Jeremiah 3:19

3:19 “I thought to myself, ¹ 

‘Oh what a joy it would be for me to treat you like a son! ² 

What a joy it would be for me to give ³  you a pleasant land,

the most beautiful piece of property there is in all the world!’ ⁴ 

I thought you would call me, ‘Father’ ⁵ 

and would never cease being loyal to me. ⁶ 

Jeremiah 31:1

31:1 At that time I will be the God of all the clans of Israel ⁷ 

and they will be my people.

I, the Lord, affirm it!” ⁸ 

Jeremiah 31:9

31:9 They will come back shedding tears of contrition.

I will bring them back praying prayers of repentance. ⁹ 

I will lead them besides streams of water,

along smooth paths where they will never stumble. ¹⁰ 

I will do this because I am Israel’s father;

Ephraim ¹¹  is my firstborn son.’”

Hosea 1:10

The Restoration of Israel

1:10 (2:1) ¹²  However, ¹³  in the future the number of the people ¹⁴  of Israel will be like the sand of the sea which can be neither measured nor numbered. Although ¹⁵  it was said to them, “You are not my people,” it will be said to them, “You are ¹⁶  children ¹⁷  of the living God!”

Romans 9:4-8

9:4 who are Israelites. To them belong ¹⁸  the adoption as sons, ¹⁹  the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the temple worship, ²⁰  and the promises. 9:5 To them belong the patriarchs, ²¹  and from them, ²²  by human descent, ²³  came the Christ, ²⁴  who is God over all, blessed forever! ²⁵  Amen.

9:6 It is not as though the word of God had failed. For not all those who are descended from Israel are truly Israel, ²⁶  9:7 nor are all the children Abraham’s true descendants; rather “through Isaac will your descendants be counted.” ²⁷  9:8 This means ²⁸  it is not the children of the flesh ²⁹  who are the children of God; rather, the children of promise are counted as descendants.

Romans 9:2

9:2 I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. ³⁰ 

Colossians 1:18

1:18 He is the head of the body, the church, as well as the beginning, the firstborn ³¹  from among the dead, so that he himself may become first in all things. ³² 

Galatians 3:26-29

3:26 For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith. ³³  3:27 For all of you who ³⁴  were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave ³⁵  nor free, there is neither male nor female ³⁶  – for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. 3:29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, ³⁷  heirs according to the promise.

[3:19]  ¹ tn Heb “I, myself, said.” See note on “I thought that she might come back to me” in 3:7.

[3:19]  ² tn Heb “How I would place you among the sons.” Israel appears to be addressed here contextually as the Lord’s wife (see the next verse). The pronouns of address in the first two lines are second feminine singular as are the readings of the two verbs preferred by the Masoretes (the Qere readings) in the third and fourth lines. The verbs that are written in the text in the third and fourth lines (the Kethib readings) are second masculine plural as is the verb describing Israel’s treachery in the next verse.

[3:19]  ³ tn The words “What a joy it would be for me to” are not in the Hebrew text but are implied in the parallel structure.

[3:19]  ⁴ tn Heb “the most beautiful heritage among the nations.”

[3:19]  ⁵ tn Heb “my father.”

[3:19]  ⁶ tn Heb “turn back from [following] after me.”

[31:1]  ⁷ sn This verse repeats v. 22 but with specific reference to all the clans of Israel, i.e., to all Israel and Judah. It functions here as a transition to the next section which will deal with the restoration of Israel (31:3-20) and Judah (31:21-25) and their reunification in the land (31:27-29) under a new covenant relation with God (31:31-37). See also the study note on 30:3 for further reference to this reunification in Jeremiah and the other prophets.

[31:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[31:9]  ⁹ tn Heb “They will come with weeping; I will bring them with supplication.” The ideas of contrition and repentance are implicit from the context (cf. vv. 18-19) and are supplied for clarity.

[31:9]  ¹⁰ sn Jer 31:8-9 are reminiscent of the “New Exodus” motif of Isa 40-66 which has already been referred to in Jer 16:14-15; 23:7-8. See especially Isa 35:3-10; 40:3-5, 11; 41:17-20; 42:14-17; 43:16-21; 49:9-13. As there, the New Exodus will so outstrip the old that the old will pale in comparison and be almost forgotten (see Jer 23:7-8).

[31:9]  ¹¹ sn Ephraim was the second son of Joseph who was elevated to a place of prominence in the family of Jacob by the patriarch’s special blessing. It was the strongest tribe in northern Israel and Samaria lay in its territory. It is often used as a poetic parallel for Israel as here. The poetry is not speaking of two separate entities here; it is a way of repeating an idea for emphasis. Moreover, there is no intent to show special preference for northern Israel over Judah. All Israel is metaphorically God’s son and the object of his special care and concern (Exod 4:22; Deut 32:6).

