Isaiah 11:6-9

11:6 A wolf will reside ¹  with a lamb,

and a leopard will lie down with a young goat;

an ox and a young lion will graze together, ² 

as a small child leads them along.

11:7 A cow and a bear will graze together,

their young will lie down together. ³ 

A lion, like an ox, will eat straw.

11:8 A baby ⁴  will play

over the hole of a snake; ⁵ 

over the nest ⁶  of a serpent

an infant ⁷  will put his hand. ⁸ 

11:9 They will no longer injure or destroy

on my entire royal mountain. ⁹ 

For there will be universal submission to the Lord’s sovereignty,

just as the waters completely cover the sea. ¹⁰ 

Isaiah 35:8

35:8 A thoroughfare will be there –

it will be called the Way of Holiness. ¹¹ 

The unclean will not travel on it;

it is reserved for those authorized to use it ¹²  –

fools ¹³  will not stray into it.

Isaiah 60:21

60:21 All of your people will be godly; ¹⁴ 

they will possess the land permanently.

I will plant them like a shoot;

they will be the product of my labor,

through whom I reveal my splendor. ¹⁵ 

Jeremiah 31:33

31:33 “But I will make a new covenant with the whole nation of Israel ¹⁶  after I plant them back in the land,” ¹⁷  says the Lord. ¹⁸  “I will ¹⁹  put my law within them ²⁰  and write it on their hearts and minds. ²¹  I will be their God and they will be my people. ²² 

Ezekiel 36:25-27

36:25 I will sprinkle you with pure water ²³  and you will be clean from all your impurities. I will purify you from all your idols. 36:26 I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will remove the heart of stone ²⁴  from your body and give you a heart of flesh. ²⁵  36:27 I will put my Spirit within you; ²⁶  I will take the initiative and you will obey my statutes ²⁷  and carefully observe my regulations. ²⁸ 

Joel 3:17

The Lord’s Presence in Zion

3:17 You will be convinced ²⁹  that I the Lord am your God,

dwelling on Zion, my holy mountain.

Jerusalem ³⁰  will be holy –

conquering armies ³¹  will no longer pass through it.

Joel 3:21

3:21 I will avenge ³²  their blood which I had not previously acquitted.

It is the Lord who dwells in Zion!

Zechariah 14:20-21

14:20 On that day the bells of the horses will bear the inscription “Holy to the Lord.” The cooking pots in the Lord’s temple ³³  will be as holy as the bowls in front of the altar. ³⁴  14:21 Every cooking pot in Jerusalem and Judah will become holy in the sight of the Lord who rules over all, so that all who offer sacrifices may come and use some of them to boil their sacrifices in them. On that day there will no longer be a Canaanite ³⁵  in the house of the Lord who rules over all.

Matthew 13:41

13:41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather from his kingdom everything that causes sin as well as all lawbreakers. ³⁶ 

Matthew 13:1

The Parable of the Sower

13:1 On that day after Jesus went out of the house, he sat by the lake.

Matthew 3:9-10

3:9 and don’t think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that God can raise up children for Abraham from these stones! 3:10 Even now the ax is laid at ³⁷  the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

Matthew 5:18

5:18 I ³⁸  tell you the truth, ³⁹  until heaven and earth pass away not the smallest letter or stroke of a letter ⁴⁰  will pass from the law until everything takes place.

[11:6]  ¹ tn The verb גּוּר (gur) normally refers to living as a dependent, resident alien in another society.

[11:6]  ² tc The Hebrew text reads, “and an ox, and a young lion, and a fatling together.” Since the preceding lines refer to two animals and include a verb, many emend וּמְרִיא (umÿri’, “and the fatling”) to an otherwise unattested verb יִמְרְאוּ (yimrÿ’u, “they will graze”); cf. NAB, TEV, CEV. One of the Qumran copies of Isaiah confirms this suggestion (1QIsa^a). The present translation assumes this change.

[11:7]  ³ tn Heb “and a cow and a bear will graze – together – they will lie down, their young.” This is a case of pivot pattern; יַחְדָּו (yakhddav, “together”) goes with both the preceding and following statements.

[11:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “one sucking,” i.e., still being nursed by his mother.

[11:8]  ⁶ tn Or perhaps, “cobra” (cf. NAB, NASB, NIV, NCV); KJV, ASV, NRSV “asp.”

[11:8]  ⁷ tc The Hebrew text has the otherwise unattested מְאוּרַת (mÿ’urat, “place of light”), i.e., opening of a hole. Some prefer to emend to מְעָרַת (mÿ’arat, “cave, den”).

[11:8]  ⁸ tn Heb “one who is weaned” (cf. KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV).

[11:8]  ⁹ sn The transformation of the animal kingdom depicted here typifies what will occur in human society under the just rule of the ideal king (see vv. 3-5). The categories “predator-prey” (i.e., oppressor-oppressed) will no longer exist.

[11:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “in all my holy mountain.” In the most basic sense the Lord’s “holy mountain” is the mountain from which he rules over his kingdom (see Ezek 28:14, 16). More specifically it probably refers to Mount Zion/Jerusalem or to the entire land of Israel (see Pss 2:6; 15:1; 43:3; Isa 56:7; 57:13; Ezek 20:40; Ob 16; Zeph 3:11). If the Lord’s universal kingdom is in view in this context (see the note on “earth” at v. 4), then the phrase would probably be metonymic here, standing for God’s worldwide dominion (see the next line).

