Psalms 24:3-4

24:3 Who is allowed to ascend ¹  the mountain of the Lord? ² 

Who may go up to his holy dwelling place?

24:4 The one whose deeds are blameless

and whose motives are pure, ³ 

who does not lie, ⁴ 

or make promises with no intention of keeping them. ⁵ 

Psalms 24:7

24:7 Look up, ⁶  you gates!

Rise up, ⁷  you eternal doors!

Then the majestic king ⁸  will enter! ⁹ 

Psalms 24:9

24:9 Look up, you gates!

Rise up, you eternal doors!

Then the majestic king will enter!

Isaiah 26:2

26:2 Open the gates so a righteous nation can enter –

one that remains trustworthy.

Isaiah 35:8-10

35:8 A thoroughfare will be there –

it will be called the Way of Holiness. ¹⁰ 

The unclean will not travel on it;

it is reserved for those authorized to use it ¹¹  –

fools ¹²  will not stray into it.

35:9 No lions will be there,

no ferocious wild animals will be on it ¹³  –

they will not be found there.

Those delivered from bondage will travel on it,

35:10 those whom the Lord has ransomed will return that way. ¹⁴ 

They will enter Zion with a happy shout.

Unending joy will crown them, ¹⁵ 

happiness and joy will overwhelm ¹⁶  them;

grief and suffering will disappear. ¹⁷ 

Revelation 21:24-27

21:24 The nations ¹⁸  will walk by its light and the kings of the earth will bring their grandeur ¹⁹  into it. 21:25 Its gates will never be closed during the day ²⁰  (and ²¹  there will be no night there). ²²  21:26 They will bring the grandeur and the wealth ²³  of the nations ²⁴  into it, 21:27 but ²⁵  nothing ritually unclean ²⁶  will ever enter into it, nor anyone who does what is detestable ²⁷  or practices falsehood, ²⁸  but only those whose names ²⁹  are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

Revelation 22:14-15

22:14 Blessed are those who wash their robes so they can have access ³⁰  to the tree of life and can enter into the city by the gates. 22:15 Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers ³¹  and the sexually immoral, and the murderers, and the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood! ³² 

[24:3]  ¹ tn The imperfects in v. 3 are modal, expressing potential or permission.

[24:3]  ² sn In this context the Lord’s mountain probably refers to Zion/Jerusalem (see Isa 2:2-3).

[24:4]  ³ tn Heb “the innocent of hands and the pure of heart.” The “hands” allude to one’s actions, the “heart” to one’s thought life and motives.

[24:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “who does not lift up for emptiness my life.” The first person pronoun on נַפְשִׁי (nafshiy, “my life”) makes little sense here; many medieval Hebrew mss support the ancient versions in reading a third person pronoun “his.” The idiom “lift the life” here means to “long for” or “desire strongly.” In this context (note the reference to an oath in the following line) “emptiness” probably refers to speech (see Ps 12:2).

[24:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “and does not swear an oath deceitfully.”

[24:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “lift up your heads.” The gates of the Lord’s dwelling place are here personified. The idiom “lift up the head” often means “be confident, bold” (see Judg 8:28; Job 10:15; Ps 83:2; Zech 1:21).

[24:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “lift yourselves up.”

[24:7]  ⁸ tn Or “king of glory.”

[24:7]  ⁹ tn Following the imperatives of the preceding lines, the prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose or result.

[35:8]  ¹⁰ tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “and there will be there a road and a way, and the Way of Holiness it will be called.” וְדֶרֶךְ (vÿderekh, “and a/the way”) is accidentally duplicated; the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a does not reflect the repetition of the phrase.

[35:8]  ¹¹ tn The precise meaning of this line is uncertain. The text reads literally “and it is for them, the one who walks [on the] way.” In this context those authorized to use the Way of Holiness would be morally upright people who are the recipients of God’s deliverance, in contrast to the morally impure and foolish who are excluded from the new covenant community.

[35:8]  ¹² tn In this context “fools” are those who are morally corrupt, not those with limited intellectual capacity.

[35:9]  ¹³ tn Heb “will go up on it”; TEV “will pass that way.”

[35:10]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and the redeemed will walk, the ransomed of the Lord will return.”

[35:10]  ¹⁵ 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.

[35:10]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “will overtake” (NIV); NLT “they will be overcome with.”

[35:10]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “grief and groaning will flee”; KJV “sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”

[21:24]  ¹⁸ tn Or “the Gentiles” (the same Greek word may be translated “Gentiles” or “nations”).

[21:24]  ¹⁹ tn Or “splendor”; Grk “glory.”

[21:25]  ²⁰ tn On the translation “during the day” see BDAG 436 s.v. ἡμέρα 1.a, “But also, as in Thu. et al., of time within which someth. occurs, ἡμέρας during the day Rv 21:25.”

[21:25]  ²¹ tn The Greek connective γάρ (gar) most often expresses some sort of causal connection. However, in this context there is no causal force to the second phrase; γάρ simply expresses continuation or connection. Because of this it has been translated as “and.” See BDAG 189-90 s.v. 2.

[21:25]  ²² tn The clause has virtually the force of a parenthetical comment.

[21:26]  ²³ tn Grk “honor,” but BDAG 1005 s.v. τιμή 2.b states, “An outstanding feature of the use of τ., as already shown in several passages, is its combination w. δόξα…of earthly possessions τὴν δόξαν καὶ τὴν τιμὴν τῶν ἐθνῶν Rv 21:26 (τιμή concr.=an object of value: Ezk 22:25).”

[21:26]  ²⁴ tn Or “the Gentiles” (the same Greek word may be translated “Gentiles” or “nations”).

[21:27]  ²⁵ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.

[21:27]  ²⁶ tn Here BDAG 552 s.v. κοινός 2 states, “pert. to being of little value because of being common, common, ordinary, profane…b. specifically, of that which is ceremonially impure: Rv 21:27.”

[21:27]  ²⁷ tn Or “what is abhorrent”; Grk “who practices abominations.”

[21:27]  ²⁸ tn Grk “practicing abomination or falsehood.” Because of the way βδέλυγμα (bdelugma) has been translated (“does what is detestable”) it was necessary to repeat the idea from the participle ποιῶν (poiwn, “practices”) before the term “falsehood.” On this term, BDAG 1097 s.v. ψεῦδος states, “ποιεῖν ψεῦδος practice (the things that go with) falsehood Rv 21:27; 22:15.” Cf. Rev 3:9.

[21:27]  ²⁹ tn Grk “those who are written”; the word “names” is implied.

[22:14]  ³⁰ tn Grk “so that there will be to them authority over the tree of life.”

[22:15]  ³¹ tn On the term φάρμακοι (farmakoi) see L&N 53.101.

[22:15]  ³² tn Or “lying,” “deceit.”