2 Samuel 15:20

15:20 It seems like you arrived just yesterday. Today should I make you wander around by going with us? I go where I must go. But as for you, go back and take your men ¹  with you. May genuine loyal love ²  protect ³  you!”

Psalms 57:3

57:3 May he send help from heaven and deliver me ⁴ 

from my enemies who hurl insults! ⁵  (Selah)

May God send his loyal love and faithfulness!

Proverbs 14:22

14:22 Do not those who devise ⁶  evil go astray?

But those who plan good exhibit ⁷  faithful covenant love. ⁸ 

Matthew 5:7

5:7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

Matthew 5:2

5:2 Then ⁹  he began to teach ¹⁰  them by saying:

Matthew 1:16-18

1:16 and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, by whom ¹¹  Jesus was born, who is called Christ. ¹² 

1:17 So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to Christ, ¹³  fourteen generations.

The Birth of Jesus Christ

1:18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ happened this way. While his mother Mary was engaged to Joseph, but before they came together, ¹⁴  she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit.

¹ tn Heb “brothers,” but see v. 22.

² tn Heb “loyal love and truth.” The expression is a hendiadys.

³ tn Heb “be with.”

⁴ tn Heb “may he send from heaven and deliver me.” The prefixed verbal forms are understood as jussives expressing the psalmist’s prayer. The second verb, which has a vav (ו) conjunctive prefixed to it, probably indicates purpose. Another option is to take the forms as imperfects expressing confidence, “he will send from heaven and deliver me” (cf. NRSV).

⁵ tn Heb “he hurls insults, one who crushes me.” The translation assumes that this line identifies those from whom the psalmist seeks deliverance. (The singular is representative; the psalmist is surrounded by enemies, see v. 4.) Another option is to understand God as the subject of the verb חָרַף (kharaf), which could then be taken as a homonym of the more common root חָרַף (“insult”) meaning “confuse.” In this case “one who crushes me” is the object of the verb. One might translate, “he [God] confuses my enemies.”

⁶ sn The verb חָרַשׁ (kharash) means (1) literally: “to cut in; to engrave; to plow,” describing the work of a craftsman; and (2) figuratively: “to devise,” describing the mental activity of planning evil (what will harm people) in the first colon, and planning good (what will benefit them) in the second colon.

⁷ tn The term “exhibit” does not appear in the Hebrew, but is supplied in the translation for clarity and smoothness.

⁸ tn Heb “loyal-love and truth.” The two terms חֶסֶד וֶאֱמֶת (khesed ve’emet) often form a hendiadys: “faithful love” or better “faithful covenant love.”

⁹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

¹⁰ tn Grk “And opening his mouth he taught them, saying.” The imperfect verb ἐδίδασκεν (edidasken) has been translated ingressively.

¹¹ tc There are three significant variant readings at this point in the text. Some mss and versional witnesses (Θ Ë¹³ it) read, “Joseph, to whom the virgin Mary, being betrothed, bore Jesus, who is called Christ.” This reading makes even more explicit than the feminine pronoun (see sn below) the virginal conception of Jesus and as such seems to be a motivated reading. The Sinaitic Syriac ms alone indicates that Joseph was the father of Jesus (“Joseph, to whom was betrothed Mary the virgin, fathered Jesus who is called the Christ”). Although much discussed, this reading has not been found in any Greek witnesses. B. M. Metzger suggests that it was produced by a careless scribe who simply reproduced the set formula of the preceding lines in the genealogy (TCGNT 6). In all likelihood, the two competing variants were thus produced by intentional and unintentional scribal alterations respectively. The reading adopted in the translation has overwhelming support from a variety of witnesses (̹ א B C L W [˹] 33 Ï co), and therefore should be regarded as authentic. For a detailed discussion of this textual problem, see TCGNT 2-6.

¹² tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

¹³ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

¹⁴ tn The connotation of the Greek is “before they came together in marital and domestic union” (so BDAG 970 s.v. συνέρχομαι 3).