Ayub 17:9

17:9 But the righteous man holds to his way,

and the one with clean hands grows stronger. ¹ 

Mazmur 51:7-13

51:7 Sprinkle me ²  with water ³  and I will be pure; ⁴ 

wash me ⁵  and I will be whiter than snow. ⁶ 

51:8 Grant me the ultimate joy of being forgiven! ⁷ 

May the bones ⁸  you crushed rejoice! ⁹ 

51:9 Hide your face ¹⁰  from my sins!

Wipe away ¹¹  all my guilt!

51:10 Create for me a pure heart, O God! ¹² 

Renew a resolute spirit within me! ¹³ 

51:11 Do not reject me! ¹⁴ 

Do not take your Holy Spirit ¹⁵  away from me! ¹⁶ 

51:12 Let me again experience the joy of your deliverance!

Sustain me by giving me the desire to obey! ¹⁷ 

51:13 Then I will teach ¹⁸  rebels your merciful ways, ¹⁹ 

and sinners will turn ²⁰  to you.

Amsal 4:18

4:18 But the path of the righteous is like the bright morning light, ²¹ 

growing brighter and brighter ²²  until full day. ²³ 

Yesaya 27:9

27:9 So in this way Jacob’s sin will be forgiven, ²⁴ 

and this is how they will show they are finished sinning: ²⁵ 

They will make all the stones of the altars ²⁶ 

like crushed limestone,

and the Asherah poles and the incense altars will no longer stand. ²⁷ 

Yesaya 29:19

29:19 The downtrodden will again rejoice in the Lord;

the poor among humankind will take delight ²⁸  in the Holy One of Israel. ²⁹ 

Hosea 6:3

6:3 So let us acknowledge him! ³⁰ 

Let us seek ³¹  to acknowledge ³²  the Lord!

He will come to our rescue as certainly as the appearance of the dawn,

as certainly as the winter rain comes,

as certainly as the spring rain that waters the land.”

Maleakhi 3:3

3:3 He will act like a refiner and purifier of silver and will cleanse the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then they will offer the Lord a proper offering.

Matius 3:12

3:12 His winnowing fork ³³  is in his hand, and he will clean out his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the storehouse, ³⁴  but the chaff he will burn up with inextinguishable fire.” ³⁵ 

Matius 13:12

13:12 For whoever has will be given more, and will have an abundance. But whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. ³⁶ 

Matius 13:33

The Parable of the Yeast

13:33 He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with ³⁷  three measures ³⁸  of flour until all the dough had risen.” ³⁹ 

Roma 5:3-5

5:3 Not ⁴⁰  only this, but we also rejoice in sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 5:4 and endurance, character, and character, hope. 5:5 And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God ⁴¹  has been poured out ⁴²  in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Roma 8:28

8:28 And we know that all things work together ⁴³  for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose,

Roma 8:2

8:2 For the law of the life-giving Spirit ⁴⁴  in Christ Jesus has set you ⁴⁵  free from the law of sin and death.

Kolose 4:17-18

4:17 And tell Archippus, “See to it that you complete the ministry you received in the Lord.”

4:18 I, Paul, write this greeting by my own hand. ⁴⁶  Remember my chains. ⁴⁷  Grace be with you. ⁴⁸ 

Filipi 1:9-11

1:9 And I pray this, that your love may abound even more and more in knowledge and every kind of insight 1:10 so that you can decide what is best, and thus be sincere and blameless for the day of Christ, 1:11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.

Filipi 1:1

Salutation

1:1 From Paul ⁴⁹  and Timothy, slaves ⁵⁰  of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, ⁵¹  with the overseers ⁵²  and deacons.

