'God, who gives life to the dead' (4:17) may figurally echo Ezekiel's valley of dry bones, where the Spirit raises a dead Israel to life — a paradigm of resurrection-as-restoration. Thematically coherent with Paul's resurrection horizon; verbally faint, marked contested.

The hand of Yahweh was on me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of Yahweh, and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones. He caused me to pass by them all around: and behold, there were very many in the open valley; and behold, they were very dry. He said to me, Son of man, can these bones live? I answered, Lord Yahweh, you know. Again he said to me, Prophesy over these bones, and tell them, you dry bones, hear Yahweh’s word. Thus […]


'Calls the things that are not, as though they were' (4:17) figurally echoes the creation account, where God's word summons being out of nonbeing ('Let there be... and there was'). Paul pairs creation (calling the nonexistent) with resurrection (giving life to the dead) as twin marks of the God Abraham believed.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and empty. Darkness was on the surface of the deep and God’s Spirit was hovering over the surface of the waters. God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.


'Calls the things that are not, as though they were' (4:17) has its closest Second Temple parallel in 2 Maccabees 7:28, where the mother urges her son to recognize 'that God did not make them out of things that existed' — an early articulation of creation from nothing, paired (as in Romans 4) with resurrection hope. Contested background echo.

I beseech you, my child, to lift your eyes to the heaven and the earth, and to see all things that are therein, and thus to recognize that God made them not of things that were, and that the race of men in this wise comes into being.


'Calls the things that are not, as though they were' (4:17) may echo the Isaianic creator who 'calls' the heavens and earth into existence (Isaiah 48:13; 41:4; 44:24), where divine calling is creative summons. Faint verbal link via the verb 'call'; marked contested.

Yes, my hand has laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand has spread out the heavens: when I call to them, they stand up together.


The pericope closes in 4:22 by re-quoting the governing text: 'Therefore it also was reckoned to him for righteousness.' Recurrence of Genesis 15:6 as the inclusio binding the demonstration of Abraham's faith back to its scriptural anchor.

He believed in Yahweh; and he reckoned it to him for righteousness.


'Now it was not written that it was accounted to him for his sake alone, but for our sake also, to whom it will be accounted' (4:23-24) explicitly thematizes the act of reading Genesis 15:6 as Scripture written for the church. The verb 'accounted/reckoned' is carried forward one last time, applied now to believers in the God who raised Jesus.


'Who was delivered up for our trespasses' (4:25) echoes Isaiah 53 LXX, especially 53:6 ('the Lord delivered him up for our sins,' paredoken auton tais hamartiais hemon) and 53:12 ('he was delivered up because of their sins'). Paul's verb 'delivered up' (paredothe) plus 'for our trespasses' is verbatim Servant-song language, identifying the crucified Jesus as the suffering Servant.

But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought our peace was on him; and by his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. Everyone has turned to his own way; and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all.


'And was raised for our justification' (4:25) draws on Isaiah 53:11 LXX, 'the righteous one will justify the many (dikaiosai dikaion... tois pollois), and he shall bear their sins.' The pairing of the Servant's vindication with the justification 'of many' undergirds Paul's resurrection-justification clause, linking the Abraham-righteousness midrash to the Servant's righteousness.

After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light and be satisfied. My righteous servant will justify many by the knowledge of himself; and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the plunder with the strong; because he poured out his soul to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.


"Justified by faith" (5:1) is the conclusion Paul has just drawn from Abraham (Romans 4), and ultimately rests on Genesis 15:6, "Abram believed the LORD, and he reckoned it to him as righteousness." The faith-righteousness link governing 5:1 is verbally and conceptually the Genesis 15:6 logic carried forward into this pericope's opening clause.


"The righteous shall live by faith" is Paul's thesis text (Romans 1:17) and stands behind "being justified by faith" (5:1). The faith-life pairing of Habakkuk 2:4 resonates in the move from justification by faith to being "saved by his life" (5:10), though no verbal quotation appears here.

Behold, his soul is puffed up. It is not upright in him, but the righteous will live by his faith.


"Peace with God" (5:1) and reconciliation through Christ's death (5:10-11) echo the Suffering Servant whose "chastisement brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed." Isaiah 53 supplies the template of one man's death securing peace and healing for the many that drives the whole passage.

But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought our peace was on him; and by his wounds we are healed.


"While we were yet sinners/ungodly" Christ died for us (5:6, 5:8): "All we like sheep have gone astray... and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all." The Servant bearing the iniquity of the straying matches Paul's "Christ died for the ungodly."

All we like sheep have gone astray. Everyone has turned to his own way; and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all.


"He poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many" stands behind "Christ died for us" while sinners (5:8) and "justified by his blood" (5:9). The Servant's vicarious death for "many" anticipates the many/one structure Paul develops.

Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the plunder with the strong; because he poured out his soul to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.


"Justified by his blood" (5:9): "the life of the flesh is in the blood... it is the blood that makes atonement." Paul's atoning-blood language draws on the Levitical principle that blood effects expiation, already invoked at Romans 3:25 (hilasterion).

For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that makes atonement by reason of the life.


"Justified by his blood" (5:9) may faintly recall the blood of the covenant Moses dashed on the people, sealing the relationship with God. Disputed as a deliberate echo here versus general sacrificial background.

Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, “Look, this is the blood of the covenant, which Yahweh has made with you concerning all these words.”


"We rejoice in hope of the glory of God" and "rejoice in God" (5:2, 5:11): "let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy... let those who love your name exult in you." The pattern of those justified/sheltered by God rejoicing/exulting in him is a recurrent Psalmic posture Paul takes up.

But let all those who take refuge in you rejoice, Let them always shout for joy, because you defend them. Let them also who love your name be joyful in you.


"Hope does not put us to shame" (5:5): "they trusted in you and were not put to shame." The Psalmic confession that trust in God does not end in shame is the verbal-conceptual root of Paul's claim that hope ou kataischynei.

They cried to you, and were delivered. They trusted in you, and were not disappointed.


"Hope does not put us to shame" (5:5): "none who wait for you shall be put to shame." Psalm 25 (vv. 3, 20) repeatedly grounds the assurance that hope in God is not disappointed, matching Paul's claim about hope.

Yes, no one who waits for you shall be shamed. They shall be shamed who deal treacherously without cause.


"Hope does not put us to shame" (5:5): "whoever believes will not be put to shame" (LXX). Paul quotes this very verse at Romans 9:33 and 10:11; the same shame/faith formula colors his statement here that hope does not disappoint.

Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh, “Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone of a sure foundation. He who believes shall not act hastily.


"God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit" (5:5): "I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh." The verb "pour out" (ekcheo) applied to the Spirit is the prophetic eschatological-outpouring idiom; Paul quotes Joel 2:32 at Romans 10:13, showing the passage is in view.

“It will happen afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; and your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams. Your young men will see visions. And also on the servants and on the handmaids in those days, I will pour out my Spirit.


"God's love poured out... through the Holy Spirit" (5:5): "I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring." The same Spirit-outpouring promise, paired with water/blessing imagery, undergirds Paul's image of love flooding the heart by the Spirit.

For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and streams on the dry ground. I will pour my Spirit on your seed, and my blessing on your offspring:


"Poured out into our hearts... the Holy Spirit who was given to us" (5:5): "I will give you a new heart... I will put my Spirit within you." The new-covenant promise of God's Spirit placed within the heart matches Paul's interiorized gift of the Spirit and love.

I will also give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep my ordinances, and do them.


"Suffering produces perseverance, and perseverance proven character" (5:3-4): "My son, if you come to serve the Lord, prepare yourself for testing... for gold is tested in the fire, and acceptable men in the furnace of humiliation." A Second Temple wisdom commonplace that trials refine and prove the faithful, closely parallel to Paul's chain suffering->endurance->proven character.

My son, if you come to serve the Lord, Prepare your soul for temptation. Set your heart aright, and constantly endure, And make not haste in time of calamity. Cleave to him, and depart not, That you may be increased at your latter end. Accept whatever is brought upon you, And be longsuffering when you passest into humiliation. For gold is tried in the fire, And acceptable men in the furnace of humiliation.


"Suffering works perseverance... proven character; and proven character, hope" (5:3-4): "Having been disciplined a little, they will receive great good, because God tested them and found them worthy of himself; like gold in the furnace he tried them." Second Temple parallel linking testing/discipline to being proven worthy and to hope of glory (cf. Wisdom 3:4, hope full of immortality).

And having borne a little chastening, they will receive great good; Because God made trial of them, and found them worthy of himself. As gold in the furnace he proved them, And as a whole burnt offering he accepted them.


"Peace with God" through righteousness (5:1): "the work of righteousness shall be peace." The prophetic linkage of righteousness and peace faintly underlies Paul's pairing of justification with peace, though no verbal borrowing is evident.

The work of righteousness will be peace; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and confidence forever.


"Peace with God" (5:1): "righteousness and peace kiss each other." The Psalm's union of righteousness and peace as God's salvific gift resonates faintly with Paul's justification-yields-peace claim. Disputed as a deliberate echo.

I will hear what God, Yahweh, will speak, for he will speak peace to his people, his saints; but let them not turn again to folly. Surely his salvation is near those who fear him, that glory may dwell in our land. Mercy and truth meet together. Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.


"Peace with God" for the reconciled (5:1, 5:10-11): "Peace, peace, to the far and the near, says the LORD; and I will heal him." The prophetic announcement of peace and healing to estranged people faintly anticipates peace and reconciliation language. Contested.

