1 Kings 21:20

21:20 When Elijah arrived, Ahab said to him, ¹  “So, you have found me, my enemy!” Elijah ²  replied, “I have found you, because you are committed ³  to doing evil in the sight of ⁴  the Lord.

Psalms 119:46

119:46 I will speak ⁵  about your regulations before kings

and not be ashamed.

Ezekiel 2:6

2:6 But you, son of man, do not fear them, and do not fear their words – even though briers ⁶  and thorns ⁷  surround you and you live among scorpions – do not fear their words and do not be terrified of the looks they give you, ⁸  for they are a rebellious house!

Jonah 3:3-4

3:3 So Jonah went immediately to Nineveh, as the Lord had said. (Now Nineveh was an enormous city ⁹  – it required three days to walk through it!) ¹⁰  3:4 When Jonah began to enter the city one day’s walk, he announced, “At the end of forty days, ¹¹  Nineveh will be overthrown!” ¹² 

Matthew 10:18

10:18 And you will be brought before governors and kings ¹³  because of me, as a witness to them and the Gentiles.

Matthew 10:28

10:28 Do ¹⁴  not be afraid of those who kill the body ¹⁵  but cannot kill the soul. Instead, fear the one who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. ¹⁶ 

Acts 4:29

4:29 And now, Lord, pay attention to ¹⁷  their threats, and grant ¹⁸  to your servants ¹⁹  to speak your message ²⁰  with great courage, ²¹ 

¹ tn Heb “and Ahab said to Elijah.” The narrative is elliptical and streamlined. The words “when Elijah arrived” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

² tn Heb “he”; the referent (Elijah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

³ tn Heb “you have sold yourself.”

⁴ tn Heb “in the eyes of.”

⁵ tn The series of four cohortatives with prefixed vav (ו) conjunctive in vv. 46-48 list further consequences of the anticipated positive divine response to the request made in v. 43.

⁶ tn The Hebrew term occurs only here in the OT.

⁷ tn The Hebrew term is found elsewhere in the OT only in Ezek 28:24.

⁸ tn Heb “of their faces.”

⁹ tn Heb “was a great city to God/gods.” The greatness of Nineveh has been mentioned already in 1:2 and 3:2. What is being added now? Does the term לֵאלֹהִים (le’lohim, “to God/gods”) (1) refer to the Lord’s personal estimate of the city, (2) does it speak of the city as “belonging to” God, (3) does it refer to Nineveh as a city with many shrines and gods, or (4) is it simply an idiomatic reinforcement of the city’s size? Interpreters do not agree on the answer. To introduce the idea either of God’s ownership or of dedication to idolatry (though not impossible) is unexpected here, being without parallel or follow-up elsewhere in the book. The alternatives “great/large/important in God’s estimation” (consider Ps 89:41b) or the merely idiomatic “exceptionally great/large/important” could both be amplified by focus on physical size in the following phrase and are both consistent with emphases elsewhere in the book (Jonah 4:11 again puts attention on size – of population). If “great” is best understood as a reference primarily to size here, in view of the following phrase and v. 4a (Jonah went “one day’s walk”), rather than to importance, this might weigh slightly in favor of an idiomatic “very great/large,” though no example with “God” used idiomatically to indicate superlative (Gen 23:6; 30:8; Exod 9:28; 1 Sam 14:15; Pss 36:6; 80:10) has exactly the same construction as the wording in Jonah 3:3.

¹⁰ tn Heb “a three-day walk.” The term “required” is supplied in the translation for the sake of smoothness and clarity.

¹¹ tn Heb “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown!” The adverbial use of עוֹד (’od, “yet”) denotes limited temporal continuation (BDB 728 s.v. עוֹד 1.a; Gen 29:7; Isa 10:32). Tg. Jonah 3:4 rendered it as “at the end of [forty days, Nineveh will be overthrown].”

¹² tn Heb “be overturned.” The Niphal נֶהְפָּכֶת (nehpakhet, “be overturned”) refers to a city being overthrown and destroyed (BDB 246 s.v. הָפַךְ 2.d). The related Qal form refers to the destruction of a city by military conquest (Judg 7:3; 2 Sam 10:3; 2 Kgs 21:13; Amos 4:11) or divine intervention as in the case of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 19:21, 25, 29; Deut 29:22; Jer 20:16; Lam 4:6; BDB 245 s.v. 1.b). The participle form used here depicts an imminent future action (see IBHS 627-28 §37.6f) which is specified as only “forty days” away.

¹³ sn These statements look at persecution both from a Jewish context as the mention of courts and synagogues suggests, and from a Gentile one as the reference to governors and kings suggests. Some fulfillment of Jewish persecution can be seen in Acts.

¹⁴ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

¹⁵ sn Judaism had a similar exhortation in 4 Macc 13:14-15.

¹⁶ sn See the note on the word hell in 5:22.

¹⁷ tn Or “Lord, take notice of.”

¹⁸ sn Grant to your servants to speak your message with great courage. The request is not for a stop to persecution or revenge on the opponents, but for boldness (great courage) to carry out the mission of proclaiming the message of what God is doing through Jesus.

¹⁹ tn Grk “slaves.” See the note on the word “servants” in 2:18.

²⁰ tn Grk “word.”

²¹ tn Or “with all boldness.”