Mazmur 2:6

2:6 “I myself ¹  have installed ²  my king

on Zion, my holy hill.”

Mazmur 48:2

48:2 It is lofty and pleasing to look at, ³ 

a source of joy to the whole earth. ⁴ 

Mount Zion resembles the peaks of Zaphon; ⁵ 

it is the city of the great king.

Mazmur 132:13-14

132:13 Certainly ⁶  the Lord has chosen Zion;

he decided to make it his home. ⁷ 

132:14 He said, ⁸  “This will be my resting place forever;

I will live here, for I have chosen it. ⁹ 

Yesaya 12:6

12:6 Cry out and shout for joy, O citizens of Zion,

for the Holy One of Israel ¹⁰  acts mightily ¹¹  among you!”

Yesaya 14:32

14:32 How will they respond to the messengers of this nation? ¹² 

Indeed, the Lord has made Zion secure;

the oppressed among his people will find safety in her.

Yesaya 28:16

28:16 Therefore, this is what the sovereign master, the Lord, says:

“Look, I am laying ¹³  a stone in Zion,

an approved ¹⁴  stone,

set in place as a precious cornerstone for the foundation. ¹⁵ 

The one who maintains his faith will not panic. ¹⁶ 

Yesaya 51:11

51:11 Those whom the Lord has ransomed will return;

they will enter Zion with a happy shout.

Unending joy will crown them, ¹⁷ 

happiness and joy will overwhelm ¹⁸  them;

grief and suffering will disappear. ¹⁹ 

Yesaya 51:16

Zion’s Time to Celebrate

51:16 I commission you ²⁰  as my spokesman; ²¹ 

I cover you with the palm of my hand, ²² 

to establish ²³  the sky and to found the earth,

to say to Zion, ‘You are my people.’” ²⁴ 

Yesaya 59:20

59:20 “A protector ²⁵  comes to Zion,

to those in Jacob who repent of their rebellious deeds,” ²⁶  says the Lord.

Yesaya 60:14

60:14 The children of your oppressors will come bowing to you;

all who treated you with disrespect will bow down at your feet.

They will call you, ‘The City of the Lord,

Zion of the Holy One of Israel.’ ²⁷ 

Yoel 2:32

2:32 It will so happen that

everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be delivered. ²⁸ 

For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem ²⁹  there will be those who survive, ³⁰ 

just as the Lord has promised;

the remnant ³¹  will be those whom the Lord will call. ³² 

Roma 11:26

11:26 And so ³³  all Israel will be saved, as it is written:

“The Deliverer will come out of Zion;

he will remove ungodliness from Jacob.

Galatia 4:26

4:26 But the Jerusalem above is free, ³⁴  and she is our mother.

Wahyu 14:1

An Interlude: The Song of the 144,000

14:1 Then ³⁵  I looked, and here was ³⁶  the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with him were one hundred and forty-four thousand, who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.

[2:6]  ¹ tn The first person pronoun appears before the first person verbal form for emphasis, reflected in the translation by “myself.”

[2:6]  ² tn Or perhaps “consecrated.”

[48:2]  ³ tn Heb “beautiful of height.” The Hebrew term נוֹף (nof, “height”) is a genitive of specification after the qualitative noun “beautiful.” The idea seems to be that Mount Zion, because of its lofty appearance, is pleasing to the sight.

[48:2]  ⁴ sn A source of joy to the whole earth. The language is hyperbolic. Zion, as the dwelling place of the universal king, is pictured as the world’s capital. The prophets anticipated this idealized picture becoming a reality in the eschaton (see Isa 2:1-4).

[48:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “Mount Zion, the peaks of Zaphon.” Like all the preceding phrases in v. 2, both phrases are appositional to “city of our God, his holy hill” in v. 1, suggesting an identification in the poet’s mind between Mount Zion and Zaphon. “Zaphon” usually refers to the “north” in a general sense (see Pss 89:12; 107:3), but here, where it is collocated with “peaks,” it refers specifically to Mount Zaphon, located in the vicinity of ancient Ugarit and viewed as the mountain where the gods assembled (see Isa 14:13). By alluding to West Semitic mythology in this way, the psalm affirms that Mount Zion is the real divine mountain, for it is here that the Lord God of Israel lives and rules over the nations. See P. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 (WBC), 353, and T. N. D. Mettinger, In Search of God, 103.

[132:13]  ⁶ tn Or “for.”

[132:13]  ⁷ tn Heb “he desired it for his dwelling place.”

[132:14]  ⁸ tn The words “he said” are added in the translation to clarify that what follows are the Lord’s words.

[132:14]  ⁹ tn Heb “for I desired it.”

[12:6]  ¹⁰ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[12:6]  ¹¹ tn Or “is great” (TEV). However, the context emphasizes his mighty acts of deliverance (cf. NCV), not some general or vague character quality.

[14:32]  ¹² sn The question forces the Philistines to consider the dilemma they will face – surrender and oppression, or battle and death.