I create the fruit of the lips: Peace, peace, to him who is far off and to him who is near,” says Yahweh; “and I will heal them.”


"Sin entered into the world through one man" (5:12) figurally reads the Eden narrative: Adam's single transgression in eating the forbidden fruit is the entry point of sin into the cosmos. Paul explicitly types Adam as "a foreshadowing of him who was to come" (5:14, typos), making the fall the controlling figure for the Adam-Christ antithesis.

Now the serpent was more subtle than any animal of the field which Yahweh God had made. He said to the woman, “Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden?’” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees of the garden, but not the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden. God has said, ‘You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” The serpent said to the woman, “You won’t surely […]


"Death through sin... death passed to all" (5:12): "in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." The divine sentence binding death to the one prohibited act is the textual basis for Paul's claim that death entered through the one man's transgression.

but you shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die.”


"Death passed to all men" and "death reigned" (5:12, 5:14, 5:17): "cursed is the ground because of you... you are dust, and to dust you shall return." Adam's curse universalizing death is figurally taken up as the reign of death over all humanity that Christ's act of righteousness reverses.

To Adam he said, “Because you have listened to your wife’s voice, and ate from the tree, about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ the ground is cursed for your sake. You will eat from it with much labor all the days of your life. It will yield thorns and thistles to you; and you will eat the herb of the field. By the sweat of your face will you eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For you are dust, […]


"Through the one man's disobedience many were made sinners" (5:19): "she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband, and he ate." Adam's specific act of disobedient eating is the trespass/parakoe Paul opposes to Christ's obedience (hypakoe).

When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took some of its fruit, and ate; and she gave some to her husband with her, and he ate it, too.


"Adam's disobedience" / "the one man's disobedience" (5:14, 5:19): "Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?" God's interrogation frames Adam's act precisely as disobedience to a command, supplying the parakoe Paul contrasts with Christ's obedience.

God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”


"Death reigned from Adam until Moses" (5:14): the tolling refrain "and he died" through the Sethite genealogy (Genesis 5) concretizes the unbroken reign of death over the generations between Adam and the giving of the law. Paul's historical span presupposes this litany of mortality.

Adam lived one hundred thirty years, and became the father of a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. The days of Adam after he became the father of Seth were eight hundred years, and he became the father of other sons and daughters. All the days that Adam lived were nine hundred thirty years, then he died. Seth lived one hundred five years, then became the father of Enosh. Seth lived after he became the father of Enosh eight […]


"Through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin" (5:12): "God created man for incorruption... but through the devil's envy death entered the world." The closest Second Temple parallel, sharing the precise idiom "death entered the world" (eiselthen... thanatos) and tracing universal death to a primeval cause. Paul localizes the cause in Adam's trespass rather than the devil's envy.

Because God created man for incorruption, And made him an image of his own proper being; But by the envy of the devil death entered into the world, And those who are of his portion make trial thereof.


"Through one... death" passed to all (5:12, 5:15): "From a woman sin had its beginning, and because of her we all die." A Second Temple text tracing universal death to the primeval transgression in Eden, structurally parallel to Paul (though Ben Sira blames Eve, Paul Adam). Strong thematic overlap on death-through-one.

From a woman was the beginning of sin; And because of her we all die.


"Death reigned from Adam until Moses" and "the law came in besides" (5:14, 5:20): the Sinai law-giving through Moses is the temporal boundary and the "law that came in" so that the trespass might increase. Paul presupposes the Mosaic legislation (Exodus 20 / the Decalogue) as the entry of nomos into his salvation-history scheme.

God spoke all these words, saying, “I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. “You shall have no other gods before me. “You shall not make for yourselves an idol, nor any image of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: you shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them, for I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God, visiting the […]


"Grace... reign through righteousness to eternal life" (5:21): the tree of life in Eden (Genesis 2:9; 3:22-24), forfeited at the fall, faintly stands behind the restoration of "eternal life" through the second Adam. A disputed figural undertone rather than a verbal echo.

Out of the ground Yahweh God made every tree to grow that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food, including the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.


"As through one trespass... all condemned" (5:18): "like Adam they transgressed the covenant" (one reading of Hosea 6:7) treats Adam as the archetypal covenant-breaker. A faint and textually disputed possible precedent for Paul's Adam-as-transgressor typology.

But they, like Adam, have broken the covenant. They were unfaithful to me, there.


To Cain: sin 'is crouching at the door; its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.' Paul's 'do not let sin reign (basileueto) in your mortal body' (6:12) personifies Sin as a power seeking to master a person who must instead exercise dominion over it. The shared image of Sin as an external would-be ruler the believer must refuse to obey is striking; many read 6:12 against this primal scene.

If you do well, won’t it be lifted up? If you don’t do well, sin crouches at the door. Its desire is for you, but you are to rule over it.”


Redemption-from-bondage language: God brings Israel 'out from under the burdens' and 'redeems' them from slavery. Romans 6:6 ('no longer in bondage to sin', douleuein) and 6:7 ('freed from sin') run the exodus slavery/liberation pattern onto sin as the new Pharaoh. The slavery-redemption typology is strong thematically though the verbal contact here is diffuse; the fuller slavery exposition comes in 6:15-23.

Therefore tell the children of Israel, ‘I am Yahweh, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm, and with great judgments:


The valley of dry bones: God brings the dead up from their graves to new life by his Spirit. Paul's death-and-burial-then-'newness of life' (6:4) and 'alive from the dead' (6:13) share the figural movement of resurrection-as-new-existence, though Paul grounds it christologically rather than nationally.

The hand of Yahweh was on me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of Yahweh, and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones. He caused me to pass by them all around: and behold, there were very many in the open valley; and behold, they were very dry. He said to me, Son of man, can these bones live? I answered, Lord Yahweh, you know. Again he said to me, Prophesy over these bones, and tell them, you dry bones, hear Yahweh’s word. Thus […]


New heart and new spirit enabling obedience; 'newness of life' (6:4, kainotes zoes) coheres with the prophetic promise of interior renewal. Faint and disputed verbal contact, but the renewal/new-walk theme is shared.

I will also give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep my ordinances, and do them.


'After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him.' A type of death-and-resurrection-to-life that early Christian reading connected to Christ's raising; resonates with 6:4-5,8-9 union in death and resurrection. Faint and contested.

After two days he will revive us. On the third day he will raise us up, and we will live before him.


'For they are my servants (slaves), whom I brought out of the land of Egypt' (cf. 25:55). The structural logic of 6:16-22 - one cannot be masterless; freed from one slavery you become a slave of another, and God's people are rightly God's slaves - mirrors the exodus principle that liberation from Pharaoh = transfer to YHWH's service. Coheres with Paul's 'made free from sin, you became bondservants of righteousness/God.'

For they are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. They shall not be sold as slaves.


The two ways: 'I have set before you life and death... therefore choose life.' Romans 6:21-23 frames the alternatives as 'the end of those things is death' versus 'eternal life,' the same life-or-death covenantal antithesis. Thematic coherence is high even without verbatim borrowing.

Behold, I have set before you this day life and prosperity, and death and evil. For I command you this day to love Yahweh your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments, his statutes, and his ordinances, that you may live and multiply, and that Yahweh your God may bless you in the land where you go in to possess it. But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them; I denounce to […]


'In the day that you eat of it you shall surely die' - sin's penalty is death. 'The wages of sin is death' (6:23) restates the Edenic verdict that disobedience earns death. A foundational thematic echo behind the whole sin-death nexus of 5-6.

but you shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die.”


'You shall return to the ground... to dust you shall return' - death as the consequence of the fall. With 'wages of sin is death' (6:23) and 'the end of those things is death' (6:21) Paul echoes the Genesis sentence; note also 'the things of which you are now ashamed' (6:21) resonating with the shame of Genesis 3:7-10.

By the sweat of your face will you eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”


'The soul that sins shall die' (cf. 18:20). A near-proverbial scriptural maxim that sin yields death, closely cohering with 'the wages of sin is death' (6:23). Strong thematic, no formula.

Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul who sins, he shall die.


The bondservant who loves his master may give himself permanently into service 'because he is well off with you' (cf. Exodus 21:5-6, serving 'forever'). Paul's voluntary, glad slavery 'obedient from the heart' (6:17) and willingly becoming 'bondservants of righteousness' (6:18) reflects this paradox of chosen, heartfelt servitude. Faint and disputed.

It shall be, if he tells you, “I will not go out from you,” because he loves you and your house, because he is well with you; then you shall take an awl, and thrust it through his ear to the door, and he shall be your servant forever. Also to your female servant you shall do likewise.


Circumcision of the heart so that you love and obey God; 'obedient from the heart' (6:17) echoes the prophetic-Deuteronomic ideal of interior, not merely external, obedience. Faint.

Yahweh your God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your seed, to love Yahweh your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, that you may live.


'Choose this day whom you will serve' - the demand to declare allegiance to one master. Coheres with 6:16's binary of presenting oneself as slave to sin-unto-death or to obedience-unto-righteousness. Faint, contested.

If it seems evil to you to serve Yahweh, choose this day whom you will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve Yahweh.”


'Some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt' - the resurrection antithesis of life vs. shameful death. 'Eternal life' (6:22-23) over against death, with shame in 6:21, coheres with this Second-Temple resurrection hope. Faint and disputed.

Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.


Deuterocanonical: 'God created man for incorruption... but through the devil's envy death entered the world' (cf. 1:13, 'God did not make death'). A Second-Temple articulation that death is the intruding wage of sin, thematically close to 'the wages of sin is death' (6:23). Contested.

Because God created man for incorruption, And made him an image of his own proper being; But by the envy of the devil death entered into the world, And those who are of his portion make trial thereof.


Deuterocanonical: 'Before a man are life and death, and whichever he chooses will be given to him'; sin and its death-penalty are laid on human choice. Coheres with the choose-your-master / death-or-life structure of 6:16,21-23. Faint and contested.

Say not you, It is through the Lord that I fell away; For you shall not do the things that he hates. Say not you, It is he that caused me to err; For he has no need of a sinful man. The Lord hates every abomination; And those who fear him love it not. He himself made man from the beginning, And left him in the hand of his own counsel. If you will, you shall keep the commandments; And to perform faithfulness is of your own good pleasure. He has set fire […]


Paul's marriage analogy—wife bound to husband, adulteress if joined to another while he lives—draws on the Torah's marriage/adultery law world; the suspected-adultery ordeal is the closest legal backdrop for a wife 'called an adulteress' (7:3).

Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them: ‘If any man’s wife goes astray, and is unfaithful to him, and a man lies with her carnally, and it is hidden from the eyes of her husband, and is kept close, and she is defiled, and there is no witness against her, and she isn’t taken in the act; and the spirit of jealousy comes on him, and he is jealous of his wife, and she is defiled: or if the spirit of jealousy comes on […]


The release of a woman from the 'law of the husband' by death (7:2-3) trades on Torah marriage/divorce regulation; Deuteronomy 24 frames the legal binding and loosing of a wife that Paul presupposes.

When a man takes a wife and marries her, then it shall be, if she finds no favor in his eyes, because he has found some unseemly thing in her, that he shall write her a bill of divorce, and put it in her hand, and send her out of his house. When she has departed out of his house, she may go and be another man’s wife. If the latter husband hates her, and write her a bill of divorce, and puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house; or if the latter […]


The picture of a woman 'joined to' (lit. 'becoming another man's') stands behind 7:3-4's language of being 'joined to another'; the one-flesh union of Genesis supplies the marital frame Paul figuratively repurposes for union with the risen Christ.

Therefore a man will leave his father and his mother, and will join with his wife, and they will be one flesh.


The charge 'she would be called an adulteress' (7:3) presupposes the seventh commandment's prohibition of adultery as the legal norm making the analogy intelligible.


Direct verbatim citation: 'You shall not covet' (7:7) quotes the tenth commandment of the Decalogue, the LXX 'ouk epithymeseis,' which Paul makes the test case for the law's relation to sin.

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”


The Decalogue's second giving repeats 'You shall not covet'; Paul's citation (7:7) matches both forms. Deuteronomy's expanded list ('your neighbor's wife... house... field') makes coveting the representative inward sin Paul exploits.

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. Neither shall you desire your neighbor’s house, his field, or his male servant, or his female servant, his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”


'Sin... deceived me, and through it killed me' (7:11) strongly echoes Eve's 'the serpent deceived me' (LXX 'exepatesen me'); Paul uses the same verb (exapatao), casting sin in the serpent's role of beguiling and bringing death.

Yahweh God said to the woman, “What have you done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”


'I was alive apart from the law once, but when the commandment came... I died' (7:9-10) re-enacts Adam in Eden: a single commandment given for life that, transgressed, brings death—the 'I' figurally personates Adam under the one prohibition.

Yahweh God commanded the man, saying, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but you shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die.”


The whole drama of 7:7-11—commandment, sin seizing opportunity, desire aroused, deception, death—maps onto the Fall narrative: the serpent's exploitation of the prohibition to provoke desire and bring death.

Now the serpent was more subtle than any animal of the field which Yahweh God had made. He said to the woman, “Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden?’” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees of the garden, but not the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden. God has said, ‘You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” The serpent said to the woman, “You won’t surely […]


'The commandment, which was for life' (7:10) alludes to the Torah promise that the one who does the statutes 'shall live by them'; Paul cites Leviticus 18:5 explicitly elsewhere (Rom 10:5; Gal 3:12), confirming this as the 'life' the commandment promised.

You shall therefore keep my statutes and my ordinances; which if a man does, he shall live in them. I am Yahweh.


The law set before Israel 'life and death,' commanding obedience 'that you may live'; this Deuteronomic life-or-death framing of the commandment underlies Paul's 'the commandment which was for life... I found to be for death' (7:10).

Behold, I have set before you this day life and prosperity, and death and evil. For I command you this day to love Yahweh your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments, his statutes, and his ordinances, that you may live and multiply, and that Yahweh your God may bless you in the land where you go in to possess it. But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them; I denounce to […]


Sin 'finding occasion through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of coveting' (7:8) echoes the serpent's strategy of turning the prohibition into the very lever of illicit desire ('you will be like God').

The serpent said to the woman, “You won’t surely die, for God knows that in the day you eat it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”


'Through the devil's envy death entered the world' supplies the Second Temple reading of Genesis 3 that Paul presupposes—personified agency (sin/devil) bringing death through the primal commandment, behind 7:8-11.

But by the envy of the devil death entered into the world, And those who are of his portion make trial thereof.


'From a woman sin had its beginning, and because of her we all die' is the Ben Sira tradition linking the Eden transgression to death; it stands in the background of Paul's sin-came-alive-and-I-died account (7:9-11).

From a woman was the beginning of sin; And because of her we all die.


Eve seeing the tree 'a delight (epithymeton) to the eyes' couples desire/coveting with the first transgression; Paul's choice of coveting (epithymia) as the paradigm sin (7:7-8) resonates with this Edenic desire.

When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took some of its fruit, and ate; and she gave some to her husband with her, and he ate it, too.


'The law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good' (7:12) echoes the psalm's praise of the law as perfect, right, and pure—the OT confession of Torah's goodness that Paul reaffirms.

Yahweh’s law is perfect, restoring the soul. Yahweh’s testimony is sure, making wise the simple. Yahweh’s precepts are right, rejoicing the heart. Yahweh’s commandment is pure, enlightening the eyes.


'Your law is truth' and the psalm's sustained praise of the commandments as righteous and good lie behind Paul's vindication of the commandment as 'holy and righteous and good' (7:12).

Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness. Your law is truth.


Israel's confession that God gave 'right ordinances and true laws, good statutes and commandments' parallels Paul's catalogue of the commandment as 'holy, righteous, and good' (7:12).

“You came down also on Mount Sinai, and spoke with them from heaven, and gave them right ordinances and true laws, good statutes and commandments,


4 Maccabees singles out the law's command against coveting/desire as the test of reason mastering the passions; this Second Temple reflection on 'You shall not covet' as the inward law of desire parallels Paul's use of the same commandment (7:7-8).

And it is not merely the stimulus of sensual indulgence, but that of every desire, that reasoning is able to master. For instance, the law says, You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor anything that belongs to your neighbor. Now, then, since it is the law which has forbidden us to desire, I shall much the more easily persuade you, that reasoning is able to govern our lusts, just as it does the affections which are impediments to justice.


'In my flesh dwells no good thing' (7:18) resonates with the antediluvian verdict that 'every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil continually'—the OT root of the doctrine of indwelling evil impulse.

Yahweh saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of man’s heart was continually only evil.


'The inclination (yetser) of the human heart is evil from youth' is the scriptural seed of the rabbinic evil-impulse doctrine that frames Paul's 'sin which dwells in me' and the divided will (7:17-20).

Yahweh smelled the pleasant aroma. Yahweh said in his heart, “I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake because the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I ever again strike every living thing, as I have done.


'I am fleshly, sold under sin' (7:14) echoes the penitential confession of being conceived in iniquity—a self caught in sin from the inside, unable to free itself.

Behold, I was born in iniquity. In sin my mother conceived me.


'Sold under sin' (7:14) uses the idiom of being 'sold to do evil,' as Ahab 'sold himself to do what was evil in the sight of the LORD'; the same selling-into-bondage metaphor for moral captivity.

Ahab said to Elijah, “Have you found me, my enemy?” He answered, “I have found you, because you have sold yourself to do that which is evil in the sight of Yahweh.


'I delight in God's law after the inward man' (7:22) echoes the blessed one whose 'delight is in the law of the LORD'; Paul affirms the psalmist's delight even as he reports its frustration by the flesh.

but his delight is in Yahweh’s law. On his law he meditates day and night.


The psalmist's repeated delight in God's statutes ('I will delight in your statutes,' 'Oh how I love your law') stands behind 7:22's 'I delight in God's law after the inward man.'

I will delight myself in your statutes. I will not forget your word.


'Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day' is the paradigmatic Torah-delight Paul invokes for the inner self that consents to the law as good (7:22, 7:16).

How I love your law! It is my meditation all day.


The promised circumcision of the heart so as to love God is the inward-law hope behind Paul's 'inward man' delighting in God's law (7:22), even as he laments its present captivity.

Yahweh your God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your seed, to love Yahweh your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, that you may live.


The new-covenant promise of the law written on the heart underlies the tension Paul dramatizes between the law of the mind/inward man and the law in the members (7:22-23)—the heart that delights versus the flesh that resists.

