The verse is made up solely of the personal names Hoshea, Hananiah, and Hashub, and expresses no promise. It stands with the lists in Ezra and Nehemiah of the leading men who went up from the captivity and of those who had married strange wives, and with the more than fifteen hundred verses in the Bible that consist only of names of persons, genealogies, courses of priests, heads of Israel, places of journeyings, nations, cities, and kings. The list is part of the record of the covenant entered into by the remnant who returned to Jerusalem, describing their condition and covenant after the final return from captivity. That covenant was a pledge to keep the law of Moses in Ezra's reform, in connection with the establishment of the Law as authoritative Scripture.
The verse belongs to the days of Ezra and Nehemiah when Israel had dealings with adjoining ancient lands, and the Babylonian life of that time sheds light on the Old Testament and confirms the biblical narrative. Like threatenings of divine wrath against sin and denunciations of evil, it cannot be counted among the exceeding great and precious promises to God's people. Not every verse is a promise, and thirty-six thousand distinct promises is more than the whole Bible contains, since the Old Testament has twenty-three thousand five hundred and fifty-six verses and the New Testament has seven thousand nine hundred and fifty-seven verses, for a total of thirty-one thousand five hundred and thirteen.
The verse is made up solely of the personal names Hoshea, Hananiah, and Hashub, and expresses no promise. It stands with the lists in Ezra and Nehemiah of the leading men who went up from the captivity and of those who had married strange wives, and with the more than fifteen hundred verses in the Bible that consist only of names of persons, genealogies, courses of priests, heads of Israel, places of journeyings, nations, cities, and kings. The list is part of the record of the covenant entered into by the remnant who returned to Jerusalem, describing their condition and covenant after the final return from captivity. That covenant was a pledge to keep the law of Moses in Ezra's reform, in connection with the establishment of the Law as authoritative Scripture.
The verse belongs to the days of Ezra and Nehemiah when Israel had dealings with adjoining ancient lands, and the Babylonian life of that time sheds light on the Old Testament and confirms the biblical narrative. Like threatenings of divine wrath against sin and denunciations of evil, it cannot be counted among the exceeding great and precious promises to God's people. Not every verse is a promise, and thirty-six thousand distinct promises is more than the whole Bible contains, since the Old Testament has twenty-three thousand five hundred and fifty-six verses and the New Testament has seven thousand nine hundred and fifty-seven verses, for a total of thirty-one thousand five hundred and thirteen.