Isaiah 55:3-5

55:3 Pay attention and come to me!

Listen, so you can live! ¹ 

Then I will make an unconditional covenantal promise to ²  you,

just like the reliable covenantal promises I made to David. ³ 

55:4 Look, I made him a witness to nations, ⁴ 

a ruler and commander of nations.”

55:5 Look, you will summon nations ⁵  you did not previously know;

nations ⁶  that did not previously know you will run to you,

because of the Lord your God,

the Holy One of Israel, ⁷ 

for he bestows honor on you.

Ezekiel 34:23

34:23 I will set one shepherd over them, and he will feed them – namely, my servant David. ⁸  He will feed them and will be their shepherd.

Ezekiel 37:23-25

37:23 They will not defile themselves with their idols, their detestable things, and all their rebellious deeds. I will save them from all their unfaithfulness ⁹  by which they sinned. I will purify them; they will become my people and I will become their God.

37:24 “‘My servant David will be king over them; there will be one shepherd for all of them. They will follow ¹⁰  my regulations and carefully observe my statutes. ¹¹  37:25 They will live in the land I gave to my servant Jacob, in which your fathers lived; they will live in it – they and their children and their grandchildren forever. David my servant will be prince over them forever.

Hosea 3:5

3:5 Afterward, the Israelites will turn and seek the Lord their God and their Davidic king. ¹²  Then they will submit to the Lord in fear and receive his blessings ¹³  in the future. ¹⁴ 

Luke 1:69

1:69 For ¹⁵  he has raised up ¹⁶  a horn of salvation ¹⁷  for us in the house of his servant David, ¹⁸ 

Acts 2:30

2:30 So then, because ¹⁹  he was a prophet and knew that God had sworn to him with an oath to seat one of his descendants ²⁰  on his throne, ²¹ 

Acts 13:34

13:34 But regarding the fact that he has raised Jesus ²²  from the dead, never ²³  again to be ²⁴  in a state of decay, God ²⁵  has spoken in this way: ‘I will give you ²⁶  the holy and trustworthy promises ²⁷  made to David.’ ²⁸ 

[55:3]  ¹ tn The jussive with vav (ו) conjunctive following the imperative indicates purpose/result.

[55:3]  ² tn Or “an eternal covenant with.”

[55:3]  ³ tn Heb “the reliable expressions of loyalty of David.” The syntactical relationship of חַסְדֵי (khasde, “expressions of loyalty”) to the preceding line is unclear. If the term is appositional to בְּרִית (bÿrit, “covenant”), then the Lord here transfers the promises of the Davidic covenant to the entire nation. Another option is to take חַסְדֵי (khasde) as an adverbial accusative and to translate “according to the reliable covenantal promises.” In this case the new covenantal arrangement proposed here is viewed as an extension or perhaps fulfillment of the Davidic promises. A third option, the one reflected in the above translation, is to take the last line as comparative. In this case the new covenant being proposed is analogous to the Davidic covenant. Verses 4-5, which compare David’s international prominence to what Israel will experience, favors this view. In all three of these interpretations, “David” is an objective genitive; he is the recipient of covenantal promises. A fourth option would be to take David as a subjective genitive and understand the line as giving the basis for the preceding promise: “Then I will make an unconditional covenantal promise to you, because of David’s faithful acts of covenantal loyalty.”

[55:4]  ⁴ sn Ideally the Davidic king was to testify to the nations of God’s greatness (cf. Pss 18:50 HT [18:49 ET]; 22:28 HT [22:27 ET]). See J. H. Eaton, Kingship in the Psalms (SBT), 182-84.

[55:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “a nation,” but the singular is collective here, as the plural verbs in the next line indicate (note that both “know” and “run” are third plural forms).

[55:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “a nation,” but the singular is collective here, as the plural verbs that follow indicate.

[55:5]  ⁷ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[34:23]  ⁸ sn The messianic king is here called “David” (see Jer 30:9 and Hos 3:5, as well as Isa 11:1 and Mic 5:2) because he will fulfill the Davidic royal ideal depicted in the prophets and royal psalms (see Ps 2, 89).

