– It is the expectation of salvation, given by God after sin:
Gen 3:15 : I will put hatred between you and the woman, between your offspring and hers. It will bruise your head, and you will bruise its heel.
– Fueled by the divine promises of numerous offspring:
Gen 12 :1 : Leave your country, your family and your father’s house and go to the land that I will show you.
Gen 15:5 : Lift up your eyes to heaven and count the stars […] Well then – he added – so shall your descendants be.
Gn 17,4-5 : This is the pact I make with you: you will be the father of a multitude of peoples.
Gen 22,16-17 : Says the Lord: Because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will bless you.
Gen 26:4 : I will multiply your posterity like the stars of heaven, I will give you all these regions.
Gen 28:14 : Your posterity will be as numerous as the grains of dust on the ground.
Gen 35:11 : Be fruitful and multiply. From you shall be born a people and an assembly of peoples; and from your kidneys shall come forth kings.
Gen 46 :3 : And God said: “… Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make of you a great nation”.
Eclo 44,21 : The Lord marked this covenant in his flesh; in the trial he proved himself faithful.
Acts 7 : 5 : He did not give him any property in it […] but promised to give it to him as a possession, and after him to his posterity.
Romans 4:17 : Truly it is written: I have made you the father of many nations.
Heb 11:12 : Thus, from one man almost dead, posterity as numerous as the stars of the sky was born.
– And possession of the land of promise:
Gen 12 :7 : The Lord appeared to Abram and said: “I will give this land to your descendants”.
Gen 13:15 : All the land that you see, I will give it to you and your descendants forever.
Gen 15:18 : “I give”, he said, “this land to your descendants, from the torrent of Egypt to the great river Euphrates”.
Gen 17:8 : I will give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you dwell as a sojourner, all the land of Canaan.
Gen 26,3-4 : Dwells in it; I am with you and will bless you, for it is to you and your descendants that I will give all this land.
Gen 28:13 : I am the Lord, […] I will give to you and your descendants the land on which you are lying.
Gen 35:12 : The land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac, I will give to you and your descendants.
Exodus 23:31 : For I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and I will drive them out from before you.
Deut 4:38 : Dispossessing in your favor peoples more numerous and stronger than you, to bring you into their land.
Deut 9,1-2 : Listen, Israel: Today you will cross the Jordan to plunder nations greater and stronger than you.
Deuteronomy 11:24 : Every place where the sole of your foot will tread will belong to you.
– Land given to Israel:
Jos 12,1.7-8 : These are the kings that the Israelites defeated, and whose territories they occupied beyond the Jordan.
Josh 23,1.3.14 : The Lord had given […] tranquility to Israel and had freed it from all the enemies in the surroundings.
Jos 24,8-13 : Then I led you to the land of the Amorites, who dwelt beyond the Jordan.
– The hope of returning to the homeland is renewed among exiles:
Ps 9,37-38 : The Lord is King forever, pagan nations will disappear from his dominion.
Is 4,2-3 : The fruit of the land will be the pride and adornment of those of Israel who were saved.
Is 8:17 : I will trust in the Lord who hides himself from the house of Jacob, and I will wait for him.
Is 10:27 : The burden he laid on you will be lifted from your shoulders, and his yoke will disappear from your neck.
Is 14,22-23 : I will rise up against them […] I will erase the name and trace of Babylon, her race and her posterity.
Is 30,29-30 : You […] will make your songs resound […]; and you will have joy in your heart.
Is 31,5 : Like birds that fly, the Lord of hosts will protect Jerusalem, putting her under cover.
Is 56 :8 : Oracle of the Lord God who gathers the exiles of Israel: “I will add others to yours”.
Jer 24:5-6 : As you look with pleasure on good figs, so I will also look favorably on the outcasts of Judah.
Jr 29,11-12 : I well know the designs […] of prosperity and not of calamity, to guarantee you […] a hope.
Jr 31,17.23-24.31-32 : Hope dawns in your future – oracle of the Lord. Your children will return to their land.
Jr 32,27-28 : I am, in truth, the Lord, the God of all creatures. Is there anything that is impossible for me?
Ez 34,11-12 : For this is what the Lord Yahweh says: I will take care of my sheep myself, I will watch over them.
Ez 36,12.23-30 : It is my people Israel, these men that I will make to be born on your soil; thou shalt be his possession and inheritance.
Zec 3,8-9 : Because they are people of omen: for behold, I will bring my servant Rebento.
– The messianic hope is announced:
Jer 23,5-6 : The days will come when I will make a righteous shoot sprout out of David who will be king and will rule wisely.
Jer 33,14-15 : In those days […] I will make a righteous offspring born of David who will exercise justice and equity in the land.
– Our hope must be placed in God:
2Sm 22,27.19s.31.47 : The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer.
Psalm 7:2 : Lord, my God, I seek refuge in you; save me from all who persecute me and deliver me.
Psalm 15 : Keep me, O God, for it is in you that I seek refuge.
Ps 16 :7 : Show your admirable mercy, you who save from adversaries those who take refuge at your right hand.
Ps 17:31 : The ways of God are perfect[…]. He is the shield of all who take refuge in him.
Ps 70 : It is in you, Lord, that I seek my refuge; may my hope not be forever confounded.
Pr 16:20 : Whoever listens to the Word attentively finds happiness; blessed is he who trusts in the Lord.
– Our hope of spiritual and temporal goods is based on the divine promises:
Leviticus 26:1ff : You shall not place in your land any stone adorned with figures, to bow down to it.
Deut 28:114 : If you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord […] your God will raise you above all the nations of the earth.
Deut 31:10 : At the end of every seven years, in the year of release, on the occasion of the Feast of Tabernacles.
Dt 32,18 : You abandoned the Rock that generated you and forgot God who formed you!