[1:10]  ¹² sn Beginning with 1:10, the verse numbers through 2:23 in the English Bible differ by two from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 1:10 ET = 2:1 HT, 1:11 ET = 2:2 HT, 2:1 ET = 2:3 HT, etc., through 2:23 ET = 2:25 HT. Beginning with 3:1 the verse numbers in the English Bible and the Hebrew Bible are again the same.

[1:10]  ¹³ tn The vav prefixed to וְהָיָה (véhaya) functions in an adversative sense: “however” (see R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 71, §432).

[1:10]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “sons” (so NASB); KJV, ASV “the children”; NAB, NIV “the Israelites.”

[1:10]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “in the place” (בִּמְקוֹם, bimqom). BDB 880 s.v. מָקוֹם 7.b suggests that בִּמְקוֹם (preposition בְּ, bet, + noun מָקוֹם, maqom) is an idiom carrying a concessive sense: “instead of” (e.g., Isa 33:21; Hos 2:1). However, HALOT suggests that it functions in a locative sense: “in the same place” (HALOT 626 s.v. מָקוֹם 2b; e.g., 1 Kgs 21:19; Isa 33:21; Hos 2:1).

[1:10]  ¹⁶ tn The predicate nominative, “You are…,” is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[1:10]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “sons” (so KJV, NASB, NIV).

[9:4]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “of whom.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[9:4]  ¹⁹ tn The Greek term υἱοθεσία (Juioqesia) was originally a legal technical term for adoption as a son with full rights of inheritance. BDAG 1024 s.v. notes, “a legal t.t. of ‘adoption’ of children, in our lit., i.e. in Paul, only in a transferred sense of a transcendent filial relationship between God and humans (with the legal aspect, not gender specificity, as major semantic component).” Although some modern translations remove the filial sense completely and render the term merely “adoption” (cf. NAB, ESV), the retention of this component of meaning was accomplished in the present translation by the phrase “as sons.”

[9:4]  ²⁰ tn Or “cultic service.”

[9:5]  ²¹ tn Grk “of whom are the fathers.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[9:5]  ²² tn Grk “from whom.” Here the relative pronoun has been replaced by a personal pronoun.

[9:5]  ²³ tn Grk “according to the flesh.”

[9:5]  ²⁴ tn Or “Messiah.” (Both Greek “Christ” and Hebrew and Aramaic “Messiah” mean “one who has been anointed.”)

[9:5]  ²⁵ tn Or “the Christ, who is over all, God blessed forever,” or “the Messiah. God who is over all be blessed forever!” or “the Messiah who is over all. God be blessed forever!” The translational difficulty here is not text-critical in nature, but is a problem of punctuation. Since the genre of these opening verses of Romans 9 is a lament, it is probably best to take this as an affirmation of Christ’s deity (as the text renders it). Although the other renderings are possible, to see a note of praise to God at the end of this section seems strangely out of place. But for Paul to bring his lament to a crescendo (that is to say, his kinsmen had rejected God come in the flesh), thereby deepening his anguish, is wholly appropriate. This is also supported grammatically and stylistically: The phrase ὁ ὢν (Jo wn, “the one who is”) is most naturally taken as a phrase which modifies something in the preceding context, and Paul’s doxologies are always closely tied to the preceding context. For a detailed examination of this verse, see B. M. Metzger, “The Punctuation of Rom. 9:5,” Christ and the Spirit in the New Testament, 95-112; and M. J. Harris, Jesus as God, 144-72.

[9:6]  ²⁶ tn Grk “For not all those who are from Israel are Israel.”

[9:7]  ²⁷ tn Grk “be called.” The emphasis here is upon God’s divine sovereignty in choosing Isaac as the child through whom Abraham’s lineage would be counted as opposed to Ishmael.

[9:8]  ²⁸ tn Grk “That is,” or “That is to say.”

[9:8]  ²⁹ tn Because it forms the counterpoint to “the children of promise” the expression “children of the flesh” has been retained in the translation.

[9:2]  ³⁰ tn Grk “my sorrow is great and the anguish in my heart is unceasing.”

[1:18]  ³¹ tn See the note on the term “firstborn” in 1:15. Here the reference to Jesus as the “firstborn from among the dead” seems to be arguing for a chronological priority, i.e., Jesus was the first to rise from the dead.

[1:18]  ³² tn Grk “in order that he may become in all things, himself, first.”

[3:26]  ³³ tn Or “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.”

[3:27]  ³⁴ tn Grk “For as many of you as.”

[3:28]  ³⁵ tn See the note on the word “slave” in 1:10.

[3:28]  ³⁶ tn Grk “male and female.”

[3:29]  ³⁷ tn Grk “seed.” See the note on the first occurrence of the word “descendant” in 3:16.