Jeremiah 31:18-19

31:18 I have indeed ¹  heard the people of Israel ²  say mournfully,

‘We were like a calf untrained to the yoke. ³ 

You disciplined us and we learned from it. ⁴ 

Let us come back to you and we will do so, ⁵ 

for you are the Lord our God.

31:19 For after we turned away from you we repented.

After we came to our senses ⁶  we beat our breasts in sorrow. ⁷ 

We are ashamed and humiliated

because of the disgraceful things we did previously.’ ⁸ 

Jeremiah 31:33

31:33 “But I will make a new covenant with the whole nation of Israel ⁹  after I plant them back in the land,” ¹⁰  says the Lord. ¹¹  “I will ¹²  put my law within them ¹³  and write it on their hearts and minds. ¹⁴  I will be their God and they will be my people. ¹⁵ 

Ezekiel 11:19

11:19 I will give them one heart and I will put a new spirit within them; ¹⁶  I will remove the hearts of stone from their bodies ¹⁷  and I will give them tender hearts, ¹⁸ 

Ezekiel 36:26

36:26 I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will remove the heart of stone ¹⁹  from your body and give you a heart of flesh. ²⁰ 

Ezekiel 36:31

36:31 Then you will remember your evil behavior ²¹  and your deeds which were not good; you will loathe yourselves on account of your sins and your abominable deeds.

Zechariah 12:10

12:10 “I will pour out on the kingship ²²  of David and the population of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication so that they will look to me, ²³  the one they have pierced. They will lament for him as one laments for an only son, and there will be a bitter cry for him like the bitter cry for a firstborn. ²⁴ 

Acts 5:21

5:21 When they heard this, they entered the temple courts ²⁵  at daybreak and began teaching. ²⁶ 

Now when the high priest and those who were with him arrived, they summoned the Sanhedrin ²⁷  – that is, the whole high council ²⁸  of the Israelites ²⁹  – and sent to the jail to have the apostles ³⁰  brought before them. ³¹ 

Acts 11:18

11:18 When they heard this, ³²  they ceased their objections ³³  and praised ³⁴  God, saying, “So then, God has granted the repentance ³⁵  that leads to life even to the Gentiles.” ³⁶ 

James 1:17

1:17 All generous giving and every perfect gift ³⁷  is from above, coming down ³⁸  from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or the slightest hint of change. ³⁹ 

James 1:1

Salutation

1:1 From James, ⁴⁰  a slave ⁴¹  of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes dispersed abroad. ⁴²  Greetings!

James 5:16

5:16 So confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great effectiveness. ⁴³ 

[31:18]  ¹ tn The use of “indeed” is intended to reflect the infinitive absolute which precedes the verb for emphasis (see IBHS 585-86 §35.3.1f).

[31:18]  ² tn Heb “Ephraim.” See the study note on 31:9. The more familiar term is used, the term “people” added to it, and plural pronouns used throughout the verse to aid in understanding.

[31:18]  ³ tn Heb “like an untrained calf.” The metaphor is that of a calf who has never been broken to bear the yoke (cf. Hos 4:16; 10:11).

[31:18]  ⁴ tn The verb here is from the same root as the preceding and is probably an example of the “tolerative Niphal,” i.e., “I let myself be disciplined/I responded to it.” See IBHS 389-90 §23.4g and note the translation of some of the examples there, especially Isa 19:22; 65:1.

[31:18]  ⁵ tn Heb “Bring me back in order that I may come back.” For the use of the plural pronouns see the marginal note at the beginning of the verse. The verb “bring back” and “come back” are from the same root in two different verbal stems and in the context express the idea of spiritual repentance and restoration of relationship not physical return to the land. (See BDB 999 s.v. שׁוּב Hiph.2.a for the first verb and 997 s.v. Qal.6.c for the second.) For the use of the cohortative to express purpose after the imperative see GKC 320 §108.d or IBHS 575 §34.5.2b.

[31:19]  ⁶ tn For this meaning of the verb see HAL 374 s.v. יָדַע Nif 5 or W. L. Holladay, Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon, 129. REB translates “Now that I am submissive” relating the verb to a second root meaning “be submissive.” (See HALOT 375 s.v. II יָדַע and J. Barr, Comparative Philology and the Text of the Old Testament, 19-21, for evidence for this verb. Other passages cited with this nuance are Judg 8:16; Prov 10:9; Job 20:20.)

[31:19]  ⁷ tn Heb “I struck my thigh.” This was a gesture of grief and anguish (cf. Ezek 21:12 [21:17 HT]). The modern equivalent is “to beat the breast.”

[31:19]  ⁸ tn Heb “because I bear the reproach of my youth.” For the plural referents see the note at the beginning of v. 18.

[31:33]  ⁹ tn Heb “with the house of Israel.” All commentators agree that the term here refers to both the whole nation which was divided into the house of Israel and the house of Judah in v. 30.

[31:33]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “after those days.” Commentators are generally agreed that this refers to the return from exile and the repopulation of the land referred to in vv. 27-28 and not to something subsequent to the time mentioned in v. 30. This is the sequencing that is also presupposed in other new covenant passages such as Deut 30:1-6; Ezek 11:17-20; 36:24-28.

