Jeremiah 18:11

18:11 So now, tell the people of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem ¹  this: The Lord says, ‘I am preparing to bring disaster on you! I am making plans to punish you. ²  So, every one of you, stop the evil things you have been doing. ³  Correct the way you have been living and do what is right.’ ⁴ 

Jeremiah 35:15

35:15 I sent all my servants the prophets to warn you over and over again. They said, “Every one of you, stop doing the evil things you have been doing and do what is right. ⁵  Do not pay allegiance to other gods ⁶  and worship them. Then you can continue to live in this land that I gave to you and your ancestors.” But you did not pay any attention or listen to me.

Jeremiah 35:2

35:2 “Go to the Rechabite community. ⁷  Invite them to come into one of the side rooms ⁸  of the Lord’s temple and offer them some wine to drink.”

Jeremiah 17:13-14

17:13 You are the one in whom Israel may find hope. ⁹ 

All who leave you will suffer shame.

Those who turn away from you ¹⁰  will be consigned to the nether world. ¹¹ 

For they have rejected you, the Lord, the fountain of life. ¹² 

17:14 Lord, grant me relief from my suffering

so that I may have some relief.

Rescue me from those who persecute me

so that I may be rescued. ¹³ 

Isaiah 55:6-7

55:6 Seek the Lord while he makes himself available; ¹⁴ 

call to him while he is nearby!

55:7 The wicked need to abandon their lifestyle ¹⁵ 

and sinful people their plans. ¹⁶ 

They should return ¹⁷  to the Lord, and he will show mercy to them, ¹⁸ 

and to their God, for he will freely forgive them. ¹⁹ 

Ezekiel 18:30

18:30 “Therefore I will judge each person according to his conduct, ²⁰  O house of Israel, declares the sovereign Lord. Repent ²¹  and turn from all your wickedness; then it will not be an obstacle leading to iniquity. ²² 

Ezekiel 33:11

33:11 Say to them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but prefer that the wicked change his behavior ²³  and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil deeds! ²⁴  Why should you die, O house of Israel?’

Jonah 3:8-10

3:8 Every person and animal must put on sackcloth and must cry earnestly ²⁵  to God, and everyone ²⁶  must turn from their ²⁷  evil way of living ²⁸  and from the violence that they do. ²⁹  3:9 Who knows? ³⁰  Perhaps God might be willing to change his mind and relent ³¹  and turn from his fierce anger ³²  so that we might not die.” ³³  3:10 When God saw their actions – they turned ³⁴  from their evil way of living! ³⁵  – God relented concerning the judgment ³⁶  he had threatened them with ³⁷  and he did not destroy them. ³⁸ 

Zechariah 1:4-5

1:4 “Do not be like your ancestors, to whom the former prophets called out, saying, ‘The Lord who rules over all says, “Turn now from your evil wickedness,”’ but they would by no means obey me,” says the Lord. 1:5 “As for your ancestors, where are they? And did the prophets live forever?

Luke 13:3-5

13:3 No, I tell you! But unless you repent, ³⁹  you will all perish as well! ⁴⁰  13:4 Or those eighteen who were killed ⁴¹  when the tower in Siloam fell on them, ⁴²  do you think they were worse offenders than all the others who live in Jerusalem? ⁴³  13:5 No, I tell you! But unless you repent ⁴⁴  you will all perish as well!” ⁴⁵ 

Acts 26:20

26:20 but I declared to those in Damascus first, and then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, ⁴⁶  and to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, ⁴⁷  performing deeds consistent with ⁴⁸  repentance.

James 4:8-10

4:8 Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and make your hearts pure, you double-minded. ⁴⁹  4:9 Grieve, mourn, ⁵⁰  and weep. Turn your laughter ⁵¹  into mourning and your joy into despair. 4:10 Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you.

[18:11]  ¹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[18:11]  ² sn Heb “I am forming disaster and making plans against you.” The word translated “forming” is the same as that for “potter,” so there is a wordplay taking the reader back to v. 5. They are in his hands like the clay in the hands of the potter. Since they have not been pliable he forms new plans. He still offers them opportunity to repent; but their response is predictable.

[18:11]  ³ tn Heb “Turn, each one from his wicked way.” See v. 8.

[18:11]  ⁴ tn Or “Make good your ways and your actions.” See the same expression in 7:3, 5.

[35:15]  ⁵ tn Heb “Turn, each of you, from his [= your] wicked way and make good your deeds.” Compare 18:11 where the same idiom occurs with the added term of “make good your ways.”

[35:15]  ⁶ tn Heb “Don’t go after/follow other gods.” See the translator’s note on 2:5 for an explanation of the idiom and see 11:10; 13:10; 25:6 for the same idiom.

[35:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “the house of the Rechabites.” “House” is used here in terms of “household” or “family” (cf. BDB 109 s.v. בַּיִת 5.a, b).

[35:2]  ⁸ sn This refers to one of the rooms built on the outside of the temple that were used as living quarters for the priests and for storage rooms (cf. Neh 13:4-5; 1 Kgs 6:5; 1 Chr 28:12; 2 Chr 31:11 and compare Ezek 41:1-14).

