Isaiah 45:13

45:13 It is me – I stir him up and commission him; ¹ 

I will make all his ways level.

He will rebuild my city;

he will send my exiled people home,

but not for a price or a bribe,”

says the Lord who commands armies.

Isaiah 50:1

50:1 This is what the Lord says:

“Where is your mother’s divorce certificate

by which I divorced her?

Or to which of my creditors did I sell you? ² 

Look, you were sold because of your sins; ³ 

because of your rebellious acts I divorced your mother. ⁴ 

Psalms 44:12

44:12 You sold ⁵  your people for a pittance; ⁶ 

you did not ask a high price for them. ⁷ 

Jeremiah 15:13

15:13 I will give away your wealth and your treasures as plunder.

I will give it away free of charge for the sins you have committed throughout your land.

Jeremiah 15:1

15:1 Then the Lord said to me, “Even if Moses and Samuel stood before me pleading for ⁸  these people, I would not feel pity for them! ⁹  Get them away from me! Tell them to go away! ¹⁰ 

Jeremiah 1:18

1:18 I, the Lord, ¹¹  hereby promise to make you ¹²  as strong as a fortified city, an iron pillar, and a bronze wall. You will be able to stand up against all who live in ¹³  the land, including the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests and all the people of the land.

Romans 7:14-25

7:14 For we know that the law is spiritual – but I am unspiritual, sold into slavery to sin. ¹⁴  7:15 For I don’t understand what I am doing. For I do not do what I want – instead, I do what I hate. ¹⁵  7:16 But if I do what I don’t want, I agree that the law is good. ¹⁶  7:17 But now it is no longer me doing it, but sin that lives in me. 7:18 For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For I want to do the good, but I cannot do it. ¹⁷  7:19 For I do not do the good I want, but I do the very evil I do not want! 7:20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer me doing it but sin that lives in me.

7:21 So, I find the law that when I want to do good, evil is present with me. 7:22 For I delight in the law of God in my inner being. 7:23 But I see a different law in my members waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that is in my members. 7:24 Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 7:25 Thanks be ¹⁸  to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, ¹⁹  I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but ²⁰  with my flesh I serve ²¹  the law of sin.

[45:13]  ¹ tn Heb “I stir him up in righteousness”; NASB “I have aroused him.” See the note at 41:2. Cyrus (cf. 44:28) is in view here.

[50:1]  ² sn The Lord challenges the exiles (Zion’s children) to bring incriminating evidence against him. The rhetorical questions imply that Israel accused the Lord of divorcing his wife (Zion) and selling his children (the Israelites) into slavery to pay off a debt.

[50:1]  ³ sn The Lord admits that he did sell the Israelites, but it was because of their sins, not because of some debt he owed. If he had sold them to a creditor, they ought to be able to point him out, but the preceding rhetorical question implies they would not be able to do so.

[50:1]  ⁴ sn The Lord admits he did divorce Zion, but that too was the result of the nation’s sins. The force of the earlier rhetorical question comes into clearer focus now. The question does not imply that a certificate does not exist and that no divorce occurred. Rather, the question asks for the certificate to be produced so the accuser can see the reason for the divorce in black and white. The Lord did not put Zion away arbitrarily.

[44:12]  ⁵ tn The prefixed verbal form is a preterite (without vav [ו] consecutive).

[44:12]  ⁶ tn Heb “for what is not wealth.”

[44:12]  ⁷ tn Heb “you did not multiply their purchase prices.”

[15:1]  ⁸ tn The words “pleading for” have been supplied in the translation to explain the idiom (a metonymy). For parallel usage see BDB 763 s.v. עָמַד Qal.1.a and compare usage in Gen 19:27, Deut 4:10.

[15:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “my soul would not be toward them.” For the usage of “soul” presupposed here see BDB 660 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ 6 in the light of the complaints and petitions in Jeremiah’s prayer in 14:19, 21.

[15:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Send them away from my presence and let them go away.”

[1:18]  ¹¹ tn See the note on “Jeremiah” at the beginning of v. 17.

[1:18]  ¹² tn Heb “today I have made you.” The Hebrew verb form here emphasizes the certainty of a yet future act; the Lord is promising to protect Jeremiah from any future attacks which may result from his faithfully carrying out his commission. See a similar use of the same Hebrew verb tense in v. 9, and see the translator’s note there.

[1:18]  ¹³ tn Heb “I make you a fortified city…against all the land….” The words “as strong as” and “so you will be able to stand against all the people of…” are given to clarify the meaning of the metaphor.

[7:14]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “under sin.”

[7:15]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “but what I hate, this I do.”

[7:16]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “I agree with the law that it is good.”

[7:18]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “For to wish is present in/with me, but not to do it.”

[7:25]  ¹⁸ tc ‡ Most mss (א* A 1739 1881 Ï sy) read “I give thanks to God” rather than “Now thanks be to God” (א¹ [B] Ψ 33 81 104 365 1506 pc), the reading of NA²⁷. The reading with the verb (εὐχαριστῶ τῷ θεῷ, eucaristw tw qew) possibly arose from a transcriptional error in which several letters were doubled (TCGNT 455). The conjunction δέ (de, “now”) is included in some mss as well (א¹ Ψ 33 81 104 365 1506 pc), but it should probably not be considered original. The ms support for the omission of δέ is both excellent and widespread (א* A B D 1739 1881 Ï lat sy), and its addition can be explained as an insertion to smooth out the transition between v. 24 and 25.

[7:25]  ¹⁹ tn There is a double connective here that cannot be easily preserved in English: “consequently therefore,” emphasizing the conclusion of what he has been arguing.

[7:25]  ²⁰ tn Greek emphasizes the contrast between these two clauses more than can be easily expressed in English.

[7:25]  ²¹ tn The words “I serve” have been repeated here for clarity.