Acts 13:17-22

13:17 The God of this people Israel ¹  chose our ancestors ²  and made the people great ³  during their stay as foreigners ⁴  in the country ⁵  of Egypt, and with uplifted arm ⁶  he led them out of it. 13:18 For ⁷  a period of about forty years he put up with ⁸  them in the wilderness. ⁹  13:19 After ¹⁰  he had destroyed ¹¹  seven nations ¹²  in the land of Canaan, he gave his people their land as an inheritance. ¹³  13:20 All this took ¹⁴  about four hundred fifty years. After this ¹⁵  he gave them judges until the time of ¹⁶  Samuel the prophet. 13:21 Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul son of Kish, a man from the tribe of Benjamin, who ruled ¹⁷  forty years. 13:22 After removing him, God ¹⁸  raised up ¹⁹  David their king. He testified about him: ²⁰  ‘I have found David ²¹  the son of Jesse to be a man after my heart, ²²  who will accomplish everything I want him to do.’ ²³ 

¹ tn Or “people of Israel.”

² tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”

³ tn That is, in both numbers and in power. The implication of greatness in both numbers and in power is found in BDAG 1046 s.v. ὑψόω 2.

⁴ tn Or “as resident aliens.”

⁵ tn Or “land.”

⁶ sn Here uplifted arm is a metaphor for God’s power by which he delivered the Israelites from Egypt. See Exod 6:1, 6; 32:11; Deut 3:24; 4:34; Ps 136:11-12.

⁷ tn Grk “And for.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

⁸ tn For this verb, see BDAG 1017 s.v. τροποφορέω (cf. also Deut 1:31; Exod 16:35; Num 14:34).

⁹ tn Or “desert.”

¹⁰ tn Grk “And after.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

¹¹ tn The participle καθελών (kaqelwn) is taken temporally.

¹² sn Seven nations. See Deut 7:1.

¹³ tn Grk “he gave their land as an inheritance.” The words “his people” are supplied to complete an ellipsis specifying the recipients of the land.

¹⁴ tn The words “all this took” are not in the Greek text, but are supplied to make a complete statement in English. There is debate over where this period of 450 years fits and what it includes: (1) It could include the years in Egypt, the conquest of Canaan, and the distribution of the land; (2) some connect it with the following period of the judges. This latter approach seems to conflict with 1 Kgs 6:1; see also Josephus, Ant. 8.3.1 (8.61).

¹⁵ tn Grk “And after these things.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

¹⁶ tn The words “the time of” are not in the Greek text, but are implied.

¹⁷ tn The words “who ruled” are not in the Greek text, but are implied. They have been supplied as a clarification for the English reader. See Josephus, Ant. 6.14.9 (6.378).

¹⁸ tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁹ sn The expression raised up refers here to making someone king. There is a wordplay here: “raising up” refers to bringing someone onto the scene of history, but it echoes with the parallel to Jesus’ resurrection.

²⁰ tn Grk “about whom.” The relative pronoun (“whom”) was replaced by the pronoun “him” and a new sentence was begun in the translation at this point to improve the English style, due to the length of the sentence in Greek. The verb εἶπεν (eipen) has not been translated (literally “he said testifying”) because it is redundant when combined with the participle μαρτυρήσας (marturhsa", “testifying”). Instead the construction of verb plus participle has been translated as a single English verb (“testified”).

²¹ sn A quotation from Ps 89:20.

²² sn A quotation from 1 Sam 13:14.

²³ tn Or “who will perform all my will,” “who will carry out all my wishes.”