Psalms 102:20-22

102:20 in order to hear the painful cries of the prisoners,

and to set free those condemned to die, ¹ 

102:21 so they may proclaim the name of the Lord in Zion,

and praise him ²  in Jerusalem, ³ 

102:22 when the nations gather together,

and the kingdoms pay tribute to the Lord. ⁴ 

Deuteronomy 30:3

30:3 the Lord your God will reverse your captivity and have pity on you. He will turn and gather you from all the peoples among whom he ⁵  has scattered you.

Ezra 2:64-65

2:64 The entire group numbered 42,360, ⁶  2:65 not counting ⁷  their male and female servants, who numbered 7,337. They also had 200 male and female singers

Ezra 8:1-14

The Leaders Who Returned with Ezra

8:1 These are the leaders ⁸  and those enrolled with them by genealogy who were coming up with me from Babylon during the reign of King Artaxerxes:

8:2 from the descendants of Phinehas, Gershom;

from the descendants of Ithamar, Daniel;

from the descendants of David, Hattush 8:3 the son of Shecaniah; ⁹ 

from the descendants of Parosh, Zechariah, and with him were enrolled by genealogy 150 men;

8:4 from the descendants of Pahath-Moab, Eliehoenai son of Zerahiah, and with him 200 men;

8:5 from the descendants of Zattu, ¹⁰  Shecaniah son of Jahaziel, and with him 300 men;

8:6 from the descendants of Adin, Ebed son of Jonathan, and with him 50 men;

8:7 from the descendants of Elam, Jeshaiah son of Athaliah, and with him 70 men;

8:8 from the descendants of Shephatiah, Zebadiah son of Michael, and with him 80 men;

8:9 from the descendants of Joab, Obadiah son of Jehiel, and with him 218 men;

8:10 from the descendants of Bani, ¹¹  Shelomith son of Josiphiah, and with him 160 men;

8:11 from the descendants of Bebai, Zechariah son of Bebai, and with him 28 men;

8:12 from the descendants of Azgad, Johanan son of Hakkatan, and with him 110 men;

8:13 from the descendants of Adonikam there were the latter ones. ¹²  Their names were Eliphelet, Jeuel, and Shemaiah, and with them 60 men;

8:14 from the descendants of Bigvai, Uthai, and Zaccur, ¹³  and with them ¹⁴  70 men.

Isaiah 11:11-12

11:11 At that time ¹⁵  the sovereign master ¹⁶  will again lift his hand ¹⁷  to reclaim ¹⁸  the remnant of his people ¹⁹  from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, ²⁰  Cush, ²¹  Elam, Shinar, ²²  Hamath, and the seacoasts. ²³ 

11:12 He will lift a signal flag for the nations;

he will gather Israel’s dispersed people ²⁴ 

and assemble Judah’s scattered people

from the four corners of the earth.

Isaiah 27:13

27:13 At that time ²⁵  a large ²⁶  trumpet will be blown, and the ones lost ²⁷  in the land of Assyria will come, as well as the refugees in ²⁸  the land of Egypt. They will worship the Lord on the holy mountain in Jerusalem. ²⁹ 

Isaiah 56:8

56:8 The sovereign Lord says this,

the one who gathers the dispersed of Israel:

“I will still gather them up.” ³⁰ 

Jeremiah 32:37

32:37 ‘I will certainly regather my people from all the countries where I will have exiled ³¹  them in my anger, fury, and great wrath. I will bring them back to this place and allow them to live here in safety.

Ezekiel 36:24-38

36:24 “‘I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries; then I will bring you to your land. 36:25 I will sprinkle you with pure water ³²  and you will be clean from all your impurities. I will purify you from all your idols. 36:26 I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will remove the heart of stone ³³  from your body and give you a heart of flesh. ³⁴  36:27 I will put my Spirit within you; ³⁵  I will take the initiative and you will obey my statutes ³⁶  and carefully observe my regulations. ³⁷  36:28 Then you will live in the land I gave to your fathers; you will be my people, and I will be your God. ³⁸  36:29 I will save you from all your uncleanness. I will call for the grain and multiply it; I will not bring a famine on you. 36:30 I will multiply the fruit of the trees and the produce of the fields, so that you will never again suffer the disgrace of famine among the nations. 36:31 Then you will remember your evil behavior ³⁹  and your deeds which were not good; you will loathe yourselves on account of your sins and your abominable deeds. 36:32 Understand that ⁴⁰  it is not for your sake I am about to act, declares the sovereign Lord. Be ashamed and embarrassed by your behavior, O house of Israel.

