Yeremia 29:12-14

29:12 When you call out to me and come to me in prayer, ¹  I will hear your prayers. ²  29:13 When you seek me in prayer and worship, you will find me available to you. If you seek me with all your heart and soul, ³  29:14 I will make myself available to you,’ ⁴  says the Lord. ⁵  ‘Then I will reverse your plight ⁶  and will regather you from all the nations and all the places where I have exiled you,’ says the Lord. ⁷  ‘I will bring you back to the place from which I exiled you.’

Ulangan 4:29-31

4:29 But if you seek the Lord your God from there, you will find him, if, indeed, you seek him with all your heart and soul. ⁸  4:30 In your distress when all these things happen to you in the latter days, ⁹  if you return to the Lord your God and obey him ¹⁰  4:31 (for he ¹¹  is a merciful God), he will not let you down ¹²  or destroy you, for he cannot ¹³  forget the covenant with your ancestors that he confirmed by oath to them.

Ulangan 30:1-4

The Results of Covenant Reaffirmation

30:1 “When you have experienced all these things, both the blessings and the curses ¹⁴  I have set before you, you will reflect upon them ¹⁵  in all the nations where the Lord your God has banished you. 30:2 Then if you and your descendants ¹⁶  turn to the Lord your God and obey him with your whole mind and being ¹⁷  just as ¹⁸  I am commanding you today, 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 ¹⁹  has scattered you. 30:4 Even if your exiles are in the most distant land, ²⁰  from there the Lord your God will gather you and bring you back.

Ezra 1:3-5

1:3 Anyone from ²¹  his people among you (may his God be with him!) may go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and may build the temple of the Lord God of Israel – he is the God who is in Jerusalem. 1:4 Anyone who survives in any of those places where he is a resident foreigner must be helped by his neighbors ²²  with silver, gold, equipment, and animals, along with voluntary offerings for the temple of God which is in Jerusalem.’”

The Exiles Prepare to Return to Jerusalem

1:5 Then the leaders ²³  of Judah and Benjamin, along with the priests and the Levites – all those whose mind God had stirred – got ready ²⁴  to go up in order to build the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem. ²⁵ 

Nehemia 1:2-4

1:2 Hanani, who was one of my relatives, ²⁶  along with some of the men from Judah, came to me, ²⁷  and I asked them about the Jews who had escaped and had survived the exile, and about Jerusalem. ²⁸ 

1:3 They said to me, “The remnant that remains from the exile there in the province are experiencing considerable ²⁹  adversity and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem lies breached, and its gates have been burned down!” ³⁰ 

1:4 When I heard these things I sat down abruptly, ³¹  crying and mourning for several days. I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

Nehemia 2:3-5

2:3 I replied to the king, “O king, live forever! Why would I not appear dejected when the city with the graves of my ancestors ³²  lies desolate and its gates destroyed ³³  by fire?” 2:4 The king responded, ³⁴  “What is it you are seeking?” Then I quickly prayed to the God of heaven 2:5 and said to the king, “If the king is so inclined ³⁵  and if your servant has found favor in your sight, dispatch me to Judah, to the city with the graves of my ancestors, so that I can rebuild it.”

Mazmur 102:13-14

102:13 You will rise up and have compassion on Zion. ³⁶ 

For it is time to have mercy on her,

for the appointed time has come.

102:14 Indeed, ³⁷  your servants take delight in her stones,

and feel compassion for ³⁸  the dust of her ruins. ³⁹ 

Mazmur 137:5-6

137:5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem,

may my right hand be crippled! ⁴⁰ 

137:6 May my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth,

if I do not remember you,

and do not give Jerusalem priority

over whatever gives me the most joy. ⁴¹ 

Daniel 9:2-3

9:2 in the first year of his reign ⁴²  I, Daniel, came to understand from the sacred books ⁴³  that, according to the word of the LORD ⁴⁴  disclosed to the prophet Jeremiah, the years for the fulfilling of the desolation of Jerusalem ⁴⁵  were seventy in number. 9:3 So I turned my attention ⁴⁶  to the Lord God ⁴⁷  to implore him by prayer and requests, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. ⁴⁸ 

Daniel 9:16-19

9:16 O Lord, according to all your justice, ⁴⁹  please turn your raging anger ⁵⁰  away from your city Jerusalem, your holy mountain. For due to our sins and the iniquities of our ancestors, Jerusalem and your people are mocked by all our neighbors.

