Isaiah 19:24-25

19:24 At that time Israel will be the third member of the group, along with Egypt and Assyria, and will be a recipient of blessing ¹  in the earth. ²  19:25 The Lord who commands armies will pronounce a blessing over the earth, saying, ³  “Blessed be my people, Egypt, and the work of my hands, Assyria, and my special possession, ⁴  Israel!”

Jeremiah 12:16

12:16 But they must make sure you learn to follow the religious practices of my people. ⁵  Once they taught my people to swear their oaths using the name of the god Baal. ⁶  But then, they must swear oaths using my name, saying, “As surely as the Lord lives, I swear.” ⁷  If they do these things, ⁸  then they will be included among the people I call my own. ⁹ 

Romans 11:23-31

11:23 And even they – if they do not continue in their unbelief – will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. 11:24 For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree?

11:25 For I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, ¹⁰  so that you may not be conceited: A partial hardening has happened to Israel ¹¹  until the full number ¹²  of the Gentiles has come in. 11:26 And so ¹³  all Israel will be saved, as it is written:

“The Deliverer will come out of Zion;

he will remove ungodliness from Jacob.

11:27 And this is my covenant with them, ¹⁴ 

when I take away their sins.” ¹⁵ 

11:28 In regard to the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but in regard to election they are dearly loved for the sake of the fathers. 11:29 For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable. 11:30 Just as you were formerly disobedient to God, but have now received mercy due to their disobedience, 11:31 so they too have now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they too may now ¹⁶  receive mercy.

[19:24]  ¹ tn Heb “will be a blessing” (so NCV).

[19:24]  ² tn Or “land” (KJV, NAB).

[19:25]  ³ tn Heb “which the Lord who commands armies [traditionally, the Lord of hosts] will bless [it], saying.” The third masculine singular suffix on the form בֵּרֲכוֹ (berakho) should probably be emended to a third feminine singular suffix בֵּרֲכָהּ (berakhah), for its antecedent would appear to be the feminine noun אֶרֶץ (’erets, “earth”) at the end of v. 24.

[19:25]  ⁴ tn Or “my inheritance” (NAB, NASB, NIV).

[12:16]  ⁵ tn Heb “the ways of my people.” For this nuance of the word “ways” compare 10:2 and the notes there.

[12:16]  ⁶ tn Heb “taught my people to swear by Baal.”

[12:16]  ⁷ tn The words “I swear” are not in the text but are implicit to the oath formula. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[12:16]  ⁸ tn The words “If they do this” are not in the text. They are part of an attempt to break up a Hebrew sentence which is long and complex into equivalent shorter sentences consistent with contemporary English style. Verse 16 in Hebrew is all one sentence with a long complex conditional clause followed by a short consequence: “If they carefully learn the ways of my people to swear by name, ‘By the life of the Lord,’ as they taught my people to swear by Baal, then they will be built up in the midst of my people.” The translation strives to create the same contingencies and modifications by breaking up the sentence into shorter sentences in accord with contemporary English style.

[12:16]  ⁹ tn Heb “they will be built up among my people.” The expression “be built up among” is without parallel. However, what is involved here is conceptually parallel to the ideas expressed in Isa 19:23-25 and Zech 14:16-19. That is, these people will be allowed to live on their own land, to worship the Lord there, and to come to Jerusalem to celebrate the feasts. To translate literally would be meaningless or misleading for many readers.

[11:25]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:13.

[11:25]  ¹¹ tn Or “Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in.”

[11:25]  ¹² tn Grk “fullness.”

[11:26]  ¹³ tn It is not clear whether the phrase καὶ οὕτως (kai Joutws, “and so”) is to be understood in a modal sense (“and in this way”) or in a temporal sense (“and in the end”). Neither interpretation is conclusive from a grammatical standpoint, and in fact the two may not be mutually exclusive. Some, like H. Hübner, who argue strongly against the temporal reading, nevertheless continue to give the phrase a temporal significance, saying that God will save all Israel in the end (Gottes Ich und Israel [FRLANT], 118).

[11:27]  ¹⁴ sn A quotation from Isa 59:20-21.

[11:27]  ¹⁵ sn A quotation from Isa 27:9; Jer 31:33-34.

[11:31]  ¹⁶ tc Some important Alexandrian and Western mss (א B D*^,c 1506 pc bo) read νῦν (nun, “now”) here. A few other mss (33 365 pc sa) have ὕστερον (Justeron, “finally”). mss that lack the word are Ì⁴⁶ A D² F G Ψ 1739 1881 Ï latt. External evidence slightly favors omission with good representatives from the major texttypes, and because of the alliance of Alexandrian and Byzantine mss (with the Byzantine going against its normal tendency to embrace the longer reading). Internally, scribes could have added νῦν here to give balance to the preceding clause (οὗτοι νῦν ἠπείθησαν…αὐτοὶ νῦν ἐλεηθῶσιν [|outoi nun hpeiqhsan…autoi nun elehqwsin; “they have now been disobedient…they may now receive mercy”]). However, it seems much more likely that they would have deleted it because of its seeming inappropriateness in this context. That some witnesses have ὕστερον presupposes the presence of νῦν in their ancestors. A decision is difficult, but νῦν is slightly preferred, since it is the more difficult reading and is adequately represented in the mss.