Genesis 21:16-19

21:16 Then she went and sat down by herself across from him at quite a distance, about a bowshot ¹  away; for she thought, ²  “I refuse to watch the child die.” ³  So she sat across from him and wept uncontrollably. ⁴ 

21:17 But God heard the boy’s voice. ⁵  The angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and asked her, “What is the matter, ⁶  Hagar? Don’t be afraid, for God has heard ⁷  the boy’s voice right where he is crying. 21:18 Get up! Help the boy up and hold him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation.” 21:19 Then God enabled Hagar to see a well of water. ⁸  She went over and filled the skin with water, and then gave the boy a drink.

Exodus 17:2-3

17:2 So the people contended ⁹  with Moses, and they said, “Give us water to drink!” ¹⁰  Moses said to them, “Why do you contend ¹¹  with me? Why do you test ¹²  the Lord?” 17:3 But the people were very thirsty ¹³  there for water, and they murmured against Moses and said, “Why in the world ¹⁴  did you bring us up out of Egypt – to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?” ¹⁵ 

Exodus 17:6

17:6 I will be standing ¹⁶  before you there on ¹⁷  the rock in Horeb, and you will strike ¹⁸  the rock, and water will come out of it so that the people may drink.” ¹⁹  And Moses did so in plain view ²⁰  of the elders of Israel.

Jude 1:18-19

1:18 For they said to you, “In the end time there will come ²¹  scoffers, propelled by their own ungodly desires.” ²²  1:19 These people are divisive, ²³  worldly, ²⁴  devoid of the Spirit. ²⁵ 

Jude 1:2

1:2 May mercy, peace, and love be lavished on you! ²⁶ 

Jude 1:15

1:15 to execute judgment on ²⁷  all, and to convict every person ²⁸  of all their thoroughly ungodly deeds ²⁹  that they have committed, ³⁰  and of all the harsh words that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” ³¹ 

Psalms 42:1-2

Book 2
(Psalms 42-72)

Psalm 42 ³² 

For the music director; a well-written song ³³  by the Korahites.

42:1 As a deer ³⁴  longs ³⁵  for streams of water,

so I long ³⁶  for you, O God!

42:2 I thirst ³⁷  for God,

for the living God.

I say, ³⁸  “When will I be able to go and appear in God’s presence?” ³⁹ 

Psalms 63:1

Psalm 63 ⁴⁰ 

A psalm of David, written when he was in the Judean wilderness. ⁴¹ 

63:1 O God, you are my God! I long for you! ⁴² 

My soul thirsts ⁴³  for you,

my flesh yearns for you,

in a dry and parched ⁴⁴  land where there is no water.

Isaiah 55:1

The Lord Gives an Invitation

55:1 “Hey, ⁴⁵  all who are thirsty, come to the water!

You who have no money, come!

Buy and eat!

Come! Buy wine and milk

without money and without cost! ⁴⁶ 

Jeremiah 18:14

18:14 Does the snow ever completely vanish from the rocky slopes of Lebanon?

Do the cool waters from those distant mountains ever cease to flow? ⁴⁷ 

John 7:37

Teaching About the Spirit

7:37 On the last day of the feast, the greatest day, ⁴⁸  Jesus stood up and shouted out, ⁴⁹  “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me, and

Revelation 21:6

21:6 He also said to me, “It is done! ⁵⁰  I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the one who is thirsty I will give water ⁵¹  free of charge ⁵²  from the spring of the water of life.

Revelation 22:17

22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say: “Come!” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wants it take the water of life free of charge.

[21:16]  ¹ sn A bowshot would be a distance of about a hundred yards (ninety meters).

[21:16]  ² tn Heb “said.”

[21:16]  ³ tn Heb “I will not look on the death of the child.” The cohortative verbal form (note the negative particle אַל,’al) here expresses her resolve to avoid the stated action.

[21:16]  ⁴ tn Heb “and she lifted up her voice and wept” (that is, she wept uncontrollably). The LXX reads “he” (referring to Ishmael) rather than “she” (referring to Hagar), but this is probably an attempt to harmonize this verse with the following one, which refers to the boy’s cries.

[21:17]  ⁵ sn God heard the boy’s voice. The text has not to this point indicated that Ishmael was crying out, either in pain or in prayer. But the text here makes it clear that God heard him. Ishmael is clearly central to the story. Both the mother and the Lord are focused on the child’s imminent death.

[21:17]  ⁶ tn Heb “What to you?”

[21:17]  ⁷ sn Here the verb heard picks up the main motif of the name Ishmael (“God hears”), introduced back in chap. 16.