Filipi 1:23-24

1:23 I feel torn between the two, ⁵³  because I have a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far, 1:24 but it is more vital for your sake that I remain ⁵⁴  in the body. ⁵⁵ 

Titus 2:14

2:14 He ⁵⁶  gave himself for us to set us free from every kind of lawlessness and to purify for himself a people who are truly his, ⁵⁷  who are eager to do good. ⁵⁸ 

Ibrani 6:7

6:7 For the ground that has soaked up the rain that frequently falls on ⁵⁹  it and yields useful vegetation for those who tend it receives a blessing from God.

Ibrani 12:10-11

12:10 For they disciplined us for a little while as seemed good to them, but he does so for our benefit, that we may share his holiness. 12:11 Now all discipline seems painful at the time, not joyful. ⁶⁰  But later it produces the fruit of peace and righteousness ⁶¹  for those trained by it.

Ibrani 12:15

12:15 See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God, that no one be like a bitter root springing up ⁶²  and causing trouble, and through him many become defiled.

Wahyu 3:19

3:19 All those ⁶³  I love, I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent!

[17:9]  ¹ tn The last two words are the imperfect verb יֹסִיף (yosif) which means “he adds,” and the abstract noun “energy, strength.” This noun is not found elsewhere; its Piel verb occurs in Job 4:4 and 16:5. “he increases strength.”

[51:7]  ² tn The imperfect verbal form is used here to express the psalmist’s wish or request.

[51:7]  ³ tn Heb “cleanse me with hyssop.” “Hyssop” was a small plant (see 1 Kgs 4:33) used to apply water (or blood) in purification rites (see Exod 12:22; Lev 14:4-6, 49-52; Num 19:6-18. The psalmist uses the language and imagery of such rites to describe spiritual cleansing through forgiveness.

[51:7]  ⁴ tn After the preceding imperfect, the imperfect with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates result.

[51:7]  ⁵ tn The imperfect verbal form is used here to express the psalmist’s wish or request.

[51:7]  ⁶ sn I will be whiter than snow. Whiteness here symbolizes the moral purity resulting from forgiveness (see Isa 1:18).

[51:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “cause me to hear happiness and joy.” The language is metonymic: the effect of forgiveness (joy) has been substituted for its cause. The psalmist probably alludes here to an assuring word from God announcing that his sins are forgiven (a so-called oracle of forgiveness). The imperfect verbal form is used here to express the psalmist’s wish or request. The synonyms “happiness” and “joy” are joined together as a hendiadys to emphasize the degree of joy he anticipates.

[51:8]  ⁸ sn May the bones you crushed rejoice. The psalmist compares his sinful condition to that of a person who has been physically battered and crushed. Within this metaphorical framework, his “bones” are the seat of his emotional strength.

[51:8]  ⁹ tn In this context of petitionary prayer, the prefixed verbal form is understood as a jussive, expressing the psalmist’s wish or request.

[51:9]  ¹⁰ sn In this context Hide your face from my sins means “Do not hold me accountable for my sins.”

[51:9]  ¹¹ tn See the note on the similar expression “wipe away my rebellious acts” in v. 1.

[51:10]  ¹² sn The heart is viewed here as the seat of the psalmist’s motives and moral character.

[51:10]  ¹³ tn Heb “and a reliable spirit renew in my inner being.”

[51:11]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “do not cast me away from before you.”

[51:11]  ¹⁵ sn Your Holy Spirit. The personal Spirit of God is mentioned frequently in the OT, but only here and in Isa 63:10-11 is he called “your/his Holy Spirit.”

[51:11]  ¹⁶ sn Do not take…away. The psalmist expresses his fear that, due to his sin, God will take away the Holy Spirit from him. NT believers enjoy the permanent gift of the Holy Spirit and need not make such a request nor fear such a consequence. However, in the OT God’s Spirit empowered certain individuals for special tasks and only temporarily resided in them. For example, when God rejected Saul as king and chose David to replace him, the divine Spirit left Saul and came upon David (1 Sam 16:13-14).

[51:12]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and [with] a willing spirit sustain me.” The psalmist asks that God make him the kind of person who willingly obeys the divine commandments. The imperfect verbal form is used here to express the psalmist’s wish or request.

