Maleakhi 1:11

1:11 For from the east to the west my name will be great among the nations. Incense and pure offerings will be offered in my name everywhere, for my name will be great among the nations,” ¹  says the Lord who rules over all.

Mazmur 4:5

4:5 Offer the prescribed sacrifices ² 

and trust in the Lord! ³ 

Mazmur 50:14

50:14 Present to God a thank-offering!

Repay your vows to the sovereign One! ⁴ 

Mazmur 50:23

50:23 Whoever presents a thank-offering honors me. ⁵ 

To whoever obeys my commands, I will reveal my power to deliver.” ⁶ 

Mazmur 69:30-31

69:30 I will sing praises to God’s name! ⁷ 

I will magnify him as I give him thanks! ⁸ 

69:31 That will please the Lord more than an ox or a bull

with horns and hooves.

Mazmur 107:21-22

107:21 Let them give thanks to the Lord for his loyal love,

and for the amazing things he has done for people! ⁹ 

107:22 Let them present thank offerings,

and loudly proclaim what he has done! ¹⁰ 

Mazmur 116:17

116:17 I will present a thank offering to you,

and call on the name of the Lord.

Mazmur 141:1-2

Psalm 141 ¹¹ 

A psalm of David.

141:1 O Lord, I cry out to you. Come quickly to me!

Pay attention to me when I cry out to you!

141:2 May you accept my prayer like incense,

my uplifted hands like the evening offering! ¹² 

Hosea 14:2

14:2 Return to the Lord and repent! ¹³ 

Say to him: “Completely ¹⁴  forgive our iniquity;

accept ¹⁵  our penitential prayer, ¹⁶ 

that we may offer the praise of our lips as sacrificial bulls. ¹⁷ 

Yohanes 4:23-24

4:23 But a time ¹⁸  is coming – and now is here ¹⁹  – when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks ²⁰  such people to be ²¹  his worshipers. ²²  4:24 God is spirit, ²³  and the people who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Roma 12:1

Consecration of the Believer’s Life

12:1 Therefore I exhort you, brothers and sisters, ²⁴  by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice – alive, holy, and pleasing to God ²⁵  – which is your reasonable service.

Roma 15:16

15:16 to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles. I serve ²⁶  the gospel of God ²⁷  like a priest, so that the Gentiles may become an acceptable offering, ²⁸  sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

Filipi 2:17

2:17 But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice together with all of you.

Filipi 4:18

4:18 For I have received everything, and I have plenty. I have all I need because I received from Epaphroditus what you sent – a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, very pleasing to God.

Filipi 4:2

4:2 I appeal to Euodia and to Syntyche to agree in the Lord.

Titus 1:6

1:6 An elder must be blameless, ²⁹  the husband of one wife, ³⁰  with faithful children ³¹  who cannot be charged with dissipation or rebellion.

Ibrani 13:15-16

13:15 Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, acknowledging his name. 13:16 And do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, ³²  for God is pleased with such sacrifices.

Ibrani 13:1

Final Exhortations

13:1 Brotherly love must continue.

Pengkhotbah 2:5

2:5 I designed ³³  royal gardens ³⁴  and parks ³⁵  for myself,

and I planted all kinds of fruit trees in them.

Pengkhotbah 2:9

2:9 So ³⁶  I was far wealthier ³⁷  than all my predecessors in Jerusalem,

yet I maintained my objectivity: ³⁸ 

[1:11]  ¹ sn My name will be great among the nations. In what is clearly a strongly ironic shift of thought, the Lord contrasts the unbelief and virtual paganism of the postexilic community with the conversion and obedience of the nations that will one day worship the God of Israel.

[4:5]  ² tn Or “proper, right.” The phrase also occurs in Deut 33:19 and Ps 51:19.

[4:5]  ³ sn Trust in the Lord. The psalmist urges his enemies to make peace with God and become his followers.

[50:14]  ⁴ tn Heb “Most High.” This divine title (עֶלְיוֹן, ’elyon) pictures God as the exalted ruler of the universe who vindicates the innocent and judges the wicked. See especially Pss 7:17; 9:2; 18:13; 21:7; 47:2.

[50:23]  ⁵ sn The reference to a thank-offering recalls the earlier statement made in v. 14. Gratitude characterizes genuine worship.

