Keluaran 24:7-8

24:7 He took the Book of the Covenant ¹  and read it aloud ²  to the people, and they said, “We are willing to do and obey ³  all that the Lord has spoken.” 24:8 So Moses took the blood and splashed it on ⁴  the people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant ⁵  that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

Ulangan 5:1-3

The Opening Exhortation

5:1 Then Moses called all the people of Israel together and said to them: ⁶  “Listen, Israel, to the statutes and ordinances that I am about to deliver to you today; learn them and be careful to keep them! 5:2 The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Horeb. 5:3 He ⁷  did not make this covenant with our ancestors ⁸  but with us, we who are here today, all of us living now.

Ulangan 29:1

Narrative Interlude

29:1 (28:69) ⁹  These are the words of the covenant that the Lord commanded Moses to make with the people of Israel in the land of Moab, in addition to the covenant he had made with them at Horeb. ¹⁰ 

Ulangan 29:10-15

29:10 You are standing today, all of you, before the Lord your God – the heads of your tribes, ¹¹  your elders, your officials, every Israelite man, 29:11 your infants, your wives, and the ¹²  foreigners living in your encampment, those who chop wood and those who carry water – 29:12 so that you may enter by oath into the covenant the Lord your God is making with you today. ¹³  29:13 Today he will affirm that you are his people and that he is your God, ¹⁴  just as he promised you and as he swore by oath to your ancestors ¹⁵  Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 29:14 It is not with you alone that I am making this covenant by oath, 29:15 but with whoever stands with us here today before the Lord our God as well as those not with us here today. ¹⁶ 

Yosua 24:25

24:25 That day Joshua drew up an agreement ¹⁷  for the people, and he established rules and regulations ¹⁸  for them in Shechem.

Yosua 24:2

24:2 Joshua told all the people, “Here is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘In the distant past your ancestors ¹⁹  lived beyond the Euphrates River, ²⁰  including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor. They worshiped ²¹  other gods,

Yosua 15:12-14

15:12 The western border was the Mediterranean Sea. ²²  These were the borders of the tribe of Judah and its clans. ²³ 

15:13 Caleb son of Jephunneh was assigned Kiriath Arba (that is Hebron) within the tribe of Judah, according to the Lord’s instructions to Joshua. (Arba was the father of Anak.) ²⁴  15:14 Caleb drove out ²⁵  from there three Anakites – Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai, descendants of Anak.

Yosua 23:16

23:16 If you violate the covenantal laws of the Lord your God which he commanded you to keep, ²⁶  and follow, worship, and bow down to other gods, ²⁷  the Lord will be very angry with you and you will disappear ²⁸  quickly from the good land which he gave to you.”

Yosua 23:2

23:2 So Joshua summoned all Israel, including the elders, rulers, judges, and leaders, and told them: “I am very old.

Yosua 1:10

Joshua Prepares for the Invasion

1:10 Joshua instructed ²⁹  the leaders of the people:

Ezra 10:3

10:3 Therefore let us enact ³⁰  a covenant with our God to send away all these women and their offspring, in keeping with your counsel, my lord, ³¹  and that of those who respect ³²  the commandments of our God. And let it be done according to the law.

Nehemia 9:38

The People Pledge to be Faithful

9:38 (10:1) ³³  “Because of all of this we are entering into a binding covenant ³⁴  in written form; ³⁵  our leaders, our Levites, and our priests have affixed their names ³⁶  on the sealed document.”

Nehemia 10:28-39

10:28 “Now the rest of the people – the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the temple attendants, and all those who have separated themselves from the neighboring peoples ³⁷  because of the law of God, along with their wives, their sons, and their daughters, all of whom are able to understand – 10:29 hereby participate with their colleagues the town leaders ³⁸  and enter into a curse and an oath ³⁹  to adhere to ⁴⁰  the law of God which was given through Moses the servant of God, and to obey ⁴¹  carefully all the commandments of the LORD our Lord, ⁴²  along with his ordinances and his statutes.

