Isaiah 41:8

The Lord Encourages His People

41:8 “You, my servant Israel,

Jacob whom I have chosen,

offspring of Abraham my friend, ¹ 

Isaiah 43:1

The Lord Will Rescue His People

43:1 Now, this is what the Lord says,

the one who created you, O Jacob,

and formed you, O Israel:

“Don’t be afraid, for I will protect ²  you.

I call you by name, you are mine.

Genesis 17:7

17:7 I will confirm ³  my covenant as a perpetual ⁴  covenant between me and you. It will extend to your descendants after you throughout their generations. I will be your God and the God of your descendants after you. ⁵ 

Deuteronomy 7:6-8

7:6 For you are a people holy ⁶  to the Lord your God. He ⁷  has chosen you to be his people, prized ⁸  above all others on the face of the earth.

The Basis of Israel’s Election

7:7 It is not because you were more numerous than all the other peoples that the Lord favored and chose you – for in fact you were the least numerous of all peoples. 7:8 Rather it is because of his ⁹  love ¹⁰  for you and his faithfulness to the promise ¹¹  he solemnly vowed ¹²  to your ancestors ¹³  that the Lord brought you out with great power, ¹⁴  redeeming ¹⁵  you from the place of slavery, from the power ¹⁶  of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

Psalms 105:6

105:6 O children ¹⁷  of Abraham, ¹⁸  God’s ¹⁹  servant,

you descendants ²⁰  of Jacob, God’s ²¹  chosen ones!

Psalms 105:42-43

105:42 Yes, ²²  he remembered the sacred promise ²³ 

he made to Abraham his servant.

105:43 When he led his people out, they rejoiced;

his chosen ones shouted with joy. ²⁴ 

Jeremiah 30:10

30:10 So I, the Lord, tell you not to be afraid,

you descendants of Jacob, my servants. ²⁵ 

Do not be terrified, people of Israel.

For I will rescue you and your descendants

from a faraway land where you are captives. ²⁶ 

The descendants of Jacob will return to their land and enjoy peace.

They will be secure and no one will terrify them. ²⁷ 

Jeremiah 46:27-28

A Promise of Hope for Israel

46:27 ²⁸ “You descendants of Jacob, my servants, ²⁹  do not be afraid;

do not be terrified, people of Israel.

For I will rescue you and your descendants

from the faraway lands where you are captives. ³⁰ 

The descendants of Jacob will return to their land and enjoy peace.

They will be secure and no one will terrify them.

46:28 I, the Lord, tell ³¹  you not to be afraid,

you descendants of Jacob, my servant,

for I am with you.

Though I completely destroy all the nations where I scatter you,

I will not completely destroy you.

I will indeed discipline you but only in due measure.

I will not allow you to go entirely unpunished.” ³² 

Romans 11:5-6

11:5 So in the same way at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. 11:6 And if it is by grace, it is no longer by works, otherwise grace would no longer be grace.

[41:8]  ¹ tn Or perhaps, “covenantal partner” (see 1 Kgs 5:15 HT [5:1 ET]; 2 Chr 20:7).

[43:1]  ² tn Or “redeem.” See the note at 41:14. Cf. NCV “saved you”; CEV “rescued you”; NLT “ransomed you.”

[17:7]  ³ tn The verb קוּם (qum, “to arise, to stand up”) in the Hiphil verbal stem means “to confirm, to give effect to, to carry out” (i.e., a covenant or oath; see BDB 878-79 s.v. קוּם).

[17:7]  ⁴ tn Or “as an eternal.”

[17:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “to be to you for God and to your descendants after you.”

[7:6]  ⁴ tn That is, “set apart.”

[7:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[7:6]  ⁶ tn Or “treasured” (so NIV, NRSV); NLT “his own special treasure.” The Hebrew term סְגֻלָּה (sÿgullah) describes Israel as God’s choice people, those whom he elected and who are most precious to him (cf. Exod 19:4-6; Deut 14:2; 26:18; 1 Chr 29:3; Ps 135:4; Eccl 2:8 Mal 3:17). See E. Carpenter, NIDOTTE 3:224.

[7:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “the Lord’s.” See note on “He” in 7:6.

[7:8]  ⁶ tn For the verb אָהַב (’ahav, “to love”) as a term of choice or election, see note on the word “loved” in Deut 4:37.

[7:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “oath.” This is a reference to the promises of the so-called “Abrahamic Covenant” (cf. Gen 15:13-16).

[7:8]  ⁸ tn Heb “swore on oath.”

[7:8]  ⁹ tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 12, 13).

[7:8]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “by a strong hand” (NAB similar); NLT “with such amazing power.”

[7:8]  ¹¹ sn Redeeming you from the place of slavery. The Hebrew verb translated “redeeming” (from the root פָּדָה, padah) has the idea of redemption by the payment of a ransom. The initial symbol of this was the Passover lamb, offered by Israel to the Lord as ransom in exchange for deliverance from bondage and death (Exod 12:1-14). Later, the firstborn sons of Israel, represented by the Levites, became the ransom (Num 3:11-13). These were all types of the redemption effected by the death of Christ who described his atoning work as “a ransom for many” (Matt 20:28; cf. 1 Pet 1:18).

[7:8]  ¹² tn Heb “hand” (so KJV, NRSV), a metaphor for power or domination.

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

[105:6]  ⁷ tc Some mss have “Israel,” which appears in the parallel version of this psalm in 1 Chr 16:13.

[105:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “his”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[105:6]  ⁹ tn Heb “sons.”

[105:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “his”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[105:42]  ⁷ tn Or “for.”

[105:42]  ⁸ tn Heb “his holy word.”

[105:43]  ⁸ tn Heb “and he led his people out with joy, with a ringing cry, his chosen ones.”

[30:10]  ⁹ tn Heb “So do not be afraid, my servant Jacob, oracle of the Lord.” Here and elsewhere in the verse the terms Jacob and Israel are poetic for the people of Israel descended from the patriarch Jacob. The terms have been supplied throughout with plural referents for greater clarity.

[30:10]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “For I will rescue you from far away, your descendants from the land of their captivity.”

[30:10]  ¹¹ sn Compare the ideals of the Mosaic covenant in Lev 26:6, the Davidic covenant in 2 Sam 7:10-11, and the new covenant in Ezek 34:25-31.

[46:27]  ¹⁰ sn Jer 46:27-28 are virtually the same as 30:10-11. The verses are more closely related to that context than to this. But the presence of a note of future hope for the Egyptians may have led to a note of encouragement also to the Judeans who were under threat of judgment at the same time (cf. the study notes on 46:2, 13 and 25:1-2 for the possible relative dating of these prophecies).

[46:27]  ¹¹ tn Heb “And/But you do not be afraid, my servant Jacob.” Here and elsewhere in the verse the terms Jacob and Israel are poetic for the people of Israel descended from the patriarch Jacob. The terms have been supplied throughout with plural referents for greater clarity.

[46:27]  ¹² tn Heb “For I will rescue you from far away, your descendants from the land of their captivity.”

[46:28]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.” Again the first person is adopted because the Lord is speaking and the indirect quotation is used to avoid an embedded quotation with quotation marks on either side.

[46:28]  ¹² tn The translation “entirely unpunished” is intended to reflect the emphatic construction of the infinitive absolute before the finite verb.