Romans 9:6

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, ¹ 

Genesis 32:28

32:28 “No longer will your name be Jacob,” the man told him, ²  “but Israel, ³  because you have fought ⁴  with God and with men and have prevailed.”

Exodus 19:3-6

19:3 Moses ⁵  went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain, “Thus you will tell the house of Jacob, and declare to the people ⁶  of Israel: 19:4 ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt and how I lifted you on eagles’ wings ⁷  and brought you to myself. ⁸  19:5 And now, if you will diligently listen to me ⁹  and keep ¹⁰  my covenant, then you will be my ¹¹  special possession ¹²  out of all the nations, for all the earth is mine, 19:6 and you will be to me ¹³  a kingdom of priests ¹⁴  and a holy nation.’ ¹⁵  These are the words that you will speak to the Israelites.”

Deuteronomy 7:6

7:6 For you are a people holy ¹⁶  to the Lord your God. He ¹⁷  has chosen you to be his people, prized ¹⁸  above all others on the face of the earth.

Psalms 73:1

Book 3
(Psalms 73-89)

Psalm 73 ¹⁹ 

A psalm by Asaph.

73:1 Certainly God is good to Israel, ²⁰ 

and to those whose motives are pure! ²¹ 

Isaiah 41:8

The Lord Encourages His People

41:8 “You, my servant Israel,

Jacob whom I have chosen,

offspring of Abraham my friend, ²² 

Isaiah 46:3

46:3 “Listen to me, O family of Jacob, ²³ 

all you who are left from the family of Israel, ²⁴ 

you who have been carried from birth, ²⁵ 

you who have been supported from the time you left the womb. ²⁶ 

John 1:47

1:47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and exclaimed, ²⁷  “Look, a true Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” ²⁸ 

[9:6]  ¹ tn Grk “For not all those who are from Israel are Israel.”

[32:28]  ² tn Heb “and he said.” The referent of the pronoun “he” (the man who wrestled with Jacob) has been specified for clarity, and the order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[32:28]  ³ sn The name Israel is a common construction, using a verb with a theophoric element (אֵל, ’el) that usually indicates the subject of the verb. Here it means “God fights.” This name will replace the name Jacob; it will be both a promise and a call for faith. In essence, the Lord was saying that Jacob would have victory and receive the promises because God would fight for him.

[32:28]  ⁴ sn You have fought. The explanation of the name Israel includes a sound play. In Hebrew the verb translated “you have fought” (שָׂרִיתָ, sarita) sounds like the name “Israel” (יִשְׂרָאֵל, yisra’el ), meaning “God fights” (although some interpret the meaning as “he fights [with] God”). The name would evoke the memory of the fight and what it meant. A. Dillmann says that ever after this the name would tell the Israelites that, when Jacob contended successfully with God, he won the battle with man (Genesis, 2:279). To be successful with God meant that he had to be crippled in his own self-sufficiency (A. P. Ross, “Jacob at the Jabboq, Israel at Peniel,” BSac 142 [1985]: 51-62).

[19:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “and Moses went up.”

[19:3]  ⁶ tn This expression is normally translated as “Israelites” in this translation, but because in this place it is parallel to “the house of Jacob” it seemed better to offer a fuller rendering.

[19:4]  ⁷ tn The figure compares the way a bird would teach its young to fly and leave the nest with the way Yahweh brought Israel out of Egypt. The bird referred to could be one of several species of eagles, but more likely is the griffin-vulture. The image is that of power and love.

[19:4]  ⁸ sn The language here is the language of a bridegroom bringing the bride to the chamber. This may be a deliberate allusion to another metaphor for the covenant relationship.

[19:5]  ⁹ tn Heb “listen to my voice.” The construction uses the imperfect tense in the conditional clause, preceded by the infinitive absolute from the same verb. The idiom “listen to the voice of” implies obedience, not just mental awareness of sound.

[19:5]  ¹⁰ tn The verb is a perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive; it continues the idea in the protasis of the sentence: “and [if you will] keep.”

[19:5]  ¹¹ tn The lamed preposition expresses possession here: “to me” means “my.”

