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 

Isaiah 14:1

14:1 The Lord will certainly have compassion on Jacob; ⁴  he will again choose Israel as his special people ⁵  and restore ⁶  them to their land. Resident foreigners will join them and unite with the family ⁷  of Jacob.

Isaiah 54:8

54:8 In a burst ⁸  of anger I rejected you ⁹  momentarily,

but with lasting devotion I will have compassion on you,”

says your protector, ¹⁰  the Lord.

Ezekiel 39:25

39:25 “Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: Now I will restore ¹¹  the fortunes of Jacob, and I will have mercy on the entire house of Israel. I will be zealous for my holy name.

Hosea 1:7

1:7 But I will have pity on the nation ¹²  of Judah. ¹³  I will deliver them by the Lord their God; I will not deliver them by the warrior’s bow, by sword, by military victory, ¹⁴  by chariot horses, or by chariots.” ¹⁵ 

Hosea 2:23

2:23 Then I will plant her as my own ¹⁶  in the land.

I will have pity on ‘No Pity’ (Lo-Ruhamah).

I will say to ‘Not My People’ (Lo-Ammi), ‘You are my people!’

And he ¹⁷  will say, ‘You are ¹⁸  my God!’”

Zechariah 10:6

10:6 “I (says the Lord) will strengthen the kingdom ¹⁹  of Judah and deliver the people of Joseph ²⁰  and will bring them back ²¹  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.

Romans 11:32

11:32 For God has consigned all people to disobedience so that he may show mercy to them all. ²² 

[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.”

[14:1]  ⁴ tn The sentence begins with כִּי (ki), which is understood as asseverative (“certainly”) in the translation. Another option is to translate, “For the Lord will have compassion.” In this case one of the reasons for Babylon’s coming demise (13:22b) is the Lord’s desire to restore his people.

[14:1]  ⁵ tn The words “as his special people” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[14:1]  ⁶ tn Or “settle” (NASB, NIV, NCV, NLT).

[14:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “house.”

[54:8]  ⁸ tn According to BDB 1009 s.v. שֶׁטֶף the noun שֶׁצֶף here is an alternate form of שֶׁטֶף (shetef, “flood”). Some relate the word to an alleged Akkadian cognate meaning “strength.”

[54:8]  ⁹ tn Heb “I hid my face from you.”

[54:8]  ¹⁰ tn Or “redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.

[39:25]  ¹¹ tn Heb “cause to return.”

[1:7]  ¹² tn Heb “house”; cf. NCV, TEV, NLT “the people of Judah.”

[1:7]  ¹³ tn The word order in this line is rhetorical, emphasizing the divine decision to withhold pity from Israel but to bestow it on Judah. The accusative direct object, which is introduced by a disjunctive vav (to denote contrast), appears before the verb: וְאֶת־בֵּית יְהוּדָה אֲרַחֵם (vé’et-bet yéhudah ’arakhem, “but upon the house of Judah I will show pity”).

[1:7]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “by war” (so NAB, NRSV, TEV); KJV, NASB, NIV “battle.”

[1:7]  ¹⁵ sn These military weapons are examples of the metonymy of adjunct (the specific weapons named) for subject (warfare).

[2:23]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “for myself.”

[2:23]  ¹⁷ tn The Hebrew text, carrying out the reference to the son born in 1:8-9, uses the third person masculine singular pronoun here; some English translations use third person plural (“they,” so KJV, NASB, NIV, CEV) in keeping with the immediate context, which refers to reestablished Israel.

[2:23]  ¹⁸ tn The words “You are” do not appear in the Hebrew text, but are implied. It is necessary to supply the phrase in the translation to prevent the reader from understanding the predicate “my God” as an exclamation (cf. NAB).

[10:6]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the house.”

[10:6]  ²⁰ tn Or “the kingdom of Israel”; Heb “the house of Joseph.”

[10:6]  ²¹ 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).

[11:32]  ²² tn Grk “to all”; “them” has been supplied for stylistic reasons.