9:17 “So now, our God, accept ⁵¹  the prayer and requests of your servant, and show favor to ⁵²  your devastated sanctuary for your own sake. ⁵³  9:18 Listen attentively, ⁵⁴  my God, and hear! Open your eyes and look on our desolated ruins ⁵⁵  and the city called by your name. ⁵⁶  For it is not because of our own righteous deeds that we are praying to you, ⁵⁷  but because your compassion is abundant. 9:19 O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, pay attention, and act! Don’t delay, for your own sake, O my God! For your city and your people are called by your name.” ⁵⁸ 

[29:12]  ¹ tn Heb “come and pray to me.” This is an example of verbal hendiadys where two verb formally joined by “and” convey a main concept with the second verb functioning as an adverbial qualifier.

[29:12]  ² tn Or “You will call out to me and come to me in prayer and I will hear your prayers.” The verbs are vav consecutive perfects and can be taken either as unconditional futures or as contingent futures. See GKC 337 §112.kk and 494 §159.g and compare the usage in Gen 44:22 for the use of the vav consecutive perfects in contingent futures. The conditional clause in the middle of 29:13 and the deuteronomic theology reflected in both Deut 30:1-5 and 1 Kgs 8:46-48 suggest that the verbs are continent futures here. For the same demand for wholehearted seeking in these contexts which presuppose exile see especially Deut 30:2, 1 Kgs 8:48.

[29:13]  ³ tn Or “If you wholeheartedly seek me”; Heb “You will seek me and find [me] because you will seek me with all your heart.” The translation attempts to reflect the theological nuances of “seeking” and “finding” and the psychological significance of “heart” which refers more to intellectual and volitional concerns in the OT than to emotional ones.

[29:14]  ⁴ tn Heb “I will let myself be found by you.” For this nuance of the verb see BDB 594 s.v. מָצָא Niph.1.f and compare the usage in Isa 65:1; 2 Chr 15:2. The Greek version already noted that nuance when it translated the phrase “I will manifest myself to you.”

[29:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[29:14]  ⁶ tn Heb “restore your fortune.” Alternately, “I will bring you back from exile.” This idiom occurs twenty-six times in the OT and in several cases it is clearly not referring to return from exile but restoration of fortunes (e.g., Job 42:10; Hos 6:11–7:1; Jer 33:11). It is often followed as here by “regather” or “bring back” (e.g., Jer 30:3; Ezek 29:14) so it is often misunderstood as “bringing back the exiles.” The versions (LXX, Vulg., Tg., Pesh.) often translate the idiom as “to go away into captivity,” deriving the noun from שְׁבִי (shÿvi, “captivity”). However, the use of this expression in Old Aramaic documents of Sefire parallels the biblical idiom: “the gods restored the fortunes of the house of my father again” (J. A. Fitzmyer, The Aramaic Inscriptions of Sefire [BibOr], 100-101, 119-20). The idiom means “to turn someone's fortune, bring about change” or “to reestablish as it was” (HALOT 1386 s.v. 3.c). In Ezek 16:53 it is paralleled by the expression “to restore the situation which prevailed earlier.” This amounts to restitutio in integrum, which is applicable to the circumstances surrounding the return of the exiles.

[29:14]  ⁷ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[4:29]  ⁸ tn Or “mind and being.” See Deut 6:5.

[4:30]  ⁹ sn The phrase is not used here in a technical sense for the eschaton, but rather refers to a future time when Israel will be punished for its sin and experience exile. See Deut 31:29.

[4:30]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “hear his voice.” The expression is an idiom meaning “obey,” occurring in Deut 8:20; 9:23; 13:18; 21:18, 20; 26:14, 17; 27:10; 28:1-2, 15, 45, 62; 30:2, 8, 10, 20.

[4:31]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in 4:3.

[4:31]  ¹² tn Heb “he will not drop you,” i.e., “will not abandon you” (cf. NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[4:31]  ¹³ tn Or “will not.” The translation understands the imperfect verbal form to have an added nuance of capability here.

[30:1]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the blessing and the curse.”

[30:1]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and you bring (them) back to your heart.”

[30:2]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “sons” (so NASB); KJV, ASV, NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT “children.”

[30:2]  ¹⁷ tn Or “heart and soul” (also in vv. 6, 10).

[30:2]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “according to all.”

[30:3]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[30:4]  ²⁰ tn Heb “are at the farthest edge of the heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven(s)” or “sky” depending on the context.