[31:33]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[31:33]  ¹² tn Heb “‘But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after these days:’ says the Lord, ‘I will….’” The sentence has been reworded and restructured to avoid the awkwardness of the original style.

[31:33]  ¹³ tn Heb “in their inward parts.” The Hebrew word here refers to the seat of the thoughts, emotions, and decisions (Jer 9:8 [9:7 HT]). It is essentially synonymous with “heart” in Hebrew psychological terms.

[31:33]  ¹⁴ tn The words “and minds” is not in the text but is supplied in the translation to bring the English psychology more into line with the Hebrew where the “heart” is the center both of knowing/thinking/reflecting and deciding/willing.

[31:33]  ¹⁵ sn Compare Jer 24:7; 30:22; 31:1 and see the study note on 30:2.

[11:19]  ¹⁶ tc The MT reads “you”; many Hebrew mss along with the LXX and other ancient versions read “within them.”

[11:19]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “their flesh.”

[11:19]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “heart of flesh.”

[36:26]  ¹⁹ sn That is, a heart which symbolizes a will that is stubborn and unresponsive (see 1 Sam 25:37). In Rabbinic literature a “stone” was associated with an evil inclination (b. Sukkah 52a).

[36:26]  ²⁰ sn That is, a heart which symbolizes a will that is responsive and obedient to God.

[36:31]  ²¹ tn Heb “ways.”

[12:10]  ²² tn Or “dynasty”; Heb “house.”

[12:10]  ²³ tc Because of the difficulty of the concept of the mortal piercing of God, the subject of this clause, and the shift of pronoun from “me” to “him” in the next, many mss read אַלֵי אֵת אֲשֶׁר (’ale ’et ’asher, “to the one whom,” a reading followed by NAB, NRSV) rather than the MT’s אֵלַי אֵת אֲשֶׁר (’ela ’et ’asher, “to me whom”). The reasons for such alternatives, however, are clear – they are motivated by scribes who found such statements theologically objectionable – and they should be rejected in favor of the more difficult reading (lectio difficilior) of the MT.

[12:10]  ²⁴ tn The Hebrew term בְּכוֹר (bÿkhor, “firstborn”), translated usually in the LXX by πρωτότοκος (prwtotokos), has unmistakable messianic overtones as the use of the Greek term in the NT to describe Jesus makes clear (cf. Col 1:15, 18). Thus, the idea of God being pierced sets the stage for the fatal wounding of Jesus, the Messiah and the Son of God (cf. John 19:37; Rev 1:7). Note that some English translations supply “son” from the context (e.g., NIV, TEV, NLT).

[5:21]  ²⁵ tn Grk “the temple.” See the note on the same phrase in the preceding verse.

[5:21]  ²⁶ tn The imperfect verb ἐδίδασκον (edidaskon) has been translated as an ingressive imperfect.

[5:21]  ²⁷ tn Or “the council” (the highest legal, legislative, and judicial body among the Jews).

[5:21]  ²⁸ tn A hendiadys (two different terms referring to a single thing) is likely here (a reference to a single legislative body rather than two separate ones) because the term γερουσίαν (gerousian) is used in both 1 Macc 12:6 and Josephus, Ant. 13.5.8 (13.166) to refer to the Sanhedrin.

[5:21]  ²⁹ tn Grk “sons of Israel.”

[5:21]  ³⁰ tn Grk “have them”; the referent (the apostles) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[5:21]  ³¹ tn The words “before them” are not in the Greek text but are implied.

[11:18]  ³² tn Grk “these things.”

[11:18]  ³³ tn Or “became silent,” but this would create an apparent contradiction with the subsequent action of praising God. The point, in context, is that they ceased objecting to what Peter had done.

[11:18]  ³⁴ tn Or “glorified.”

[11:18]  ³⁵ sn Here the summary phrase for responding to the gospel is the repentance that leads to life. Note how the presence of life is tied to the presence of the Spirit (cf. John 4:7-42; 7:37-39).

[11:18]  ³⁶ sn In the Greek text the phrase even to the Gentiles is in an emphatic position.

[1:17]  ³⁷ tn The first phrase refers to the action of giving and the second to what is given.

[1:17]  ³⁸ tn Or “All generous giving and every perfect gift from above is coming down.”

[1:17]  ³⁹ tn Grk “variation or shadow of turning” (referring to the motions of heavenly bodies causing variations of light and darkness).

[1:1]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “James.” The word “From” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.

[1:1]  ⁴¹ tn Traditionally, “servant” or “bondservant.” Though δοῦλος (doulos) is normally translated “servant,” the word does not bear the connotation of a free individual serving another. BDAG notes that “‘servant’ for ‘slave’ is largely confined to Biblical transl. and early American times…in normal usage at the present time the two words are carefully distinguished” (BDAG 260 s.v.). The most accurate translation is “bondservant” (sometimes found in the ASV for δοῦλος), in that it often indicates one who sells himself into slavery to another. But as this is archaic, few today understand its force.

[1:1]  ⁴² tn Grk “to the twelve tribes in the Diaspora.” The Greek term διασπορά (diaspora, “dispersion”) refers to Jews not living in Palestine but “dispersed” or scattered among the Gentiles.

[5:16]  ⁴³ tn Or “the fervent prayer of a righteous person is very powerful”; Grk “is very powerful in its working.”