Micah 3:9

3:9 Listen to this, you leaders of the family ¹  of Jacob,

you rulers of the nation ²  of Israel!

You ³  hate justice

and pervert all that is right.

Isaiah 48:1-2

The Lord Appeals to the Exiles

48:1 Listen to this, O family of Jacob, ⁴ 

you who are called by the name ‘Israel,’

and are descended from Judah, ⁵ 

who take oaths in the name of the Lord,

and invoke ⁶  the God of Israel –

but not in an honest and just manner. ⁷ 

48:2 Indeed, they live in the holy city; ⁸ 

they trust in ⁹  the God of Israel,

whose name is the Lord who commands armies.

Isaiah 58:1

The Lord Desires Genuine Devotion

58:1 “Shout loudly! Don’t be quiet!

Yell as loud as a trumpet!

Confront my people with their rebellious deeds; ¹⁰ 

confront Jacob’s family with their sin! ¹¹ 

Jeremiah 2:4

The Lord Reminds Them of the Unfaithfulness of Their Ancestors

2:4 Now listen to what the Lord has to say, you descendants ¹²  of Jacob,

all you family groups from the nation ¹³  of Israel.

Matthew 3:8

3:8 Therefore produce fruit ¹⁴  that proves your ¹⁵  repentance,

John 8:39

8:39 They answered him, ¹⁶  “Abraham is our father!” ¹⁷  Jesus replied, ¹⁸  “If you are ¹⁹  Abraham’s children, you would be doing ²⁰  the deeds of Abraham.

Romans 2:28-29

2:28 For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision something that is outward in the flesh, 2:29 but someone is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart ²¹  by the Spirit ²²  and not by the written code. ²³  This person’s ²⁴  praise is not from people but from God.

Romans 9:6-13

9:6 It is not as though the word of God had failed. For not all those who are descended from Israel are truly Israel, ²⁵  9:7 nor are all the children Abraham’s true descendants; rather “through Isaac will your descendants be counted.” ²⁶  9:8 This means ²⁷  it is not the children of the flesh ²⁸  who are the children of God; rather, the children of promise are counted as descendants. 9:9 For this is what the promise declared: ²⁹  “About a year from now ³⁰  I will return and Sarah will have a son.” ³¹  9:10 Not only that, but when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, ³²  our ancestor Isaac – 9:11 even before they were born or had done anything good or bad (so that God’s purpose in election ³³  would stand, not by works but by ³⁴  his calling) ³⁵  – 9:12 ³⁶  it was said to her, “The older will serve the younger,” ³⁷  9:13 just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” ³⁸ 

Romans 9:2

9:2 I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. ³⁹ 

Romans 3:5

3:5 But if our unrighteousness demonstrates ⁴⁰  the righteousness of God, what shall we say? The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is he? ⁴¹  (I am speaking in human terms.) ⁴² 

[3:9]  ¹ tn Heb “house.”

[3:9]  ² tn Heb “house.”

[3:9]  ³ tn Heb “who.” A new sentence was begun here in the translation for stylistic reasons (also at the beginning of v. 10).

[48:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “house of Jacob”; TEV, CEV “people of Israel.”

[48:1]  ⁵ tc The Hebrew text reads literally “and from the waters of Judah came out.” מִמֵּי (mimme) could be a corruption of מִמְּעֵי (mimmÿ’e, “from the inner parts of”; cf. NASB, NIV, NLT, NRSV) as suggested in the above translation. Some translations (ESV, NKJV) retain the MT reading because the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a, which corrects a similar form to “from inner parts of” in 39:7, does not do it here.

[48:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “cause to remember”; KJV, ASV “make mention of.”

[48:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “not in truth and not in righteousness.”

[48:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “they call themselves [or “are called”] from the holy city.” The precise meaning of the statement is uncertain. The Niphal of קָרָא (qara’) is combined with the preposition מִן (min) only here. When the Qal of קָרָא is used with מִן, the preposition often indicates the place from which one is summoned (see 46:11). So one could translate, “from the holy city they are summoned,” meaning that they reside there.

[48:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “lean on” (so NASB, NRSV); NAB, NIV “rely on.”

