Jeremiah 30:3

30:3 For I, the Lord, affirm ¹  that the time will come when I will reverse the plight ²  of my people, Israel and Judah,’ says the Lord. ‘I will bring them back to the land I gave their ancestors ³  and they will take possession of it once again.’” ⁴ 

Jeremiah 50:4

50:4 “When that time comes,” says the Lord, ⁵ 

“the people of Israel and Judah will return to the land together.

They will come back with tears of repentance

as they seek the Lord their God. ⁶ 

Jeremiah 50:20

50:20 When that time comes,

no guilt will be found in Israel.

No sin will be found in Judah. ⁷ 

For I will forgive those of them I have allowed to survive. ⁸ 

I, the Lord, affirm it!’” ⁹ 

Isaiah 11:11-13

11:11 At that time ¹⁰  the sovereign master ¹¹  will again lift his hand ¹²  to reclaim ¹³  the remnant of his people ¹⁴  from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, ¹⁵  Cush, ¹⁶  Elam, Shinar, ¹⁷  Hamath, and the seacoasts. ¹⁸ 

11:12 He will lift a signal flag for the nations;

he will gather Israel’s dispersed people ¹⁹ 

and assemble Judah’s scattered people

from the four corners of the earth.

11:13 Ephraim’s jealousy will end, ²⁰ 

and Judah’s hostility ²¹  will be eliminated.

Ephraim will no longer be jealous of Judah,

and Judah will no longer be hostile toward Ephraim.

Ezekiel 37:16-22

37:16 “As for you, son of man, take one branch, and write on it, ‘For Judah, and for the Israelites associated with him.’ Then take another branch and write on it, ‘For Joseph, the branch of Ephraim and all the house of Israel associated with him.’ 37:17 Join ²²  them as one stick; ²³  they will be as one in your hand. 37:18 When your people ²⁴  say to you, ‘Will you not tell us what these things mean?’ 37:19 tell them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Look, I am about to take the branch of Joseph which is in the hand of Ephraim and the tribes of Israel associated with him, and I will place them on the stick of Judah, ²⁵  and make them into one stick – they will be one in my hand.’ ²⁶  37:20 The sticks you write on will be in your hand in front of them. 37:21 Then tell them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Look, I am about to take the Israelites from among the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from round about and bring them to their land. 37:22 I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel, and one king will rule over them all. They will never again be two nations and never again be divided into two kingdoms. ²⁷ 

Ezekiel 39:25-28

39:25 “Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: Now I will restore ²⁸  the fortunes of Jacob, and I will have mercy on the entire house of Israel. I will be zealous for my holy name. 39:26 They will bear their shame for all their unfaithful acts against me, when they live securely on their land with no one to make them afraid. 39:27 When I have brought them back from the peoples and gathered them from the countries of their enemies, I will magnify myself among them in the sight of many nations. 39:28 Then they will know that I am the Lord their God, because I sent them into exile among the nations, and then gathered them into their own land. I will not leave any of them in exile ²⁹  any longer.

Hosea 1:11

1:11 Then the people ³⁰  of Judah and the people of Israel will be gathered together. They will appoint for themselves one leader, ³¹  and will flourish in the land. ³²  Certainly, ³³  the day of Jezreel will be great!

Hosea 11:12

God’s Lawsuit against Israel: Breach of Covenant

11:12 (12:1) ³⁴  Ephraim has surrounded me with lies;

the house of Israel has surrounded me ³⁵  with deceit.

But Judah still roams about with ³⁶  God;

he remains faithful to the Holy One.

Zechariah 10:6

10:6 “I (says the Lord) will strengthen the kingdom ³⁷  of Judah and deliver the people of Joseph ³⁸  and will bring them back ³⁹  because of my compassion for them. They will be as though I had never rejected them, for I am the Lord their God and therefore I will hear them.

[30:3]  ¹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[30:3]  ² tn Heb “restore the fortune.” For the translation and meaning of this idiom see the note at 29:14.

[30:3]  ³ tn Heb “fathers.”

[30:3]  ⁴ sn As the nations of Israel and Judah were united in their sin and suffered the same fate – that of exile and dispersion – (cf. Jer 3:8; 5:11; 11:10, 17) so they will ultimately be regathered from the nations and rejoined under one king, a descendant of David, and regain possession of their ancestral lands. The prophets of both the eighth and seventh century looked forward to this ideal (see, e.g., Hos 1:11 (2:2 HT); Isa 11:11-13; Jer 23:5-6; 30:3; 33:7; Ezek 37:15-22). This has already been anticipated in Jer 3:18.

[50:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “oracle of the Lord.”

[50:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “and the children of Israel will come, they and the children of Judah together. They shall go, weeping as they go, and they will seek the Lord their God.” The concept of “seeking” the Lord often has to do with seeking the Lord in worship (by sacrifice [Hos 5:6; 2 Chr 11:16]; prayer [Zech 8:21, 22; 2 Sam 12:16; Isa 65:1; 2 Chr 15:4]). In Hos 7:10 it is in parallel with returning to the Lord. In Ps 69:6 it is in parallel with hoping in or trusting in the Lord. Perhaps the most helpful parallels here, however, are Hos 3:5 (in comparison with Jer 30:9) and 2 Chr 15:15 where it is in the context of a covenant commitment to be loyal to the Lord which is similar to the context here (see the next verse). The translation is admittedly paraphrastic but “seeking the Lord” does not mean here looking for God as though he were merely a person to be found.

[50:20]  ⁷ tn Heb “In those days and at that time, oracle of the Lord, the iniquity [or guilt] of Israel will be sought but there will be none and the sins of Judah but they will not be found.” The passive construction “will be sought” raises the question of who is doing the seeking which is not really the main point. The translation has avoided this question by simply referring to the result which is the main point.