[1:3]  ²¹ tn Heb “from all.”

[1:4]  ²² tn Heb “the men of his place.”

[1:5]  ²³ tn Heb “the heads of the fathers.”

[1:5]  ²⁴ tn Heb “arose.”

[1:5]  ²⁵ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[1:2]  ²⁶ tn Heb “brothers.”

[1:2]  ²⁷ tn The Hebrew text does not include the words “to me”; these words were supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity.

[1:2]  ²⁸ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[1:3]  ²⁹ tn Heb “great.”

[1:3]  ³⁰ tn Heb “have been burned with fire” (so also in Neh 2:17). The expression “burned with fire” is redundant in contemporary English; the translation uses “burned down” for stylistic reasons.

[1:4]  ³¹ tn Heb “sat down.” Context suggests that this was a rather sudden action, resulting from the emotional shock of the unpleasant news, so “abruptly” has been supplied in the present translation.

[2:3]  ³² tn Heb “fathers” (also in v. 5).

[2:3]  ³³ tn Heb “devoured” or “eaten” (so also in Neh 2:13).

[2:4]  ³⁴ tn Heb “said to me.”

[2:5]  ³⁵ tn Heb “If upon the king it is good.” So also in v. 7.

[102:13]  ³⁶ tn The imperfect verbal forms are understood as expressing the psalmist’s confidence in God’s intervention. Another option is to take them as expressing the psalmist’s request or wish, “You, rise up and have compassion!”

[102:14]  ³⁷ tn Or “for.”

[102:14]  ³⁸ tn The Poel of חָנַן (khanan) occurs only here and in Prov 14:21, where it refers to having compassion on the poor.

[102:14]  ³⁹ tn Heb “her dust,” probably referring to the dust of the city’s rubble.

[137:5]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “may my right hand forget.” In this case one must supply an object, such as “how to move.” The elliptical nature of the text has prompted emendations (see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 [WBC], 236). The translation assumes an emendation to תִּכְשַׁח (tikhshakh), from an otherwise unattested root כשׁח, meaning “to be crippled; to be lame.” See HALOT 502 s.v. כשׁח, which cites Arabic cognate evidence in support of the proposal. The corruption of the MT can be explained as an error of transposition facilitated by the use of שָׁכַח (shakhakh, “forget”) just before this.

[137:6]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “if I do not lift up Jerusalem over the top of my joy.”

[9:2]  ⁴² tc This phrase, repeated from v. 1, is absent in Theodotion.

[9:2]  ⁴³ tn The Hebrew text has “books”; the word “sacred” has been added in the translation to clarify that it is Scriptures that are referred to.

[9:2]  ⁴⁴ sn The tetragrammaton (the four Hebrew letters which constitute the divine Name, YHWH) appears eight times in this chapter, and nowhere else in the book of Daniel.

[9:2]  ⁴⁵ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[9:3]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “face.”

[9:3]  ⁴⁷ tn The Hebrew phrase translated “Lord God” here is אֲדֹנָי הָאֱלֹהִים (’adonay ha’elohim).

[9:3]  ⁴⁸ sn When lamenting, ancient Israelites would fast, wear sackcloth, and put ashes on their heads to show their sorrow and contrition.

[9:16]  ⁴⁹ tn Or “righteousness.”

[9:16]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “your anger and your rage.” The synonyms are joined here to emphasize the degree of God’s anger. This is best expressed in English by making one of the terms adjectival (cf. NLT “your furious anger”; CEV “terribly angry”).

[9:17]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “hear.” Here the verb refers to hearing favorably, accepting the prayer and responding positively.

[9:17]  ⁵² tn Heb “let your face shine.” This idiom pictures God smiling in favor. See Pss 31:16; 67:1; 80:3, 7, 19.

[9:17]  ⁵³ tn Heb “for the sake of my Lord.” Theodotion has “for your sake.” Cf. v. 19.

[9:18]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “turn your ear.”

[9:18]  ⁵⁵ tn Heb “desolations.” The term refers here to the ruined condition of Judah’s towns.

[9:18]  ⁵⁶ tn Heb “over which your name is called.” Cf. v. 19. This expression implies that God is the owner of his city, Jerusalem. Note the use of the idiom in 2 Sam 12:28; Isa 4:1; Amos 9:12.

[9:18]  ⁵⁷ tn Heb “praying our supplications before you.”

[9:19]  ⁵⁸ tn Heb “for your name is called over your city and your people.” See the note on this expression in v 18.