Isaiah 62:12

62:12 They will be called, “The Holy People,

the Ones Protected ¹  by the Lord.”

You will be called, “Sought After,

City Not Abandoned.”

Exodus 19:4-6

19:4 ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt and how I lifted you on eagles’ wings ²  and brought you to myself. ³  19:5 And now, if you will diligently listen to me ⁴  and keep ⁵  my covenant, then you will be my ⁶  special possession ⁷  out of all the nations, for all the earth is mine, 19:6 and you will be to me ⁸  a kingdom of priests ⁹  and a holy nation.’ ¹⁰  These are the words that you will speak to the Israelites.”

Deuteronomy 7:6

7:6 For you are a people holy ¹¹  to the Lord your God. He ¹²  has chosen you to be his people, prized ¹³  above all others on the face of the earth.

Deuteronomy 26:19

26:19 Then ¹⁴  he will elevate you above all the nations he has made and you will receive praise, fame, and honor. ¹⁵  You will ¹⁶  be a people holy to the Lord your God, as he has said.

Daniel 8:24

8:24 His power will be great, but it will not be by his strength alone. He will cause terrible destruction. ¹⁷  He will be successful in what he undertakes. ¹⁸  He will destroy powerful people and the people of the holy ones. ¹⁹ 

Daniel 8:1

Daniel Has a Vision of a Goat and a Ram

8:1 ²⁰ In the third year ²¹  of King Belshazzar’s reign, a vision appeared to me, Daniel, after the one that had appeared to me previously. ²² 

Daniel 2:9

2:9 If you don’t inform me of the dream, there is only one thing that is going to happen to you. ²³  For you have agreed among yourselves to report to me something false and deceitful ²⁴  until such time as things might change. So tell me the dream, and I will have confidence ²⁵  that you can disclose its interpretation.”

[62:12]  ¹ tn Or “the redeemed of the Lord” (KJV, NAB).

[19:4]  ² tn The figure compares the way a bird would teach its young to fly and leave the nest with the way Yahweh brought Israel out of Egypt. The bird referred to could be one of several species of eagles, but more likely is the griffin-vulture. The image is that of power and love.

[19:4]  ³ sn The language here is the language of a bridegroom bringing the bride to the chamber. This may be a deliberate allusion to another metaphor for the covenant relationship.

[19:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “listen to my voice.” The construction uses the imperfect tense in the conditional clause, preceded by the infinitive absolute from the same verb. The idiom “listen to the voice of” implies obedience, not just mental awareness of sound.

[19:5]  ⁵ tn The verb is a perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive; it continues the idea in the protasis of the sentence: “and [if you will] keep.”

[19:5]  ⁶ tn The lamed preposition expresses possession here: “to me” means “my.”

[19:5]  ⁷ tn The noun is סְגֻלָּה (sÿgullah), which means a special possession. Israel was to be God’s special possession, but the prophets will later narrow it to the faithful remnant. All the nations belong to God, but Israel was to stand in a place of special privilege and enormous responsibility. See Deut 7:6; 14:2; 26:18; Ps 135:4; and Mal 3:17. See M. Greenburg, “Hebrew sÿgulla: Akkadian sikiltu,” JAOS 71 (1951): 172ff.

[19:6]  ⁸ tn Or “for me” (NIV, NRSV), or, if the lamed (ל) preposition has a possessive use, “my kingdom” (so NCV).

[19:6]  ⁹ tn The construction “a kingdom of priests” means that the kingdom is made up of priests. W. C. Kaiser (“Exodus,” EBC 2:417) offers four possible renderings of the expression: 1) apposition, viz., “kings, that is, priests; 2) as a construct with a genitive of specification, “royal priesthood”; 3) as a construct with the genitive being the attribute, “priestly kingdom”; and 4) reading with an unexpressed “and” – “kings and priests.” He takes the latter view that they were to be kings and priests. (Other references are R. B. Y. Scott, “A Kingdom of Priests (Exodus xix. 6),” OTS 8 [1950]: 213-19; William L. Moran, “A Kingdom of Priests,” The Bible in Current Catholic Thought, 7-20). However, due to the parallelism of the next description which uses an adjective, this is probably a construct relationship. This kingdom of God will be composed of a priestly people. All the Israelites would be living wholly in God’s service and enjoying the right of access to him. And, as priests, they would have the duty of representing God to the nations, following what they perceived to be the duties of priests – proclaiming God’s word, interceding for people, and making provision for people to find God through atonement (see Deut 33:9,10).

[19:6]  ¹⁰ tn They are also to be “a holy nation.” They are to be a nation separate and distinct from the rest of the nations. Here is another aspect of their duty. It was one thing to be God’s special possession, but to be that they had to be priestly and holy. The duties of the covenant will specify what it would mean to be a holy nation. In short, they had to keep themselves free from everything that characterized pagan people (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 171). So it is a bilateral covenant: they received special privileges but they must provide special services by the special discipline. See also H. Kruse, “Exodus 19:5 and the Mission of Israel,” North East Asian Journal of Theology 24/25 (1980): 239-42.

[7:6]  ¹¹ tn That is, “set apart.”

[7:6]  ¹² tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[7:6]  ¹³ 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.

[26:19]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “so that.” Verses 18-19 are one sentence in the Hebrew text, but the translation divides it into three sentences for stylistic reasons. The first clause in verse 19 gives a result of the preceding clause. When Israel keeps God’s law, God will bless them with fame and honor (cf. NAB “he will then raise you high in praise and renown and glory”; NLT “And if you do, he will make you greater than any other nation”).

[26:19]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “for praise and for a name and for glory.”

[26:19]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and to be.” A new sentence was started here for stylistic reasons.

[8:24]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “extraordinarily he will destroy.”

[8:24]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “he will succeed and act.”

[8:24]  ¹⁹ tn See the corresponding Aramaic expression in 7:27. If the “holy ones” are angels, then this probably refers to the angels as protectors of God’s people. One could translate, “people belonging to (i.e., protected by) the holy ones.” If the “holy ones” are God’s people, then this is an appositional construction, “the people who are the holy ones.” One could translate simply “holy people.” For examples of a plural appositional genitive after “people,” see 11:15, 32. Because either interpretation is possible, the translation has deliberately preserved the ambiguity of the Hebrew grammar here.

[8:1]  ²⁰ sn Dan 8:1 marks the switch from Aramaic (= 2:4b-7:28) back to Hebrew as the language in which the book is written in its present form. The remainder of the book from this point on (8:1-12:13) is in Hebrew. The bilingual nature of the book has been variously explained, but it most likely has to do with the book’s transmission history.

[8:1]  ²¹ sn The third year of King Belshazzar’s reign would have been ca. 551 B.C. Daniel would have been approximately 69 years old at the time of this vision.

[8:1]  ²² tn Heb “in the beginning.” This refers to the vision described in chapter seven.

[2:9]  ²³ tn Aram “one is your law,” i.e., only one thing is applicable to you.

[2:9]  ²⁴ tn Aram “a lying and corrupt word.”

[2:9]  ²⁵ tn Aram “I will know.”