10:30 “We will not give our daughters in marriage to the neighboring peoples, and we will not take their daughters in marriage for our sons. 10:31 We will not buy ⁴³  on the Sabbath or on a holy day from the neighboring peoples who bring their wares and all kinds of grain to sell on the Sabbath day. We will let the fields lie fallow every seventh year, and we will cancel every loan. ⁴⁴  10:32 We accept responsibility for fulfilling ⁴⁵  the commands to give ⁴⁶  one third of a shekel each year for the work of the temple ⁴⁷  of our God, 10:33 for the loaves of presentation and for the regular grain offerings and regular burnt offerings, for the Sabbaths, for the new moons, for the appointed meetings, for the holy offerings, for the sin offerings to make atonement for Israel, and for all the work of the temple of our God.

10:34 “We – the priests, the Levites, and the people – have cast lots concerning the wood offerings, to bring them to the temple of our God according to our families ⁴⁸  at the designated times year by year to burn on the altar of the LORD our God, as is written in the law. 10:35 We also accept responsibility for ⁴⁹  bringing the first fruits of our land and the first fruits of every fruit tree year by year to the temple of the LORD. 10:36 We also accept responsibility, as is written in the law, for bringing the firstborn of our sons and our cattle and the firstborn of our herds and of our flocks to the temple of our God, to the priests who are ministering in the temple of our God. 10:37 We will also bring the first of our coarse meal, of our contributions, of the fruit of every tree, of new wine, and of olive oil to the priests at the storerooms of the temple of our God, along with a tenth of the produce ⁵⁰  of our land to the Levites, for the Levites are the ones who collect the tithes in all the cities where we work. ⁵¹  10:38 A priest of Aaron’s line ⁵²  will be with the Levites when the Levites collect the tithes, and the Levites will bring up a tenth of the tithes to the temple of our God, to the storerooms of the treasury. 10:39 The Israelites and the Levites will bring the contribution of the grain, the new wine, and the olive oil to the storerooms where the utensils of the sanctuary are kept, and where the priests who minister stay, along with the gatekeepers and the singers. We will not neglect the temple of our God.”

Yeremia 50:5

50:5 They will ask the way to Zion;

they will turn their faces toward it.

They will come ⁵³  and bind themselves to the Lord

in a lasting covenant that will never be forgotten. ⁵⁴ 

Ibrani 8:8-13

8:8 But ⁵⁵  showing its fault, ⁵⁶  God ⁵⁷  says to them, ⁵⁸ 

“Look, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will complete a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.

8:9 “It will not be like the covenant ⁵⁹  that I made with their fathers, on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not continue in my covenant and I had no regard for them, says the Lord.

8:10 “For this is the covenant that I will establish with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put ⁶⁰  my laws in their minds ⁶¹  and I will inscribe them on their hearts. And I will be their God and they will be my people. ⁶² 

8:11 “And there will be no need at all ⁶³  for each one to teach his countryman or each one to teach his brother saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ since they will all know me, from the least to the greatest. ⁶⁴ 

8:12 “For I will be merciful toward their evil deeds, and their sins I will remember no longer.” ⁶⁵ 

8:13 When he speaks of a new covenant, ⁶⁶  he makes the first obsolete. Now what is growing obsolete and aging is about to disappear. ⁶⁷ 

Ibrani 12:24

12:24 and to Jesus, the mediator ⁶⁸  of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks of something better than Abel’s does. ⁶⁹ 

Ibrani 13:20

Benediction and Conclusion

13:20 Now may the God of peace who by the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep, our Lord Jesus Christ,

[24:7]  ¹ tn The noun “book” would be the scroll just written containing the laws of chaps. 20-23. On the basis of this scroll the covenant would be concluded here. The reading of this book would assure the people that it was the same that they had agreed to earlier. But now their statement of willingness to obey would be more binding, because their promise would be confirmed by a covenant of blood.

[24:7]  ² tn Heb “read it in the ears of.”

[24:7]  ³ tn A second verb is now added to the people’s response, and it is clearly an imperfect and not a cohortative, lending support for the choice of desiderative imperfect in these commitments – “we want to obey.” This was their compliance with the covenant.

[24:8]  ⁴ tn Given the size of the congregation, the preposition might be rendered here “toward the people” rather than on them (all).

[24:8]  ⁵ sn The construct relationship “the blood of the covenant” means “the blood by which the covenant is ratified” (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 254). The parallel with the inauguration of the new covenant in the blood of Christ is striking (see, e.g., Matt 26:28, 1 Cor 11:25). When Jesus was inaugurating the new covenant, he was bringing to an end the old.

[5:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “and Moses called to all Israel and he said to them”; NAB, NASB, NIV “Moses summoned (convened NRSV) all Israel.”

