Deuteronomy 28:2-12

28:2 All these blessings will come to you in abundance¹ if you obey the Lord your God: 28:3 You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the field.² 28:4 Your children³ will be blessed, as well as the produce of your soil, the offspring of your livestock, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks. 28:5 Your basket and your mixing bowl will be blessed. 28:6 You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.⁴ 28:7 The Lord will cause your enemies who attack⁵ you to be struck down before you; they will attack you from one direction⁶ but flee from you in seven different directions. 28:8 The Lord will decree blessing for you with respect to your barns and in everything you do – yes, he will bless you in the land he⁷ is giving you. 28:9 The Lord will designate you as his holy people just as he promised you, if you keep his commandments⁸ and obey him.⁹ 28:10 Then all the peoples of the earth will see that you belong to the Lord,¹⁰ and they will respect you. 28:11 The Lord will greatly multiply your children,¹¹ the offspring of your livestock, and the produce of your soil in the land which he¹² promised your ancestors¹³ he would give you. 28:12 The Lord will open for you his good treasure house, the heavens, to give you rain for the land in its season and to bless all you do;¹⁴ you will lend to many nations but you will not borrow from any.

Deuteronomy 33:13

Blessing on Joseph

33:13 Of Joseph he said:

May the Lord bless his land

with the harvest produced by the sky,¹⁵ by the dew,

and by the depths crouching beneath;

Psalms 84:11

84:11 For the Lord God is our sovereign protector.¹⁶

The Lord bestows favor¹⁷ and honor;

he withholds no good thing from those who have integrity.¹⁸

Psalms 85:12

85:12 Yes, the Lord will bestow his good blessings,¹⁹

and our land will yield²⁰ its crops.

Matthew 6:33

6:33 But above all pursue his kingdom²¹ and righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Matthew 6:1

Pure-hearted Giving

6:1 “Be²² careful not to display your righteousness merely to be seen by people.²³ Otherwise you have no reward with your Father in heaven.

Colossians 3:21-22

3:21 Fathers,²⁴ do not provoke²⁵ your children, so they will not become disheartened. 3:22 Slaves,²⁶ obey your earthly²⁷ masters in every respect, not only when they are watching – like those who are strictly people-pleasers – but with a sincere heart, fearing the Lord.

Ephesians 1:3

Spiritual Blessings in Christ

1:3 Blessed²⁸ is²⁹ the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed³⁰ us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ.

Philippians 4:19

4:19 And my God will supply your every need according to his glorious riches³¹ in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:1

Christian Practices

4:1 So then, my brothers and sisters,³² dear friends whom I long to see, my joy and crown, stand in the Lord in this way, my dear friends!

Philippians 4:8

4:8 Finally, brothers and sisters,³³ whatever is true, whatever is worthy of respect, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if something is excellent or praiseworthy, think about these things.

¹tn Heb “come upon you and overtake you” (so NASB, NRSV); NIV “come upon you and accompany you.”

²tn Or “in the country” (so NAB, NIV, NLT). This expression also occurs in v. 15.

³tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).

⁴sn Come in…go out. To “come in” and “go out” is a figure of speech (merism) indicating all of life and its activities.

⁵tn Heb “who rise up against” (so NIV).

⁶tn Heb “way” (also later in this verse and in v. 25).

⁷tn Heb “the Lord your God.” Because English would not typically reintroduce the proper name following a relative pronoun (“he will bless…the Lord your God is giving”), the pronoun (“he”) has been employed here in the translation.

⁸tn Heb “the commandments of the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in the previous verse.

⁹tn Heb “and walk in his ways” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

¹⁰tn Heb “the name of the Lord is called over you.” The Hebrew idiom indicates ownership; see 2 Sam 12:28; Isa 4:1, as well as BDB 896 s.v. קָרָא Niph. 2.d.(4).

¹¹tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV); CEV “will give you a lot of children.”

¹²tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 28:8.

¹³tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 36, 64).

¹⁴tn Heb “all the work of your hands.”

¹⁵tn Heb “from the harvest of the heavens.” The referent appears to be good crops produced by the rain that falls from the sky.

¹⁶tn Heb “[is] a sun and a shield.” The epithet “sun,” though rarely used of Israel’s God in the OT, was a well-attested royal title in the ancient Near East. For several examples from Ugaritic texts, the Amarna letters, and Assyrian royal inscriptions, see R. B. Chisholm, “An Exegetical and Theological Study of Psalm 18/2 Samuel 22” (Th.D. diss., Dallas Theological Seminary, 1983), 131, n. 2.

¹⁷tn Or “grace.”

¹⁸tn Heb “he does not withhold good to those walking in integrity.”

¹⁹tn Heb “what is good.”

