Jeremiah 27:11

27:11 Things will go better for the nation that submits to the yoke of servitude to ¹  the king of Babylon and is subject to him. I will leave that nation ²  in its native land. Its people can continue to farm it and live in it. I, the Lord, affirm it!”’” ³ 

Jeremiah 38:17-20

38:17 Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “The Lord, the God who rules over all, the God of Israel, ⁴  says, ‘You must surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon. If you do, your life will be spared ⁵  and this city will not be burned down. Indeed, you and your whole family will be spared. 38:18 But if you do not surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, this city will be handed over to the Babylonians ⁶  and they will burn it down. You yourself will not escape from them.’” ⁷  38:19 Then King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “I am afraid of the Judeans who have deserted to the Babylonians. ⁸  The Babylonians might hand me over to them and they will torture me.” ⁹  38:20 Then Jeremiah answered, “You will not be handed over to them. Please obey the Lord by doing what I have been telling you. ¹⁰  Then all will go well with you and your life will be spared. ¹¹ 

Genesis 49:15

49:15 When he sees ¹²  a good resting place,

and the pleasant land,

he will bend his shoulder to the burden

and become a slave laborer. ¹³ 

Psalms 37:3

37:3 Trust in the Lord and do what is right!

Settle in the land and maintain your integrity! ¹⁴ 

Psalms 128:2

128:2 You ¹⁵  will eat what you worked so hard to grow. ¹⁶ 

You will be blessed and secure. ¹⁷ 

[27:11]  ¹ tn Heb “put their necks in the yoke of.” See the study note on v. 2 for the figure.

[27:11]  ² tn The words “Things will go better for” are not in the text. They are supplied contextually as a means of breaking up the awkward syntax of the original which reads “The nation which brings its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and subjects itself to him, I will leave it…”

[27:11]  ³ tn Heb “oracle of the Lord.”

[38:17]  ⁴ tn Heb “Yahweh, the God of armies, the God of Israel.” Compare 7:3 and 35:17 and see the study note on 2:19.

[38:17]  ⁵ tn Heb “Your life/soul will live.” The quote is a long condition-consequence sentence with compound consequential clauses. It reads, “If you will only go out to the officers of the king of Babylon, your soul [= you yourself; BDB 660 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ 4.a] will live and this city will not be burned with fire and you and your household will live.” The sentence has been broken down and restructured to better conform with contemporary English style. The infinitive absolute in the condition emphasizes the one condition, i.e., going out or surrendering (cf. Joüon 2:423 §123.g, and compare usage in Exod 15:26). For the idiom “go out to” = “surrender to” see the full idiom in 21:9 “go out and fall over to” which is condensed in 38:2 to “go out to.” The expression here is the same as in 38:2.

[38:18]  ⁶ tn Heb “Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for explanation.

[38:18]  ⁷ tn Heb “will not escape from their hand.”

[38:19]  ⁸ tn Heb “Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for explanation.

[38:19]  ⁹ tn Or “and they will badly abuse me.” For the usage of this verb in the situation presupposed see Judg 19:25 and 1 Sam 31:4.

[38:20]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Please listen to the voice of the Lord with regard to what I have been telling you.” For the idiom “listen to the voice” = “obey” see BDB 1034 s.v. שָׁמַע 1.m. Obedience here is expressed by following the advice in the qualifying clause, i.e., what I have been telling you.

[38:20]  ¹¹ tn Heb “your life [or you yourself] will live.” Compare v. 17 and the translator’s note there for the idiom.

[49:15]  ¹² tn The verb forms in this verse (“sees,” “will bend,” and “[will] become”) are preterite; they is used in a rhetorical manner, describing the future as if it had already transpired.

[49:15]  ¹³ sn The oracle shows that the tribe of Issachar will be willing to trade liberty for the material things of life. Issachar would work (become a slave laborer) for the Canaanites, a reversal of the oracle on Canaan. See C. M. Carmichael, “Some Sayings in Genesis 49,” JBL 88 (1969): 435-44; and S. Gevirtz, “The Issachar Oracle in the Testament of Jacob,” ErIsr 12 (1975): 104-12.

[37:3]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “tend integrity.” The verb רָעָה (ra’ah, “tend, shepherd”) is probably used here in the sense of “watch over, guard.” The noun אֱמוּנָה (’emunah, “faithfulness, honesty, integrity”) is understood as the direct object of the verb, though it could be taken as an adverbial accusative, “[feed] securely,” if the audience is likened to a flock of sheep.

[128:2]  ¹⁵ tn The psalmist addresses the representative God-fearing man, as indicated by the references to “your wife” (v. 3) and “the man” (v. 4), as well as the second masculine singular pronominal and verbal forms in vv. 2-6.

[128:2]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the work of your hands, indeed you will eat.”

[128:2]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “how blessed you [will be] and it will be good for you.”