[5:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “the Lord.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[5:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “fathers.”

[29:1]  ⁹ sn Beginning with 29:1, the verse numbers through 29:29 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 29:1 ET = 28:69 HT, 29:2 ET = 29:1 HT, 29:3 ET = 29:2 HT, etc., through 29:29 ET = 29:28 HT. With 30:1 the verse numbers in the ET and HT are again the same.

[29:1]  ¹⁰ sn Horeb is another name for Mount Sinai (which some English versions substitute here for clarity, cf. NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT).

[29:10]  ¹¹ tc Heb “your heads, your tribes.” The Syriac presupposes either “heads of your tribes” or “your heads, your judges,” etc. (reading שֹׁפְטֵכֶם [shofÿtekhem] for שִׁבְטֵיכֶם [shivtekhem]). Its comparative difficulty favors the originality of the MT reading. Cf. KJV “your captains of your tribes”; NRSV “the leaders of your tribes”; NLT “your tribal leaders.”

[29:11]  ¹² tn Heb “your.”

[29:12]  ¹³ tn Heb “for you to pass on into the covenant of the Lord your God and into his oath, which the Lord your God is cutting with you today.”

[29:13]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “in order to establish you today to him for a people and he will be to you for God.” Verses 10-13 are one long sentence in Hebrew. The translation divides this into two sentences for stylistic reasons.

[29:13]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “fathers” (also in v. 25).

[29:15]  ¹⁶ tn This is interpreted by some English versions as a reference to generations not yet born (cf. TEV, CEV, NLT).

[24:25]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “cut a covenant.”

[24:25]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “a statute and a judgment.”

[24:2]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “your fathers.”

[24:2]  ²⁰ tn Heb “the river,” referring to the Euphrates. This has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[24:2]  ²¹ tn Or “served.”

[15:12]  ²² tn Heb “the Great Sea,” the typical designation for the Mediterranean Sea.

[15:12]  ²³ tn Heb “this was the border of the sons of Judah round about, by their clans.”

[15:13]  ²⁴ tn Heb “To Caleb son of Jephunneh he gave a portion in the midst of the sons of Judah according to the mouth [i.e., command] of the Lord to Joshua, Kiriath Arba (the father of Anak), it is Hebron.”

[15:14]  ²⁵ tn Or “dispossessed.”

[23:16]  ²⁶ tn Heb “when you violate the covenant of the Lord your God which he commanded you.”

[23:16]  ²⁷ tn Heb “and you walk and serve other gods and bow down to them.”

[23:16]  ²⁸ tn Or “perish.”

[1:10]  ²⁹ tn Or “commanded.”

[10:3]  ³⁰ tn Heb “cut.”

[10:3]  ³¹ tn The MT vocalizes this word as a plural, which could be understood as a reference to God. But the context seems to suggest that a human lord is intended. The apparatus of BHS suggests repointing the word as a singular (“my lord”), but this is unnecessary. The plural (“my lords”) can be understood in an honorific sense even when a human being is in view. Most English versions regard this as a reference to Ezra, so the present translation supplies “your” before “counsel” to make this clear.

[10:3]  ³² tn Heb “who tremble at”; NAB, NIV “who fear.”

[9:38]  ³³ sn Beginning with 9:38, the verse numbers through 10:39 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 9:38 ET = 10:1 HT, 10:1 ET = 10:2 HT, 10:2 ET = 10:3 HT, etc., through 10:39 ET = 10:40 HT. Beginning with 11:1 the verse numbers in the ET and HT are again the same.

[9:38]  ³⁴ tn Heb “we are cutting.”

[9:38]  ³⁵ tn Heb “and writing.”

[9:38]  ³⁶ tn Heb “our leaders, our Levites, and our priests on the sealed document.” The Hebrew text is elliptical here; the words “have affixed their names” are supplied in the translation for clarity and for stylistic reasons. Cf. v. 2.

[10:28]  ³⁷ tn Heb “from the peoples of the lands.” Cf. vv. 30, 31.

[10:29]  ³⁸ tn Heb “the nobles.”

[10:29]  ³⁹ tn The expression “a curse and an oath” may be a hendiadys, meaning “an oath with penalties.”

[10:29]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “to walk in.”

[10:29]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “keep.” See the note on the word “obey” in Neh 1:5.