36:33 “‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: In the day I cleanse you from all your sins, I will populate the cities and the ruins will be rebuilt. 36:34 The desolate land will be plowed, instead of being desolate in the sight of everyone who passes by. 36:35 They will say, “This desolate land has become like the garden of Eden; the ruined, desolate, and destroyed cities are now fortified and inhabited.” 36:36 Then the nations which remain around you will know that I, the Lord, have rebuilt the ruins and replanted what was desolate. I, the Lord, have spoken – and I will do it!’

36:37 “This is what the sovereign Lord says: I will allow the house of Israel to ask me to do this for them: ⁴¹  I will multiply their people like sheep. ⁴²  36:38 Like the sheep for offerings, like the sheep of Jerusalem ⁴³  during her appointed feasts, so will the ruined cities be filled with flocks of people. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”

Ezekiel 37:21-28

37:21 Then tell them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Look, I am about to take the Israelites from among the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from round about and bring them to their land. 37:22 I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel, and one king will rule over them all. They will never again be two nations and never again be divided into two kingdoms. ⁴⁴  37:23 They will not defile themselves with their idols, their detestable things, and all their rebellious deeds. I will save them from all their unfaithfulness ⁴⁵  by which they sinned. I will purify them; they will become my people and I will become their God.

37:24 “‘My servant David will be king over them; there will be one shepherd for all of them. They will follow ⁴⁶  my regulations and carefully observe my statutes. ⁴⁷  37:25 They will live in the land I gave to my servant Jacob, in which your fathers lived; they will live in it – they and their children and their grandchildren forever. David my servant will be prince over them forever. 37:26 I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be a perpetual covenant with them. ⁴⁸  I will establish them, ⁴⁹  increase their numbers, and place my sanctuary among them forever. 37:27 My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be my people. 37:28 Then, when my sanctuary is among them forever, the nations will know that I, the Lord, sanctify Israel.’” ⁵⁰ 

Ezekiel 38:8

38:8 After many days you will be summoned; in the latter years you will come to a land restored from the ravages of war, ⁵¹  with many peoples gathered on the mountains of Israel that had long been in ruins. Its people ⁵²  were brought out from the peoples, and all of them will be living securely.

Ezekiel 39:27-28

39:27 When I have brought them back from the peoples and gathered them from the countries of their enemies, I will magnify myself among them in the sight of many nations. 39:28 Then they will know that I am the Lord their God, because I sent them into exile among the nations, and then gathered them into their own land. I will not leave any of them in exile ⁵³  any longer.

Ephesians 2:12-19

2:12 that you were at that time without the Messiah, ⁵⁴  alienated from the citizenship of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, ⁵⁵  having no hope and without God in the world. 2:13 But now in Christ Jesus you who used to be far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. ⁵⁶  2:14 For he is our peace, the one who made both groups into one ⁵⁷  and who destroyed the middle wall of partition, the hostility, 2:15 when he nullified ⁵⁸  in his flesh the law of commandments in decrees. He did this to create in himself one new man ⁵⁹  out of two, ⁶⁰  thus making peace, 2:16 and to reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by which the hostility has been killed. ⁶¹  2:17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near, 2:18 so that ⁶²  through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 2:19 So then you are no longer foreigners and noncitizens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household,

[102:20]  ¹ tn Heb “the sons of death.” The phrase “sons of death” (see also Ps 79:11) is idiomatic for those condemned to die.

[102:21]  ² tn Heb “his praise.”

[102:21]  ³ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[102:22]  ⁴ tn “and the kingdoms to serve the Lord.”

[30:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[2:64]  ⁶ sn The same total is given in Neh 7:66, but it is difficult to understand how this number is reached, since the numbers of people listed in the constituent groups do not add up to 42,360. The list in vv. 3-60 apparently is not intended to be exhaustive, but the basis of the selectivity is unclear.

[2:65]  ⁷ tn Heb “besides” or “in addition to.”

[8:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “the heads of their families.”

[8:3]  ⁹ tc The MT reads here “from the sons of Shecaniah” with no descendant identified in what follows, contrary to the pattern of the context elsewhere. However, it seems better to understand the first phrase of v. 3 with the end of v. 2; the phrase would then modify the name “Hattush.” This understanding requires emending the reading מִבְּנֵי (mibbÿne, “from the sons of”) in the MT to בֵּן (ben,“[the] son of”). Cf. NAB, TEV, CEV, NLT.