[17:13]  ⁹ tn Heb “O glorious throne, O high place from the beginning, O hope of Israel, O Lord.” Commentators and translators generally understand these four lines (which are three in the Hebrew original) as two predications, one eulogizing the temple and the other eulogizing God. However, that does not fit the context very well and does not take into account the nature of Jeremiah’s doxology in Jeremiah 16:19-20 (and compare also 10:6-7). There the doxology is context motivated, focused on God, and calls on relevant attributes in the form of metaphorical epithets. That fits nicely here as well. For the relevant parallel passages see the study note.

[17:13]  ¹⁰ tc The translation is based on an emendation suggested in W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah (Hermeneia), 1:500, n. b-b. The emendation involves following the reading preferred by the Masoretes (the Qere) and understanding the preposition with the following word as a corruption of the suffix on it. Thus the present translation reads וּסוּרֶיךָ אֶרֶץ (usurekha ’erets) instead of וּסוּרַי בָּאֶרֶץ (usuray ba’erets, “and those who leave me will be written in the earth”), a reading which is highly improbable since all the other pronouns are second singular.

[17:13]  ¹¹ tn Or “to the world of the dead.” An alternative interpretation is: “will be as though their names were written in the dust”; Heb “will be written in the dust.” The translation follows the nuance of “earth” listed in HALOT 88 s.v. אֶרֶץ 4 and found in Jonah 2:6 (2:7 HT); Job 10:21-22. For the nuance of “enrolling, registering among the number” for the verb translated here “consign” see BDB 507 s.v. כָּתַב Qal.3 and 508 s.v. Niph.2 and compare usage in Ezek 13:9 and Ps 69:28 (69:29 HT).

[17:13]  ¹² tn Heb “The fountain of living water.” For an earlier use of this metaphor and the explanation of it see Jer 2:13 and the notes there. There does not appear to be any way to retain this metaphor in the text without explaining it. In the earlier text the context would show that literal water was not involved. Here it might still be assumed that the Lord merely gives life-giving water.

[17:14]  ¹³ tn The translation fills in the details of the metaphor from a preceding context (15:18) and from the following context (17:18). The literal translation “Heal me and I will be healed. Rescue me and I will be rescued.” does not make much sense if these details are not filled in. The metaphor is filled in for clarity for the average reader.

[55:6]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “while he allows himself to be found.” The Niphal form has a tolerative force here.

[55:7]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Let the wicked one abandon his way.” The singular is collective.

[55:7]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and the man of evil his thoughts.” The singular is collective.

[55:7]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “let him return.” The singular is collective, meaning “let them.”

[55:7]  ¹⁸ tn The imperfect with vav (ו) conjunctive after the jussive indicates purpose/result.

[55:7]  ¹⁹ sn The appeal and promise of vv. 6-7 echoes the language of Deut 4:25-31; 30:1-10; and 1 Kgs 8:46-53, all of which anticipate the exile and speak of the prerequisites for restoration.

[18:30]  ²⁰ tn Heb “ways.”

[18:30]  ²¹ tn The verbs and persons in this verse are plural whereas the individual has been the subject of the chapter.

[18:30]  ²² tn Or “leading to punishment.”

[33:11]  ²³ tn Heb “turn from his way.”

[33:11]  ²⁴ tn Heb “ways.” This same word is translated “behavior” earlier in the verse.

[3:8]  ²⁵ tn Heb “with strength”; KJV, NRSV “mightily”; NAB, NCV “loudly”; NIV “urgently.”

[3:8]  ²⁶ tn Heb “let them turn, a man from his evil way.” The alternation between the plural verb וְיָשֻׁבוּ (vÿyashuvu, “and let them turn”) and the singular noun אִישׁ (’ish, “a man, each one”) and the singular suffix on מִדַּרְכּוֹ (middarko, “from his way”) emphasizes that each and every person in the collective unity is called to repent.

[3:8]  ²⁷ tn Heb “his.” See the preceding note on “one.”

[3:8]  ²⁸ tn Heb “evil way.” For other examples of “way” as “way of living,” see Judg 2:17; Ps 107:17-22; Prov 4:25-27; 5:21.

[3:8]  ²⁹ tn Heb “that is in their hands.” By speaking of the harm they did as “in their hands,” the king recognized the Ninevites’ personal awareness and immediate responsibility. The term “hands” is either a synecdoche of instrument (e.g., “Is not the hand of Joab in all this?” 2 Sam 14:19) or a synecdoche of part for the whole. The king's descriptive figure of speech reinforces their guilt.

[3:9]  ³⁰ sn The king expresses his uncertainty whether Jonah’s message constituted a conditional announcement or an unconditional decree. Jeremiah 18 emphasizes that God sometimes gives people an opportunity to repent when they hear an announcement of judgment. However, as Amos and Isaiah learned, if a people refused to repent over a period of time, the patience of God could be exhausted. The offer of repentance in a conditional announcement of judgment can be withdrawn and in its place an unconditional decree of judgment issued. In many cases it is difficult to determine on the front end whether or not a prophetic message of coming judgment is conditional or unconditional, thus explaining the king’s uncertainty.

