Imamat 26:3

The Benefits of Obedience

26:3 “‘If you walk in my statutes and are sure to obey my commandments, ¹ 

Ulangan 5:2-3

5:2 The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Horeb. 5:3 He ²  did not make this covenant with our ancestors ³  but with us, we who are here today, all of us living now.

Yosua 24:25

24:25 That day Joshua drew up an agreement ⁴  for the people, and he established rules and regulations ⁵  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 ⁶  lived beyond the Euphrates River, ⁷  including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor. They worshiped ⁸  other gods,

1 Raja-raja 11:17

11:17 Hadad, ⁹  who was only a small boy at the time, escaped with some of his father’s Edomite servants and headed for Egypt. ¹⁰ 

Yeremia 11:4

11:4 Those are the terms that I charged your ancestors ¹¹  to keep ¹²  when I brought them out of Egypt, that place which was like an iron-smelting furnace. ¹³  I said at that time, ¹⁴  “Obey me and carry out the terms of the agreement ¹⁵  exactly as I commanded you. If you do, ¹⁶  you will be my people and I will be your God. ¹⁷ 

Yeremia 11:8

11:8 But they did not listen to me or pay any attention to me! Each one of them followed the stubborn inclinations of his own wicked heart. So I brought on them all the punishments threatened in the covenant because they did not carry out its terms as I commanded them to do.’” ¹⁸ 

Yeremia 31:32

31:32 It will not be like the old ¹⁹  covenant that I made with their ancestors ²⁰  when I delivered them ²¹  from Egypt. For they violated that covenant, even though I was like a faithful husband to them,” ²²  says the Lord. ²³ 

Yeremia 34:13

34:13 “The Lord God of Israel has a message for you. ²⁴  ‘I made a covenant with your ancestors ²⁵  when I brought them out of Egypt where they had been slaves. ²⁶  It stipulated, ²⁷ 

Zakharia 9:11

9:11 Moreover, as for you, because of our covenant relationship secured with blood, I will release your prisoners from the waterless pit.

Matius 26:28

26:28 for this is my blood, the blood ²⁸  of the covenant, ²⁹  that is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

Lukas 22:20

22:20 And in the same way he took ³⁰  the cup after they had eaten, ³¹  saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant ³²  in my blood.

Ibrani 9:20

9:20 and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that God has commanded you to keep.” ³³ 

[26:3]  ¹ tn Heb “and my commandments you shall keep and do them.” This appears to be a kind of verbal hendiadys, where the first verb is a modifier of the action of the second verb (see GKC 386 §120.d, although שָׁמַר [shamar, “to keep”] is not cited there; cf. Lev 20:8; 25:18, etc.).

[5:3]  ² tn Heb “the Lord.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[5:3]  ³ tn Heb “fathers.”

[24:25]  ⁴ tn Heb “cut a covenant.”

[24:25]  ⁵ tn Heb “a statute and a judgment.”

[24:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “your fathers.”

[24:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “the river,” referring to the Euphrates. This has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[24:2]  ⁸ tn Or “served.”

[11:17]  ⁹ tn The MT reads “Adad,” an alternate form of the name Hadad.

[11:17]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and Adad fled, he and Edomite men from the servants of his father, to go to Egypt, and Hadad was a small boy.”

[11:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 5, 7, 10).

[11:4]  ¹² tn Heb “does not listen…this covenant which I commanded your fathers.” The sentence is broken up this way in conformity with contemporary English style.

[11:4]  ¹³ tn Heb “out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron-smelting furnace.”

[11:4]  ¹⁴ tn In place of the words “I said at that time” the Hebrew text has “saying.” The sentence is again being restructured in English to avoid the long, confusing style of the Hebrew original.

[11:4]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Obey me and carry them out.” The “them” refers back to the terms of the covenant which they were charged to keep according to the preceding. The referent is made specific to avoid ambiguity.

[11:4]  ¹⁶ tn The words, “If you do” are not in the text. They have been supplied in the translation to break up a long sentence consisting of an imperative followed by a consequential sentence.

[11:4]  ¹⁷ sn Obey me and carry out the terms of the agreement…and I will be your God. This refers to the Mosaic law which was instituted at Sinai and renewed on the Plains of Moab before Israel entered into the land. The words “the terms of the covenant” are explicitly used for the Ten Commandments in Exod 34:28 and for the additional legislation given in Deut 28:69; 29:8. The formulation here is reminiscent of Deut 29:9-14 (29:10-15 HT). The book of Deuteronomy is similar in its structure and function to an ancient Near Eastern treaty. In these the great king reminded his vassal of past benefits that he had given to him, charged him with obligations (the terms or stipulations of the covenant) chief among which was absolute loyalty and sole allegiance, promised him future benefits for obeying the stipulations (the blessings), and placed him under a curse for disobeying them. Any disobedience was met with stern warnings of punishment in the form of destruction and exile. Those who had witnessed the covenant were called in to confirm the continuing goodness of the great king and the disloyalty of the vassal. The vassal was then charged with a list of particular infringements of the stipulations and warned to change his actions or suffer the consequences. This is the background for Jer 11:1-9. Jeremiah is here functioning as a messenger from the Lord, Israel’s great king, and charging both the fathers and the children with breach of covenant.