But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says Yahweh: I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people:


Sin 'crouching at the door' whose desire is for Cain, which he must master, prefigures Paul's sin 'dwelling in me' and warring to bring captivity (7:17, 7:23)—personified sin contending for mastery over the self.

If you do well, won’t it be lifted up? If you don’t do well, sin crouches at the door. Its desire is for you, but you are to rule over it.”


'A perishable body weighs down the soul, and this earthy tent burdens the thoughtful mind' is the closest Second Temple parallel to Paul's body/mind conflict and 'the body of this death' (7:23-24).

For a corruptible body weighs down the soul, And the earthy frame lies heavy on a mind that is full of cares.


The psalmist's groaning 'wretched' lament under the weight of his own sin parallels Paul's cry 'What a wretched man I am!' (7:24)—the OT idiom of self-directed misery awaiting deliverance.

I am pained and bowed down greatly. I go mourning all day long. For my waist is filled with burning. There is no soundness in my flesh. I am faint and severely bruised. I have groaned by reason of the anguish of my heart.


'Bring my soul out of prison' voices the deliverance plea that shapes Paul's 'Who will deliver me out of the body of this death?' (7:24)—captivity language answered by rescue.

Bring my soul out of prison, that I may give thanks to your name. The righteous will surround me, for you will be good to me.


'The cords of death... the pangs of Sheol... then I called on the name of the LORD: O LORD, deliver my soul' parallels the wretched-self-to-deliverance movement of 7:24-25.

The cords of death surrounded me, the pains of Sheol got a hold of me. I found trouble and sorrow. Then I called on Yahweh’s name: “Yahweh, I beg you, deliver my soul.”


4 Ezra's lament over the 'evil heart' (cor malignum) that burdens humanity and frustrates the good is the nearest Second Temple analogue to Paul's anatomy of the divided self enslaved by indwelling sin (7:14-24).

And I answered and said, O you earth, wherefore have you brought forth, if the mind is made out of dust, like as all other created things? For it were better that the dust itself had been unborn, so that the mind might not have been made therefrom. But now the mind grows with us, and by reason of this we are tormented, because we perish and know it. Let the race of men lament and the beasts of the field be glad; let all that are born lament, but let the […]


'for sin' (peri hamartias) in v.3 reproduces the Septuagint's standing phrase for the sin offering; God's sending his Son 'for sin' figurally casts Christ in the role of the Levitical purification sacrifice that 'condemns sin in the flesh.'

if the anointed priest sins so as to bring guilt on the people, then let him offer for his sin, which he has sinned, a young bull without defect to Yahweh for a sin offering.


The Spirit enabling 'the ordinance of the law' to be 'fulfilled in us' (v.4) draws on the new-covenant promise to write the Torah on the heart, internalizing the law by divine agency rather than external command.


'I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes' undergirds vv.4-9: the indwelling Spirit (vv.9,11) produces obedience and 'walking according to the Spirit'; the verbal cluster Spirit-indwelling-walking-statutes is distinctive to Ezekiel.

I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep my ordinances, and do them.


'I will put my Spirit in you and you shall live' (the dry-bones vision) lies behind v.11, where the Spirit who raised Jesus 'will also give life to your mortal bodies'; Spirit-giving-life-to-dead-bodies is the precise Ezekielian figure.

I will put my Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land: and you shall know that I, Yahweh, have spoken it and performed it, says Yahweh.


The flesh/Spirit antithesis (vv.5-9), where 'flesh' marks mortal humanity opposed to God's enduring Spirit, faintly recalls 'My Spirit will not abide in man forever, for he is flesh.'

Yahweh said, “My Spirit will not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; so his days will be one hundred twenty years.”


'The spirit is alive' / God giving 'life to your mortal bodies' (vv.10-11) faintly evokes the breath of life animating dust-formed Adam, now reapplied as resurrection-life by the Spirit.

Yahweh God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.


'The mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace' and 'if you live after the flesh you must die... by the Spirit... you will live' (vv.6,13) reframe the covenantal life-and-death choice of Moses' exhortation set before Israel.

Behold, I have set before you this day life and prosperity, and death and evil. For I command you this day to love Yahweh your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments, his statutes, and his ordinances, that you may live and multiply, and that Yahweh your God may bless you in the land where you go in to possess it. But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them; I denounce to […]


'Israel is my son, my firstborn' grounds the sonship/adoption language of vv.14-17; the Spirit constitutes believers as 'children of God,' transferring Israel's sonship status to those led by the Spirit.

You shall tell Pharaoh, ‘Thus says Yahweh, Israel is my son, my firstborn, and I have said to you, “Let my son go, that he may serve me”; and you have refused to let him go. Behold, I will kill your son, your firstborn.’”


'When Israel was a child I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son' supplies the adopted-son-led-by-God motif (vv.14-15); the tender father-son relation undergirds the cry 'Abba! Father!'

“When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.


'In the place where it was said to them, You are not my people, it shall be said, You are children of the living God' anticipates 'these are children of God' / 'we are children of God' (vv.14,16); Paul cites this very text in Romans 9:26.

Yet the number of the children of Israel will be as the sand of the sea, which can’t be measured nor numbered; and it will come to pass that, in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’


'You, O LORD, are our Father' — Israel's corporate address of God as Father — stands behind the Spirit-prompted filial cry 'Abba! Father!' (v.15).

For you are our Father, though Abraham doesn’t know us, and Israel does not acknowledge us: you, Yahweh, are our Father; our Redeemer from everlasting is your name.


'I thought you would call me My Father and would not turn from following me' — God's hope that adopted Israel address him as Father — resonates with the adoptive cry of v.15.

“But I said, ‘How I would put you among the children, and give you a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the armies of the nations!’ and I said, ‘You shall call me “My Father”, and shall not turn away from following me.’


The covenant formula 'I will... be your God, and you shall be my people,' realized through the indwelling Spirit (vv.9-16), faintly underlies the divine-belonging and sonship affirmed by the Spirit's testimony.

I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you will be my people.


'The creation was subjected to vanity... in hope' (vv.20-22) directly invokes the curse on the ground 'because of you,' the toil, thorns, and frustrated labor of the fall; creation's bondage to decay is the Edenic curse awaiting reversal.

To Adam he said, “Because you have listened to your wife’s voice, and ate from the tree, about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ the ground is cursed for your sake. You will eat from it with much labor all the days of your life. It will yield thorns and thistles to you; and you will eat the herb of the field. By the sweat of your face will you eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For you are dust, […]


Creation 'subjected to vanity' (mataiotes, v.20) reuses the Septuagint's rendering of hevel ('vanity of vanities'); Qoheleth's diagnosis of the cosmos's futile, breath-like emptiness is the condition from which creation longs for release.

“Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher; “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.”


'I create new heavens and a new earth' is the hope toward which the groaning creation strains (vv.19-22): the liberation of creation 'into the liberty of the glory of the children of God' is the prophetic new-creation renewal of the cosmos.

“For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.


The peaceable, restored creation under the messianic shoot — wolf with lamb, no harm in all God's holy mountain — anticipates creation 'delivered from the bondage of decay,' the redeemed cosmos liberated alongside God's children (vv.19-21).

The wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat; The calf, the young lion, and the fattened calf together; and a little child will lead them. The cow and the bear will graze. Their young ones will lie down together. The lion will eat straw like the ox. The nursing child will play near a cobra’s hole, and the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den. They will not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for […]


'The earth mourns and withers... the earth is defiled under its inhabitants' depicts the groaning land suffering under human transgression, parallel to creation subjected to futility and groaning (vv.20-22).

The earth mourns and fades away. The world languishes and fades away. The lofty people of the earth languish. The earth also is polluted under its inhabitants, because they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, and broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore the curse has devoured the earth, and those who dwell therein are found guilty. Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left. The new wine mourns. The vine […]


'Like a woman with child... we writhed in pain' supplies the birth-pang imagery of 'the whole creation groans and travails in pain together' (v.22); creation labors toward the deliverance of new life.

Like as a woman with child, who draws near the time of her delivery, is in pain and cries out in her pangs; so we have been before you, Yahweh. We have been with child. We have been in pain. We gave birth, it seems, only to wind. We have not worked any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.


Zion's travail bringing forth her children before her pain comes echoes the link between creation's birth-pangs (v.22) and the 'revealing of the children of God' / 'redemption of the body' (vv.19,23).

“Before she travailed, she gave birth; before her pain came, she delivered a son. Who has heard such a thing? who has seen such things? Shall a land be born in one day? shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she gave birth to her children. Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to be delivered?” says Yahweh: “shall I who cause to give birth shut the womb?” says your God.


'The pangs of childbirth come for him' as an image of judgment and impending deliverance resonates faintly with the cosmic travail of v.22.

The sorrows of a travailing woman will come on him. He is an unwise son; for when it is time, he doesn’t come to the opening of the womb.


'I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh' as eschatological down-payment resonates with 'the first fruits of the Spirit' (v.23), the Spirit as the firstfruits/guarantee of the coming redemption.

“It will happen afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; and your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams. Your young men will see visions.


'The first fruits of the Spirit' (v.23) draws on the cultic firstfruits offering that consecrates and pledges the full harvest; the Spirit is the consecrating pledge of the redeemed body.

The first of the first fruits of your ground you shall bring into the house of Yahweh your God. “You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.


The lament's 'why do you sleep?... our soul is bowed down... redeem us' anticipates the groaning, waiting, and hoped-for redemption (vv.23-25); the same psalm is quoted at v.36.

