Qere readings) in the third and fourth lines. The verbs that are written in the text in the third and fourth lines (the Kethib readings) are second masculine plural as is the verb describing Israel’s treachery in the next verse.

[3:19]  ³³ tn The words “What a joy it would be for me to” are not in the Hebrew text but are implied in the parallel structure.

[3:19]  ³⁴ tn Heb “the most beautiful heritage among the nations.”

[3:19]  ³⁵ tn Heb “my father.”

[3:19]  ³⁶ tn Heb “turn back from [following] after me.”

[3:20]  ³⁷ tn Heb “house of Israel.”

[3:20]  ³⁸ tn Heb “a wife unfaithful from her husband.”

[3:21]  ³⁹ tn Heb “A sound is heard on the hilltops, the weeping of the supplication of the children of Israel because [or indeed] they have perverted their way.” At issue here is whether the supplication is made to Yahweh in repentance because of what they have done or whether it is supplication to the pagan gods which is evidence of their perverted ways. The reference in this verse to the hilltops where idolatry was practiced according to 3:2 and the reference to Israel’s unfaithfulness in the preceding verse make the latter more likely. For the asseverative use of the Hebrew particle (here rendered “indeed”) where the particle retains some of the explicative nuance; cf. BDB 472-73 s.v. כִּי 1.e and 3.c.

[3:21]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “have forgotten the Lord their God,” but in the view of the parallelism and the context, the word “forget” (like “know” and “remember”) involves more than mere intellectual activity.

[3:22]  ⁴¹ tn Or “I will forgive your apostasies.” Heb “I will [or want to] heal your apostasies.” For the use of the verb “heal” (רָפָא, rafa’) to refer to spiritual healing and forgiveness see Hos 14:4.

[3:22]  ⁴² tn Or “They say.” There is an obvious ellipsis of a verb of saying here since the preceding words are those of the Lord and the following are those of the people. However, there is debate about whether these are the response of the people to the Lord’s invitation, a response which is said to be inadequate according to the continuation in 4:1-4, or whether these are the Lord’s model for Israel’s confession of repentance to which he adds further instructions about the proper heart attitude that should accompany it in 4:1-4. The former implies a dialogue with an unmarked twofold shift in speaker between 3:22b-25 and 4:1-4:4 while the latter assumes the same main speaker throughout with an unmarked instruction only in 3:22b-25. This disrupts the flow of the passage less and appears more likely.

[3:39]  ⁴³ tn The Hebrew word here is אָדָם (’adam) which can mean “man” or “person.” The second half of the line is more personalized to the speaking voice of the defeated soldier using גֶּבֶר (gever, “man”). See the note at 3:1.

[3:39]  ⁴⁴ tc Kethib reads the singular חֶטְאוֹ (khet’o, “his sin”), which is reflected in the LXX. Qere reads the plural חֲטָאָיו (khata’ayv, “his sins”) which is preserved in many medieval Hebrew mss and reflected in the other early versions (Aramaic Targum, Syriac Peshitta, Latin Vulgate). The external and internal evidence are not decisive in favor of either reading.

[3:40]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “Let us test our ways and examine.” The two verbs וְנַחְקֹרָה…נַחְפְּשָׂה (nakhpÿsah…vÿnakhqorah, “Let us test and let us examine”) form a verbal hendiadys in which the first functions adverbially and the second retains its full verbal force: “Let us carefully examine our ways.”

[3:41]  ⁴⁶ tc The MT reads the singular noun לְבָבֵנוּ (lÿvavenu, “our heart”) but the ancient versions (LXX, Aramaic Targum, Latin Vulgate) and many medieval Hebrew mss read the plural noun לְבָבֵינוּ (lÿvavenu, “our hearts”). Hebrew regularly places plural pronouns on singular nouns used as a collective (135 times on the singular “heart” and only twice on the plural “hearts”). The plural “hearts” in any Hebrew construction is actually rather rare. The LXX renders similar Hebrew constructions (singular “heart” plus a plural pronoun) with the plural “hearts” about 1/3 of the time, therefore it cannot be considered evidence for the reading. The Vulgate may have been influenced by the LXX. Although a distributive sense is appropriate for a much higher percentage of passages using the plural “hearts” in the LXX, no clear reason for the differentiation in the LXX has emerged. Likely the singular Hebrew form is original but the meaning is best represented in English with the plural.

