Jeremiah 46:27-28

A Promise of Hope for Israel

46:27 ¹ “You descendants of Jacob, my servants, ²  do not be afraid;

do not be terrified, people of Israel.

For I will rescue you and your descendants

from the faraway lands where you are captives. ³ 

The descendants of Jacob will return to their land and enjoy peace.

They will be secure and no one will terrify them.

46:28 I, the Lord, tell ⁴  you not to be afraid,

you descendants of Jacob, my servant,

for I am with you.

Though I completely destroy all the nations where I scatter you,

I will not completely destroy you.

I will indeed discipline you but only in due measure.

I will not allow you to go entirely unpunished.” ⁵ 

Genesis 15:1

The Cutting of the Covenant

15:1 After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram! I am your shield ⁶  and the one who will reward you in great abundance.” ⁷ 

Deuteronomy 31:6-8

31:6 Be strong and courageous! Do not fear or tremble before them, for the Lord your God is the one who is going with you. He will not fail you or abandon you!” 31:7 Then Moses called out to Joshua ⁸  in the presence of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you will accompany these people to the land that the Lord promised to give their ancestors, ⁹  and you will enable them to inherit it. 31:8 The Lord is indeed going before you – he will be with you; he will not fail you or abandon you. Do not be afraid or discouraged!”

Isaiah 41:10-15

41:10 Don’t be afraid, for I am with you!

Don’t be frightened, for I am your God! ¹⁰ 

I strengthen you –

yes, I help you –

yes, I uphold you with my saving right hand! ¹¹ 

41:11 Look, all who were angry at you will be ashamed and humiliated;

your adversaries ¹²  will be reduced to nothing ¹³  and perish.

41:12 When you will look for your opponents, ¹⁴  you will not find them;

your enemies ¹⁵  will be reduced to absolutely nothing.

41:13 For I am the Lord your God,

the one who takes hold of your right hand,

who says to you, ‘Don’t be afraid, I am helping you.’

41:14 Don’t be afraid, despised insignificant Jacob, ¹⁶ 

men of ¹⁷  Israel.

I am helping you,” says the Lord,

your protector, ¹⁸  the Holy One of Israel. ¹⁹ 

41:15 “Look, I am making you like ²⁰  a sharp threshing sledge,

new and double-edged. ²¹ 

You will thresh the mountains and crush them;

you will make the hills like straw. ²² 

Isaiah 43:5

43:5 Don’t be afraid, for I am with you.

From the east I will bring your descendants;

from the west I will gather you.

Isaiah 44:2

44:2 This is what the Lord, the one who made you, says –

the one who formed you in the womb and helps you:

“Don’t be afraid, my servant Jacob,

Jeshurun, ²³  whom I have chosen!

Isaiah 54:4

54:4 Don’t be afraid, for you will not be put to shame!

Don’t be intimidated, ²⁴  for you will not be humiliated!

You will forget about the shame you experienced in your youth;

you will no longer remember the disgrace of your abandonment. ²⁵ 

Zephaniah 3:16-17

3:16 On that day they will say ²⁶  to Jerusalem,

“Don’t be afraid, Zion!

Your hands must not be paralyzed from panic! ²⁷ 

3:17 The Lord your God is in your midst;

he is a warrior who can deliver.

He takes great delight in you; ²⁸ 

he renews you by his love; ²⁹ 

he shouts for joy over you.” ³⁰ 

John 12:15

12:15 “Do not be afraid, people of Zion; ³¹  look, your king is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt!” ³² 

[46:27]  ¹ sn Jer 46:27-28 are virtually the same as 30:10-11. The verses are more closely related to that context than to this. But the presence of a note of future hope for the Egyptians may have led to a note of encouragement also to the Judeans who were under threat of judgment at the same time (cf. the study notes on 46:2, 13 and 25:1-2 for the possible relative dating of these prophecies).

[46:27]  ² tn Heb “And/But you do not be afraid, my servant Jacob.” Here and elsewhere in the verse the terms Jacob and Israel are poetic for the people of Israel descended from the patriarch Jacob. The terms have been supplied throughout with plural referents for greater clarity.

[46:27]  ³ tn Heb “For I will rescue you from far away, your descendants from the land of their captivity.”

[46:28]  ⁴ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.” Again the first person is adopted because the Lord is speaking and the indirect quotation is used to avoid an embedded quotation with quotation marks on either side.

[46:28]  ⁵ tn The translation “entirely unpunished” is intended to reflect the emphatic construction of the infinitive absolute before the finite verb.

[15:1]  ⁶ sn The noun “shield” recalls the words of Melchizedek in 14:20. If God is the shield, then God will deliver. Abram need not fear reprisals from those he has fought.

