Back to Jeremiah 11

Jeremiah 11:5

that I may establish the oath which I swore to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey,’ as it is today.” Then I answered, and said, “Amen, Yahweh.”

World English Bible · Public Domain

Parallel Translations

  • WEB World English Bible

    that I may establish the oath which I swore to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey,’ as it is today.” Then I answered, and said, “Amen, Yahweh.”

  • KJV King James Version

    That I may perform the oath which I have sworn unto your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day. Then answered I, and said, So be it, O LORD.

  • JPS JPS Tanakh (1917)

    that I may establish the oath which I swore unto your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as at this day.' Then answered I, and said: 'Amen, O LORD.'

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Cross-references (12)

Passages linked to Jeremiah 11:5 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.

  • Deuteronomy 7:12-13 It shall happen, because you listen to these ordinances and keep and do them, that Yahweh your God will keep with you the covenant and the loving kindness which he swore to your fathers. He will love you, bless you, and multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your body and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your livestock and the young of your flock, in the land which he swore to your fathers to give you.
  • Psalms 105:9-11 the covenant which he made with Abraham, his oath to Isaac, and confirmed it to Jacob for a statute; to Israel for an everlasting covenant, saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance,”
  • Jeremiah 28:6 even the prophet Jeremiah said, “Amen! May Yahweh do so. May Yahweh perform your words which you have prophesied, to bring again the vessels of Yahweh’s house, and all those who are captives, from Babylon to this place.
  • Genesis 22:16-18 and said, “ ‘I have sworn by myself,’ says Yahweh, ‘because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son, that I will bless you greatly, and I will multiply your offspring greatly like the stars of the heavens, and like the sand which is on the seashore. Your offspring will possess the gate of his enemies. All the nations of the earth will be blessed by your offspring, because you have obeyed my voice.’ ”
  • Genesis 26:3-5 Live in this land, and I will be with you, and will bless you. For I will give to you, and to your offspring, all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore to Abraham your father. I will multiply your offspring as the stars of the sky, and will give all these lands to your offspring. In your offspring all the nations of the earth will be blessed, because Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my requirements, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.”
  • Exodus 3:8-17 I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey; to the place of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite. Now, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to me. Moreover I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come now therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” He said, “Certainly I will be with you. This will be the token to you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.” Moses said to God, “Behold, when I come to the children of Israel, and tell them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what should I tell them?” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM,” and he said, “You shall tell the children of Israel this: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ” God said moreover to Moses, “You shall tell the children of Israel this, ‘Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and this is my memorial to all generations. Go and gather the elders of Israel together, and tell them, ‘Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, “I have surely visited you, and seen that which is done to you in Egypt. I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, to a land flowing with milk and honey.” ’
  • Exodus 13:5 It shall be, when Yahweh brings you into the land of the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Amorite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite, which he swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, that you shall keep this service in this month.
  • Leviticus 20:24 But I have said to you, “You shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess it, a land flowing with milk and honey.” I am Yahweh your God, who has separated you from the peoples.
  • Deuteronomy 6:3 Hear therefore, Israel, and observe to do it, that it may be well with you, and that you may increase mightily, as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has promised to you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.
  • Deuteronomy 27:15-26 ‘Cursed is the man who makes an engraved or molten image, an abomination to Yahweh, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and sets it up in secret.’ All the people shall answer and say, ‘Amen.’ ‘Cursed is he who dishonors his father or his mother.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ ‘Cursed is he who removes his neighbor’s landmark.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ ‘Cursed is he who leads the blind astray on the road.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ ‘Cursed is he who withholds justice from the foreigner, fatherless, and widow.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ ‘Cursed is he who lies with his father’s wife, because he dishonors his father’s bed.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ ‘Cursed is he who lies with any kind of animal.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ ‘Cursed is he who lies with his sister, his father’s daughter or his mother’s daughter.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ ‘Cursed is he who lies with his mother-in-law.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ ‘Cursed is he who secretly kills his neighbor.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ ‘Cursed is he who takes a bribe to kill an innocent person.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ ‘Cursed is he who doesn’t uphold the words of this law by doing them.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ ”
  • Matthew 6:13 Bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For yours is the Kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Amen.’
  • 1 Corinthians 14:16 Otherwise if you bless with the spirit, how will he who fills the place of the unlearned say the “Amen” at your giving of thanks, seeing he doesn’t know what you say?

Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)

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Explain this verse (16 sources)

Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.

