15:17a–b
so that the remnant of men may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as and has several possible meanings. There are two ways to interpret it:
(1) It introduces an explanation of the remnant of men. For example:
the rest of humanity may seek the Lord, namely, all the Gentiles I have called to be my own (NET Bible)
(Good News Translation, New International Version (2011), New Revised Standard Version, New American Bible, Revised Edition, Contemporary English Version, NET Bible, Revised English Bible)
(2) It introduces another group different from the remnant of men. For example:
the rest of men may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by my name (Revised Standard Version)
(Berean Standard Bible, Revised Standard Version, New International Version, New Jerusalem Bible, New American Standard Bible, God’s Word, New Century Version, English Standard Version, King James Version)
It is recommended that you follow interpretation (1), because the rest of humanity from the viewpoint of the Jews would be the Gentiles. Other ways to translate these clauses are:
all other peoples may seek the Lord—even all the Gentiles over whom my name has been called (New Revised Standard Version)
-or-
the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, all the Gentiles whom I have claimed for my own (Revised English Bible)
15:17a
the remnant of men: This phrase refers to all other people besides the Jews. For example:
the rest of humanity (New Jerusalem Bible)
may seek the Lord: This refers to looking for ways to know God, obey him, and do things that please him. Other ways to translate this phrase are:
may search for the Lord (God’s Word)
-or-
may seek ⌊to know⌋ the Lord
-or-
may seek ⌊a relationship with⌋ the Lord
-or-
will turn to me (Contemporary English Version)
the Lord: God spoke these words. In some languages a literal translation might wrongly imply God spoke of someone else as the Lord. If that is true in your language, you may want to include the pronoun “I/me” here. For example:
⌊me,⌋ the Lord
15:17b–15:18
says the Lord who does these things that have been known for ages: The quote from the prophet Amos ends with the word things, so some English versions put the end quote mark there. But the words that have been known for ages are similar to Isaiah 45:21, so the Berean Standard Bible and many versions put the end quote mark at the end of 15:18. For example:
17…says the Lord, who makes these things 18known from of old.’ (English Standard Version)
Some English versions put says the Lord who does these things in 15:18, perhaps because the textual issue (see footnote on the text of 15:17c–18 below) makes 15:18 very short. If the common language version puts these words in 15:18, you may want to do that.
15:17b
who are called by My name: The Greek words here are literally “upon whom my name has been called/invoked over them.” It probably indicates that God has claimed these Gentiles as belonging to him. Other ways to translate this phrase are:
over whom my name has been called (New Revised Standard Version)
-or-
whom I have claimed for my own (Revised English Bible)
-or-
those I have called to be mine (New Living Translation (2004))
says the Lord: This indicates that God spoke the words of 15:16a–17b. James began speaking in 15:13b, and he began quoting scripture in 15:16a. Here this would require a third set of quote marks:
13…James spoke up: “Brothers…16‘ “After this I will return and rebuild David’s fallen tent. Its ruins I will rebuild, and I will restore it, 17that the remnant of men may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who bear my name,” says the Lord, who does these things’…21…is read…every Sabbath.”
However, the English versions avoid the third set of quote marks. The NET Bible puts quote marks around 15:16a–17b to indicate what God spoke and indicates that 15:16a–18 is scripture by using special paragraph formatting:
as it is written, (NET Bible)
16‘After this I will return,
and I will rebuild the fallen tent of David;
I will rebuild its ruins and restore it,
17so that the rest of humanity may seek the Lord,
namely, all the Gentiles I have called to be
my own,’ says the Lord, who makes
these things 18known from long ago.
19“Therefore I conclude…
Some English versions make says the Lord a separate sentence to avoid putting quote marks around God’s words. The New Living Translation (2004) also puts quote marks around the whole scripture quote and uses special paragraph formatting:
16‘Afterward I will return
and restore the fallen house of David.
I will rebuild its ruins
and restore it,
17so that the rest of humanity might seek the Lord,
including the Gentiles—
all those I have called to be mine.
The Lord has spoken—
18he who made these things known so long ago.’
the Lord: This refers to God. In some languages it is clearer or more natural to include that in your translation. For example:
the Lord ⌊God⌋
General Comment on 15:16a–17b
This is a quote from Amos 9:11–12.
15:17c–15:18
who does these things that have been known for ages:
The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as does has several possible meanings. There are two ways to interpret it here:
(1) It means does here and it connects only to “these things.” For example:
He is the one who will do these things that have always been known (God’s Word)
(Berean Standard Bible, New International Version, New American Bible, Revised Edition, God’s Word, Revised English Bible, New Century Version, King James Version)
(2) It means makes here and connects to “know” and “these things.” For example:
who made this known long ago (Good News Translation)
(Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, New Jerusalem Bible, New American Standard Bible, New Living Translation (2004), Contemporary English Version, NET Bible, English Standard Version)
It is recommended that you follow interpretation (1), because this Greek word is not used together with the Greek word for known to mean “make known” elsewhere in the New Testament.
15:17c
who does these things: This clause is in Amos 9:12, but the Hebrew is clear that Amos spoke this, not God. Your translation may not need the single quote mark at the end of this phrase.
This clause tells the reader more about the Lord. In some languages a literal translation would wrongly indicate that there are other Lord Gods and only this one does these things. If that is true in your language, translate this information in a way that tells more about the one true Lord God. One way to do that is to start a new sentence here. For example:
He does these things
these things: This refers to the events in 15:16a–17b. In some languages the word “those” is more natural here. For example:
those things/events
© 2001, 2021 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.