[37:23]  ⁹ tc Heb “their dwellings.” The text as it stands does not make sense. Based on the LXX, a slight emendation of two vowels, including a mater, yields the reading “from their turning,” a reference here to their turning from God and deviating from his commandments. See BDB 1000 s.v. מְשׁוּבָה, and D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 2:407.

[37:24]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “walk [in].”

[37:24]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and my statutes they will guard and they will do them.”

[3:5]  ¹² tn Heb “David their king”; cf. NCV “the king from David’s family”; TEV “a descendant of David their king”; NLT “David’s descendant, their king.”

[3:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “his goodness”; NLT “his good gifts.”

[3:5]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “in the end of the days.” Cf. NAB, NASB, NIV, NCV, NLT “in the last days.”

[1:69]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “and,” but specifying the reason for the praise in the psalm.

[1:69]  ¹⁶ sn The phrase raised up means for God to bring someone significant onto the scene of history.

[1:69]  ¹⁷ sn The horn of salvation is a figure that refers to the power of Messiah and his ability to protect, as the horn refers to what an animal uses to attack and defend (Ps 75:4-5, 10; 148:14; 2 Sam 22:3). Thus the meaning of the figure is “a powerful savior.”

[1:69]  ¹⁸ sn In the house of his servant David is a reference to Messiah’s Davidic descent. Zechariah is more interested in Jesus than his own son John at this point.

[2:30]  ¹⁹ tn The participles ὑπάρχων (Juparcwn) and εἰδώς (eidw") are translated as causal adverbial participles.

[2:30]  ²⁰ tn Grk “one from the fruit of his loins.” “Loins” is the traditional translation of ὀσφῦς (osfu"), referring to the male genital organs. A literal rendering like “one who came from his genital organs” would be regarded as too specific and perhaps even vulgar by many contemporary readers. Most modern translations thus render the phrase “one of his descendants.”

[2:30]  ²¹ sn An allusion to Ps 132:11 and 2 Sam 7:12-13, the promise in the Davidic covenant.

[13:34]  ²² tn Grk “him”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[13:34]  ²³ tn Although μηκέτι (mhketi) can mean “no longer” or “no more,” the latter is more appropriate here, since to translate “no longer” in this context could give the reader the impression that Jesus did experience decay before his resurrection. Since the phrase “no more again to be” is somewhat awkward in English, the simpler phrase “never again to be” was used instead.

[13:34]  ²⁴ tn The translation “to be in again” for ὑποστρέφω (Jupostrefw) is given in L&N 13.24.

[13:34]  ²⁵ tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[13:34]  ²⁶ tn The pronoun “you” is plural here. The promises of David are offered to the people.

[13:34]  ²⁷ tn Or “the trustworthy decrees made by God to David.” The phrase τὰ ὅσια Δαυὶδ τὰ πιστά (ta Josia Dauid ta pista) is “compressed,” that is, in a very compact or condensed form. It could be expanded in several different ways. BDAG 728 s.v. ὅσιος 3 understands it to refer to divine decrees: “I will grant you the sure decrees of God relating to David.” BDAG then states that this quotation from Isa 55:3 is intended to show that the following quotation from Ps 16:10 could not refer to David himself, but must refer to his messianic descendant (Jesus). L&N 33.290 render the phrase “I will give to you the divine promises made to David, promises that can be trusted,” although they also note that τὰ ὅσια in Acts 13:34 can mean “divine decrees” or “decrees made by God.” In contemporary English it is less awkward to translate πιστά as an adjective (“trustworthy”). The concept of “divine decrees,” not very understandable to the modern reader, has been replaced by “promises,” and since God is the implied speaker in the context, it is clear that these promises were made by God.

[13:34]  ²⁸ sn A quotation from Isa 55:3. The point of this citation is to make clear that the promise of a Davidic line and blessings are made to the people as well.