[51:13]  ¹⁸ tn The cohortative expresses the psalmist’s resolve. This may be a vow or promise. If forgiven, the psalmist will “repay” the Lord by declaring God’s mercy and motivating other sinners to repent.

[51:13]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “your ways.” The word “merciful” is added for clarification. God’s “ways” are sometimes his commands, but in this context, where the teaching of God’s ways motivates repentance (see the next line), it is more likely that God’s merciful and compassionate way of dealing with sinners is in view. Thanksgiving songs praising God for his deliverance typically focus on these divine attributes (see Pss 34, 41, 116, 138).

[51:13]  ²⁰ tn Or “return,” i.e., in repentance.

[4:18]  ²¹ tn Heb “like light of brightness.” This construction is an attributive genitive: “bright light.” The word “light” (אוֹר, ’or) refers to the early morning light or the dawn (BDB 21 s.v.). The point of the simile is that the course of life that the righteous follow is like the clear, bright morning light. It is illumined, clear, easy to follow, and healthy and safe – the opposite of what darkness represents.

[4:18]  ²² tn The construction uses the Qal active participle of הָלַךְ (halakh) in a metaphorical sense to add the idea of continuance or continually to the participle הוֹלֵךְ (holekh). Here the path was growing light, but the added participle signifies continually.

[4:18]  ²³ tn Heb “until the day is established.” This expression refers to the coming of the full day or the time of high noon.

[27:9]  ²⁴ tn Or “be atoned for” (NIV); cf. NRSV “be expiated.”

[27:9]  ²⁵ tn Heb “and this [is] all the fruit of removing his sin.” The meaning of the statement is not entirely clear, though “removing his sin” certainly parallels “Jacob’s sin will be removed” in the preceding line. If original, “all the fruit” may refer to the result of the decision to remove sin, but the phrase may be a corruption of לְכַפֵּר (lekhaper, “to atone for”), which in turn might be a gloss on הָסִר (hasir, “removing”).

[27:9]  ²⁶ tn Heb “when he makes the stones of an altar.” The singular “altar” is collective here; pagan altars are in view, as the last line of the verse indicates. See also 17:8.

[27:9]  ²⁷ sn As interpreted and translated above, this verse says that Israel must totally repudiate its pagan religious practices in order to experience God’s forgiveness and restoration. Another option is to understand “in this way” and “this” in v. 9a as referring back to the judgment described in v. 8. In this case כָּפַר (kafar, “atone for”) is used in a sarcastic sense; Jacob’s sin is “atoned for” and removed through severe judgment. Following this line of interpretation, one might paraphrase the verse as follows: “So in this way (through judgment) Jacob’s sin will be “atoned for,” and this is the way his sin will be removed, when he (i.e., God) makes all the altar stones like crushed limestone….” This interpretation is more consistent with the tone of judgment in vv. 8 and 10-11.

[29:19]  ²⁸ tn Or “will rejoice” (NIV, NCV, NLT).

[29:19]  ²⁹ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[6:3]  ³⁰ tn The object (“him”) is omitted in the Hebrew text, but supplied in the translation for clarity.

[6:3]  ³¹ tn Heb “let us pursue in order to know.” The Hebrew term רָדַף (radaf, “to pursue”) is used figuratively: “to aim to secure” (BDB 923 s.v. רָדַף 2). It describes the pursuit of a moral goal: “Do not pervert justice…nor accept a bribe…pursue [רָדַף] justice” (Deut 16:20); “those who pursue [רָדַף] righteousness and who seek [בָּקַשׁ, baqash] the Lord” (Isa 51:1); “He who pursues [רָדַף] righteousness and love finds life, prosperity, and honor” (Prov 21:20); “Seek [בָּקַשׁ] peace and pursue [רָדַף] it” (Ps 34:15); “they slander me when I pursue [רָדַף] good” (Ps 38:21).