Wake up! Why do you sleep, Lord? Arise! Don’t reject us forever. Why do you hide your face, and forget our affliction and our oppression? For our soul is bowed down to the dust. Our body clings to the earth. Rise up to help us. Redeem us for your loving kindness’ sake.


'All my longing is before you; my groaning is not hidden from you' resonates with the inarticulate groaning the Spirit voices before 'him who searches the hearts' (vv.26-27).

Lord, all my desire is before you. My groaning is not hidden from you.


'The LORD looks on the heart' undergirds 'he who searches the hearts knows what is on the Spirit's mind' (v.27); God's heart-discerning gaze validates the wordless intercession.

But Yahweh said to Samuel, “Don’t look on his face, or on the height of his stature; because I have rejected him: for I see not as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but Yahweh looks at the heart.”


'I the LORD search the heart and test the mind' supplies the precise epithet 'he who searches the hearts' (v.27); the heart-searcher reads the Spirit's unutterable groanings.

I, Yahweh, search the mind, I try the heart, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.


'O LORD, you have searched me and known me... you discern my thoughts from afar' resonates with God searching the hearts and knowing the Spirit's mind (v.27).

Yahweh, you have searched me, and you know me. You know my sitting down and my rising up. You perceive my thoughts from afar.


Being 'conformed to the image of his Son' (v.29) reworks humanity's creation in the image of God; the restored image is now christological, the Son as the prototype to which the predestined are refashioned.

God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in his own image. In God’s image he created him; male and female he created them.


'I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth' grounds 'that he might be the firstborn among many brothers' (v.29); the Davidic-messianic firstborn title is extended to the Son who heads a redeemed family.

I will also appoint him my firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth.


'Israel is my firstborn son' reinforces the 'firstborn among many brothers' (v.29): the firstborn-son status, once Israel's, belongs to the Son who incorporates many siblings.

You shall tell Pharaoh, ‘Thus says Yahweh, Israel is my son, my firstborn,


'Before I formed you in the womb I knew you... I appointed you' supplies the foreknowing-and-appointing pattern of vv.29-30; divine foreknowledge as elective purpose precedes calling.

“Before I formed you in the belly, I knew you. Before you came out of the womb, I sanctified you. I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.”


The Servant 'called from the womb,' named before birth, resonates with the chain of foreknowing, predestining, and calling in vv.29-30.

Listen, islands, to me; and listen, you peoples, from far: Yahweh has called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother has he made mention of my name:


'You meant evil... but God meant it for good' faintly underlies 'all things work together for good for those who love God' (v.28); divine providence turning suffering toward good.

As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save many people alive.


'Showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments' supplies the covenantal designation 'those who love God' (v.28), the loving-God-and-being-blessed pattern.

and showing loving kindness to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.


v.36 cites verbatim with the formula 'even as it is written': 'For your sake we are killed all day long; we were accounted as sheep for the slaughter.' The lament psalm of the righteous suffering for God's sake interprets the believers' affliction (v.35).

Yes, for your sake we are killed all day long. We are regarded as sheep for the slaughter.


The Servant's courtroom taunt 'He who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me?... It is the Lord GOD who helps me; who will declare me guilty?' is reworked into 'Who could bring a charge against God's chosen ones? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns?' (vv.33-34); the forensic question-and-answer pattern is shared.

He is near who justifies me; who will bring charges against me? Let us stand up together: who is my adversary? Let him come near to me. Behold, the Lord Yahweh will help me; who is he who shall condemn me? Behold, all they shall wax old as a garment, the moth shall eat them up.


'He who didn't spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all' (v.32) echoes the Aqedah, where God says to Abraham 'you have not withheld (spared) your son, your only son'; God now does for all what Abraham was prepared to do, the Father not sparing his own Son.

He said, “Don’t lay your hand on the boy, neither do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”


'Because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son' reinforces v.32; the Septuagint's verb for 'spare/withhold' (pheidomai) is the same word Paul uses, strengthening the Aqedah allusion.

and said, “I have sworn by myself, says Yahweh, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son,


'The LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all' and the Servant 'delivered up' (LXX paradidomi, 53:6,12) stands behind 'delivered him up for us all' (v.32); the handing-over of the Servant for the many.

All we like sheep have gone astray. Everyone has turned to his own way; and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all.


The Servant 'poured out his soul to death... bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors' resonates with Christ who 'makes intercession for us' (v.34); both join self-giving death with ongoing intercession.

Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the plunder with the strong; because he poured out his soul to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.


'Sit at my right hand' grounds 'who is at the right hand of God' (v.34); the enthronement of the exalted Lord secures his advocacy and the impossibility of any condemnation.

Yahweh says to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool for your feet.”


'The LORD is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?' supplies the rhetorical shape of 'If God is for us, who can be against us?' (v.31); the same God-for-me-therefore-fearless logic.

Yahweh is on my side. I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?


'The LORD is with us; do not fear them' resonates with 'If God is for us, who can be against us?' (v.31); divine presence nullifies opposing power.

Only don’t rebel against Yahweh, neither fear the people of the land; for they are bread for us. Their defense is removed from over them, and Yahweh is with us. Don’t fear them.”


'This I know, that God is for me' is a near-verbal antecedent to 'God is for us' (v.31), the confidence that God's siding with the petitioner routs adversaries.

Then my enemies shall turn back in the day that I call. I know this, that God is for me.


'The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?... though war arise against me, yet I will be confident' resonates with the catalogue of perils that cannot prevail (vv.35,37-39).

Yahweh is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? Yahweh is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? When evildoers came at me to eat up my flesh, even my adversaries and my foes, they stumbled and fell. Though an army should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war should rise against me, even then I will be confident.


'There is no god besides me... I kill and I make alive' underlies the totalizing pairing 'neither death, nor life' (v.38) as the extremes wholly within God's sovereign love.

“See now that I myself am he. There is no god with me. I kill and I make alive. I wound and I heal. There is no one who can deliver out of my hand.


The catalogue of deprivations (failed crops, no flock) followed by 'yet I will rejoice in the LORD' parallels the list of hardships in v.35 that cannot separate from God's love, culminating in triumphant confidence (v.37).

For though the fig tree doesn’t flourish, nor fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive fails, the fields yield no food; the flocks are cut off from the fold, and there is no herd in the stalls: yet I will rejoice in Yahweh. I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!


The three youths' confidence that 'our God whom we serve is able to deliver us' amid fire and sword resonates with believers as 'more than conquerors' through perils including 'sword' (vv.35-37).

If it happens, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace; and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king.


'The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and no torment will ever touch them... having been disciplined a little they will receive great good' parallels the assurance that no affliction separates from God's love (vv.35-39); the righteous tested 'like gold in the furnace' and found worthy.

But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, And no torment will touch them. In the eyes of the foolish they seemed to have died; And their departure was accounted to be their hurt, And their journeying away from us to be their ruin: But they are in peace. For even if in the sight of men they be punished, Their hope is full of immortality; And having borne a little chastening, they will receive great good; Because God made trial of them, and […]


'The righteous live forever, and their reward is with the Lord... they will receive a glorious crown' resonates with being 'more than conquerors' and inseparable from God's love (vv.37-39).

But the righteous live forever, And in the Lord is their reward, And the care for them with the Most High. Therefore will they receive the crown of royal dignity And the diadem of beauty from the Lord’s hand; Because with his right hand will he cover them, And with his arm will he shield them.


The martyr-mother and seven sons, killed 'all day long' for covenant faithfulness yet confident of resurrection, resonate with 'for your sake we are killed all day long' read as triumphant martyrdom (vv.36-37).

And it came to pass that seven kindred also with their mother were at the king’s command taken and shamefully handled with scourges and cords, to compel them to taste of the abominable swine’s flesh. But one of them made himself the spokesman and said, What would you ask and learn of us? for we are ready to die rather than transgress the laws of our fathers. And the king fell into a rage, and commanded to heat pans and caldrons: and when these forthwith […]


'In famine he will redeem you from death, and in war from the power of the sword' enumerates perils paralleling v.35's famine, sword, and danger, with God's protection through them.

He will deliver you in six troubles; yes, in seven no evil shall touch you. In famine he will redeem you from death; in war, from the power of the sword. You shall be hidden from the scourge of the tongue, neither shall you be afraid of destruction when it comes. At destruction and famine you shall laugh, neither shall you be afraid of the animals of the earth.


Paul's wish in v.3 that he himself were 'accursed (anathema) from Christ' for his kinsmen echoes Moses' intercession after the golden calf: 'blot me out of your book' rather than destroy Israel. Both are intercessors offering self-substitution/self-curse to spare the people; the Exodus 32 setting also frames the whole chapter's mercy-language (33:19 quoted at v.15).

Yet now, if you will, forgive their sin—and if not, please blot me out of your book which you have written.”


The catalogue of Israel's privileges (adoption, glory, covenants, law-giving, service, promises, fathers) in vv.4-5 draws on the Deuteronomic election traditions naming Israel as God's chosen, holy people set above the nations.

For you are a holy people to Yahweh your God. Yahweh your God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, above all peoples who are on the face of the earth.


'Whose is the adoption (huiothesia)' (v.4) recalls the sonship of Israel: 'Israel is my firstborn son.' Israel's national adoption is the OT root of the privilege Paul lists.

