2 Corinthians 2:4

2:4 For out of great distress and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears, not to make you sad, but to let you know the love that I have especially for you. ¹ 

2 Corinthians 12:15

12:15 Now I will most gladly spend and be spent for your lives! ²  If I love you more, am I to be loved less?

Psalms 119:32

119:32 I run along the path of your commands,

for you enable me to do so. ³ 

Habakkuk 2:5

2:5 Indeed, wine will betray the proud, restless man! ⁴ 

His appetite ⁵  is as big as Sheol’s; ⁶ 

like death, he is never satisfied.

He gathers ⁷  all the nations;

he seizes ⁸  all peoples.

Ephesians 6:8

6:8 because you know that each person, whether slave or free, if he does something good, this ⁹  will be rewarded by the Lord.

Philippians 1:8

1:8 For God is my witness that I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.

Revelation 22:12

22:12 (Look! I am coming soon,

and my reward is with me to pay ¹⁰  each one according to what he has done!

¹ tn Or “the love that I have in great measure for you.”

² tn Grk “souls.”

³ tn Heb “for you make wide my heart.” The “heart” is viewed here as the seat of the psalmist’s volition and understanding. The Lord gives the psalmist the desire and moral understanding that are foundational to the willing obedience depicted metaphorically in the preceding line. In Isa 60:5 the expression “your heart will be wide” means “your heart will swell with pride,” but here the nuance appears to be different.

⁴ tn Heb “Indeed wine betrays a proud man and he does not dwell.” The meaning of the last verb, “dwell,” is uncertain. Many take it as a denominative of the noun נָוָה (navah, “dwelling place”). In this case it would carry the idea, “he does not settle down,” and would picture the drunkard as restless (cf. NIV “never at rest”; NASB “does not stay at home”). Some relate the verb to an Arabic cognate and translate the phrase as “he will not succeed, reach his goal.”

⁵ tn Heb “who opens wide like Sheol his throat.” Here נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) is understood in a physical sense, meaning “throat,” which in turn is figurative for the appetite. See H. W. Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, 11-12.

⁶ sn Sheol is the proper name of the subterranean world which was regarded as the land of the dead. In ancient Canaanite thought Death was a powerful god whose appetite was never satisfied. In the OT Sheol/Death, though not deified, is personified as greedy and as having a voracious appetite. See Prov 30:15-16; Isa 5:14; also see L. I. J. Stadelmann, The Hebrew Conception of the World, 168.

⁷ tn Heb “he gathers for himself.”

⁸ tn Heb “he collects for himself.”

⁹ sn The pronoun “this” (τοῦτο, touto) stands first in its clause for emphasis, and stresses the fact that God will reward those, who in seeking him, do good.

¹⁰ tn The Greek term may be translated either “pay” or “pay back” and has something of a double meaning here. However, because of the mention of “wages” (“reward,” another wordplay with two meanings) in the previous clause, the translation “pay” for ἀποδοῦναι (apodounai) was used here.