[11:9]  ⁸ tn Heb “for the earth will be full of knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” The translation assumes that a universal kingdom is depicted here, but אֶרֶץ (’erets) could be translated “land” (see the note at v. 4). “Knowledge of the Lord” refers here to a recognition of the Lord’s sovereignty which results in a willingness to submit to his authority. See the note at v. 2.

[35:8]  ⁹ tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “and there will be there a road and a way, and the Way of Holiness it will be called.” וְדֶרֶךְ (vÿderekh, “and a/the way”) is accidentally duplicated; the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a does not reflect the repetition of the phrase.

[35:8]  ¹⁰ tn The precise meaning of this line is uncertain. The text reads literally “and it is for them, the one who walks [on the] way.” In this context those authorized to use the Way of Holiness would be morally upright people who are the recipients of God’s deliverance, in contrast to the morally impure and foolish who are excluded from the new covenant community.

[35:8]  ¹¹ tn In this context “fools” are those who are morally corrupt, not those with limited intellectual capacity.

[60:21]  ¹¹ tn Or “righteous” (NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); NAB “just.”

[60:21]  ¹² tn Heb “a shoot of his planting, the work of my hands, to reveal splendor.”

[31:33]  ¹³ tn Heb “with the house of Israel.” All commentators agree that the term here refers to both the whole nation which was divided into the house of Israel and the house of Judah in v. 30.

[31:33]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “after those days.” Commentators are generally agreed that this refers to the return from exile and the repopulation of the land referred to in vv. 27-28 and not to something subsequent to the time mentioned in v. 30. This is the sequencing that is also presupposed in other new covenant passages such as Deut 30:1-6; Ezek 11:17-20; 36:24-28.

[31:33]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[31:33]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “‘But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after these days:’ says the Lord, ‘I will….’” The sentence has been reworded and restructured to avoid the awkwardness of the original style.

[31:33]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “in their inward parts.” The Hebrew word here refers to the seat of the thoughts, emotions, and decisions (Jer 9:8 [9:7 HT]). It is essentially synonymous with “heart” in Hebrew psychological terms.

[31:33]  ¹⁸ tn The words “and minds” is not in the text but is supplied in the translation to bring the English psychology more into line with the Hebrew where the “heart” is the center both of knowing/thinking/reflecting and deciding/willing.

[31:33]  ¹⁹ sn Compare Jer 24:7; 30:22; 31:1 and see the study note on 30:2.

[36:25]  ¹⁵ sn The Lord here uses a metaphor from the realm of ritual purification. For the use of water in ritual cleansing, see Exod 30:19-20; Lev 14:51; Num 19:18; Heb 10:22.

[36:26]  ¹⁷ sn That is, a heart which symbolizes a will that is stubborn and unresponsive (see 1 Sam 25:37). In Rabbinic literature a “stone” was associated with an evil inclination (b. Sukkah 52a).

[36:26]  ¹⁸ sn That is, a heart which symbolizes a will that is responsive and obedient to God.

[36:27]  ¹⁹ tn Or “in the midst of you.” The word “you” is plural.

[36:27]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and I will do that which in my statutes you will walk.” The awkward syntax (verb “to do, act” + accusative sign + relative clause + prepositional phrase + second person verb) is unique, though Eccl 3:14 contains a similar construction. In the last line of that verse we read that “God acts so that (relative pronoun) they fear before him.” However, unlike Ezek 36:27, the statement has no accusative sign before the relative pronoun.

[36:27]  ²¹ tn Heb “and my laws you will guard and you will do them.” Jer 31:31-34 is parallel to this passage.

[3:17]  ²¹ tn Heb “know.”

[3:17]  ²² map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[3:17]  ²³ tn Heb “strangers” or “foreigners.” In context, this refers to invasions by conquering armies.

[3:21]  ²³ tc The present translation follows the reading וְנִקַּמְתִּי (vÿniqqamti, “I will avenge”) rather than וְנִקֵּתִי (vÿniqqeti, “I will acquit”) of the MT.

[14:20]  ²⁵ tn Heb “house” (also in the following verse).

[14:20]  ²⁶ sn In the glory of the messianic age there will be no differences between the sacred (the bowls before the altar) and the profane (the cooking pots in the Lord’s temple) – all will be dedicated to his use.

[14:21]  ²⁷ tn Or “merchant”; “trader” (because Canaanites, especially Phoenicians, were merchants and traders; cf. BDB 489 s.v. I and II כְּנַעֲנִי). English versions have rendered the term as “Canaanite” (KJV, NKJV, NASB, NIV), “trader” (RSV, NEB), “traders” (NRSV, NLT), or “merchant” (NAB), although frequently a note is given explaining the other option. Cf. also John 2:16.

[13:41]  ²⁹ tn Grk “the ones who practice lawlessness.”

[3:10]  ³¹ sn Laid at the root. That is, placed and aimed, ready to begin cutting.

[5:18]  ³³ tn Grk “For I tell.” Here an explanatory γάρ (gar) has not been translated.

[5:18]  ³⁴ tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”

[5:18]  ³⁵ tn Grk “Not one iota or one serif.”