You shall tell Pharaoh, ‘Thus says Yahweh, Israel is my son, my firstborn,


'The glory' (doxa, v.4) evokes the Shekinah glory of the LORD that appeared to Israel in the wilderness and dwelt in tabernacle/temple — a covenant privilege belonging to Israel.

As Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the children of Israel, they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, Yahweh’s glory appeared in the cloud.


'The covenants' and 'the promises' (vv.4) point to the patriarchal covenant with Abraham and his seed, the seed-theme Paul immediately develops in vv.6-9.

I will establish my covenant between me and you and your seed after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God to you and to your seed after you.


'The giving of the law' (nomothesia) as a unique privilege of Israel echoes the psalm's boast that God 'declares his word to Jacob... He has not dealt so with any nation.'

He shows his word to Jacob; his statutes and his ordinances to Israel. He has not done this for just any nation. They don’t know his ordinances. Praise Yah!


Formula-marked citation in v.7: 'In Isaac will your seed be called' is verbatim from God's word to Abraham concerning Ishmael and Isaac. Paul uses it to prove that physical descent does not equal the elect 'seed' — only the line of promise counts.

God said to Abraham, “Don’t let it be grievous in your sight because of the boy, and because of your handmaid. In all that Sarah says to you, listen to her voice. For from Isaac will your seed be called.


v.9 'At the appointed time I will come, and Sarah will have a son' explicitly named 'a word of promise.' Conflates the LXX of Genesis 18:10 ('I will return to you at this season') with the promise of a son; the miraculous, promise-born birth of Isaac grounds Paul's 'children of the promise' argument.

He said, “I will certainly return to you when the season comes round. Behold, Sarah your wife will have a son.” Sarah heard in the tent door, which was behind him.


v.12 'The elder will serve the younger' is verbatim from the oracle to Rebekah about Jacob and Esau in the womb. Paul cites it to show election precedes birth and works ('being not yet born, neither having done good or bad').

Yahweh said to her, “Two nations are in your womb. Two peoples will be separated from your body. The one people will be stronger than the other people. The elder will serve the younger.”


v.13 'as it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated' is a formula-cited verbatim quotation of Malachi's oracle, which itself reflects back on the Genesis Jacob/Esau election. Caps the argument that God's elective love is unmerited and prior.

“I have loved you,” says Yahweh. Yet you say, “How have you loved us?” “Wasn’t Esau Jacob’s brother?” says Yahweh, “Yet I loved Jacob; but Esau I hated, and made his mountains a desolation, and gave his heritage to the jackals of the wilderness.”


The 'appointed time' clause of v.9 also echoes Genesis 18:14, 'Is anything too hard for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return... and Sarah shall have a son,' reinforcing that Isaac is born by divine power, not by natural descent.

Is anything too hard for Yahweh? At the set time I will return to you, when the season comes round, and Sarah will have a son.”


v.10 'Rebekah also conceived by one' alludes to the narrative of Isaac and Rebekah; Paul stresses both twins share one father and one conception to isolate election as the only differentiator.

Isaac entreated Yahweh for his wife, because she was barren. Yahweh was entreated by him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.


v.15 'he said to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion' is a verbatim LXX quotation of God's self-revelation to Moses. Grounds divine freedom in mercy and answers the charge of unrighteousness.

He said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim Yahweh’s name before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.”


v.17 'the Scripture says to Pharaoh, For this very purpose I caused you to be raised up, that I might show in you my power, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth' is a formula-marked quotation. Pharaoh is the foil to Moses: God's freedom both to show mercy and to harden.

but indeed for this cause I have made you stand: to show you my power, and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth;


v.18 'he hardens whom he desires' draws on the recurring Exodus motif that the LORD hardens Pharaoh's heart (Exodus 4:21; 7:3; 9:12; 14:4). Paul generalizes the hardening theme from the plague narrative.

Yahweh said to Moses, “When you go back into Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have put in your hand, but I will harden his heart and he will not let the people go.


The mercy/compassion pairing of v.15 resonates with the divine-name proclamation that follows in Exodus 34:6, 'merciful and gracious,' the immediate sequel to 33:19 — the same theophanic context Paul mines.

Yahweh passed by before him, and proclaimed, “Yahweh! Yahweh, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness and truth,


v.20 'Will the thing formed ask him who formed it, Why did you make me like this?' echoes Isaiah's rebuke of the clay that questions the potter, 'Shall the thing made say of him who made it, He did not make me?' Paul's potter/clay rebuttal is built on this prophetic protest-against-protest.

You turn things upside down! Should the potter be thought to be like clay; that the thing made should say about him who made it, “He didn’t make me”; or the thing formed say of him who formed it, “He has no understanding?”


v.20-21 also draws on Isaiah 45:9, 'Woe to him who strives with his Maker... shall the clay say to him who fashions it, What are you making?' The 'who are you to reply against God' (antapokrinomenos) directly answers Isaiah's woe against the clay that contends with the potter.

Woe to him who strives with his Maker— a clay pot among the clay pots of the earth! Shall the clay ask him who fashions it, ‘What are you making?’ or your work, ‘He has no hands?’


v.21 'has not the potter a right over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?' alludes to Jeremiah's potter's-house oracle: 'as the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.' Supplies the sovereign-potter image and the right to remake.

House of Israel, can’t I do with you as this potter? says Yahweh. Behold, as the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, house of Israel.


v.25, formula-marked ('As he says also in Hosea'): 'I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, who was not beloved' quotes Hosea's reversal of Lo-Ammi/Lo-Ruhamah. Paul applies the restoration of unfaithful Israel to the calling of Gentiles.

I will sow her to me in the earth; and I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy; and I will tell those who were not my people, ‘You are my people;’ and they will say, ‘My God!’”


v.26 'in the place where it was said to them, You are not my people, there they will be called children of the living God' is a verbatim quotation of Hosea 1:10 (LXX 2:1), continuing the Lo-Ammi reversal that Paul reads as the inclusion of the Gentiles among God's children.

Yet the number of the children of Israel will be as the sand of the sea, which can’t be measured nor numbered; and it will come to pass that, in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’


v.27-28, formula-marked ('Isaiah cries concerning Israel'): 'If the number of the children of Israel are as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant who will be saved; for He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness' quotes Isaiah's remnant oracle. Establishes the remnant theology central to ch.9-11.

For though your people, Israel, are like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. A destruction is determined, overflowing with righteousness. For the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, will make a full end, and that determined, in the midst of all the earth.


v.29, formula-marked ('As Isaiah has said before'): 'Unless the Lord of Armies had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom, and would have been made like Gomorrah' is a verbatim LXX quotation. Reinforces that survival rests entirely on God's gracious preservation of a remnant 'seed.'

Unless Yahweh of Armies had left to us a very small remnant, we would have been as Sodom; we would have been like Gomorrah.


The 'finishing/cutting short' decisive-action language of v.28 also draws on Isaiah 28:22, 'a full end, decreed upon the whole earth,' blended with 10:22-23; both stand behind Paul's compressed remnant-judgment formula.

Now therefore don’t be scoffers, lest your bonds be made strong; for I have heard a decree of destruction from the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, on the whole earth.


'As the sand of the sea' (v.27) verbally re-sounds the Abrahamic promise that the seed would be as numberless as the sand; Paul ironically juxtaposes the vast promised multitude with the saved remnant.

that I will bless you greatly, and I will multiply your seed greatly like the stars of the heavens, and like the sand which is on the seashore. Your seed will possess the gate of his enemies.


The 'Sodom and Gomorrah' comparison cited in v.29 carries the figural weight of the destroyed cities of Genesis 19; the remnant 'seed' is what spares Israel from total annihilation like the cities of the plain.

Then Yahweh rained on Sodom and on Gomorrah sulfur and fire from Yahweh out of the sky.


The Sodom/Gomorrah overthrow as a type of complete divine judgment (Isaiah 13:19, of Babylon) reinforces the destruction-imagery behind the Isaiah 1:9 quotation in v.29.

Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans’ pride, will be like when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.


v.33, formula-marked ('as it is written'): 'Behold, I lay in Zion... a stone... and no one who believes in him will be disappointed/put to shame' quotes Isaiah's cornerstone oracle. Paul fuses it with Isaiah 8:14 to make the laid stone both foundation and stumbling block.

Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh, “Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone of a sure foundation. He who believes shall not act hastily.


v.33 'a stumbling stone and a rock of offense' is quoted from Isaiah 8:14, where the LORD himself becomes 'a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense' to both houses of Israel. Paul conflates it with 28:16 to explain why Israel stumbled while Gentiles attained righteousness by faith.

He will be a sanctuary, but for both houses of Israel, he will be a trap and a snare for the inhabitants of Jerusalem.


v.31-32 Israel 'pursuing/following after' a law of righteousness faintly echoes Isaiah's address to 'you who pursue righteousness, who seek the LORD,' inverted: Israel pursued by works, not faith, and so failed to attain it.

“Listen to me, you who follow after righteousness, you who seek Yahweh: look to the rock you were cut from, and to the hold of the pit you were dug from.


The stumbling-stone/Zion-stone complex of v.32-33 belongs to the broader 'stone' testimonia tradition that also includes 'the stone the builders rejected'; Paul's stone Christology participates in this cluster though he cites only the Isaiah texts here.

The stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner.