[8:5]  ¹⁰ tc The MT lacks “of Zattu.” The translation adopted above follows the LXX in including the words.

[8:10]  ¹¹ tc The MT lacks “Bani.” It is restored on the basis of certain LXX MSS.

[8:13]  ¹² tn Or “those who came later.” The exact meaning of this Hebrew phrase is uncertain. It may refer to the last remaining members of Adonikam’s family who were in Babylon. So, for example, H. G. M. Williamson, Ezra, Nehemiah (WBC), 108; cf. NASB, NIV, NCV. The phrase has also been taken to mean “the younger sons (so NAB), or the ones who “returned at a later date” (so TEV).

[8:14]  ¹³ tc The translation reads with the Qere, the Lucianic Greek recension, the Syriac Peshitta, and the Vulgate וְזַּכּוּר (vÿzakkur, “and Zaccur”) rather than the Kethib of the MT, וְזַבוּד (vÿzavud, “and Zabbud”).

[8:14]  ¹⁴ tn The MT has “with him” (so NAB). The present translation (“with them”) is based on the reading of many medieval Hebrew MSS, the Lucianic Greek recension, the Syriac Peshitta, and the Vulgate (so also KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[11:11]  ¹⁵ tn Or “in that day” (KJV). The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

[11:11]  ¹⁶ tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonai).

[11:11]  ¹⁷ tc The Hebrew text reads, “the sovereign master will again, a second time, his hand.” The auxiliary verb יוֹסִיף (yosif), which literally means “add,” needs a main verb to complete it. Consequently many emend שֵׁנִית (shenit, “a second time”) to an infinitive. Some propose the form שַׁנֹּת (shannot, a Piel infinitive construct from שָׁנָה, shanah) and relate it semantically to an Arabic cognate meaning “to be high.” If the Hebrew text is retained a verb must be supplied. “Second time” would allude back to the events of the Exodus (see vv. 15-16).

[11:11]  ¹⁸ tn Or “acquire”; KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV “recover.”

[11:11]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the remnant of his people who remain.”

[11:11]  ²⁰ sn Perhaps a reference to Upper (i.e., southern) Egypt (so NIV, NLT; NCV “South Egypt”).

[11:11]  ²¹ tn Or “Ethiopia” (NAB, NRSV, NLT).

[11:11]  ²² tn Or “Babylonia” (NIV, NCV, TEV, NLT).

[11:11]  ²³ tn Or perhaps, “the islands of the sea.”

[11:12]  ²⁴ tn Or “the banished of Israel,” i.e., the exiles.

[27:13]  ²⁵ tn Heb “and it will be in that day.” The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

[27:13]  ²⁶ tn Traditionally, “great” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NLT); CEV “loud.”

[27:13]  ²⁷ tn Or “the ones perishing.”

[27:13]  ²⁸ tn Or “the ones driven into.”

[27:13]  ²⁹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[56:8]  ³⁰ tn The meaning of the statement is unclear. The text reads literally, “Still I will gather upon him to his gathered ones.” Perhaps the preposition -לְ (lamed) before “gathered ones” introduces the object of the verb, as in Jer 49:5. The third masculine singular suffix on both עָלָיו (’alayv) and נִקְבָּצָיו (niqbatsayv) probably refers to “Israel.” In this case one can translate literally, “Still I will gather to him his gathered ones.”

[32:37]  ³¹ tn The verb here should be interpreted as a future perfect; though some of the people have already been exiled (in 605 and 597 b.c.), some have not yet been exiled at the time this prophesy is given (see study note on v. 1 for the date). However, contemporary English style does not regularly use the future perfect, choosing instead to use the simple future or the simple perfect as the present translation has done here.

[36:25]  ³² sn The Lord here uses a metaphor from the realm of ritual purification. For the use of water in ritual cleansing, see Exod 30:19-20; Lev 14:51; Num 19:18; Heb 10:22.

[36:26]  ³³ sn That is, a heart which symbolizes a will that is stubborn and unresponsive (see 1 Sam 25:37). In Rabbinic literature a “stone” was associated with an evil inclination (b. Sukkah 52a).

[36:26]  ³⁴ sn That is, a heart which symbolizes a will that is responsive and obedient to God.

[36:27]  ³⁵ tn Or “in the midst of you.” The word “you” is plural.

