Jeremiah 4:23-28

4:23 “I looked at the land and saw ¹  that it was an empty wasteland. ² 

I looked up at the sky, and its light had vanished.

4:24 I looked at the mountains and saw that they were shaking.

All the hills were swaying back and forth!

4:25 I looked and saw that there were no more people, ³ 

and that all the birds in the sky had flown away.

4:26 I looked and saw that the fruitful land had become a desert

and that all of the cities had been laid in ruins.

The Lord had brought this all about

because of his blazing anger. ⁴ 

4:27 All this will happen because the Lord said, ⁵ 

“The whole land will be desolate;

however, I will not completely destroy it.

4:28 Because of this the land will mourn

and the sky above will grow black. ⁶ 

For I have made my purpose known ⁷ 

and I will not relent or turn back from carrying it out.” ⁸ 

Hebrews 11:7

11:7 By faith Noah, when he was warned about things not yet seen, with reverent regard ⁹  constructed an ark for the deliverance of his family. Through faith he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

Hebrews 11:2

11:2 For by it the people of old ¹⁰  received God’s commendation. ¹¹ 

Hebrews 3:6-7

3:6 But Christ ¹²  is faithful as a son over God’s ¹³  house. We are of his house, ¹⁴  if in fact we hold firmly ¹⁵  to our confidence and the hope we take pride in. ¹⁶ 

Exposition of Psalm 95: Hearing God’s Word in Faith

3:7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, ¹⁷ 

“Oh, that today you would listen as he speaks! ¹⁸ 

Hebrews 3:10-12

3:10 “Therefore, I became provoked at that generation and said, ‘Their hearts are always wandering ¹⁹  and they have not known my ways.’

3:11 “As I swore in my anger, ‘They will never enter my rest!’” ²⁰ 

3:12 See to it, ²¹  brothers and sisters, ²²  that none of you has ²³  an evil, unbelieving heart that forsakes ²⁴  the living God. ²⁵ 

[4:23]  ¹ tn Heb “I looked at the land and behold...” This indicates the visionary character of Jeremiah’s description of the future condition of the land of Israel.

[4:23]  ² tn Heb “formless and empty.” This is a case of hendiadys (two nouns joined by “and” both describe the same thing): one noun retains its full nominal force, the other functions as an adjective. The words תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ (tohu vavohu) allude to Gen 1:2, hyperbolically picturing a reversal of creation and return to the original precreation chaos.

[4:25]  ³ tn Heb “there was no man/human being.”

[4:26]  ⁴ tn Heb “because of the Lord, because of his blazing anger.”

[4:27]  ⁵ tn Heb “For this is what the Lord said,”

[4:28]  ⁶ sn The earth and the heavens are personified here and depicted in the act of mourning and wearing black clothes because of the destruction of the land of Israel.

[4:28]  ⁷ tn Heb “has spoken and purposed.” This is an example of hendiadys where two verbs are joined by “and” but one is meant to serve as a modifier of the other.

[4:28]  ⁸ tn Heb “will not turn back from it.”

[11:7]  ⁹ tn Cf. BDAG 407 s.v. εὐλαβέομαι 2, “out of reverent regard (for God’s command).”

[11:2]  ¹⁰ tn Or “the elders,” “the ancients.”

[11:2]  ¹¹ tn Grk “were attested,” “received commendation”; and Heb 11:4-6 shows this to be from God.

[3:6]  ¹² sn The Greek makes the contrast between v. 5 and v. 6a more emphatic and explicit than is easily done in English.

[3:6]  ¹³ tn Grk “his”; in the translation the referent (God) has been specified for clarity.

[3:6]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “whose house we are,” continuing the previous sentence.

[3:6]  ¹⁵ tc The reading adopted by the translation is found in Ì^13,46 B sa, while the vast majority of mss (א A C D Ψ 0243 0278 33 1739 1881 Ï latt) add μέχρι τέλους βεβαίαν (mecri telou" bebaian, “secure until the end”). The external evidence for the omission, though minimal, has excellent credentials. Considering the internal factors, B. M. Metzger (TCGNT 595) finds it surprising that the feminine adjective βεβαίαν should modify the neuter noun καύχημα (kauchma, here translated “we take pride”), a fact that suggests that even the form of the word was borrowed from another place. Since the same phrase occurs at Heb 3:14, it is likely that later scribes added it here at Heb 3:6 in anticipation of Heb 3:14. While these words belong at 3:14, they seem foreign to 3:6.

[3:6]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “the pride of our hope.”

[3:7]  ¹⁷ sn The following quotation is from Ps 95:7b-11.

[3:7]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “today if you hear his voice.”

[3:10]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “they are wandering in the heart.”

[3:11]  ²⁰ tn Grk “if they shall enter my rest,” a Hebrew idiom expressing an oath that something will certainly not happen.

[3:12]  ²¹ tn Or “take care.”

[3:12]  ²² tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 2:11.

[3:12]  ²³ tn Grk “that there not be in any of you.”

[3:12]  ²⁴ tn Or “deserts,” “rebels against.”

[3:12]  ²⁵ tn Grk “in forsaking the living God.”