'You who pursue righteousness, who seek the LORD' — the verb pair pursue/seek righteousness underlies Paul's diagnosis that Israel 'sought to establish their own righteousness.' Thematic resonance with Isaianic righteousness language but no verbal quotation; disputed.


Moses warns Israel not to say 'in their heart' that their own righteousness has earned the land — the seed of the 'establish their own righteousness' motif. The 'do not say in your heart' formula recurs verbatim in 10:6, so its conceptual root here (self-righteousness vs. God's gift) is a plausible anticipatory echo.

Don’t say in your heart, after Yahweh your God has thrust them out from before you, saying, “For my righteousness Yahweh has brought me in to possess this land”; because Yahweh drives them out before you because of the wickedness of these nations. Not for your righteousness, or for the uprightness of your heart, do you go in to possess their land; but for the wickedness of these nations Yahweh your God does drive them out from before you, and that he may […]


The chapter's terminal quotation (cited at 10:20-21) describes a people zealous yet disobedient; Israel's 'zeal for God but not according to knowledge' here anticipates that Isaianic portrait of a contrary people. Forward-pointing thematic echo binding the pericope to the chapter's close.

“I am inquired of by those who didn’t ask; I am found by those who didn’t seek me: I said, See me, see me, to a nation that was not called by my name. I have spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, after their own thoughts;


telos/'end of the law' language; for Paul elsewhere love-of-neighbor is the law's fulfillment. Faint and disputed connection to the meaning of Christ as the law's goal; included for maximal coverage.

“‘You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people; but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am Yahweh.


Formula-cited: 'Moses writes about the righteousness of the law' introduces 'The one who does them will live by them' — a near-verbatim quotation of Leviticus 18:5 ('which if a man do, he shall live in them'). Paul makes it the voice of law-righteousness over against faith-righteousness. Also quoted at Galatians 3:12; high recurrence in Paul.

You shall therefore keep my statutes and my ordinances; which if a man does, he shall live in them. I am Yahweh.


Formula-introduced ('the righteousness of faith says'): 'Do not say in your heart, Who will ascend into heaven... Who will descend into the abyss... The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart' — a sustained verbatim quotation of Deuteronomy 30:12-14, reworked christologically (ascend = bring Christ down; descend into the abyss = bring Christ up from the dead). High volume, the structural backbone of the pericope.

It is not in heaven, that you should say, “Who will go up for us to heaven, and bring it to us, and proclaim it to us, that we may do it?” Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, “Who will go over the sea for us, and bring it to us, and proclaim it to us, that we may do it?” But the word is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.


The opening 'Do not say in your heart' in 10:6 conflates Deuteronomy 30:12 with the warning formula of Deuteronomy 9:4 ('Do not say in your heart... my righteousness'), which directly concerns self-righteousness. Strong verbal borrowing that splices the anti-self-righteousness warning onto the faith-word quotation. Widely recognized double allusion.

Don’t say in your heart, after Yahweh your God has thrust them out from before you, saying, “For my righteousness Yahweh has brought me in to possess this land”; because Yahweh drives them out before you because of the wickedness of these nations.


The immediately preceding verse — 'this commandment is not too hard for you, nor is it far off' — sets up the not-in-heaven/not-beyond-the-sea contrast Paul exploits. Borrowed context for the 'word is near' argument even though only vv.12-14 are quoted.

For this commandment which I command you this day is not too hard for you or too distant.


'They mount up to heaven, they go down to the depths (abyss)' — the heaven/abyss merism for cosmic extremity. Paul's pairing 'ascend into heaven / descend into the abyss' may draw on this stock idiom; Deut 30 itself says 'beyond the sea,' so the 'abyss' wording suggests a secondary scriptural idiom. Disputed.

They mount up to the sky; they go down again to the depths. Their soul melts away because of trouble.


Formula-cited: 'the Scripture says, Whoever believes in him will not be put to shame/disappointed' — a quotation of Isaiah 28:16 (the precious cornerstone in Zion). Paul adds the universalizing 'whoever' (pas). Recurs at Romans 9:33, knitting chapters 9-10 together; high volume and recurrence.


Formula-cited climax: 'Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved' — verbatim quotation of Joel 2:32 (LXX 3:5). Paul reads kyrios as the risen Jesus (10:9, 'Jesus is Lord'), grounding the Jew-Greek universalism of 10:12. Also cited in Acts 2:21; high recurrence.

It will happen that whoever will call on Yahweh’s name shall be saved; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who escape, as Yahweh has said, and among the remnant, those whom Yahweh calls.


The 'mouth... heart' pairing of the Deut quotation is redeployed by Paul in 10:9-10 (confess with the mouth, believe in the heart). This is an exegetical extension of the quoted text — Paul mines the very words 'mouth/heart' to structure confession and faith. Strong internal echo of the source just cited.

But the word is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.


'You shall... not be put to shame' in Joel 2:27, just before the quoted v.32, shares the not-ashamed motif Paul draws from Isaiah 28:16. Possible reinforcing echo from the Joel context Paul is already mining. Disputed.

You will know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am Yahweh, your God, and there is no one else; and my people will never again be disappointed.


'the abyss' (abyssos) as primeval deep; Paul's substitution of 'abyss' for Deut's 'beyond the sea' carries cosmic/death overtones (= realm of the dead, whence Christ is raised). Faint scriptural background for the abyss imagery. Disputed.

The earth was formless and empty. Darkness was on the surface of the deep and God’s Spirit was hovering over the surface of the waters.


Formula-cited ('as it is written'): 'How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things' — quotation of Isaiah 52:7 (the herald announcing 'Your God reigns'). Paul reads the herald's gospel of return-from-exile as the apostolic gospel. High volume; central to the chain on hearing/preaching.

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of good, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!”


'Behold, on the mountains the feet of him who brings good tidings, who proclaims peace' — closely parallels Isaiah 52:7 and may be conflated in Paul's wording (feet + good tidings + peace). Possible secondary scriptural source for the same image. Disputed.

Behold, on the mountains the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace! Keep your feasts, Judah! Perform your vows, for the wicked one will no more pass through you. He is utterly cut off.


Formula-cited: 'Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our report?' — verbatim quotation of Isaiah 53:1, the opening of the Servant Song. Paul uses Israel's unbelief at the Servant's message to explain why 'they did not all heed the gospel.' The 'report' (akoe) is punningly tied to 'faith comes by hearing (akoe)' in 10:17. High volume and theological weight.

Who has believed our message? To whom has the arm of Yahweh been revealed?


Separate echo: 10:17 ('faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ') exploits the LXX term akoe ('report/what is heard') from the Isaiah 53:1 quotation just given. Paul's whole hearing→faith chain is generated by the double sense of akoe in the source text. Verbal-exegetical echo distinct from the bare quotation.


Formula-introduced rhetorically ('did they not hear? Yes...'): 'Their sound went out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world' — verbatim quotation of Psalm 19:4 (LXX 18:5). Paul transfers the cosmic witness of the heavens to the universal proclamation of the gospel, answering whether Israel has heard. High volume.

Their voice has gone out through all the earth, their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun,


Formula-cited ('First Moses says'): 'I will provoke you to jealousy with that which is no nation; with a nation void of understanding I will make you angry' — verbatim quotation of Deuteronomy 32:21 from the Song of Moses. Grounds Paul's jealousy motif (cf. 11:11,14): Gentile inclusion provokes Israel. High recurrence in Paul's argument across chs. 9-11.

They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God. They have provoked me to anger with their vanities. I will move them to jealousy with those who are not a people. I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.


Beyond the quotation, the Song of Moses (Deut 32) as a whole — Israel's faithlessness, God's turn to a foolish nation, eventual mercy — supplies the deep structure of Romans 9-11. The 'no-people/no-understanding' framing echoes through Paul's Gentile argument. Recurrence-based echo of the broader source context.


Formula-cited ('Isaiah is very bold and says'): 'I was found by those who did not seek me; I was revealed to those who did not ask for me' — quotation of Isaiah 65:1, applied to the Gentiles who found God without seeking. High volume; pairs antithetically with the next verse on Israel.

“I am inquired of by those who didn’t ask; I am found by those who didn’t seek me: I said, See me, see me, to a nation that was not called by my name.


Formula-cited ('But as to Israel he says'): 'All day long I stretched out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people' — verbatim quotation of Isaiah 65:2, the chapter's climactic indictment of Israel's disobedience. Paired with 65:1 to contrast believing Gentiles and resistant Israel; high volume, the rhetorical capstone of ch. 10.

I have spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, after their own thoughts;


'Why, when I came, was there no one? ... Is my hand shortened?' — the motif of God's outstretched/extended hand meeting no response resonates with 'all day long I stretched out my hands.' Faint reinforcing Isaianic echo. Disputed.

Why, when I came, was there no man? when I called, was there no one to answer? Is my hand shortened at all, that it can’t redeem? or have I no power to deliver? Behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness: their fish stink, because there is no water, and die for thirst.


The fuller Psalm 19 context — the heavens declaring God's glory with speech that has 'no words... yet their voice goes out' — undergirds Paul's claim that the gospel proclamation reaches everyone. Background of the quoted v.4. Disputed as to intentional reach.

The heavens declare the glory of God. The expanse shows his handiwork. Day after day they pour out speech, and night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.


Paul's opening 'God did not reject his people' (v.1-2) verbally tracks the psalm's promise 'the LORD will not reject his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance.' Same verb of rejection, same object 'his people'; it functions almost as an embedded near-quotation grounding the whole argument.