[36:27]  ³⁶ tn Heb “and I will do that which in my statutes you will walk.” The awkward syntax (verb “to do, act” + accusative sign + relative clause + prepositional phrase + second person verb) is unique, though Eccl 3:14 contains a similar construction. In the last line of that verse we read that “God acts so that (relative pronoun) they fear before him.” However, unlike Ezek 36:27, the statement has no accusative sign before the relative pronoun.

[36:27]  ³⁷ tn Heb “and my laws you will guard and you will do them.” Jer 31:31-34 is parallel to this passage.

[36:28]  ³⁸ sn This promise reflects the ancient covenantal ideal (see Exod 6:7).

[36:31]  ³⁹ tn Heb “ways.”

[36:32]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “Let it be known.”

[36:37]  ⁴¹ tn The Niphal verb may have a tolerative function here, “Again (for) this I will allow myself to be sought by the house of Israel to act for them.” Or it may be reflexive: “I will reveal myself to the house of Israel by doing this also.”

[36:37]  ⁴² sn Heb “I will multiply them like sheep, human(s).”

[36:38]  ⁴³ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[37:22]  ⁴⁴ sn Jeremiah also attested to the reuniting of the northern and southern kingdoms (Jer 3:12, 14; 31:2-6).

[37:23]  ⁴⁵ tc Heb “their dwellings.” The text as it stands does not make sense. Based on the LXX, a slight emendation of two vowels, including a mater, yields the reading “from their turning,” a reference here to their turning from God and deviating from his commandments. See BDB 1000 s.v. מְשׁוּבָה, and D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 2:407.

[37:24]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “walk [in].”

[37:24]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “and my statutes they will guard and they will do them.”

[37:26]  ⁴⁸ sn See Isa 24:5; 55:3; 61:8; Jer 32:40; 50:5; Ezek 16:60, for other references to perpetual covenants.

[37:26]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “give them.”

[37:28]  ⁵⁰ sn The sanctuary of Israel becomes the main focus of Ezek 40-48.

[38:8]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “from the sword.”

[38:8]  ⁵² tn Heb “it.”

[39:28]  ⁵³ tn Heb “there,” referring to the foreign nations to which they were exiled. The translation makes the referent clear.

[2:12]  ⁵⁴ tn Or “without Christ.” Both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.” Because the context refers to ancient Israel’s messianic expectation, “Messiah” was employed in the translation at this point rather than “Christ.”

[2:12]  ⁵⁵ tn Or “covenants of the promise.”

[2:13]  ⁵⁶ tn Or “have come near in the blood of Christ.”

[2:14]  ⁵⁷ tn Grk “who made the both one.”

[2:15]  ⁵⁸ tn Or “rendered inoperative.” This is a difficult text to translate because it is not easy to find an English term which communicates well the essence of the author’s meaning, especially since legal terminology is involved. Many other translations use the term “abolish” (so NRSV, NASB, NIV), but this term implies complete destruction which is not the author’s meaning here. The verb καταργέω (katargew) can readily have the meaning “to cause someth. to lose its power or effectiveness” (BDAG 525 s.v. 2, where this passage is listed), and this meaning fits quite naturally here within the author’s legal mindset. A proper English term which communicates this well is “nullify” since this word carries the denotation of “making something legally null and void.” This is not, however, a common English word. An alternate term like “rendered inoperative [or ineffective]” is also accurate but fairly inelegant. For this reason, the translation retains the term “nullify”; it is the best choice of the available options, despite its problems.

[2:15]  ⁵⁹ tn In this context the author is not referring to a new individual, but instead to a new corporate entity united in Christ (cf. BDAG 497 s.v. καινός 3.b: “All the Christians together appear as κ. ἄνθρωπος Eph 2:15”). This is clear from the comparison made between the Gentiles and Israel in the immediately preceding verses and the assertion in v. 14 that Christ “made both groups into one.” This is a different metaphor than the “new man” of Eph 4:24; in that passage the “new man” refers to the new life a believer has through a relationship to Christ.

[2:15]  ⁶⁰ tn Grk “in order to create the two into one new man.” Eph 2:14-16 is one sentence in Greek. A new sentence was started here in the translation for clarity since contemporary English is less tolerant of extended sentences.

[2:16]  ⁶¹ tn Grk “by killing the hostility in himself.”

[2:18]  ⁶² tn Or “for.” BDAG gives the consecutive ὅτι (Joti) as a possible category of NT usage (BDAG 732 s.v. 5.c).