Isaiah 41:8
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8 But you, Israel, my servant,
Jacob, whom I have chosen,
the offspring of Abraham, my friend;(A)
James 2:23
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23 Thus the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,”[a] and he was called the friend of God.(A)
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- 2.23 Or justice
2 Chronicles 20:7
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7 Did you not, O our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel and give it forever to the descendants of your friend Abraham?(A)
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Isaiah 44:1-2
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God’s Blessing on Israel
44 But now hear, O Jacob my servant,
Israel whom I have chosen!(A)
2 Thus says the Lord who made you,
who formed you in the womb and will help you:
Do not fear, O Jacob my servant,
Jeshurun whom I have chosen.(B)
Isaiah 44:21
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Israel Is Not Forgotten
21 Remember these things, O Jacob,
and Israel, for you are my servant;
I formed you, you are my servant;
O Israel, do not forget me.[a](A)
Footnotes
- 44.21 Q ms Compare Gk Syr Tg: MT you will not be forgotten by me
Isaiah 29:22
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22 Therefore thus says the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob:
“No longer shall Jacob be ashamed;
no longer shall his face grow pale.(A)
Psalm 135:4
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4 For the Lord has chosen Jacob for himself,
Israel as his own possession.(A)
Deuteronomy 14:2
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2 For you are a people holy to the Lord your God; it is you the Lord has chosen out of all the peoples on earth to be his people, his treasured possession.(A)
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John 15:14-15
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14 You are my friends if you do what I command you.(A) 15 I do not call you servants[a] any longer, because the servant[b] does not know what the master is doing, but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.
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John 8:33-44
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33 They answered him, “We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, ‘You will be made free’?”(A)
34 Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.(B) 35 The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there forever.(C) 36 So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed. 37 I know that you are descendants of Abraham, yet you look for an opportunity to kill me because there is no place in you for my word. 38 I declare what I have seen in the Father’s presence; as for you, you should do what you have heard from the Father.”[a](D)
Jesus and Abraham
39 They answered him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you are Abraham’s children, you would do[b] what Abraham did,(E) 40 but now you are trying to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. 41 You are indeed doing what your father does.” They said to him, “We are not illegitimate children; we have one Father, God himself.”(F) 42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God, and now I am here. I did not come on my own, but he sent me.(G) 43 Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot accept my word. 44 You are from your father the devil, and you choose to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.(H)
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Jeremiah 33:24
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24 Have you not observed how these people say, “The two families that the Lord chose have been rejected by him,” and how they hold my people in such contempt that they no longer regard them as a nation?(A)
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Isaiah 63:16
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16 For you are our father,
though Abraham does not know us
and Israel does not acknowledge us;
you, O Lord, are our father;
our Redeemer from of old is your name.(A)
Isaiah 51:2
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2 Look to Abraham your father
and to Sarah, who bore you,
for he was but one when I called him,
but I blessed him and made him many.(A)
Isaiah 49:3
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3 And he said to me, “You are my servant,
Israel, in whom I will be glorified.”(A)
Isaiah 48:12
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12 Listen to me, O Jacob,
and Israel, whom I called:
I am he; I am the first,
and I am the last.(A)
Isaiah 43:1
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Restoration and Protection Promised
43 But now thus says the Lord,
he who created you, O Jacob,
he who formed you, O Israel:
Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name; you are mine.(A)
Psalm 105:6
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6 O offspring of his servant Abraham,[a]
children of Jacob, his chosen ones.
Footnotes
- 105.6 Or Israel
Psalm 33:12
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12 Happy is the nation whose God is the Lord,
the people whom he has chosen as his heritage.(A)
Deuteronomy 10:15
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15 yet the Lord set his heart in love on your ancestors alone and chose you, their descendants after them, out of all the peoples, as it is today.(A)
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Exodus 19:5-6
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5 Now, therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine,(A) 6 but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the Israelites.”(B)
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Galatians 4:22-31
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22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by an enslaved woman and the other by a free woman.(A) 23 One, the child of the enslaved woman, was born according to the flesh; the other, the child of the free woman, was born through the promise.(B) 24 Now this is an allegory: these women are two covenants. One woman, in fact, is Hagar, from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery. 25 Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia[a] and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. 26 But the other woman corresponds to the Jerusalem above; she is free, and she is our mother.(C) 27 For it is written,
“Rejoice, you childless one, you who bear no children,
burst into song and shout, you who endure no birth pangs,
for the children of the desolate woman are more numerous
than the children of the one who is married.”(D)
28 Now you,[b] my brothers and sisters, are children of the promise, like Isaac. 29 But just as at that time the child who was born according to the flesh persecuted the child who was born according to the Spirit, so it is now also.(E) 30 But what does the scripture say? “Drive out the enslaved woman and her child, for the child of the enslaved woman will not share the inheritance with the child of the free woman.”(F) 31 So then, brothers and sisters, we are children, not of an enslaved woman but of the free woman.
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Galatians 3:19
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The Purpose of the Law
19 Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring[a] would come to whom the promise had been made, and it was ordained through angels by a mediator.(A)
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- 3.19 Gk seed
Romans 9:4-8
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4 They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises;(A) 5 to them belong the patriarchs, and from them, according to the flesh, comes the Christ, who is over all, God blessed forever.[a] Amen.(B)
6 It is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all those descended from Israel are Israelites,(C) 7 and not all of Abraham’s children are his descendants, but “it is through Isaac that descendants shall be named for you.”(D) 8 This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as descendants.
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- 9.5 Or Messiah, who is God over all, blessed forever; or Messiah. May he who is God over all be blessed forever
Romans 4:12-13
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12 and likewise the ancestor of the circumcised who are not only circumcised but follow the example of the faith that our ancestor Abraham had before he was circumcised.
God’s Promise Realized through Faith
13 For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith.(A)
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Matthew 3:9
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9 and do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.(A)
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