²⁰tn Both “bestow” and “yield” translate the same Hebrew verb (נָתַן, natan). The repetition of the word emphasizes that agricultural prosperity is the direct result of divine blessing.

²¹tc ‡ Most mss (L W Θ 0233 Ë^1,13 33 Ï lat sy mae) read τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ τὴν δικαιοσύνην αὐτοῦ (thn basileian tou qeou kai thn dikaiosunhn aujtou, “the kingdom of God and his righteousness”) here, but the words “of God” are lacking in א B pc sa bo Eus. On the one hand, there is the possibility of accidental omission on the part of these Alexandrian witnesses, but it seems unlikely that the scribe’s eye would skip over both words (especially since τοῦ θεοῦ is bracketed by first declension nouns). Intrinsically, the author generally has a genitive modifier with βασιλεία – especially θεοῦ or οὐρανῶν (ouranwn) – but this argument cuts both ways: Although he might be expected to use such an adjunct here, scribes might also be familiar with his practice and would thus naturally insert it if it were missing in their copy of Matthew. Although a decision is difficult, the omission of τοῦ θεοῦ is considered most likely to be original. NA²⁷ includes the words in brackets, indicating doubt as to their authenticity.

²²tc ‡ Several mss (א L Z Θ Ë¹ 33 892 1241 1424 al) have δέ (de, “but, now”) at the beginning of this verse; the reading without δέ is supported by B D W 0250 Ë¹³ Ï lat. A decision is difficult, but apparently the conjunction was added by later scribes to indicate a transition in the thought-flow of the Sermon on the Mount. NA²⁷ has δέ in brackets, indicating reservations about its authenticity.

²³tn Grk “before people in order to be seen by them.”

²⁴tn Or perhaps “Parents.” The plural οἱ πατέρες (Joi patere", “fathers”) can be used to refer to both the male and female parent (BDAG 786 s.v. πατήρ 1.a).

²⁵tn Or “do not cause your children to become resentful” (L&N 88.168). BDAG 391 s.v. ἐρεθίζω states, “to cause someone to react in a way that suggests acceptance of a challenge, arouse, provoke mostly in bad sense irritate, embitter.”

²⁶tn On this word here and in 4:1, see the note on “fellow slave” in 1:7.

²⁷tn The prepositional phrase κατὰ σάρκα (kata sarka) does not necessarily qualify the masters as earthly or human (as opposed to the Master in heaven, the Lord), but could also refer to the sphere in which “the service-relation holds true.” See BDAG 577 s.v. κύριος 1.b.

²⁸sn Eph 1:3-14 comprises one long sentence in Greek, with three major sections. Each section ends with a note of praise for God (vv. 6, 12, 14), focusing on a different member of the Trinity. After an opening summary of all the saints’ spiritual blessings (v. 3), the first section (vv. 4-6) offers up praise that the Father has chosen us in eternity past; the second section (vv. 7-12) offers up praise that the Son has redeemed us in the historical past (i.e., at the cross); the third section (vv. 13-14) offers up praise that the Holy Spirit has sealed us in our personal past, at the point of conversion.

²⁹tn There is no verb in the Greek text; either the optative (“be”) or the indicative (“is”) can be supplied. The meaning of the term εὐλογητός (euloghtos), the author’s intention at this point in the epistle, and the literary genre of this material must all come into play to determine which is the preferred nuance. εὐλογητός as an adjective can mean either that one is praised or that one is blessed, that is, in a place of favor and benefit. The meaning “blessed” would be more naturally paired with an indicative verb here and would suggest that blessedness is an intrinsic part of God’s character. The meaning “praised” would be more naturally paired with an optative verb here and would suggest that God ought to be praised. Pauline style in the epistles generally moves from statements to obligations, expressing the reality first and then the believer’s necessary response, which would favor the indicative. However, many scholars regard Eph 1:3-14 as a berakah psalm (cf. A. T. Lincoln, Ephesians [WBC], 10-11). Rooted in the OT and Jewish worship, berakah psalms were songs of praise in which the worshiper gave praise to God; this would favor the optative (although not all scholars are agreed on this genre classification here; see H. W. Hoehner, Ephesians, 153-59, for discussion and an alternate conclusion). When considered as a whole, although a decision is difficult, the indicative seems to fit all the factors better. The author seems to be pointing to who God is and what he has done for believers in this section; the indicative more naturally fits that emphasis. Cf. also 2 Cor 1:3; 1 Pet 1:3.

³⁰tn Or “enriched,” “conferred blessing.”

³¹tn Or “according to the riches of his glory.” The phrase “of his glory” is treated as an attributive genitive in the translation.

³²tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:12.

³³tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:12.