[50:23]  ⁶ tn Heb “and [to one who] sets a way I will show the deliverance of God.” Elsewhere the phrase “set a way” simply means “to travel” (see Gen 30:36; cf. NRSV). The present translation assumes an emendation of וְשָׂם דֶּרֶךְ (vÿsam derekh) to וְשֹׁמֵר דְּרָכַּי (vÿshomer dÿrakhay, “and [the one who] keeps my ways” [i.e., commands, see Pss 18:21; 37:34). Another option is to read וְשֹׁמֵר דַּרְכּוֹ (vÿshomer darko, “and [the one who] guards his way,” i.e., “the one who is careful to follow a godly lifestyle”; see Ps 39:1).

[69:30]  ⁷ tn Heb “I will praise the name of God with a song.”

[69:30]  ⁸ tn Heb “I will magnify him with thanks.”

[107:21]  ⁹ tn Heb “and [for] his amazing deeds for the sons of man.” See v. 8.

[107:22]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and let them proclaim his works with a ringing cry.”

[141:1]  ¹¹ sn Psalm 141. The psalmist asks God to protect him from sin and from sinful men.

[141:2]  ¹² tn Heb “may my prayer be established [like] incense before you, the uplifting of my hands [like] an evening offering.”

[14:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “Take words with you and return to the Lord” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[14:2]  ¹⁴ tn The word order כָּל־תִּשָּׂא עָוֹן (kol-tisa’ ’avon) is syntactically awkward. The BHS editors suggest rearranging the word order: תִּשָּׂא כָּל־עוֹן (“Forgive all [our] iniquity!”). However, Gesenius suggests that כָּל (“all”) does not function as the construct in the genitive phrase כָּל־עוֹן (“all [our] iniquity”); it functions adverbially modifying the verb תִּשָּׂא (“Completely forgive!”; see GKC 415 §128.e).

[14:2]  ¹⁵ sn The repetition of the root לָקַח (laqakh) creates a striking wordplay in 14:2. If Israel will bring (לָקַח) its confession to God, he will accept (לָקַח) repentant Israel and completely forgive its sin.

[14:2]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and accept [our] speech.” The word טוֹב (tov) is often confused with the common homonymic root I טוֹב (tov, “good”; BDB 373 s.v. I טוֹב). However, this is probably IV טוֹב (tov, “word, speech”; HALOT 372 s.v. IV טוֹב), a hapax legomenon that is related to the verb טבב (“to speak”; HALOT 367 s.v. טבב) and the noun טִבָּה (tibbah, “rumor”; HALOT 367 s.v. טִבָּה). The term טוֹב (“word; speech”) refers to the repentant prayer mentioned in 14:1-3. Most translations relate it to I טוֹב and treat it as (1) accusative direct object: “accept that which is good” (RSV, NJPS), “Accept our good sacrifices” (CEV), or (2) adverbial accusative of manner: “receive [us] graciously” (KJV, NASB, NIV). Note TEV, however, which follows the suggestion made here: “accept our prayer.”

[14:2]  ¹⁷ tc The MT reads פָרִים (farim, “bulls”), but the LXX reflects פְּרִי (pÿri, “fruit”), a reading followed by NASB, NIV, NRSV: “that we may offer the fruit of [our] lips [as sacrifices to you].” Although the Greek expression in Heb 13:15 (καρπὸν χειλέων, karpon xeilewn, “the fruit of lips”) reflects this LXX phrase, the MT makes good sense as it stands; NT usage of the LXX should not be considered decisive in resolving OT textual problems. The noun פָרִים (parim, “bulls”) functions as an adverbial accusative of state.

[4:23]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “an hour.”

[4:23]  ¹⁹ tn “Here” is not in the Greek text but is supplied to conform to contemporary English idiom.

[4:23]  ²⁰ sn See also John 4:27.

[4:23]  ²¹ tn Or “as.” The object-complement construction implies either “as” or “to be.”

[4:23]  ²² tn This is a double accusative construction of object and complement with τοιούτους (toioutous) as the object and the participle προσκυνοῦντας (proskunounta") as the complement.

[4:23]  sn The Father wants such people as his worshipers. Note how the woman has been concerned about where people ought to worship, while Jesus is concerned about who people ought to worship.

[4:24]  ²³ tn Here πνεῦμα (pneuma) is understood as a qualitative predicate nominative while the articular θεός (qeos) is the subject.

