Isaiah 42:9

42:9 Look, my earlier predictive oracles have come to pass; ¹ 

now I announce new events.

Before they begin to occur,

I reveal them to you.” ² 

Isaiah 48:6

48:6 You have heard; now look at all the evidence! ³ 

Will you not admit that what I say is true? ⁴ 

From this point on I am announcing to you new events

that are previously unrevealed and you do not know about. ⁵ 

Jeremiah 31:22

31:22 How long will you vacillate, ⁶ 

you who were once like an unfaithful daughter? ⁷ 

For I, the Lord, promise ⁸  to bring about something new ⁹  on the earth,

something as unique as a woman protecting a man!’” ¹⁰ 

Revelation 21:5

21:5 And the one seated on the throne said: “Look! I am making all things new!” Then ¹¹  he said to me, “Write it down, ¹²  because these words are reliable ¹³  and true.”

[42:9]  ¹ tn Heb “the former things, look, they have come.”

[42:9]  ² tn Heb “before they sprout up, I cause you to hear.” The pronoun “you” is plural, referring to the people of Israel. In this verse “the former things” are the Lord’s earlier predictive oracles which have come to pass, while “the new things” are predicted events that have not yet begun to take place. “The former things” are earlier events in Israel’s history which God announced beforehand, such as the Exodus (see 43:16-18). “The new things” are the predictions about the servant (42:1-7). and may also include Cyrus’ conquests (41:25-27).

[48:6]  ³ tn Heb “gaze [at] all of it”; KJV “see all this.”

[48:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “[as for] you, will you not declare?”

[48:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “and hidden things, and you do not know them.”

[31:22]  ⁶ tn The translation “dilly-dally” is suggested by J. Bright, Jeremiah (AB), 276. The verb occurs only here in this stem (the Hitpael) and only one other time in any other stem (the Qal in Song 5:6). The dictionaries define it as “to turn this way and that” (cf., e.g., BDB 330 s.v. חָמַק Hithp.). In the context it refers to turning this way and that looking for the way back.

[31:22]  ⁷ sn Israel’s backsliding is forgotten and forgiven. They had once been characterized as an apostate people (3:14, 22; the word “apostate” and “unfaithful” are the same in Hebrew) and figuratively depicted as an adulterous wife (3:20). Now they are viewed as having responded to his invitation (compare 31:18-19 with 3:22-25). Hence they are no longer depicted as an unfaithful daughter but as an unsullied virgin (see the literal translation of “my dear children” in vv. 4, 21 and the study note on v. 4.)

[31:22]  ⁸ tn Heb “For the Lord will create.” The person has been shifted to avoid the possible confusion for some readers of a third person reference to the Lord in what has otherwise been a first person address. The verb “will create” is another one of the many examples of the prophetic perfect that have been seen in the book of Jeremiah. For the significance of the verb “create” here see the study note on “bring about something new.”

[31:22]  ⁹ sn Heb “create.” This word is always used with God as the subject and refers to the production of something new or unique, like the creation of the world and the first man and woman (Gen 1:1; 2:3; 1:27; 5:1) or the creation of a new heavens and a new earth in a new age (Isa 65:17), or the bringing about of new and unique circumstances (Num 16:30). Here reference is made contextually to the new exodus, that marvelous deliverance which will be so great that the old will pale in comparison (see the first note on v. 9).

[31:22]  ¹⁰ tn The meaning of this last line is uncertain. The translation has taken it as proverbial for something new and unique. For a fairly complete discussion of most of the options see C. Feinberg, “Jeremiah,” EBC 6:571. For the nuance of “protecting” for the verb here see BDB 686 s.v. סָבַב Po‘ 1 and compare the usage in Deut 32:10.

[21:5]  ¹¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.

[21:5]  ¹² tn The words “it down” are not in the Greek text, but are implied. Direct objects were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

[21:5]  ¹³ tn Grk “faithful.”