[21:19]  ⁸ tn Heb “And God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water.” The referent (Hagar) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[17:2]  ⁹ tn The verb וַיָּרֶב (vayyarev) is from the root רִיב (riv); it forms the basis of the name “Meribah.” The word means “strive, quarrel, be in contention” and even “litigation.” A translation “quarrel” does not appear to capture the magnitude of what is being done here. The people have a legal dispute – they are contending with Moses as if bringing a lawsuit.

[17:2]  ¹⁰ tn The imperfect tense with the vav (ו) follows the imperative, and so it carries the nuance of the logical sequence, showing purpose or result. This may be expressed in English as “give us water so that we may drink,” but more simply with the English infinitive, “give us water to drink.”

[17:2]  ¹¹ tn In this case and in the next clause the imperfect tenses are to be taken as progressive imperfects – the action is in progress.

[17:2]  ¹² tn The verb נָסָה (nasah) means “to test, tempt, try, prove.” It can be used of people simply trying to do something that they are not sure of (such as David trying on Saul’s armor), or of God testing people to see if they will obey (as in testing Abraham, Gen 22:1), or of people challenging others (as in the Queen of Sheba coming to test Solomon), and of the people in the desert in rebellion putting God to the test. By doubting that God was truly in their midst, and demanding that he demonstrate his presence, they tested him to see if he would act. There are times when “proving” God is correct and required, but that is done by faith (as with Gideon); when it is done out of unbelief, then it is an act of disloyalty.

[17:3]  ¹³ tn The verbs and the pronouns in this verse are in the singular because “the people” is singular in form.

[17:3]  ¹⁴ tn The demonstrative pronoun is used as the enclitic form for special emphasis in the question; it literally says, “why is this you have brought us up?” (R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 24, §118).

[17:3]  ¹⁵ sn Their words deny God the credit for bringing them out of Egypt, impugn the integrity of Moses and God by accusing them of bringing the people out here to die, and show a lack of faith in God’s ability to provide for them.

[17:6]  ¹⁶ tn The construction uses הִנְנִי עֹמֵד (hinni ’omed) to express the futur instans or imminent future of the verb: “I am going to be standing.”

[17:6]  ¹⁷ tn Or “by” (NIV, NLT).

[17:6]  ¹⁸ tn The form is a Hiphil perfect with the vav (ו) consecutive; it follows the future nuance of the participle and so is equivalent to an imperfect tense nuance of instruction.

[17:6]  ¹⁹ tn These two verbs are also perfect tenses with vav (ו) consecutive: “and [water] will go out…and [the people] will drink.” But the second verb is clearly the intent or the result of the water gushing from the rock, and so it may be subordinated.

[17:6]  ²⁰ tn Heb “in the eyes of.”

[1:18]  ²¹ tn Grk “be.”

[1:18]  ²² tn Grk “going according to their own desires of ungodliness.”

[1:19]  ²³ tn Grk “these are the ones who cause divisions.”

[1:19]  ²⁴ tn Or “natural,” that is, living on the level of instincts, not on a spiritual level (the same word occurs in 1 Cor 2:14 as a description of nonbelievers).

[1:19]  ²⁵ tn Grk “not having [the] Spirit.”

[1:2]  ²⁶ tn Grk “may mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.”

[1:15]  ²⁷ tn Grk “against” (κατά [kata] + genitive). English usage is satisfied with “on” at this point, but the parallel is lost in the translation to some degree, for the end of v. 15 says that this judgment is meted out on these sinners because they spoke against him (κατά + genitive).

[1:15]  ²⁸ tn Or “soul.”

[1:15]  ²⁹ tn Grk “of all their works of ungodliness.” The adverb “thoroughly” is part of the following verb “have committed.” See note on verb “committed” later in this verse.

[1:15]  ³⁰ tn The verb in Greek does not simply mean “have committed,” but “have committed in an ungodly way.” The verb ἀσεβέω (asebew) is cognate to the noun ἀσέβεια (asebeia, “ungodliness”). There is no easy way to express this in English, since English does not have a single word that means the same thing. Nevertheless, the tenor of v. 15 is plainly seen, regardless of the translation.

[1:15]  ³¹ sn An apparent quotation from 1 En. 1:9. There is some doubt as to whether Jude is actually quoting from the text of 1 Enoch; the text here in Jude differs in some respects from the extant text of this pseudepigraphic book. It is sometimes suggested that Jude may instead have been quoting from oral tradition which had roots older than the written text.

[42:1]  ³² sn Psalm 42. The psalmist recalls how he once worshiped in the Lord’s temple, but laments that he is now oppressed by enemies in a foreign land. Some medieval Hebrew mss combine Psalms 42 and 43 into a single psalm.

