Isaiah 57:16

57:16 For I will not be hostile forever

or perpetually angry,

for then man’s spirit would grow faint before me,

the life-giving breath I created.

Job 23:6

23:6 Would he contend with me with great power?

No, he would only pay attention to me.

Psalms 6:1

Psalm 6

For the music director, to be accompanied by stringed instruments, according to the sheminith style; a psalm of David.

6:1 Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger!

Do not discipline me in your raging fury!

Psalms 38:1

Psalm 38

A psalm of David, written to get God’s attention.

38:1 O Lord, do not continue to rebuke me in your anger!

Do not continue to punish me in your raging fury! 10 

Psalms 103:14

103:14 For he knows what we are made of; 11 

he realizes 12  we are made of clay. 13 

Jeremiah 10:24

10:24 Correct us, Lord, but only in due measure. 14 

Do not punish us in anger or you will reduce us to nothing. 15 

Jeremiah 30:11

30:11 For I, the Lord, affirm 16  that

I will be with you and will rescue you.

I will completely destroy all the nations where I scattered you.

But I will not completely destroy you.

I will indeed discipline you, but only in due measure.

I will not allow you to go entirely unpunished.” 17 

Jeremiah 46:28

46:28 I, the Lord, tell 18  you not to be afraid,

you descendants of Jacob, my servant,

for I am with you.

Though I completely destroy all the nations where I scatter you,

I will not completely destroy you.

I will indeed discipline you but only in due measure.

I will not allow you to go entirely unpunished.” 19 

Jeremiah 46:1

Prophecies Against Foreign Nations 20 

46:1 The Lord spoke to Jeremiah about the nations. 21 

Colossians 1:13

1:13 He delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son he loves, 22 

Colossians 1:1

Salutation

1:1 From Paul, 23  an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

Colossians 1:6

1:6 that has come to you. Just as in the entire world this gospel 24  is bearing fruit and growing, so it has also been bearing fruit and growing 25  among you from the first day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth.

tn Or perhaps, “argue,” or “accuse” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).

tn Heb “for a spirit from before me would be faint.”

tn The verb is now רִיב (riv) and not יָכַח (yakhakh, “contend”); רִיב (riv) means “to quarrel; to dispute; to contend,” often in a legal context. Here it is still part of Job’s questioning about this hypothetical meeting – would God contend with all his power?

tn The verbal clause יָשִׂם בִּי (yasim bi) has been translated “he would pay [attention] to me.” Job is saying that God will not need all his power – he will just have pay attention to Job’s complaint. Job does not need the display of power – he just wants a hearing.

sn Psalm 6. The psalmist begs the Lord to withdraw his anger and spare his life. Having received a positive response to his prayer, the psalmist then confronts his enemies and describes how they retreat.

tn The meaning of the Hebrew term שְׁמִינִית (shÿminit, “sheminith”) is uncertain; perhaps it refers to a particular style of music. See 1 Chr 15:21.

sn The implication is that the psalmist has sinned, causing God to discipline him by bringing a life-threatening illness upon him (see vv. 2-7).

sn Psalm 38. The author asks the Lord to deliver him from his enemies. He confesses his sin and recognizes that the crisis he faces is the result of divine discipline. Yet he begs the Lord not to reject him.

tn The Hebrew text reads simply, “to cause to remember.” The same form, the Hiphil infinitive of זָכַר (zakhar, “remember”), also appears in the heading of Ps 70. Some understand this in the sense of “for the memorial offering,” but it may carry the idea of bringing one’s plight to God’s attention (see P. C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 [WBC], 303).

10 tn The words “continue to” are supplied in the translation of both lines. The following verses make it clear that the psalmist is already experiencing divine rebuke/punishment. He asks that it might cease.

11 tn Heb “our form.”

12 tn Heb “remembers.”

13 tn Heb “we [are] clay.”

14 tn Heb “with justice.”

15 tn The words, “to almost nothing” are not in the text. They are implicit from the general context and are supplied by almost all English versions.

16 tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

17 tn The translation “entirely unpunished” is intended to reflect the emphatic construction of the infinitive absolute before the finite verb.

18 tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.” Again the first person is adopted because the Lord is speaking and the indirect quotation is used to avoid an embedded quotation with quotation marks on either side.

19 tn The translation “entirely unpunished” is intended to reflect the emphatic construction of the infinitive absolute before the finite verb.

20 sn Jeremiah was called to be a prophet not only to Judah and Jerusalem but to the nations (1:5, 10). The prophecies or oracles that are collected here in Jer 46-51 are found after 25:13a in the Greek version where they are also found in a different order and with several textual differences. The issue of which represents the original placement is part of the broader issue of the editorial or redactional history of the book of Jeremiah which went through several editions, two of which are referred to in Jer 36, i.e., the two scrolls written in the fourth year of Jehoiakim (605 b.c.), a third which included all the preceding plus the material down to the time of the fall of Jerusalem (cf. the introduction in 1:1-3) and a fourth that included all the preceding plus the materials in Jer 40-44. The oracles against the foreign nations collected here are consistent with the note of judgment sounded against all nations (including some not mentioned in Jer 46-51) in Jer 25. See the translator’s note on 25:13 for further details regarding the possible relationship of the oracles to the foreign nations to the judgment speeches in Jer 25.

21 tn Heb “That which came [as] the word of the Lord to Jeremiah about the nations.” See the translator’s note on 14:1 for the construction here.

22 tn Here αὐτοῦ (autou) has been translated as a subjective genitive (“he loves”).

23 tn Grk “Paul.” The word “from” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.

24 tn Grk “just as in the entire world it is bearing fruit.” The antecedent (“the gospel”) of the implied subject (“it”) of ἐστιν (estin) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

25 tn Though the participles are periphrastic with the present tense verb ἐστίν (estin), the presence of the temporal indicator “from the day” in the next clause indicates that this is a present tense that reaches into the past and should be translated as “has been bearing fruit and growing.” For a discussion of this use of the present tense, see ExSyn 519-20.