[19:5]  ¹² tn The noun is סְגֻלָּה (sÿgullah), which means a special possession. Israel was to be God’s special possession, but the prophets will later narrow it to the faithful remnant. All the nations belong to God, but Israel was to stand in a place of special privilege and enormous responsibility. See Deut 7:6; 14:2; 26:18; Ps 135:4; and Mal 3:17. See M. Greenburg, “Hebrew sÿgulla: Akkadian sikiltu,” JAOS 71 (1951): 172ff.

[19:6]  ¹³ tn Or “for me” (NIV, NRSV), or, if the lamed (ל) preposition has a possessive use, “my kingdom” (so NCV).

[19:6]  ¹⁴ tn The construction “a kingdom of priests” means that the kingdom is made up of priests. W. C. Kaiser (“Exodus,” EBC 2:417) offers four possible renderings of the expression: 1) apposition, viz., “kings, that is, priests; 2) as a construct with a genitive of specification, “royal priesthood”; 3) as a construct with the genitive being the attribute, “priestly kingdom”; and 4) reading with an unexpressed “and” – “kings and priests.” He takes the latter view that they were to be kings and priests. (Other references are R. B. Y. Scott, “A Kingdom of Priests (Exodus xix. 6),” OTS 8 [1950]: 213-19; William L. Moran, “A Kingdom of Priests,” The Bible in Current Catholic Thought, 7-20). However, due to the parallelism of the next description which uses an adjective, this is probably a construct relationship. This kingdom of God will be composed of a priestly people. All the Israelites would be living wholly in God’s service and enjoying the right of access to him. And, as priests, they would have the duty of representing God to the nations, following what they perceived to be the duties of priests – proclaiming God’s word, interceding for people, and making provision for people to find God through atonement (see Deut 33:9,10).

[19:6]  ¹⁵ tn They are also to be “a holy nation.” They are to be a nation separate and distinct from the rest of the nations. Here is another aspect of their duty. It was one thing to be God’s special possession, but to be that they had to be priestly and holy. The duties of the covenant will specify what it would mean to be a holy nation. In short, they had to keep themselves free from everything that characterized pagan people (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 171). So it is a bilateral covenant: they received special privileges but they must provide special services by the special discipline. See also H. Kruse, “Exodus 19:5 and the Mission of Israel,” North East Asian Journal of Theology 24/25 (1980): 239-42.

[7:6]  ¹⁶ tn That is, “set apart.”

[7:6]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[7:6]  ¹⁸ tn Or “treasured” (so NIV, NRSV); NLT “his own special treasure.” The Hebrew term סְגֻלָּה (sÿgullah) describes Israel as God’s choice people, those whom he elected and who are most precious to him (cf. Exod 19:4-6; Deut 14:2; 26:18; 1 Chr 29:3; Ps 135:4; Eccl 2:8 Mal 3:17). See E. Carpenter, NIDOTTE 3:224.

[73:1]  ¹⁹ sn Psalm 73. In this wisdom psalm the psalmist offers a personal testimony of his struggle with the age-old problem of the prosperity of the wicked. As he observed evil men prosper, he wondered if a godly lifestyle really pays off. In the midst of his discouragement, he reflected upon spiritual truths and realities. He was reminded that the prosperity of the wicked is only temporary. God will eventually vindicate his people.

[73:1]  ²⁰ tn Since the psalm appears to focus on an individual’s concerns, not the situation of Israel, this introduction may be a later addition designed to apply the psalm’s message to the entire community. To provide a better parallel with the next line, some emend the Hebrew phrase לְיִשְׂרָאֵל אֱלֹהִים (lÿyisra’el ’elohim, “to Israel, God”) to אֱלֹהִים [or אֵל] לָיָּשָׁר (’elohim [or ’el] lÿyyashar, “God [is good] to the upright one”).

[73:1]  ²¹ tn Heb “to the pure of heart.”

[41:8]  ²² tn Or perhaps, “covenantal partner” (see 1 Kgs 5:15 HT [5:1 ET]; 2 Chr 20:7).

[46:3]  ²³ tn Heb “house of Jacob”; TEV “descendants of Jacob.”

[46:3]  ²⁴ tn Heb “and all the remnant of the house of Israel.”

[46:3]  ²⁵ tn Heb “from the womb” (so NRSV); KJV “from the belly”; NAB “from your infancy.”

[46:3]  ²⁶ tn Heb “who have been lifted up from the womb.”

[1:47]  ²⁷ tn Grk “said about him.”

[1:47]  ²⁸ tn Or “treachery.”