Jeremiah 32:40

32:40 I will make a lasting covenant ¹  with them that I will never stop doing good to them. ²  I will fill their hearts and minds with respect for me so that ³  they will never again turn ⁴  away from me.

Genesis 17:7

17:7 I will confirm ⁵  my covenant as a perpetual ⁶  covenant between me and you. It will extend to your descendants after you throughout their generations. I will be your God and the God of your descendants after you. ⁷ 

Genesis 17:2

17:2 Then I will confirm my covenant ⁸  between me and you, and I will give you a multitude of descendants.” ⁹ 

Genesis 23:5

23:5 The sons of Heth answered Abraham, ¹⁰ 

Isaiah 55:3

55:3 Pay attention and come to me!

Listen, so you can live! ¹¹ 

Then I will make an unconditional covenantal promise to ¹²  you,

just like the reliable covenantal promises I made to David. ¹³ 

Isaiah 56:6-7

56:6 As for foreigners who become followers of ¹⁴  the Lord and serve him,

who love the name of the Lord and want to be his servants –

all who observe the Sabbath and do not defile it,

and who are faithful to ¹⁵  my covenant –

56:7 I will bring them to my holy mountain;

I will make them happy in the temple where people pray to me. ¹⁶ 

Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar,

for my temple will be known as a temple where all nations may pray.” ¹⁷ 

[32:40]  ¹ tn Heb “an everlasting covenant.” For the rationale for the rendering “agreement” and the nature of the biblical covenants see the study note on 11:2.

[32:40]  ² tn Or “stop being gracious to them” or “stop blessing them with good”; Heb “turn back from them to do good to them.”

[32:40]  ³ tn Or “I will make them want to fear and respect me so much that”; Heb “I will put the fear of me in their hearts.” However, as has been noted several times, “heart” in Hebrew is more the center of the volition (and intellect) than the center of emotions as it is in English. Both translations are intended to reflect the difference in psychology.

[32:40]  ⁴ tn The words “never again” are not in the text but are implicit from the context and are supplied not only by this translation but by a number of others.

[17:7]  ⁵ tn The verb קוּם (qum, “to arise, to stand up”) in the Hiphil verbal stem means “to confirm, to give effect to, to carry out” (i.e., a covenant or oath; see BDB 878-79 s.v. קוּם).

[17:7]  ⁶ tn Or “as an eternal.”

[17:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “to be to you for God and to your descendants after you.”

[17:2]  ⁸ tn Following the imperative, the cohortative indicates consequence. If Abram is blameless, then the Lord will ratify the covenant. Earlier the Lord ratified part of his promise to Abram (see Gen 15:18-21), guaranteeing him that his descendants would live in the land. But the expanded form of the promise, which includes numerous descendants and eternal possession of the land, remains to be ratified. This expanded form of the promise is in view here (see vv. 2b, 4-8). See the note at Gen 15:18 and R. B. Chisholm, “Evidence from Genesis,” A Case for Premillennialism, 35-54.

[17:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “I will multiply you exceedingly, exceedingly.” The repetition is emphatic.

[23:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “answered Abraham saying to him.”

[55:3]  ¹¹ tn The jussive with vav (ו) conjunctive following the imperative indicates purpose/result.

[55:3]  ¹² tn Or “an eternal covenant with.”

[55:3]  ¹³ tn Heb “the reliable expressions of loyalty of David.” The syntactical relationship of חַסְדֵי (khasde, “expressions of loyalty”) to the preceding line is unclear. If the term is appositional to בְּרִית (bÿrit, “covenant”), then the Lord here transfers the promises of the Davidic covenant to the entire nation. Another option is to take חַסְדֵי (khasde) as an adverbial accusative and to translate “according to the reliable covenantal promises.” In this case the new covenantal arrangement proposed here is viewed as an extension or perhaps fulfillment of the Davidic promises. A third option, the one reflected in the above translation, is to take the last line as comparative. In this case the new covenant being proposed is analogous to the Davidic covenant. Verses 4-5, which compare David’s international prominence to what Israel will experience, favors this view. In all three of these interpretations, “David” is an objective genitive; he is the recipient of covenantal promises. A fourth option would be to take David as a subjective genitive and understand the line as giving the basis for the preceding promise: “Then I will make an unconditional covenantal promise to you, because of David’s faithful acts of covenantal loyalty.”

[56:6]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “who attach themselves to.”

[56:6]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and take hold of”; NAB “hold to”; NIV, NRSV “hold fast.”

[56:7]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “in the house of my prayer.”

[56:7]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “for my house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations.”