[50:20]  ⁸ sn Compare Jer 31:34 and 33:8.

[50:20]  ⁹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.” In this case it is necessary to place this in the first person because this is already in a quote whose speaker is identified as the Lord (v. 18).

[11:11]  ¹⁰ tn Or “in that day” (KJV). The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

[11:11]  ¹¹ tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonai).

[11:11]  ¹² tc The Hebrew text reads, “the sovereign master will again, a second time, his hand.” The auxiliary verb יוֹסִיף (yosif), which literally means “add,” needs a main verb to complete it. Consequently many emend שֵׁנִית (shenit, “a second time”) to an infinitive. Some propose the form שַׁנֹּת (shannot, a Piel infinitive construct from שָׁנָה, shanah) and relate it semantically to an Arabic cognate meaning “to be high.” If the Hebrew text is retained a verb must be supplied. “Second time” would allude back to the events of the Exodus (see vv. 15-16).

[11:11]  ¹³ tn Or “acquire”; KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV “recover.”

[11:11]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the remnant of his people who remain.”

[11:11]  ¹⁵ sn Perhaps a reference to Upper (i.e., southern) Egypt (so NIV, NLT; NCV “South Egypt”).

[11:11]  ¹⁶ tn Or “Ethiopia” (NAB, NRSV, NLT).

[11:11]  ¹⁷ tn Or “Babylonia” (NIV, NCV, TEV, NLT).

[11:11]  ¹⁸ tn Or perhaps, “the islands of the sea.”

[11:12]  ¹⁹ tn Or “the banished of Israel,” i.e., the exiles.

[11:13]  ²⁰ tn Heb “turn aside”; KJV, NASB, NRSV “depart.”

[11:13]  ²¹ tn Heb “hostile ones of Judah.” Elsewhere when the substantival participle of צָרָר (tsarar) takes a pronominal suffix or appears in a construct relationship, the following genitive is objective. (For a list of texts see BDB 865 s.v. III צָרַר) In this case the phrase “hostile ones of Judah” means “those who are hostile toward Judah,” i.e., Judah’s enemies. However, the parallel couplet that follows suggests that Judah’s hostility toward Ephraim is in view. In this case “hostile ones of Judah” means “hostile ones from Judah.” The translation above assumes the latter, giving the immediate context priority over general usage.

[37:17]  ²² tn Heb “bring near.”

[37:17]  ²³ tn Heb “one to one for you for one stick.”

[37:18]  ²⁴ tn Heb “the sons of your people.”

[37:19]  ²⁵ tn Heb “I will place them on it, that is, on the stick of Judah.”

[37:19]  ²⁶ sn The reunification of Israel and Judah is envisioned as well in Ezek 33:23, 29; Jer 3:18; 23:5-6; Hos 1:11; Amos 9:11.

[37:22]  ²⁷ sn Jeremiah also attested to the reuniting of the northern and southern kingdoms (Jer 3:12, 14; 31:2-6).

[39:25]  ²⁸ tn Heb “cause to return.”

[39:28]  ²⁹ tn Heb “there,” referring to the foreign nations to which they were exiled. The translation makes the referent clear.

[1:11]  ³⁰ tn Heb “sons” (twice in this verse, so NASB); KJV, ASV “children”; NIV, NRSV, TEV “people.”

[1:11]  ³¹ tn Heb “head” (so KJV, NAB, NRSV).

[1:11]  ³² tn Alternatively, “gain possession of the land” (cf. NRSV) or “rise up from the land” (cf. NIV). This clause may be understood in two ways: (1) Israel will gain ascendancy over the land or conquer the land (e.g., Exod 1:10; cf. NAB “come up from other lands”) or (2) Israel will be “planted” in the land (Hos 2:24-25; cf. NLT “will…plant his people”).

[1:11]  ³³ tn Or “For” (so NASB); NCV “because”; TEV “Yes.”

[11:12]  ³⁴ sn Beginning with 11:12, the verse numbers through 12:14 in the English Bible differ by one from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 11:12 ET = 12:1 HT, 12:1 ET = 12:2 HT, etc., through 12:14 ET = 12:15 HT. From 13:1 to 13:16 the verse numbers in the English Bible and the Hebrew Bible are again the same.

[11:12]  ³⁵ tn The phrase “has surrounded me” is not repeated in the Hebrew text here, but is implied by the parallelism in the preceding line. It is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons, smoothness, and readability.

[11:12]  ³⁶ tn The verb רוּד (rud, “to roam about freely”) is used in a concrete sense to refer to someone wandering restlessly and roaming back and forth (BDB 923 s.v. רוּד; Judg 11:37). Here, it is used figuratively, possibly with positive connotations, as indicated by the preposition עִם (’im, “with”), to indicate accompaniment: “but Judah still goes about with God” (HALOT 1194 s.v. רוד). Some English versions render it positively: “Judah still walks with God” (RSV, NRSV); “Judah is restive under God” (REB); “but Judah stands firm with God” (NJPS); “but Judah yet ruleth with God” (KJV, ASV). Other English versions adopt the negative connotation “to wander restlessly” and nuance עִם in an adversative sense (“against”): “Judah is still rebellious against God” (NAB), “Judah is unruly against God” (NIV), and “the people of Judah are still rebelling against me” (TEV).

[10:6]  ³⁷ tn Heb “the house.”

[10:6]  ³⁸ tn Or “the kingdom of Israel”; Heb “the house of Joseph.”

[10:6]  ³⁹ tc The anomalous MT reading וְחוֹשְׁבוֹתִים (vÿkhoshÿvotim) should probably be וַהֲשִׁי בוֹתִם (vahashi votim), the Hiphil perfect consecutive of שׁוּב (shuv), “return” (cf. Jer 12:15).