[2:13]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “and great of loyal love.”

[2:13]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “and he relents from calamity.”

[1:3]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “to them”; the referent (the people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:3]  ⁵⁰ sn The epithet Lord who rules over all occurs frequently as a divine title throughout Zechariah (53 times total). This name (יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת, yÿhvah tsÿva’ot), traditionally translated “Lord of hosts” (so KJV, NAB, NASB; cf. NIV, NLT “Lord Almighty”; NCV, CEV “Lord All-Powerful”), emphasizes the majestic sovereignty of the Lord, an especially important concept in the postexilic world of great human empires and rulers. For a thorough study of the divine title, see T. N. D. Mettinger, In Search of God, 123-57.

[1:3]  ⁵¹ tn The Hebrew verb שׁוּב (shuv) is common in covenant contexts. To turn from the Lord is to break the covenant and to turn to him (i.e., to repent) is to renew the covenant relationship (cf. 2 Kgs 17:13).

[2:38]  ⁵² tn The verb is a third person imperative, but the common translation “let each of you be baptized” obscures the imperative force in English, since it sounds more like a permissive (“each of you may be baptized”) to the average English reader.

[2:38]  ⁵³ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

[2:38]  ⁵⁴ tn There is debate over the meaning of εἰς in the prepositional phrase εἰς ἄφεσιν τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν ὑμῶν (eis afesin twn Jamartiwn Jumwn, “for/because of/with reference to the forgiveness of your sins”). Although a causal sense has been argued, it is difficult to maintain here. ExSyn 369-71 discusses at least four other ways of dealing with the passage: (1) The baptism referred to here is physical only, and εἰς has the meaning of “for” or “unto.” Such a view suggests that salvation is based on works – an idea that runs counter to the theology of Acts, namely: (a) repentance often precedes baptism (cf. Acts 3:19; 26:20), and (b) salvation is entirely a gift of God, not procured via water baptism (Acts 10:43 [cf. v. 47]; 13:38-39, 48; 15:11; 16:30-31; 20:21; 26:18); (2) The baptism referred to here is spiritual only. Although such a view fits well with the theology of Acts, it does not fit well with the obvious meaning of “baptism” in Acts – especially in this text (cf. 2:41); (3) The text should be repunctuated in light of the shift from second person plural to third person singular back to second person plural again. The idea then would be, “Repent for/with reference to your sins, and let each one of you be baptized…” Such a view is an acceptable way of handling εἰς, but its subtlety and awkwardness count against it; (4) Finally, it is possible that to a first-century Jewish audience (as well as to Peter), the idea of baptism might incorporate both the spiritual reality and the physical symbol. That Peter connects both closely in his thinking is clear from other passages such as Acts 10:47 and 11:15-16. If this interpretation is correct, then Acts 2:38 is saying very little about the specific theological relationship between the symbol and the reality, only that historically they were viewed together. One must look in other places for a theological analysis. For further discussion see R. N. Longenecker, “Acts,” EBC 9:283-85; B. Witherington, Acts, 154-55; F. F. Bruce, The Acts of the Apostles: The Greek Text with Introduction and Commentary, 129-30; BDAG 290 s.v. εἰς 4.f.

[2:38]  ⁵⁵ tn Here the genitive τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος (tou Jagiou pneumato") is a genitive of apposition; the gift consists of the Holy Spirit.

[26:20]  ⁵⁶ tn BDAG 1093-94 s.v. χώρα 2.b states, “of the provincial name (1 Macc 8:3) ἡ χώρα τῆς ᾿Ιουδαίας Ac 26:20.”

[26:20]  ⁵⁷ sn That they should repent and turn to God. This is the shortest summary of Paul’s message that he preached.

[26:20]  ⁵⁸ tn BDAG 93 s.v. ἄξιος 1.b, “καρποὶ ἄ. τῆς μετανοίας fruits in keeping with your repentance…Lk 3:8; Mt 3:8. For this ἄ. τῆς μετανοίας ἔργα Ac 26:20.” Note how Paul preached the gospel offer and the issue of response together, side by side.