[3:9]  ³¹ tn “he might turn and relent.” The two verbs יָשׁוּב וְנִחַם (yashub vÿnikham) may function independently (“turn and repent”) or form a verbal hendiadys (“be willing to turn”; see IBHS 540 §32.3b). The imperfect יָשׁוּב and the perfect with prefixed vav וְנִחַם form a future-time narrative sequence. Both verbs function in a modal sense, denoting possibility, as the introductory interrogative suggests (“Who knows…?”). When used in reference to past actions, שׁוּב (shub) can mean “to be sorry” or “to regret” that someone did something in the past, and when used in reference to future planned actions, it can mean “to change one’s mind” about doing something or “to relent” from sending judgment (BDB 997 s.v. שׁוּב 6). The verb נִחַם (nikham) can mean “to be sorry” about past actions (e.g., Gen 6:6, 7; 1 Sam 15:11, 35) and “to change one’s mind” about future actions (BDB 637 s.v. נחם 2). These two verbs are used together elsewhere in passages that consider the question of whether or not God will change his mind and relent from judgment he has threatened (e.g., Jer 4:28). The verbal root שׁוּב is used four times in vv. 8-10, twice of the Ninevites “repenting” from their moral evil and twice of God “relenting” from his threatened calamity. This repetition creates a wordplay that emphasizes the appropriateness of God’s response: if the people repent, God might relent.

[3:9]  ³² tn Heb “from the burning of his nose/face.” See Exod 4:14; 22:24; 32:12; Num 25:4; 32:14; Deut 9:19.

[3:9]  ³³ tn The imperfect verb נֹאבֵד (no’ved, “we might not die”) functions in a modal sense, denoting possibility. The king’s hope parallels that of the ship’s captain in 1:6. See also Exod 32:7-14; 2 Sam 12:14-22; 1 Kgs 8:33-43; 21:17-29; Jer 18:6-8; Joel 2:11-15.

[3:10]  ³⁴ tn This clause is introduced by כִּי (ki, “that”) and functions as an epexegetical, explanatory clause.

[3:10]  ³⁵ tn Heb “from their evil way” (so KJV, ASV, NAB); NASB “wicked way.”

[3:10]  ³⁶ tn Heb “calamity” or “disaster.” The noun רָעָה (ra’ah, “calamity, disaster”) functions as a metonymy of result – the cause being the threatened judgment (e.g., Exod 32:12, 14; 2 Sam 24:16; Jer 18:8; 26:13, 19; 42:10; Joel 2:13; Jonah 4:2; HALOT 1263 s.v. רָעָה 6). The root רָעָה is repeated three times in vv. 8 and 10. Twice it refers to the Ninevites’ moral “evil” (vv. 8 and 10a) and here it refers to the “calamity” or “disaster” that the Lord had threatened (v. 10b). This repetition of the root forms a polysemantic wordplay that exploits this broad range of meanings of the noun. The wordplay emphasizes that God’s response was appropriate: because the Ninevites repented from their moral “evil” God relented from the “calamity” he had threatened.

[3:10]  ³⁷ tn Heb “the disaster that he had spoken to do to them.”

[3:10]  ³⁸ tn Heb “and he did not do it.” See notes on 3:8-9.

[13:3]  ³⁹ sn Jesus was stressing that all stand at risk of death, if they do not repent and receive life.

[13:3]  ⁴⁰ tn Or “you will all likewise perish,” but this could be misunderstood to mean that they would perish by the same means as the Galileans. Jesus’ point is that apart from repentance all will perish.

[13:4]  ⁴¹ tn Grk “on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them.” This relative clause embedded in a prepositional phrase is complex in English and has been simplified to an adjectival and a temporal clause in the translation.

[13:4]  ⁴² sn Unlike the previous event, when the tower in Siloam fell on them, it was an accident of fate. It raised the question, however, “Was this a judgment?”

[13:4]  ⁴³ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[13:5]  ⁴⁴ sn Jesus’ point repeats v. 3. The circumstances make no difference. All must deal with the reality of what death means.

[13:5]  ⁴⁵ tn Grk “similarly.”

[26:20]  ⁴⁶ tn BDAG 1093-94 s.v. χώρα 2.b states, “of the provincial name (1 Macc 8:3) ἡ χώρα τῆς ᾿Ιουδαίας Ac 26:20.”

[26:20]  ⁴⁷ sn That they should repent and turn to God. This is the shortest summary of Paul’s message that he preached.

[26:20]  ⁴⁸ tn BDAG 93 s.v. ἄξιος 1.b, “καρποὶ ἄ. τῆς μετανοίας fruits in keeping with your repentance…Lk 3:8; Mt 3:8. For this ἄ. τῆς μετανοίας ἔργα Ac 26:20.” Note how Paul preached the gospel offer and the issue of response together, side by side.

[4:8]  ⁴⁹ tn Or “two-minded” (the same description used in 1:8).

[4:9]  ⁵⁰ tn This term and the following one are preceded by καί (kai) in the Greek text, but contemporary English generally uses connectives only between the last two items in such a series.

[4:9]  ⁵¹ tn Grk “let your laughter be turned.”