Ecclesiastes 3:4

3:4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh;

a time to mourn, and a time to dance.

Deuteronomy 28:47

The Curse of Military Siege

28:47 “Because you have not served the Lord your God joyfully and wholeheartedly with the abundance of everything you have,

Psalms 30:11-12

30:11 Then you turned my lament into dancing;

you removed my sackcloth and covered me with joy. ¹ 

30:12 So now ²  my heart ³  will sing to you and not be silent;

O Lord my God, I will always ⁴  give thanks to you.

Psalms 40:3

40:3 He gave me reason to sing a new song, ⁵ 

praising our God. ⁶ 

May many see what God has done,

so that they might swear allegiance to him and trust in the Lord! ⁷ 

Matthew 9:13

9:13 Go and learn what this saying means: ‘I want mercy and not sacrifice.’ ⁸  For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

John 16:22-23

16:22 So also you have sorrow ⁹  now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you. ¹⁰  16:23 At that time ¹¹  you will ask me nothing. I tell you the solemn truth, ¹²  whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you. ¹³ 

James 5:13

Prayer for the Sick

5:13 Is anyone among you suffering? He should pray. Is anyone in good spirits? He should sing praises.

¹ sn Covered me with joy. “Joy” probably stands metonymically for festive attire here.

² tn Heb “so that”; or “in order that.”

³ tn Heb “glory.” Some view כָבוֹד (khavod, “glory”) here as a metonymy for man’s inner being (see BDB 459 s.v. II כָּבוֹד 5), but it is preferable to emend the form to כְּבֵדִי (kÿvediy, “my liver”). Like the heart, the liver is viewed as the seat of one’s emotions. See also Pss 16:9; 57:9; 108:1, as well as H. W. Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, 64, and M. Dahood, Psalms (AB), 1:90. For an Ugaritic example of the heart/liver as the source of joy, see G. R. Driver, Canaanite Myths and Legends, 47-48: “her [Anat’s] liver swelled with laughter, her heart was filled with joy, the liver of Anat with triumph.” “Heart” is used in the translation above for the sake of English idiom; the expression “my liver sings” would seem odd indeed to the modern reader.

⁴ tn Or “forever.”

⁵ sn A new song was appropriate because the Lord had intervened in the psalmist’s experience in a fresh and exciting way.

⁶ tn Heb “and he placed in my mouth a new song, praise to our God.”

⁷ tn Heb “may many see and fear and trust in the Lord.” The translation assumes that the initial prefixed verbal form is a jussive (“may many see”), rather than an imperfect (“many will see”). The following prefixed verbal forms with vav (ו) conjunctive are taken as indicating purpose or result (“so that they might swear allegiance…and trust”) after the introductory jussive.

⁸ sn A quotation from Hos 6:6 (see also Matt 12:7).

⁹ tn Or “distress.”

¹⁰ sn An allusion to Isa 66:14 LXX, which reads: “Then you will see, and your heart will be glad, and your bones will flourish like the new grass; and the hand of the Lord will be made known to his servants, but he will be indignant toward his enemies.” The change from “you will see [me]” to I will see you places more emphasis on Jesus as the one who reinitiates the relationship with the disciples after his resurrection, but v. 16 (you will see me) is more like Isa 66:14. Further support for seeing this allusion as intentional is found in Isa 66:7, which uses the same imagery of the woman giving birth found in John 16:21. In the context of Isa 66 the passages refer to the institution of the messianic kingdom, and in fact the last clause of 66:14 along with the following verses (15-17) have yet to be fulfilled. This is part of the tension of present and future eschatological fulfillment that runs throughout the NT, by virtue of the fact that there are two advents. Some prophecies are fulfilled or partially fulfilled at the first advent, while other prophecies or parts of prophecies await fulfillment at the second.

¹¹ tn Grk “And in that day.”

¹² tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

¹³ sn This statement is also found in John 15:16.