Deut 33 :9: What does he say about his father and mother: “I do not consider them”; who does not recognize his brothers.
– Hope in the Resurrection:
2Mk 7,9.11.14.23 : Cursed, you snatch away our present life, but the King of the universe will raise us up to an eternal life.
Dan 12,1-2 : Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth will awaken, some to eternal life.
– Hope of eternal life:
Rom 5:2 : It is through him that we have access to this grace […] and we boast in the hope of one day possessing the glory of God.
1Cor 13,12 : Today we see as through a mirror, confusingly; but then we shall see face to face.
Heb 11 :1 : Faith is the foundation of hope, it is the certainty of what is not seen.
– Our hope should not be placed in men:
Ps 51,7ss : Behold the man who did not take God for a protector, but waited in the multitude of his riches.
Ps 61:11 : Do not trust in violence, nor hope in robbery.
Wis 3:11 : Their hope is in vain, their sufferings are of no avail, and their works are useless.
Wis 5:15 : But the righteous will live forever; their reward is in the Lord, and the Most High will take care of them.
Is 20,5 : Then those who hoped in Ethiopia and put their trust in Egypt will be terrified and confused.
– Messianic hope constitutes the center of the whole life of Israel; she is the source of all the unity and perpetuity of this small people; such a hope is unshakable, even in the face of all the vicissitudes of Israel’s history:
Mq 7,7ss : I, however, turn my eyes to the Lord, I put my hope in the God of my salvation.
Ps 22,5s : You prepare a table for me in the sight of my enemies. You pour the perfume over my head.
Jr 30.7 : Disgrace! No day is like this; time of trouble for Jacob, from which he will be delivered.
Jr 31,17 : Hope dawns in your future – oracle of the Lord. Your children will return to their land.
– It constitutes the constant object of the preaching of the prophets:
Mq 4,5 : All people walk, each one in the name of his god; […] we will walk forever in the name of the Lord our God.
Is 40-55 (the Book of Consolation): “Comfort, comfort my people” – says your God. Animate Jerusalem.
Jer 30–33 : I will change the fortunes of my people […] in order to restore their possession of the land I had given to their fathers.
– Hope of peace and blessedness in God:
Wis 3,3.7-8 : And their death as a destruction, when in fact they are at peace!
Wis 4:15 : That the favor of God and his mercy are upon his elect, and his assistance is in the midst of his faithful ones.
Wis 5: 5,15 : How then is he one of the number of the sons of God, and how is his place among the saints?
– In immortality:
Wis 3,4 : If in the eyes of men they endured correction, their hope was the bearer of immortality.
– The hope of the chosen people, nourished for centuries, is reinforced by the coming of the Messiah, incarnation and redemption of Christ. This hope brings to Christian souls the certainty of obtaining eternal salvation:
Rom 4:18 : Hoping against all hope, Abraham had faith and became the father of many nations.
Rom 5:9-11 : Much more, therefore, now that we are justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
Rom 8,24s : Because by hope we were saved.
Heb 6,18ss : We who set our sights on gaining hope […] we hold on to the anchor of our soul.
Col 1,27s : To these God wanted to make known riches and glory […]: Christ in you, hope of glory!
– In Jesus there will be better hope:
1Tm 1,1 : Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by order of God our Savior and of Jesus Christ our hope.
Heb 7:19 : For the Law made nothing perfect. It was just the bearer of a better hope that leads us to God.
– Anchored in the hope of the glory of God:
Rom 5:2 : We had access to this grace […] and we boasted in the hope of one day having the glory of God.
Rom 8:18 : I consider that the sufferings of this life have no proportion to the glory to come.
Eph 1:18 : May he enlighten the eyes of your heart, so that you may understand what hope you were called to.
Tit 2:13 : Looking forward to our happy hope, the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.
– Of the resurrection of the body:
Acts 23:6 : Brothers, I am a Pharisee […]. Because of my hope in the resurrection of the dead I am judged.
Acts 24:15.21 : I have hope in God […] that there will be a resurrection of the righteous and sinners.
Rom 8:11 : He who raised Jesus Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies.
1Cor 15,20-21 : Christ was raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who died!
– Of the inheritance of the saints:
Eph 1,14-18 : Which is the pledge of our inheritance, while we await complete redemption.
Heb 6,12.19 : Far from becoming negligent, be imitators of those who […] become heirs of the promises.
1Pt 1,3-4 : In his great mercy he made us reborn […] from the dead, to a living hope.
– Hope of eternal life:
Rom 2 :7 : Eternal life to those who persevere in doing good and seek glory, honor and immortality.
Rom 8:21 : With the hope of being freed from the bondage of corruption.
Titus 1:2 : In the hope of eternal life promised in distant times by the true and faithful God.
Titus 3:7 : So that the justification obtained by his grace may make us, in hope, heirs of eternal life.
– Christians have hope in the glorious appearing of Jesus Christ:
1Cor 1,8 : He will confirm you to the end, so that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
1Cor 15,49 : As we reproduce in ourselves the features of the earthly man, we need to reproduce the features of the heavenly man.
Phil 3:20-21 : We, however, are citizens of heaven. It is from there that we eagerly await the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
– By which salvation will be given to us:
1Th 1:10 : And wait for his Son from heaven, whom God raised from the dead, Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come.
1Th 5:9: For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.
– Hope needs to be held firm:
1Th 1,5 : Our Gospel was preached to you not only in word, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit.
Heb 10:23 : Let us hold fast to our hope, for he is faithful whose promise we await.
– It is the horizon of Christian ethics and it is a gift from God:
Rm 13,11-12 : It is time to wake up from sleep. Salvation is closer than when we embraced faith.
Rom 15:13 : May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in your faith.
1Cor 13,11 : When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.