[12:1]  ²⁴ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:13.

[12:1]  ²⁵ tn The participle and two adjectives “alive, holy, and pleasing to God” are taken as predicates in relation to “sacrifice,” making the exhortation more emphatic. See ExSyn 618-19.

[12:1]  sn Taken as predicate adjectives, the terms alive, holy, and pleasing are showing how unusual is the sacrifice that believers can now offer, for OT sacrifices were dead. As has often been quipped about this text, “The problem with living sacrifices is that they keep crawling off the altar.”

[15:16]  ²⁶ tn Grk “serving.” This is a continuation of the previous sentence in the Greek text, but in keeping with contemporary English style, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[15:16]  ²⁷ tn The genitive in the phrase τὸ εὐαγγέλιον τοῦ θεοῦ (to euangelion tou qeou, “the gospel of God”) could be translated as either a subjective genitive (“the gospel which God brings”) or an objective genitive (“the gospel about God”). Either is grammatically possible. This is possibly an instance of a plenary genitive (see ExSyn 119-21; M. Zerwick, Biblical Greek, §§36-39). If so, an interplay between the two concepts is intended: The gospel which God brings is in fact the gospel about himself.

[15:16]  ²⁸ tn Grk “so that the offering of the Gentiles may become acceptable.” This could be understood to refer to an offering belonging to the Gentiles (a possessive genitive) or made by the Gentiles (subjective genitive), but more likely the phrase should be understood as an appositive genitive, with the Gentiles themselves consisting of the offering (so J. D. G. Dunn, Romans [WBC 38], 2:860). The latter view is reflected in the translation “so that the Gentiles may become an acceptable offering.”

[1:6]  ²⁹ tn Grk “if anyone is blameless…” as a continuation of v. 5b, beginning to describe the elder’s character.

[1:6]  ³⁰ tn Or “married only once,” “devoted solely to his wife.” See the note on “wife” in 1 Tim 3:2; also 1 Tim 3:12; 5:9.

[1:6]  ³¹ tn Or “believing children.” The phrase could be translated “believing children,” but the parallel with 1 Tim 3:4 (“keeping his children in control”) argues for the sense given in the translation.

[13:16]  ³² tn Grk “neglect doing good and fellowship.”

[2:5]  ³³ tn Heb “made.”

[2:5]  ³⁴ tn The term does not refer here to vegetable gardens, but to orchards (cf. the next line). In the same way the so-called “garden” of Eden was actually an orchard filled with fruit trees. See Gen 2:8-9.

[2:5]  ³⁵ tn The noun פַּרְדֵּס (pardes, “garden, parkland, forest”) is a foreign loanword that occurs only 3 times in biblical Hebrew (Song 4:13; Eccl 2:5; Neh 2:8). The original Old Persian term pairidaeza designated the enclosed parks and pleasure-grounds that were the exclusive domain of the Persian kings and nobility (HALOT 963 s.v. פַּרְדֵּס; LSJ 1308 s.v παράδεισος). The related Babylonian term pardesu “marvelous garden” referred to the enclosed parks of the kings (AHw 2:833 and 3:1582). The term passed into Greek as παράδεισος (paradeisos, “enclosed park, pleasure-ground”), referring to the enclosed parks and gardens of the Persian kings (LSJ 1308). The Greek term has been transliterated into English as “paradise.”

[2:9]  ³⁶ tn The vav prefixed to וְגָדַלְתִּי (vÿgadalti, vav + Qal perfect first common singular from גָּדַל, gadal, “to be great; to increase”) functions in a final summarizing sense, that is, it introduces the concluding summary of 2:4-9.

[2:9]  ³⁷ tn Heb “I became great and I surpassed” (וְהוֹסַפְתִּי וְגָדַלְתִּי, vÿgadalti vÿhosafti). This is a verbal hendiadys in which the second verb functions adverbially, modifying the first: “I became far greater.” Most translations miss the hendiadys and render the line in a woodenly literal sense (KJV, ASV, RSV, NEB, NRSV, NAB, NASB, MLB, Moffatt), while only a few recognize the presence of hendiadys here: “I became greater by far” (NIV) and “I gained more” (NJPS).

[2:9]  ³⁸ tn Heb “yet my wisdom stood for me,” meaning he retained his wise perspective despite his great wealth.