[58:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “declare to my people their rebellion.”

[58:1]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and to the house of Jacob their sin.” The verb “declare” is understood by ellipsis (note the preceding line).

[2:4]  ¹² tn Heb “house.”

[2:4]  ¹³ tn Heb “house.”

[3:8]  ¹⁴ sn Fruit worthy of repentance refers to the deeds that indicate a change of attitude (heart) on the part of John’s hearers.

[3:8]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “fruit worthy of.”

[8:39]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “They answered and said to him.”

[8:39]  ¹⁷ tn Or “Our father is Abraham.”

[8:39]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “Jesus said to them.”

[8:39]  ¹⁹ tc Although most mss (C W Θ Ψ 0250 Ë^1,13 33 Ï) have the imperfect ἦτε (hte, “you were”) here, making this sentence a proper second class condition, the harder reading, ἐστε (este, “you are”), is found in the better witnesses (Ì^66,75 א B D L 070 pc lat).

[8:39]  ²⁰ tc Some important mss (Ì⁶⁶ B* [700]) have the present imperative ποιεῖτε (poieite) here: “If you are Abraham’s children, then do,” while many others (א² C K L N Δ Ψ Ë^1,13 33 565 579 892 pm) add the contingent particle ἄν (an) to ἐποιεῖτε (epoieite) making it a more proper second class condition by Attic standards. The simple ἐποιεῖτε without the ἄν is the hardest reading, and is found in some excellent witnesses (Ì⁷⁵ א* B² D W Γ Θ 070 0250 1424 pm).

[2:29]  ²¹ sn On circumcision is of the heart see Lev 26:41; Deut 10:16; Jer 4:4; Ezek 44:9.

[2:29]  ²² tn Some have taken the phrase ἐν πνεύματι (en pneumati, “by/in [the] S/spirit”) not as a reference to the Holy Spirit, but referring to circumcision as “spiritual and not literal” (RSV).

[2:29]  ²³ tn Grk “letter.”

[2:29]  ²⁴ tn Grk “whose.” The relative pronoun has been replaced by the phrase “this person’s” and, because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started in the translation.

[9:6]  ²⁵ tn Grk “For not all those who are from Israel are Israel.”

[9:7]  ²⁶ tn Grk “be called.” The emphasis here is upon God’s divine sovereignty in choosing Isaac as the child through whom Abraham’s lineage would be counted as opposed to Ishmael.

[9:8]  ²⁷ tn Grk “That is,” or “That is to say.”

[9:8]  ²⁸ tn Because it forms the counterpoint to “the children of promise” the expression “children of the flesh” has been retained in the translation.

[9:9]  ²⁹ tn Grk “For this is the word of promise.”

[9:9]  ³⁰ tn Grk “About this time I will return.” Since this refers to the time when the promised child would be born, it would be approximately a year later.

[9:9]  ³¹ sn A quotation from Gen 18:10, 14.

[9:10]  ³² tn Or possibly “by one act of sexual intercourse.” See D. Moo, Romans (NICNT), 579.

[9:11]  ³³ tn Grk “God’s purpose according to election.”

[9:11]  ³⁴ tn Or “not based on works but based on…”

[9:11]  ³⁵ tn Grk “by the one who calls.”

[9:12]  ³⁶ sn Many translations place this verse division before the phrase “not by works but by his calling” (NA²⁷/UBS⁴, NIV, NRSV, NLT, NAB). Other translations place this verse division in the same place that the translation above does (NASB, KJV, NKJV, ASV, RSV). The translation has followed the latter to avoid breaking the parenthetical statement.

[9:12]  ³⁷ sn A quotation from Gen 25:23.

[9:13]  ³⁸ sn A quotation from Mal 1:2-3.

[9:2]  ³⁹ tn Grk “my sorrow is great and the anguish in my heart is unceasing.”

[3:5]  ⁴⁰ tn Or “shows clearly.”

[3:5]  ⁴¹ tn Grk “That God is not unjust to inflict wrath, is he?”

[3:5]  ⁴² sn The same expression occurs in Gal 3:15, and similar phrases in Rom 6:19 and 1 Cor 9:8.