[11:8]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “So I brought on them all the terms of this covenant which I commanded to do and they did not do.” There is an interesting polarity that is being exploited by two different nuances implicit in the use of the word “terms” (דִּבְרֵי [divre], literally “words”), i.e., what the Lord “brings on” them, namely, the curses that are the penalty for disobedience and the stipulations that they are “to do,” that is, to carry out. The sentence is broken up this way in keeping with contemporary English style to avoid the long and complicated style of the original.

[31:32]  ¹⁹ tn The word “old” is not in the text but is implicit in the use of the word “new.” It is supplied in the translation for greater clarity.

[31:32]  ²⁰ tn Heb “fathers.”

[31:32]  sn This refers to the Mosaic covenant which the nation entered into with God at Sinai and renewed on the plains of Moab. The primary biblical passages explicating this covenant are Exod 19–24 and the book of Deuteronomy; see as well the study note on Jer 11:2 for the form this covenant took and its relation to the warnings of the prophets. The renewed document of Deuteronomy was written down and provisions made for periodic public reading and renewal of commitment to it (Deut 31:9-13). Josiah had done this after the discovery of the book of the law (which was either Deuteronomy or a synopsis of it) early in the ministry of Jeremiah (2 Kgs 23:1-4; the date would be near 622 b.c. shortly after Jeremiah began prophesying in 627 [see the note on Jer 1:2]). But it is apparent from Jeremiah’s confrontation with Judah after that time that the commitment of the people was only superficial (cf. Jer 3:10). The prior history of the nations of Israel and Judah and Judah’s current practice had been one of persistent violation of this covenant despite repeated warnings of the prophets that God would punish them for that (see especially Jer 7, 11). Because of that, Israel had been exiled (cf., e.g., Jer 3:8), and now Judah was threatened with the same (cf., e.g., Jer 7:15). Jer 30–31 look forward to a time when both Israel and Judah will be regathered, reunited, and under a new covenant which includes the same stipulations but with a different relationship (v. 32).

[31:32]  ²¹ tn Heb “when I took them by the hand and led them out.”

[31:32]  ²² tn Or “I was their master.” See the study note on 3:14.

[31:32]  sn The metaphor of Yahweh as husband and Israel as wife has been used already in Jer 3 and is implicit in the repeated allusions to idolatry as spiritual adultery or prostitution. The best commentary on the faithfulness of God to his “husband-like” relation is seen in the book of Hosea, especially in Hos 1-3.

[31:32]  ²³ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[34:13]  ²⁴ tn Heb “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘…’” The style adopted here has been used to avoid a longer, more complex English sentence.

[34:13]  ²⁵ tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 14, 15).

[34:13]  ²⁶ tn Heb “out of the house of bondage.”

[34:13]  sn This refers to the Mosaic covenant, initiated at Mount Sinai and renewed on the plains of Moab. The statement “I brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage” functions as the “historical prologue” in the Ten Commandments which is the Lord’s vassal treaty with Israel in miniature. (See the study note on 11:2 and see Exod 20:2; Deut 5:6 and Exod 34:8. As such it was a motivating factor in their pledge of loyalty to him. This statement was also invoked within the law itself as a motivation for kindly treatment of slaves including their emancipation (see Deut 15:15).)

[34:13]  ²⁷ tn Heb “made a covenant, saying.” This was only one of several stipulations of the covenant. The form used here has been chosen as an indirect way of relating the specific stipulation that is being focused upon to the general covenant that is referred to in v. 13.

[26:28]  ²⁸ tn Grk “for this is my blood of the covenant that is poured out for many.” In order to avoid confusion about which is poured out, the translation supplies “blood” twice so that the following phrase clearly modifies “blood,” not “covenant.”

[26:28]  ²⁹ tc Although most witnesses read καινῆς (kainhs, “new”) here, this is evidently motivated by the parallel in Luke 22:20. Apart from the possibility of homoioteleuton, there is no good reason for the shorter reading to have arisen later on. But since it is found in such good and diverse witnesses (e.g., Ì^37,45vid א B L Z Θ 0298^vid 33 pc mae), the likelihood of homoioteleuton becomes rather remote.

[26:28]  sn Jesus’ death established the forgiveness promised in the new covenant of Jer 31:31. Jesus is reinterpreting the symbolism of the Passover meal, indicating the presence of a new era.

[22:20]  ³⁰ tn The words “he took” are not in the Greek text at this point, but are an understood repetition from v. 19.

[22:20]  ³¹ tn The phrase “after they had eaten” translates the temporal infinitive construction μετὰ τὸ δειπνῆσαι (meta to deipnhsai), where the verb δειπνέω (deipnew) means “to eat a meal” or “to have a meal.”

[22:20]  ³² sn Jesus’ death established the forgiveness promised in the new covenant of Jer 31:31. Jesus is reinterpreting the symbolism of the Passover meal, indicating the presence of a new era.

[9:20]  ³³ tn Grk “which God commanded for you (or in your case).”

[9:20]  sn A quotation from Exod 24:8.