For Yahweh won’t reject his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance.


Samuel: 'the LORD will not forsake his people for his great name's sake, because it has pleased the LORD to make you a people for himself.' Paul's denial of rejection draws on this covenant-fidelity formula; pairs with Ps 94:14 as the scriptural backbone of v.1-2 'God did not reject his people.'

For Yahweh will not forsake his people for his great name’s sake, because it has pleased Yahweh to make you a people to himself.


Paul's self-identification as 'a descendant of Abraham' (v.1) leans on the Abrahamic covenant promise to the seed; faint, but it grounds his claim that membership in the people persists by descent and election.

I will establish my covenant between me and you and your seed after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God to you and to your seed after you. I will give to you, and to your seed after you, the land where you are traveling, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession. I will be their God.”


Verbatim of Elijah's complaint at Horeb: 'they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I alone am left, and they seek my life.' Paul cites it formulaically ('don't you know what the Scripture says about Elijah... how he pleads with God against Israel') to introduce the remnant theme (v.3).

He said, “I have been very jealous for Yahweh, the God of Armies; for the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and slain your prophets with the sword. I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”


Elijah's complaint is repeated verbatim in 1 Kgs 19:14 (the second utterance to the LORD); Paul's v.3 reproduces this doubled lament. Listed separately because the source occurs at both v.10 and v.14 (recurrence within the source narrative).


Formula-cited divine answer (v.4): 'I have reserved for myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to Baal.' Verbatim of the LORD's reply to Elijah; the foundational proof-text for Paul's doctrine of a preserved remnant 'according to the election of grace' (v.5).

Yet will I leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth which has not kissed him.”


The remnant motif of v.5 ('a remnant according to the election of grace') draws on Isaiah's remnant theology ('though your people be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return'), a text Paul has already quoted in Rom 9:27-28. Strong conceptual borrowing of the 'remnant' (leimma/hypoleimma) word-field.

For though your people, Israel, are like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. A destruction is determined, overflowing with righteousness. For the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, will make a full end, and that determined, in the midst of all the earth.


Formula-cited ('as it is written') in v.8: 'God gave them a spirit of stupor (pneuma katanyxeos)' is verbatim from Isa 29:10 LXX, 'the LORD has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep.' Supplies the head phrase of the conflated citation about Israel's hardening.

For Yahweh has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes, the prophets; and he has covered your heads, the seers.


The continuation of v.8 — 'eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear, to this very day' — is verbatim from Deut 29:4 ('the LORD has not given you a heart to know, eyes to see, and ears to hear, to this day'). Paul fuses it with Isa 29:10 into a single formula-introduced quotation; 'to this very day' is the Deuteronomy tag.

But Yahweh has not given you a heart to know, eyes to see, and ears to hear, to this day.


The 'eyes that do not see, ears that do not hear' hardening language of v.8 also resonates with Isaiah's commissioning oracle ('hearing you will hear and not understand; seeing you will see and not perceive'), the classic hardening text. Reinforces the conflated citation's theme even if Deut 29:4 supplies the closer wording.

He said, “Go, and tell this people, ‘You hear indeed, but don’t understand; and you see indeed, but don’t perceive.’ Make the heart of this people fat. Make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn again, and be healed.”


Attributed quotation (v.9-10, 'David says'): 'Let their table be made a snare and a trap... Let their eyes be darkened that they may not see, and bow down their back always.' Verbatim of Ps 69:22-23 LXX. A psalm of the righteous sufferer Paul reads imprecatorily against the hardened; pairs the 'darkened eyes' with the Isaiah/Deut citation of v.8.

Let their table before them become a snare. May it become a retribution and a trap. Let their eyes be darkened, so that they can’t see. Let their backs be continually bent.


The 'snare/trap' imprecation of v.9 also echoes the wider psalmic curse tradition ('let destruction come upon him unawares, and let his net that he hid catch himself'). Faint reinforcement of the Ps 69 citation.

Let destruction come on him unawares. Let his net that he has hidden catch himself. Let him fall into that destruction.


'to provoke them to jealousy' (v.11, again v.14) borrows directly from the Song of Moses: 'they have moved me to jealousy... I will provoke them to jealousy by those who are not a people.' Paul already quoted Deut 32:21 at Rom 10:19; here he deploys its key verb (parazeloo) as the engine of his Gentiles-to-Israel argument. Strong verbal borrowing with recurrence.


'If the first fruit is holy, so is the lump' (v.16) draws on the dough/firstfruit offering of Num 15: a portion of the first of the dough (aparche) is given so the whole batch is sanctified. Paul applies the cultic logic of consecration-by-firstfruit to the patriarchs and Israel.

Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, ‘When you come into the land where I bring you, then it shall be that when you eat of the bread of the land, you shall offer up a wave offering to Yahweh. Of the first of your dough you shall offer up a cake for a wave offering. As the wave offering of the threshing floor, so you shall heave it. Of the first of your dough, you shall give to Yahweh a wave offering throughout […]


The olive-tree image for Israel (v.17-24, 'the root and the richness of the olive tree') borrows Jeremiah's figure: 'The LORD called your name, A green olive tree, beautiful with good fruit'—followed there by branches broken and burned for unbelief. Supplies both the olive-tree identification of Israel and the broken-branches judgment motif.

Yahweh called your name, A green olive tree, beautiful with goodly fruit: with the noise of a great tumult he has kindled fire on it, and its branches are broken.


Hosea's restoration oracle pictures renewed Israel: 'his branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be like the olive tree.' Paul's olive-tree-with-spreading-branches and hope of regrafting (v.23-24) coheres with this restoration imagery alongside Jer 11:16.

His branches will spread, and his beauty will be like the olive tree, and his fragrance like Lebanon.


'I am like a green olive tree in the house of God' — the righteous flourishing as an olive planted by God resonates faintly with Paul's cultivated 'good olive tree' (v.24) into which branches are grafted.

But as for me, I am like a green olive tree in God’s house. I trust in God’s loving kindness forever and ever.


'Don't boast over the branches... Don't be conceited, but fear' (v.18, 20) echoes 'Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and depart from evil.' The pairing of not-being-wise-in-self with fear is distinctive; recurs at v.25 ('wise in your own conceits').

Don’t be wise in your own eyes. Fear Yahweh, and depart from evil.


'Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes' undergirds Paul's warning against Gentile conceit (v.18-20, 25). Faint thematic reinforcement of the Prov 3:7 admonition.

Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!


'You stand by your faith' (v.20) faintly recalls Isaiah's word to Ahaz: 'If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established (stand firm).' The standing-by-faith / falling-by-unbelief antithesis coheres, though the verbal link is thin.

and the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah’s son. If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established.’”


'Their acceptance... life from the dead' (v.15) reads Israel's future restoration typologically as resurrection, the figure of the valley of dry bones where dead Israel is raised and replanted in its land. Typological rather than verbal.

The hand of Yahweh was on me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of Yahweh, and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones. He caused me to pass by them all around: and behold, there were very many in the open valley; and behold, they were very dry. He said to me, Son of man, can these bones live? I answered, Lord Yahweh, you know. Again he said to me, Prophesy over these bones, and tell them, you dry bones, hear Yahweh’s word. Thus […]


Formula-cited ('as it is written') in v.26-27: 'There will come out of Zion the Deliverer, and he will turn away ungodliness from Jacob.' Verbatim core from Isa 59:20-21 LXX ('the Deliverer will come for Zion's sake, and turn away ungodliness from Jacob'), with the 'covenant' clause flowing from 59:21. The backbone citation of the 'all Israel will be saved' climax.

“A Redeemer will come to Zion, and to those who turn from disobedience in Jacob,” says Yahweh. “As for me, this is my covenant with them,” says Yahweh. “My Spirit who is on you, and my words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, nor out of the mouth of your seed, nor out of the mouth of your seed’s seed,” says Yahweh, “from henceforth and forever.”


'This is my covenant to them, when I will take away their sins' (v.27b) supplies the sin-removal clause via Isa 27:9 LXX: 'this is his blessing, when I take away his sin.' Paul conflates it with Isa 59:20-21; the phrase 'take away their sins' is the Isa 27:9 contribution to the composite citation.

Therefore by this the iniquity of Jacob will be forgiven, and this is all the fruit of taking away his sin: that he makes all the stones of the altar as chalk stones that are beaten in pieces, so that the Asherah poles and the incense altars shall rise no more.


'This is my covenant to them, when I will take away their sins' (v.27) also draws the new-covenant formula from Jer 31:33-34 ('this is the covenant I will make... I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more'). The 'covenant + forgiveness of sins' pairing is distinctively Jeremianic; Paul fuses it into the Isaianic Deliverer oracle.

But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says Yahweh: I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people: and they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know Yahweh; for they shall all know me, from their least to their greatest, says Yahweh: for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin […]


'Out of Zion' as the source of deliverance (v.26) resonates with Zion-centered eschatology ('out of Zion shall go forth the law'). Faint thematic backdrop to the quoted Isa 59:20.

Many peoples shall go and say, “Come, let’s go up to the mountain of Yahweh, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths.” For out of Zion the law shall go out, and Yahweh’s word from Jerusalem.


'A partial hardening has happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in' (v.25) sustains the Isaianic hardening motif of the chapter (cf. the Isa 29:10 citation at v.8). The temporal 'until' frames the hardening as the bounded judicial blindness of Isaiah's commission.