[15:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “your reward [in] great abundance.” When the phrase הַרְבּה מְאֹדֵ (harbeh mÿod) follows a noun it invariably modifies the noun and carries the nuance “very great” or “in great abundance.” (See its use in Gen 41:49; Deut 3:5; Josh 22:8; 2 Sam 8:8; 12:2; 1 Kgs 4:29; 10:10-11; 2 Chr 14:13; 32:27; Jer 40:12.) Here the noun “reward” is in apposition to “shield” and refers by metonymy to God as the source of the reward. Some translate here “your reward will be very great” (cf. NASB, NRSV), taking the statement as an independent clause and understanding the Hiphil infinitive absolute as a substitute for a finite verb. However, the construction הַרְבּה מְאֹדֵ is never used this way elsewhere, where it either modifies a noun (see the texts listed above) or serves as an adverb in relation to a finite verb (see Josh 13:1; 1 Sam 26:21; 2 Sam 12:30; 2 Kgs 21:16; 1 Chr 20:2; Neh 2:2).

[31:7]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew text includes “and said to him.” This has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[31:7]  ⁹ tn Heb “fathers” (also in v. 20).

[41:10]  ¹⁰ tn According to BDB (1043 s.v. שָׁעָה), the verb תִּשְׁתָּע (tishta’) in the second line of the poetic couplet is a Hitpael form from the root שָׁעָה (sha’ah, “gaze,” with metathesis of the stem prefix and the first root letter). Taking the Hitpael as iterative, one may then translate “do not anxiously look about.” However, the alleged Hitpael form of שָׁעָה (sha’ah) only occurs here and in verse 23. HALOT 1671 s.v. שׁתע proposes that the verb is instead a Qal form from the root שׁתע (“fear”) which is attested in cognate Semitic languages, including Ugaritic (discovered after the publishing of BDB), suggests the existence of this root. The poetic structure of v. 10 also supports the proposal, for the form in question is in synonymous parallelism to יָרֵא (yare’, “fear”).

[41:10]  ¹¹ tn The “right hand” is a symbol of the Lord’s power to deliver (Exod 15:6, 12) and protect (Ps 63:9 HT [63:8 ET]). Here צֶדֶק (tsedeq) has its well-attested nuance of “vindicated righteousness,” i.e., “victory, deliverance” (see 45:8; 51:5, and BDB 841-42 s.v.).

[41:11]  ¹² tn Heb “the men of your strife”; NASB “those who contend with you.”

[41:11]  ¹³ tn Heb “like nothing”; NAB “come to nought.”

[41:12]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the men of your struggle”; NASB “those who quarrel with you.”

[41:12]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the men of your battle”; NAB “who do battle with you.”

[41:14]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “O worm Jacob” (NAB, NIV). The worm metaphor suggests that Jacob is insignificant and despised.

[41:14]  ¹⁷ tn On the basis of the parallelism (note “worm”) and an alleged Akkadian cognate, some read “louse” or “weevil.” Cf. NAB “O maggot Israel”; NRSV “you insect Israel.”

[41:14]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “your kinsman redeemer.” A גָּאַל (ga’al, “kinsman redeemer”) was a protector of the extended family’s interests.

[41:14]  ¹⁹ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[41:15]  ²⁰ tn Heb “into” (so NIV); ASV “have made thee to be.”

[41:15]  ²¹ tn Heb “owner of two-mouths,” i.e., double-edged.

[41:15]  ²² sn The mountains and hills symbolize hostile nations that are obstacles to Israel’s restoration.

[44:2]  ²³ sn Jeshurun is a poetic name for Israel; it occurs here and in Deut 32:15; 33:5, 26.

[54:4]  ²⁴ tn Or “embarrassed”; NASB “humiliated…disgraced.”

[54:4]  ²⁵ tn Another option is to translate, “the disgrace of our widowhood” (so NRSV). However, the following context (vv. 6-7) refers to Zion’s husband, the Lord, abandoning her, not dying. This suggests that an אַלְמָנָה (’almanah) was a woman who had lost her husband, whether by death or abandonment.

[3:16]  ²⁶ tn Heb “it will be said.” The passive construction has been translated as active for stylistic reasons.

[3:16]  ²⁷ tn Heb “your hands must not go limp.”

[3:17]  ²⁸ tn Heb “he rejoices over you with joy.”

[3:17]  ²⁹ tc The MT reads, “he is silent in his love,” but this makes no sense in light of the immediately preceding and following lines. Some take the Hiphil verb form as causative (see Job 11:3) rather than intransitive and translate, “he causes [you] to be silent by his love,” that is, “he soothes [you] by his love.” The present translation follows the LXX and assumes an original reading יְחַדֵּשׁ (yÿkhaddesh, “he renews”) with ellipsis of the object (“you”).

[3:17]  ³⁰ tn Heb “he rejoices over you with a shout of joy.”

[12:15]  ³¹ tn Grk “Do not be afraid, daughter of Zion” (the phrase “daughter of Zion” is an idiom for the inhabitants of Jerusalem: “people of Zion”). The idiom “daughter of Zion” has been translated as “people of Zion” because the original idiom, while firmly embedded in the Christian tradition, is not understandable to most modern English readers.

[12:15]  ³² sn A quotation from Zech 9:9.