38:15 What can I say?
He has decreed and acted. 1
I will walk slowly all my years because I am overcome with grief. 2
12:49 “I have come 3 to bring 4 fire on the earth – and how I wish it were already kindled! 12:50 I have a baptism 5 to undergo, 6 and how distressed I am until it is finished!
1 tn Heb “and he has spoken and he has acted.”
2 tn Heb “because of the bitterness of my soul.”
3 sn This mission statement, “I have come to bring fire on the earth,” looks to the purging and division Jesus causes: See Luke 3:9, 17; 9:54; 17:29 for fire, 5:32; 7:34; 9:58; 12:51 for the topic of mission.
4 tn Grk “cast.” For βάλλω (ballw) in the sense of causing a state or condition, see L&N 13.14.
5 sn The figure of the baptism is variously interpreted, as some see a reference (1) to martyrdom or (2) to inundation with God’s judgment. The OT background, however, suggests the latter sense: Jesus is about to be uniquely inundated with God’s judgment as he is rejected, persecuted, and killed (Ps 18:4, 16; 42:7; 69:1-2; Isa 8:7-8; 30:27-28; Jonah 2:3-6).
6 tn Grk “to be baptized with.”