12:4 They replied, “You have not wronged us or oppressed us. You have not taken anything from the hand of anyone.” 12:5 He said to them, “The Lord is witness against you, and his chosen king 3 is witness this day, that you have not found any reason to accuse me.” 4 They said, “He is witness!”
18:20 The Lord repaid 5 me for my godly deeds; 6
he rewarded 7 my blameless behavior. 8
18:21 For I have obeyed the Lord’s commands; 9
I have not rebelled against my God. 10
18:22 For I am aware of all his regulations, 11
and I do not reject his rules. 12
18:23 I was innocent before him,
and kept myself from sinning. 13
18:24 The Lord rewarded me for my godly deeds; 14
he took notice of my blameless behavior. 15
44:18 We have not been unfaithful, 16
nor have we disobeyed your commands. 17
20:18 When they arrived, he said to them, “You yourselves know how I lived 18 the whole time I was with you, from the first day I set foot 19 in the province of Asia, 20 20:19 serving the Lord with all humility 21 and with tears, and with the trials that happened to me because of the plots 22 of the Jews.
1:1 From Paul, 31 an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
1 tn Heb “anointed [one].”
2 tn The words “tell me” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
3 tn Heb “anointed [one].”
4 tn Heb “that you have not found anything in my hand.”
5 tn In this poetic narrative context the prefixed verbal form is best understood as a preterite indicating past tense, not imperfect.
6 tn Heb “according to my righteousness.” As vv. 22-24 make clear, the psalmist refers here to his unwavering obedience to God’s commands. In these verses the psalmist explains that the
7 tn The unreduced Hiphil prefixed verbal form appears to be an imperfect, in which case the psalmist would be generalizing. However, both the preceding and following contexts (see especially v. 24) suggest he is narrating his experience. Despite its unreduced form, the verb is better taken as a preterite. For other examples of unreduced Hiphil preterites, see Pss 55:14a; 68:9a, 10b; 80:8a; 89:43a; 107:38b; 116:6b.
8 tn Heb “according to the purity of my hands he repaid to me.” “Hands” suggest activity and behavior.
9 tn Heb “for I have kept the ways of the
10 tn Heb “I have not acted wickedly from my God.” The statement is elliptical; the idea is, “I have not acted wickedly and, in so doing, departed from my God.”
11 tn Heb “for all his regulations [are] before me.” The Hebrew term מִשְׁפָּטִים (mishpatim, “regulations”) refers to God’s covenantal requirements, especially those which the king is responsible to follow (cf. Deut 17:18-20). See also Pss 19:9 (cf. vv. 7-8); 89:30; 147:20 (cf. v. 19), as well as the numerous uses of the term in Ps 119.
12 tn Heb “and his rules I do not turn aside from me.” 2 Sam 22:23 reads, “and his rules, I do not turn aside from it.” The prefixed verbal form is probably an imperfect; the psalmist here generalizes about his loyalty to God’s commands. The Lord’s “rules” are the stipulations of the covenant which the king was responsible to obey (see Ps 89:31; cf. v. 30 and Deut 17:18-20).
13 tn Heb “from my sin,” that is, from making it my own in any way.
14 tn Heb “according to my righteousness.”
15 tn Heb “according to the purity of my hands before his eyes.” 2 Sam 22:25 reads “according to my purity before his eyes.” The verbal repetition (compare vv. 20 and 24) sets off vv. 20-24 as a distinct sub-unit within the psalm.
16 tn Heb “our heart did not turn backward.” Cf. Ps 78:57.
17 tn Heb “and our steps did [not] turn aside from your path.” The negative particle is understood by ellipsis (see the preceding line). God’s “path” refers to his commands, i.e., the moral pathway he has prescribed for the psalmist. See Pss 17:5; 25:4.
18 tn Grk “You yourselves know, from the first day I set foot in Asia, how I was with you the whole time.” This could be understood to mean “how I stayed with you the whole time,” but the following verses make it clear that Paul’s lifestyle while with the Ephesians is in view here. Thus the translation “how I lived the whole time I was with you” makes this clear.
19 tn Or “I arrived.” BDAG 367 s.v. ἐπιβαίνω 2, “set foot in…εἰς τ. ᾿Ασίαν set foot in Asia Ac 20:18.” However, L&N 15.83 removes the idiom: “you know that since the first day that I came to Asia.”
20 tn Grk “Asia”; see the note on this word in v. 16.
21 sn On humility see 2 Cor 10:1; 11:7; 1 Thess 2:6; Col 3:12; Eph 4:2; Phil 2:3-11.
22 sn These plots are mentioned in Acts 9:24; 20:13.
23 tn Traditionally, “coveted.” BDAG 371 s.v. ἐπιθυμέω 1 has “to have a strong desire to do or secure someth., desire, long for w. gen. of the thing desired…silver, gold, clothing Ac 20:33.” The traditional term “covet” is not in common usage and difficult for many modern English readers to understand. The statement affirms Paul’s integrity. He was not doing this for personal financial gain.
24 tn The words “of mine” are not in the Greek text, but are supplied to clarify whose hands Paul is referring to.
25 tn BDAG 633 s.v. μέρος 1.b.γ gives the meanings “the parts (of a geographical area), region, district,” but the use of “district” in this context probably implies too much specificity.
26 tn Grk “and encouraging them with many words.” The participle παρακαλέσας (parakalesa", “encouraging”) has been translated by the phrase “spoken…words of encouragement” because the formal equivalent is awkward in contemporary English.
27 tn Grk “[to] them”; the referent (the believers there) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
28 tn In popular usage the term translated “Greece” here could also refer to the Roman province officially known as Achaia (BDAG 318 s.v. ῾Ελλάς).
29 tn BDAG 473 s.v. ἱκανόω states, “τινὰ εἴς τι someone for someth. Col 1:12.” The point of the text is that God has qualified the saints for a “share” or “portion” in the inheritance of the saints.
30 tn Grk “the inheritance of the saints.” The genitive noun τῶν ἁγίων (twn Jagiwn) is a possessive genitive: “the saints’ inheritance.”
31 tn Grk “Paul.” The word “from” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.