[42:1]  ³³ tn The meaning of the Hebrew term מַשְׂכִּיל (maskil) is uncertain. The word is derived from a verb meaning “to be prudent; to be wise.” Various options are: “a contemplative song,” “a song imparting moral wisdom,” or “a skillful [i.e., well-written] song.” The term occurs in the superscriptions of Pss 32, 42, 44, 45, 52-55, 74, 78, 88, 89, and 142, as well as in Ps 47:7.

[42:1]  ³⁴ tn Since the accompanying verb is feminine in form, the noun אָיִּל (’ayyil, “male deer”) should be emended to אַיֶּלֶת (’ayyelet, “female deer”). Haplography of the letter tav has occurred; note that the following verb begins with tav.

[42:1]  ³⁵ tn Or “pants [with thirst].”

[42:1]  ³⁶ tn Or “my soul pants [with thirst].” The Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) with a pronominal suffix is often equivalent to a pronoun, especially in poetry (see BDB 660 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ 4.a).

[42:2]  ³⁷ tn Or “my soul thirsts.”

[42:2]  ³⁸ tn The words “I say” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons and for clarification.

[42:2]  ³⁹ tn Heb “When will I go and appear [to] the face of God?” Some emend the Niphal verbal form אֵרָאֶה (’era’eh, “I will appear”) to a Qal אֶרְאֶה (’er’eh, “I will see”; see Gen 33:10), but the Niphal can be retained if one understands ellipsis of אֶת (’et) before “face” (see Exod 34:24; Deut 31:11).

[63:1]  ⁴⁰ sn Psalm 63. The psalmist expresses his intense desire to be in God’s presence and confidently affirms that God will judge his enemies.

[63:1]  ⁴¹ sn According to the psalm superscription David wrote the psalm while in the “wilderness of Judah.” Perhaps this refers to the period described in 1 Sam 23-24 or to the incident mentioned in 2 Sam 15:23.

[63:1]  ⁴² tn Or “I will seek you.”

[63:1]  ⁴³ tn Or “I thirst.”

[63:1]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “faint” or “weary.” This may picture the land as “faint” or “weary,” or it may allude to the effect this dry desert has on those who are forced to live in it.

[55:1]  ⁴⁵ tn The Hebrew term הוֹי (hoy, “woe, ah”) was used in funeral laments and is often prefixed to judgment oracles for rhetorical effect. But here it appears to be a simple interjection, designed to grab the audience’s attention. Perhaps there is a note of sorrow or pity. See BDB 223 s.v.

[55:1]  ⁴⁶ sn The statement is an oxymoron. Its ironic quality adds to its rhetorical impact. The statement reminds one of the norm (one must normally buy commodities) as it expresses the astounding offer. One might paraphrase the statement: “Come and take freely what you normally have to pay for.”

[18:14]  ⁴⁷ tn The precise translation of this verse is somewhat uncertain. Two phrases in this verse are the primary cause of discussion and the source of numerous emendations, none of which has gained consensus. The phrase which is rendered here “rocky slopes” is in Hebrew צוּר שָׂדַי (tsur saday), which would normally mean something like “rocky crag of the field” (see BDB 961 s.v. שָׂדַי 1.g). Numerous emendations have been proposed, most of which are listed in the footnotes of J. A. Thompson, Jeremiah (NICOT), 436. The present translation has chosen to follow the proposal of several scholars that the word here is related to the Akkadian word shadu meaning mountain. The other difficulty is the word translated “cease” which in the MT is literally “be uprooted” (יִנָּתְשׁוּ, yinnatshu). The word is usually emended to read יִנָּשְׁתוּ (yinnashtu, “are dried up”) as a case of transposed letters (cf., e.g., BDB 684 s.v. נָתַשׁ Niph). This is probably a case of an error in hearing and the word נָטַשׁ (natash) which is often parallel to עָזַב (’azav), translated here “vanish,” should be read in the sense that it has in 1 Sam 10:2. Whether one reads “are plucked up” and understands it figuratively of ceasing (“are dried” or “cease”), the sense is the same. For the sense of “distant” for the word זָרִים (zarim) see 2 Kgs 19:24.

[7:37]  ⁴⁸ sn There is a problem with the identification of this reference to the last day of the feast, the greatest day: It appears from Deut 16:13 that the feast went for seven days. Lev 23:36, however, makes it plain that there was an eighth day, though it was mentioned separately from the seven. It is not completely clear whether the seventh or eighth day was the climax of the feast, called here by the author the “last great day of the feast.” Since according to the Mishnah (m. Sukkah 4.1) the ceremonies with water and lights did not continue after the seventh day, it seems more probable that this is the day the author mentions.

[7:37]  ⁴⁹ tn Grk “Jesus stood up and cried out, saying.”

[21:6]  ⁵⁰ tn Or “It has happened.”

[21:6]  ⁵¹ tn The word “water” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

[21:6]  ⁵² tn Or “as a free gift” (see L&N 57.85).