[6:3]  ³² tn The Hebrew infinitive construct with לְ (lamed) denotes purpose: “to know” (לָדַעַת, lada’at).

[3:12]  ³³ sn A winnowing fork was a pitchfork-like tool used to toss threshed grain in the air so that the wind blew away the chaff, leaving the grain to fall to the ground. The note of purging is highlighted by the use of imagery involving sifting though threshed grain for the useful kernels.

[3:12]  ³⁴ tn Or “granary,” “barn” (referring to a building used to store a farm’s produce rather than a building to house livestock).

[3:12]  ³⁵ sn The image of fire that cannot be extinguished is from the OT: Job 20:26; Isa 34:8-10; 66:24.

[13:12]  ³⁶ sn What he has will be taken from him. The meaning is that the one who accepts Jesus’ teaching concerning his person and the kingdom will receive a share in the kingdom now and even more in the future, but for the one who rejects Jesus’ words, the opportunity that that person presently possesses with respect to the kingdom will someday be taken away forever.

[13:33]  ³⁷ tn Grk “hid in.”

[13:33]  ³⁸ sn This measure was a saton, the Greek name for the Hebrew term “seah.” Three of these was a very large quantity of flour, since a saton is a little over 16 pounds (7 kg) of dry measure (or 13.13 liters). So this was over 47 lbs (21 kg) of flour total, enough to feed over a hundred people.

[13:33]  ³⁹ tn Grk “it was all leavened.”

[13:33]  sn The parable of the yeast and the dough teaches that the kingdom of God will start small but eventually grow to permeate everything. Jesus’ point was not to be deceived by its seemingly small start, the same point made in the parable of the mustard seed, which preceded this one.

[5:3]  ⁴⁰ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[5:5]  ⁴¹ tn The phrase ἡ ἀγάπη τοῦ θεοῦ (Jh agaph tou qeou, “the love of God”) could be interpreted as either an objective genitive (“our love for God”), subjective genitive (“God’s love for us”), or both (M. Zerwick’s “general” genitive [Biblical Greek, §§36-39]; D. B. Wallace’s “plenary” genitive [ExSyn 119-21]). The immediate context, which discusses what God has done for believers, favors a subjective genitive, but the fact that this love is poured out within the hearts of believers implies that it may be the source for believers’ love for God; consequently an objective genitive cannot be ruled out. It is possible that both these ideas are meant in the text and that this is a plenary genitive: “The love that comes from God and that produces our love for God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (ExSyn 121).

[5:5]  ⁴² sn On the OT background of the Spirit being poured out, see Isa 32:15; Joel 2:28-29.

[8:28]  ⁴³ tc ὁ θεός (Jo qeos, “God”) is found after the verb συνεργεῖ (sunergei, “work”) in v. 28 by Ì⁴⁶ A B 81 sa; the shorter reading is found in א C D F G Ψ 33 1739 1881 Ï latt sy bo. Although the inclusion is supported by a significant early papyrus, the alliance of significant Alexandrian and Western witnesses favors the shorter reading. As well, the longer reading is evidently motivated by a need for clarification. Since ὁ θεός is textually suspect, it is better to read the text without it. This leaves two good translational options: either “he works all things together for good” or “all things work together for good.” In the first instance the subject is embedded in the verb and “God” is clearly implied (as in v. 29). In the second instance, πάντα (panta) becomes the subject of an intransitive verb. In either case, “What is expressed is a truly biblical confidence in the sovereignty of God” (C. E. B. Cranfield, Romans [ICC], 1:427).

[8:2]  ⁴⁴ tn Grk “for the law of the Spirit of life.”

