Exodus 19:5 New English Translation
5 And now, if you will diligently listen to me[a] and keep[b] my covenant, then you will be my[c] special possession[d] out of all the nations, for all the earth is mine,
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- Exodus 19:5 tn Heb “listen to my voice.” The construction uses the imperfect tense in the conditional clause, preceded by the infinitive absolute from the same verb. The idiom “listen to the voice of” implies obedience, not just mental awareness of sound.
- Exodus 19:5 tn The verb is a perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive; it continues the idea in the protasis of the sentence: “and [if you will] keep.”
- Exodus 19:5 tn The lamed preposition expresses possession here: “to me” means “my.”
- Exodus 19:5 tn The noun is סְגֻלָּה (segullah), which means a special possession. Israel was to be God’s special possession, but the prophets will later narrow it to the faithful remnant. All the nations belong to God, but Israel was to stand in a place of special privilege and enormous responsibility. See Deut 7:6; 14:2; 26:18; Ps 135:4; Mal 3:17. See M. Greenburg, “Hebrew segulla: Akkadian sikiltu,” JAOS 71 (1951): 172ff.
New English Translation (NET)
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