Jeremiah 31:20

31:20 Indeed, the people of Israel are my dear children.

They are the children I take delight in. ¹ 

For even though I must often rebuke them,

I still remember them with fondness.

So I am deeply moved with pity for them ² 

and will surely have compassion on them.

I, the Lord, affirm it! ³ 

Deuteronomy 4:29-31

4:29 But if you seek the Lord your God from there, you will find him, if, indeed, you seek him with all your heart and soul. ⁴  4:30 In your distress when all these things happen to you in the latter days, ⁵  if you return to the Lord your God and obey him ⁶  4:31 (for he ⁷  is a merciful God), he will not let you down ⁸  or destroy you, for he cannot ⁹  forget the covenant with your ancestors that he confirmed by oath to them.

Deuteronomy 4:2

4:2 Do not add a thing to what I command you nor subtract from it, so that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I am delivering to ¹⁰  you.

Deuteronomy 30:9

30:9 The Lord your God will make the labor of your hands ¹¹  abundantly successful and multiply your children, ¹²  the offspring of your cattle, and the produce of your soil. For the Lord your God will once more ¹³  rejoice over you to make you prosperous ¹⁴  just as he rejoiced over your ancestors,

Psalms 86:5

86:5 Certainly ¹⁵  O Lord, you are kind ¹⁶  and forgiving,

and show great faithfulness to all who cry out to you.

Psalms 86:15

86:15 But you, O Lord, are a compassionate and merciful God.

You are patient ¹⁷  and demonstrate great loyal love and faithfulness. ¹⁸ 

Psalms 103:8

103:8 The Lord is compassionate and merciful;

he is patient ¹⁹  and demonstrates great loyal love. ²⁰ 

Psalms 103:17

103:17 But the Lord continually shows loyal love to his faithful followers, ²¹ 

and is faithful to their descendants, ²² 

Psalms 145:8

145:8 The Lord is merciful and compassionate;

he is patient ²³  and demonstrates great loyal love. ²⁴ 

Micah 7:18-20

7:18 There is no other God like you! ²⁵ 

You ²⁶  forgive sin

and pardon ²⁷  the rebellion

of those who remain among your people. ²⁸ 

You do not remain angry forever, ²⁹ 

but delight in showing loyal love.

7:19 You will once again ³⁰  have mercy on us;

you will conquer ³¹  our evil deeds;

you will hurl our ³²  sins into the depths of the sea. ³³ 

7:20 You will be loyal to Jacob

and extend your loyal love to Abraham, ³⁴ 

which you promised on oath to our ancestors ³⁵ 

in ancient times. ³⁶ 

Romans 5:20-21

5:20 Now the law came in ³⁷  so that the transgression ³⁸  may increase, but where sin increased, grace multiplied all the more, 5:21 so that just as sin reigned in death, so also grace will reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

[31:20]  ¹ tn Heb “Is Ephraim a dear son to me or a child of delight?” For the substitution of Israel for Ephraim and the plural pronouns for the singular see the note on v. 18. According to BDB 210 s.v. הֲ 1.c the question is rhetorical having the force of an impassioned affirmation. See 1 Sam 2:27; Job 41:9 (41:1 HT) for parallel usage.

[31:20]  ² tn Heb “my stomach churns for him.” The parallelism shows that this refers to pity or compassion.

[31:20]  ³ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[4:29]  ⁴ tn Or “mind and being.” See Deut 6:5.

[4:30]  ⁵ sn The phrase is not used here in a technical sense for the eschaton, but rather refers to a future time when Israel will be punished for its sin and experience exile. See Deut 31:29.

[4:30]  ⁶ tn Heb “hear his voice.” The expression is an idiom meaning “obey,” occurring in Deut 8:20; 9:23; 13:18; 21:18, 20; 26:14, 17; 27:10; 28:1-2, 15, 45, 62; 30:2, 8, 10, 20.

[4:31]  ⁷ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in 4:3.

[4:31]  ⁸ tn Heb “he will not drop you,” i.e., “will not abandon you” (cf. NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[4:31]  ⁹ tn Or “will not.” The translation understands the imperfect verbal form to have an added nuance of capability here.

[4:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “commanding.”

[30:9]  ¹¹ tc The MT reads “hand” (singular). Most versions read the plural.

[30:9]  ¹² tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV); NRSV “of your body.”

[30:9]  ¹³ tn Heb “return and.” The Hebrew verb is used idiomatically here to indicate the repetition of the following action.

[30:9]  ¹⁴ tn The Hebrew text includes “for good.”

[86:5]  ¹⁵ tn Or “for.”

[86:5]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “good.”

[86:15]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “slow to anger.”

[86:15]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and great of loyal love and faithfulness.”

[103:8]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “slow to anger” (see Ps 86:15).

[103:8]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and great of loyal love” (see Ps 86:15).

[103:17]  ²¹ tn Heb “but the loyal love of the Lord [is] from everlasting to everlasting over those who fear him.”

[103:17]  ²² tn Heb “and his righteousness to sons of sons.”

[145:8]  ²³ tn Heb “slow to anger” (see Pss 86:15; 103:8).

[145:8]  ²⁴ tn Heb “and great of loyal love” (see Pss 86:15; 103:8).

[7:18]  ²⁵ tn Heb “Who is a God like you?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “No one!”

[7:18]  ²⁶ tn Heb “one who.” The prayer moves from direct address (second person) in v. 18a to a descriptive (third person) style in vv. 18b-19a and then back to direct address (second person) in vv. 19b-20. Due to considerations of English style and the unfamiliarity of the modern reader with alternation of persons in Hebrew poetry, the entire section has been rendered as direct address (second person) in the translation.

[7:18]  ²⁷ tn Heb “pass over.”

[7:18]  ²⁸ tn Heb “of the remnant of his inheritance.”

[7:18]  ²⁹ tn Heb “he does not keep hold of his anger forever.”

[7:19]  ³⁰ tn The verb יָשׁוּב (yashuv, “he will return”) is here used adverbially in relation to the following verb, indicating that the Lord will again show mercy.

[7:19]  ³¹ tn Some prefer to read יִכְבֹּס (yikhbos, “he will cleanse”; see HALOT 459 s.v. כבס pi). If the MT is taken as it stands, sin is personified as an enemy that the Lord subdues.

[7:19]  ³² tn Heb “their sins,” but the final mem (ם) may be enclitic rather than a pronominal suffix. In this case the suffix from the preceding line (“our”) may be understood as doing double duty.

[7:19]  ³³ sn In this metaphor the Lord disposes of Israel’s sins by throwing them into the waters of the sea (here symbolic of chaos).

[7:20]  ³⁴ tn More literally, “You will extend loyalty to Jacob, and loyal love to Abraham.

[7:20]  ³⁵ tn Heb “our fathers.” The Hebrew term refers here to more distant ancestors, not immediate parents.

[7:20]  ³⁶ tn Heb “which you swore [or, “pledged”] to our fathers from days of old.”

[5:20]  ³⁷ tn Grk “slipped in.”

[5:20]  ³⁸ tn Or “trespass.”