[8:2]  ⁴⁵ tc Most mss read the first person singular pronoun με (me) here (A D 1739^c 1881 Ï lat sa). The second person singular pronoun σε (se) is superior because of external support (א B {F which reads σαι} G 1506* 1739*) and internal support (it is the harder reading since ch. 7 was narrated in the first person). At the same time, it could have arisen via dittography from the final syllable of the verb preceding it (ἠλευθέρωσεν, hleuqerwsen; “has set free”). But for this to happen in such early and diverse witnesses is unlikely, especially as it depends on various scribes repeatedly overlooking either the nu or the nu-bar at the end of the verb.

[4:18]  ⁴⁶ tn Grk “the greeting by my hand, of Paul.”

[4:18]  ⁴⁷ tn Or “my imprisonment.”

[4:18]  ⁴⁸ tc Most witnesses, including a few important ones (א² D Ψ 075 0278 Ï lat sy), conclude this letter with ἀμήν (amhn, “amen”). Such a conclusion is routinely added by scribes to NT books because a few of these books originally had such an ending (cf. Rom 16:27; Gal 6:18; Jude 25). A majority of Greek witnesses have the concluding ἀμήν in every NT book except Acts, James, and 3 John (and even in these books, ἀμήν is found in some witnesses). It is thus a predictable variant. Further, the external evidence for the omission is quite compelling (א* A B C F G 048 6 33 81 1739* 1881 sa). The strongly preferred reading is therefore the omission of ἀμήν.

[1:1]  ⁴⁹ tn Grk “Paul.” The word “from” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.

[1:1]  ⁵⁰ tn Traditionally, “servants” or “bondservants.” Though δοῦλος (doulos) is normally translated “servant,” the word does not bear the connotation of a free individual serving another. BDAG notes that “‘servant’ for ‘slave’ is largely confined to Biblical transl. and early American times…in normal usage at the present time the two words are carefully distinguished” (BDAG 260 s.v.). The most accurate translation is “bondservant” (sometimes found in the ASV for δοῦλος), in that it often indicates one who sells himself into slavery to another. But as this is archaic, few today understand its force.

[1:1]  sn Undoubtedly the background for the concept of being the Lord’s slave or servant is to be found in the Old Testament scriptures. For a Jew this concept did not connote drudgery, but honor and privilege. It was used of national Israel at times (Isa 43:10), but was especially associated with famous OT personalities, including such great men as Moses (Josh 14:7), David (Ps 89:3; cf. 2 Sam 7:5, 8) and Elijah (2 Kgs 10:10); all these men were “servants (or slaves) of the Lord.”

[1:1]  ⁵¹ map For location see JP1 C1; JP2 C1; JP3 C1; JP4 C1.

[1:1]  ⁵² sn The overseers (or “church leaders,” L&N 53.71) is another term for the same official position of leadership as the “elder.” This is seen in the interchange of the two terms in Titus 1:6-7 and in Acts 20:17, 28, as well as in the parallels between Titus 1:6-7 and 1 Tim 3:1-7.

[1:23]  ⁵³ tn Grk “I am hard-pressed between the two.” Cf. L&N 30.18.

[1:24]  ⁵⁴ tn Grk “But to remain in the flesh is more necessary for you.”

[1:24]  ⁵⁵ tn Grk “the flesh.”

[2:14]  ⁵⁶ tn Grk “who” (as a continuation of the previous clause).

[2:14]  ⁵⁷ tn Or “a people who are his very own.”

[2:14]  ⁵⁸ tn Grk “for good works.”

[6:7]  ⁵⁹ tn Grk “comes upon.”

[12:11]  ⁶⁰ tn Grk “all discipline at the time does not seem to be of joy, but of sorrow.”

[12:11]  ⁶¹ tn Grk “the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”

[12:15]  ⁶² tn Grk “that there not be any root of bitterness,” but referring figuratively to a person who causes trouble (as in Deut 29:17 [LXX] from which this is quoted).

[12:15]  sn An allusion to Deut 29:18.

[3:19]  ⁶³ tn The Greek pronoun ὅσος (Josos) means “as many as” and can be translated “All those” or “Everyone.”