1 Kings 8:50

8:50 Forgive all the rebellious acts of your sinful people and cause their captors to have mercy on them. ¹ 

Nehemiah 1:11

1:11 Please, ²  O Lord, listen attentively ³  to the prayer of your servant and to the prayer of your servants who take pleasure in showing respect ⁴  to your name. Grant your servant success today and show compassion to me ⁵  in the presence of this man.”

Now ⁶  I was cupbearer for the king.

Psalms 106:46

106:46 He caused all their conquerors ⁷ 

to have pity on them.

Proverbs 21:1

21:1 The king’s heart ⁸  is in the hand ⁹  of the Lord like channels of water; ¹⁰ 

he turns it wherever he wants.

Acts 7:21

7:21 and when he had been abandoned, ¹¹  Pharaoh’s daughter adopted ¹²  him and brought him up ¹³  as her own son.

Acts 7:1

Stephen’s Defense Before the Council

7:1 Then the high priest said, “Are these things true?” ¹⁴ 

Acts 3:8

3:8 He ¹⁵  jumped up, ¹⁶  stood and began walking around, and he entered the temple courts ¹⁷  with them, walking and leaping and praising God.

¹ tn Heb “and forgive your people who have sinned against you, [forgive] all their rebellious acts by which they rebelled against you, and grant them mercy before their captors so they will show them mercy.”

² tn The interjection אָנָּא (’anna’) is an emphatic term of entreaty: “please!” (BDB 58 s.v.; HALOT 69-70 s.v.). This term is normally reserved for pleas for mercy from God in life-and-death situations (2 Kgs 20:3 = Isa 38:3; Pss 116:4; 118:25; Jonah 1:14; 4:2) and for forgiveness of heinous sins that would result or have resulted in severe judgment from God (Exod 32:31; Dan 9:4; Neh 1:5, 11).

³ tn Heb “let your ear be attentive.”

⁴ tn Heb “fear.”

⁵ tn Heb “grant compassion.” The words “to me” are supplied in the translation for the sake of smoothness and style in English.

⁶ tn The vav (ו) on וַאֲנִי (va’ani, “Now, I”) introduces a disjunctive parenthetical clause that provides background information to the reader.

⁷ tn Or “captors.”

⁸ sn “Heart” is a metonymy of subject; it signifies the ability to make decisions, if not the decisions themselves.

⁹ sn “Hand” in this passage is a personification; the word is frequently used idiomatically for “power,” and that is the sense intended here.

¹⁰ tn “Channels of water” (פַּלְגֵי, palge) is an adverbial accusative, functioning as a figure of comparison – “like channels of water.” Cf. NAB “Like a stream”; NIV “watercourse”; NRSV, NLT “a stream of water.”

¹¹ tn Or “exposed” (see v. 19).

¹² tn Grk “Pharaoh’s daughter took him up for herself.” According to BDAG 64 s.v. ἀναιρέω, “The pap. exx. involve exposed children taken up and reared as slaves…The rendering ‘adopt’ lacks philological precision and can be used only in a loose sense (as NRSV), esp. when Gr-Rom. terminology relating to adoption procedures is taken into account.” In this instance both the immediate context and the OT account (Exod 2:3-10) do support the normal sense of the English word “adopt,” although it should not be understood to refer to a technical, legal event.

¹³ tn Or “and reared him” (BDAG 74 s.v. ἀνατρέφω b).

¹⁴ tn Grk “If it is so concerning these things” (see BDAG 422 s.v. ἔχω 10.a for this use).

¹⁵ tn Grk “And he.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, the conjunction καί (kai) has not been translated here. Instead a new English sentence is begun.

¹⁶ tn Grk “Jumping up, he stood.” The participle ἐξαλλόμενος (exallomeno") has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style. It is possible that the paralyzed man actually jumped off the ground, but more probably this term simply refers to the speed with which he stood up. See L&N 15.240.

¹⁷ tn Grk “the temple.” This is actually a reference to the courts surrounding the temple proper, and has been translated accordingly.