[28:16]  ¹³ tc The Hebrew text has a third person verb form, which does not agree with the first person suffix that precedes. The form should be emended to יֹסֵד (yosed), a Qal active participle used in a present progressive or imminent future sense.

[28:16]  ¹⁴ tn Traditionally “tested,” but the implication is that it has passed the test and stands approved.

[28:16]  ¹⁵ sn The reality behind the metaphor is not entirely clear from the context. The stone appears to represent someone or something that gives Zion stability. Perhaps the ideal Davidic ruler is in view (see 32:1). Another option is that the image of beginning a building project by laying a precious cornerstone suggests that God is about to transform Zion through judgment and begin a new covenant community that will experience his protection (see 4:3-6; 31:5; 33:20-24; 35:10).

[28:16]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “will not hurry,” i.e., act in panic.

[51:11]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “[will be] on their head[s].” “Joy” may be likened here to a crown (cf. 2 Sam 1:10). The statement may also be an ironic twist on the idiom “earth/dust on the head” (cf. 2 Sam 1:2; 13:19; 15:32; Job 2:12), referring to a mourning practice.

[51:11]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “overtake” (so NIV); NASB “they will obtain.”

[51:11]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “grief and groaning will flee.”

[51:16]  ²⁰ tn The addressee (second masculine singular, as in vv. 13, 15) in this verse is unclear. The exiles are addressed in the immediately preceding verses (note the critical tone of vv. 12-13 and the reference to the exiles in v. 14). However, it seems unlikely that they are addressed in v. 16, for the addressee appears to be commissioned to tell Zion, who here represents the restored exiles, “you are my people.” The addressee is distinct from the exiles. The language of v. 16a is reminiscent of 49:2 and 50:4, where the Lord’s special servant says he is God’s spokesman and effective instrument. Perhaps the Lord, having spoken to the exiles in vv. 1-15, now responds to this servant, who spoke just prior to this in 50:4-11.

[51:16]  ²¹ tn Heb “I place my words in your mouth.”

[51:16]  ²² tn Heb “with the shadow of my hand.”

[51:16]  ²³ tc The Hebrew text has לִנְטֹעַ (lintoa’, “to plant”). Several scholars prefer to emend this form to לִנְטֹת (lintot) from נָטָה (natah, “to stretch out”); see v. 13, as well as 40:22; 42:5; 44:24; 45:12; cf. NAB, NCV, NRSV. However, since the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a, LXX (and Aquila and Symmachus), and Vulgate support the MT reading, there is no need to emend the form. The interpretation is clear enough: Yahweh fixed the sky in its place.

[51:16]  ²⁴ tn The infinitives in v. 16b are most naturally understood as indicating the purpose of the divine actions described in v. 16a. The relationship of the third infinitive to the commission is clear enough – the Lord has made the addressee (his special servant?) his spokesman so that the latter might speak encouraging words to those in Zion. But how do the first two infinitives relate? The text seems to indicate that the Lord has commissioned the addressee so that the latter might create the universe! Perhaps creation imagery is employed metaphorically here to refer to the transformation that Jerusalem will experience (see 65:17-18).

[59:20]  ²⁵ tn Or “redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.

[59:20]  ²⁶ tn Heb “and to those who turn from rebellion in Jacob.”

[60:14]  ²⁷ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[2:32]  ²⁸ tn While a number of English versions render this as “saved” (e.g., NIV, NRSV, NLT), this can suggest a “spiritual” or “theological” salvation rather than the physical deliverance from the cataclysmic events of the day of the Lord described in the context.

[2:32]  ²⁹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[2:32]  ³⁰ tn Heb “deliverance”; or “escape.” The abstract noun “deliverance” or “escape” probably functions here as an example of antimeria, referring to those who experience deliverance or escape with their lives: “escaped remnant” or “surviving remnant” (Gen 32:8; 45:7; Judg 21:17; 2 Kgs 19:30, 31; Isa 4:2; 10:20; 15:9; 37:31, 32; Ezek 14:22; Obad 1:17; Ezra 9:8, 13-15; Neh 1:2; 1 Chr 4:43; 2 Chr 30:6).

[2:32]  ³¹ tn Heb “and among the remnant.”

[2:32]  ³² tn The participle used in the Hebrew text seems to indicate action in the imminent future.

[11:26]  ³³ tn It is not clear whether the phrase καὶ οὕτως (kai Joutws, “and so”) is to be understood in a modal sense (“and in this way”) or in a temporal sense (“and in the end”). Neither interpretation is conclusive from a grammatical standpoint, and in fact the two may not be mutually exclusive. Some, like H. Hübner, who argue strongly against the temporal reading, nevertheless continue to give the phrase a temporal significance, saying that God will save all Israel in the end (Gottes Ich und Israel [FRLANT], 118).

[4:26]  ³⁴ sn The meaning of the statement the Jerusalem above is free is that the other woman represents the second covenant (cf. v. 24); she corresponds to the Jerusalem above that is free. Paul’s argument is very condensed at this point.

[14:1]  ³⁵ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.

[14:1]  ³⁶ tn The phrase “and here was” expresses the sense of καὶ ἰδού (kai idou).