John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain He adds, That I may establish the oath which…

He adds, That I may establish the oath which I have sworn to your fathers, to give them a land abounding in milk and honey, according to what it is at this day Here he does not refer to the chief part of their happiness; but only the land of Canaan is mentioned as the pledge or the earnest of God’s favor; for his promise had regard to something much higher than to the land of Canaan. God had indeed promised this as an inheritance to the Israelites: but when he says, that he would be their God and they his people, the promise of eternal life and of celestial glory is included, according to what is said elsewhere, that he is not the God of the dead but of the living. (Matthew 22:31) And we must ever bear in mind what is said by the Prophet Habakkuk,

“Thou art our God, we shall not die.” (Habakkuk 1:12)

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God then promised to the Israelites something far greater than the possession of the land, when he said, that he would be their God But that land was a symbol, an earnest and a pledge of his paternal favor. All these things well agree together.

And to the same purpose is what the Prophet adds, that God had formerly sworn to their fathers, that he would give them that land by an hereditary right: and this promise had been fulfined to their posterity. Were any to lay hold on this only, — that God’s favor was seen in the land of Canaan, because they had obtained it through the expulsion of the heathens by God’s kindness, the view would be frigid, and the Prophet would diminish much from that promise which far exceeds all that man can conceive. Hence, as I have said, in speaking of the land of Canaan, he accommodates himself no doubt to the comprehension of a rude and ignorant people, and mentions the earnest and the pledge, that they alight see by their eyes, exhibited to them even in this world and in this frail life some evidence of that favor, which far surpasses all that can be desired in the world.

Now, when he says, That I may establish the oath which I have sworn to your fathers, God doubtless shews that though the Jews should obey him, they had not yet deserved by their obedience the inheritance promised before they were born. God then here proves that it was through his gratuitous kindness that; they became heirs of the land. How so? because they were not created when God sware to Abraham that he would give that land to him and to his posterity. As then the promise had been given long before, it follows that it could not be ascribed to the merits of the people, that they had at length in due time obtained the land. As to the oath, God by referring to it extols his favor; for he not only promised the land for an heritage to the children of Abraham, but he also added an oath, that the covenant might appear more sure. But the Prophet at the same time intimates, that they, if ungrateful to God, might justly be deprived of the promised inheritance; as though he had said, “There is no ground for you to expostulate with God, as though he defrauded you, were he to cast you out of the land; for God himself does not disinherit you, but your own wickedness; and ye are now unworthy, for God regards you not as his children.” While then the Prophet takes away every ground for boasting, that the Jews might not think that they possessed the land as a reward for their merits, he also reminds them that they might be justly deprived of their land, and that on account of their own fault, as they rendered not to God the service they owed to him. Hence he says, that I might establish the oath which I have sworn to your fathers

A land, he says, flowing with milk and honey: this mode of speaking was often adopted by Moses, (Exodus 3:8, Exodus 3:17; Exodus 13:5; Exodus 33:3; Leviticus 20:24) The land was no doubt from the beginning very fertile; but it is probable that it became more fruitful after the people entered into it, for it was in a manner renewed; and it was God’s design to shew in a visible manner how great; Was the efficacy of his covenant. It was not then to no purpose that Moses said so often that it was a land flowing with milk and honey.

He afterwards adds, According as it is at this day He produces witnesses; as though he had said, “God has dealt faithfully with you, for he has performed the faith pledged to your fathers, and has fulfined his oath: but now since ye have polluted this land, and the memory of God’s favor is as it were buried among you, and ye even tread under your feet his law — since then such great impiety averts his blessing from you, what remains for him to do, but to drive you away into exile?” We hence see that there is here to be understood an implied threatening, when he says that God had performed what he had promised to the fathers, and promised with this condition — that they were to obey his commands.

We have already spoken of the Prophet’s answer. When he answered, Amen, he did not wait for what the people would say; for the greater part no doubt made a clamor and sought to make shifts with God. So great was their effrontery, that they often rose up insolently against the Prophets. Then as he knew that they were so refractory, he subscribed to the curse in his own name. It follows —

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Thus he speaketh in the person of the people,…
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Jer 11:5 That I may perform the oath which…
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain I required their obedience for their own good; I…
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Then the Lord said unto me,.... Again; for this…
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain So be it - God having ended his speech,…
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 5. So be it, O Lord] Let thy…
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain As it is this day - God had kept…
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Amen. Septuagint, "So be it." (Haydock) --- Thou hast…
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain oath-- (Psa 105:9-10).
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 5. Land flowing with milk and honey — Who…
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 5. your fathers] Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as ancestors…
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (5) A land flowing with milk and honey.—The description…
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain The oath which I have sworn. (so Deu_7:8; comp.…
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Then answered I, and said, So be it, O…
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 11:5 The Lord wanted to give Israel prosperity and…

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