Isaiah 61:2-3

61:2 to announce the year when the Lord will show his favor,

the day when our God will seek vengeance, ¹ 

to console all who mourn,

61:3 to strengthen those who mourn in Zion,

by giving them a turban, instead of ashes,

oil symbolizing joy, ²  instead of mourning,

a garment symbolizing praise, ³  instead of discouragement. ⁴ 

They will be called oaks of righteousness, ⁵ 

trees planted by the Lord to reveal his splendor. ⁶ 

Ezekiel 9:4

9:4 The Lord said to him, “Go through the city of Jerusalem ⁷  and put a mark ⁸  on the foreheads of the people who moan and groan over all the abominations practiced in it.”

John 16:20-22

16:20 I tell you the solemn truth, ⁹  you will weep ¹⁰  and wail, ¹¹  but the world will rejoice; you will be sad, ¹²  but your sadness will turn into ¹³  joy. 16:21 When a woman gives birth, she has distress ¹⁴  because her time ¹⁵  has come, but when her child is born, she no longer remembers the suffering because of her joy that a human being ¹⁶  has been born into the world. ¹⁷  16:22 So also you have sorrow ¹⁸  now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you. ¹⁹ 

Revelation 11:3-15

11:3 And I will grant my two witnesses authority ²⁰  to prophesy for 1,260 days, dressed in sackcloth. 11:4 (These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.) ²¹  11:5 If ²²  anyone wants to harm them, fire comes out of their mouths ²³  and completely consumes ²⁴  their enemies. If ²⁵  anyone wants to harm them, they must be killed this way. 11:6 These two have the power ²⁶  to close up the sky so that it does not rain during the time ²⁷  they are prophesying. They ²⁸  have power ²⁹  to turn the waters to blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague whenever they want. 11:7 When ³⁰  they have completed their testimony, the beast that comes up from the abyss will make war on them and conquer ³¹  them and kill them. 11:8 Their ³²  corpses will lie in the street ³³  of the great city that is symbolically ³⁴  called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was also crucified. 11:9 For three and a half days those from every ³⁵  people, tribe, ³⁶  nation, and language will look at their corpses, because they will not permit them to be placed in a tomb. ³⁷  11:10 And those who live on the earth will rejoice over them and celebrate, even sending gifts to each other, because these two prophets had tormented those who live on the earth. 11:11 But ³⁸  after three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and tremendous fear seized ³⁹  those who were watching them. 11:12 Then ⁴⁰  they ⁴¹  heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them: “Come up here!” So the two prophets ⁴²  went up to heaven in a cloud while ⁴³  their enemies stared at them. 11:13 Just then ⁴⁴  a major earthquake took place and a tenth of the city collapsed; seven thousand people ⁴⁵  were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.

11:14 The second woe has come and gone; ⁴⁶  the third is coming quickly.

The Seventh Trumpet

11:15 Then ⁴⁷  the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven saying:

“The kingdom of the world

has become the kingdom of our Lord

and of his Christ, ⁴⁸ 

and he will reign for ever and ever.”

¹ tn Heb “to announce the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of our God’s vengeance.

² tn Heb “oil of joy” (KJV, ASV); NASB, NIV, NRSV “the oil of gladness.”

³ tn Heb “garment of praise.”

⁴ tn Heb “a faint spirit” (so NRSV); KJV, ASV “the spirit of heaviness”; NASB “a spirit of fainting.”

⁵ tn Rather than referring to the character of the people, צֶדֶק (tsedeq) may carry the nuance “vindication” here, suggesting that God’s restored people are a testimony to his justice. See v. 2, which alludes to the fact that God will take vengeance against the enemies of his people. Cf. NAB “oaks of justice.”

⁶ tn Heb “a planting of the Lord to reveal splendor.”

⁷ tn Heb “through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem.”

⁸ tn The word translated “mark” is in Hebrew the letter ת (tav). Outside this context the only other occurrence of the word is in Job 31:35. In ancient Hebrew script this letter was written like the letter X.

⁹ tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

¹⁰ tn Or “wail,” “cry.”

¹¹ tn Or “lament.”

¹² tn Or “sorrowful.”

¹³ tn Grk “will become.”

¹⁴ sn The same word translated distress here has been translated sadness in the previous verse (a wordplay that is not exactly reproducible in English).

¹⁵ tn Grk “her hour.”

¹⁶ tn Grk “that a man” (but in a generic sense, referring to a human being).

¹⁷ sn Jesus now compares the situation of the disciples to a woman in childbirth. Just as the woman in the delivery of her child experiences real pain and anguish (has distress), so the disciples will also undergo real anguish at the crucifixion of Jesus. But once the child has been born, the mother’s anguish is turned into joy, and she forgets the past suffering. The same will be true of the disciples, who after Jesus’ resurrection and reappearance to them will forget the anguish they suffered at his death on account of their joy.

¹⁸ tn Or “distress.”

¹⁹ 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.

²⁰ tn The word “authority” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. “Power” would be another alternative that could be supplied here.

²¹ sn This description is parenthetical in nature.

²² tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

²³ tn This is a collective singular in Greek.

²⁴ tn See L&N 20.45 for the translation of κατεσθίω (katesqiw) as “to destroy utterly, to consume completely.”

²⁵ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

²⁶ tn Or “authority.”

²⁷ tn Grk “the days.”

²⁸ tn Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation. Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

²⁹ tn Or “authority.”

³⁰ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

³¹ tn Or “be victorious over”; traditionally, “overcome.”

³² tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

³³ tn The Greek word πλατεῖα (plateia) refers to a major (broad) street (L&N 1.103).

³⁴ tn Grk “spiritually.”

³⁵ tn The word “every” is not in the Greek text, but is implied by the following list.

³⁶ tn The Greek term καί (kai) has not been translated before this and the following items in the list, since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more.

³⁷ tn Or “to be buried.”

³⁸ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.

³⁹ tn Grk “fell upon.”

⁴⁰ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.

⁴¹ tn Though the nearest antecedent to the subject of ἤκουσαν (hkousan) is the people (“those who were watching them”), it could also be (based on what immediately follows) that the two prophets are the ones who heard the voice.

⁴² tn Grk “they”; the referent (the two prophets) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁴³ tn The conjunction καί (kai) seems to be introducing a temporal clause contemporaneous in time with the preceding clause.

⁴⁴ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

⁴⁵ tn Grk “seven thousand names of men.”

⁴⁶ tn Grk “has passed.”

⁴⁷ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.

⁴⁸ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”