[10:29]  ⁴² tn The Hebrew term translated “Lord” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[10:31]  ⁴³ tn Heb “take.”

[10:31]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “debt of every hand,” an idiom referring to the hand that holds legally binding contractual agreements.

[10:32]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “cause to stand on us.”

[10:32]  ⁴⁶ tc The MT reads “to give upon us.” However, the term עָלֵינוּ (’alenu, “upon us”) should probably be deleted, following a few medieval Hebrew MSS, the Syriac Peshitta, and the Vulgate.

[10:32]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “house” (also in vv. 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39).

[10:34]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “the house of our fathers.”

[10:35]  ⁴⁹ tn The words “we accept responsibility” are not included in the Hebrew text, but are inferred from v. 33 (so also in v. 37).

[10:37]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “a tithe of our land.”

[10:37]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “of our work.”

[10:38]  ⁵² tn Heb “And the priest the son of Aaron.”

[50:5]  ⁵³ tc The translation here assumes that the Hebrew בֹּאוּ (bo’u; a Qal imperative masculine plural) should be read בָּאוּ (ba’u; a Qal perfect third plural). This reading is presupposed by the Greek version of Aquila, the Latin version, and the Targum (see BHS note a, which mistakenly assumes that the form must be imperfect).

[50:5]  ⁵⁴ sn See Jer 32:40 and the study note there for the nature of this lasting agreement.

[8:8]  ⁵⁵ tn Grk “for,” but providing an explanation of the God-intended limitation of the first covenant from v. 7.

[8:8]  ⁵⁶ sn The “fault” or limitation in the first covenant was not in its inherent righteousness, but in its design from God himself. It was never intended to be his final revelation or provision for mankind; it was provisional, always pointing toward the fulfillment to come in Christ.

[8:8]  ⁵⁷ tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[8:8]  ⁵⁸ tc ‡ Several witnesses (א* A D* I K P Ψ 33 81 326 365 1505 2464 al latt co Cyr) have αὐτούς (autous) here, “[in finding fault with] them, [he says],” alluding to Israel’s failings mentioned in v. 9b. (The verb μέμφομαι [memfomai, “to find fault with”] can take an accusative or dative direct object.) The reading behind the text above (αὐτοίς, autoi"), supported by Ì⁴⁶ א² B D² 0278 1739 1881 Ï, is perhaps a harder reading theologically, and is more ambiguous in meaning. If αὐτοίς goes with μεμφόμενος (memfomeno", here translated “showing its fault”), the clause could be translated “in finding fault with them” or “in showing [its] faults to them.” If αὐτοίς goes with the following λέγει (legei, “he says”), the clause is best translated, “in finding/showing [its] faults, he says to them.” The accusative pronoun suffers no such ambiguity, for it must be the object of μεμφόμενος rather than λέγει. Although a decision is difficult, the dative form of the pronoun best explains the rise of the other reading and is thus more likely to be original.

[8:9]  ⁵⁹ tn Grk “not like the covenant,” continuing the description of v. 8b.

[8:10]  ⁶⁰ tn Grk “putting…I will inscribe.”

[8:10]  ⁶¹ tn Grk “mind.”

[8:10]  ⁶² tn Grk “I will be to them for a God and they will be to me for a people,” following the Hebrew constructions of Jer 31.

[8:11]  ⁶³ tn Grk “they will not teach, each one his fellow citizen…” The Greek makes this negation emphatic: “they will certainly not teach.”

[8:11]  ⁶⁴ tn Grk “from the small to the great.”

[8:12]  ⁶⁵ sn A quotation from Jer 31:31-34.

[8:13]  ⁶⁶ tn Grk “when he says, ‘new,’” (referring to the covenant).

[8:13]  ⁶⁷ tn Grk “near to disappearing.”

[12:24]  ⁶⁸ tn The Greek word μεσίτης (mesith", “mediator”) in this context does not imply that Jesus was a mediator in the contemporary sense of the word, i.e., he worked for compromise between opposing parties. Here the term describes his function as the one who was used by God to enact a new covenant which established a new relationship between God and his people, but entirely on God’s terms.

[12:24]  ⁶⁹ sn Abel’s shed blood cried out to the Lord for justice and judgment, but Jesus’ blood speaks of redemption and forgiveness, something better than Abel’s does (Gen 4:10; Heb 9:11-14; 11:4).