John 16:7

16:7 But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I am going away. For if I do not go away, the Advocate ¹  will not come to you, but if I go, I will send him to you.

Psalms 68:18

68:18 You ascend on high, ² 

you have taken many captives. ³ 

You receive tribute ⁴  from ⁵  men,

including even sinful rebels.

Indeed the Lord God lives there! ⁶ 

Isaiah 32:15

32:15 This desolation will continue until new life is poured out on us from heaven. ⁷ 

Then the desert will become an orchard

and the orchard will be considered a forest. ⁸ 

Acts 2:17

2:17 ‘And in the last days ⁹  it will be,’ God says,

‘that I will pour out my Spirit on all people, ¹⁰ 

and your sons and your daughters will prophesy,

and your young men will see visions,

and your old men will dream dreams.

Acts 2:33

2:33 So then, exalted ¹¹  to the right hand ¹²  of God, and having received ¹³  the promise of the Holy Spirit ¹⁴  from the Father, he has poured out ¹⁵  what you both see and hear.

Acts 2:2

2:2 Suddenly ¹⁶  a sound ¹⁷  like a violent wind blowing ¹⁸  came from heaven ¹⁹  and filled the entire house where they were sitting.

Colossians 3:8

3:8 But now, put off all such things ²⁰  as anger, rage, malice, slander, abusive language from your mouth.

¹ tn Or “Helper” or “Counselor”; Grk “Paraclete,” from the Greek word παράκλητος (paraklhto"). See the note on the word “Advocate” in John 14:16 for a discussion of how this word is translated.

² tn Heb “to the elevated place”; or “on high.” This probably refers to the Lord’s throne on Mount Zion.

³ tn Heb “you have taken captives captive.”

⁴ tn Or “gifts.”

⁵ tn Or “among.”

⁶ tn Heb “so that the Lord God might live [there].” Many take the infinitive construct with -לְ (lamed) as indicating purpose here, but it is unclear how the offering of tribute enables the Lord to live in Zion. This may be an occurrence of the relatively rare emphatic lamed (see HALOT 510-11 s.v. II לְ, though this text is not listed as an example there). If so, the statement corresponds nicely to the final line of v. 16, which also affirms emphatically that the Lord lives in Zion.

⁷ tn Heb “until a spirit is emptied out on us from on high.” The words “this desolation will continue” are supplied in the translation for clarification and stylistic purposes. The verb עָרָה (’arah), used here in the Niphal, normally means “lay bare, expose.” The term רוּחַ (ruakh, “spirit”) is often understood here as a reference to the divine spirit (cf. 44:3 and NASB, NIV, CEV, NLT), but it appears here without an article (cf. NRSV “a spirit”), pronominal suffix, or a genitive (such as “of the Lord”). The translation assumes that it carries an impersonal nuance “vivacity, vigor” in this context.

⁸ sn The same statement appears in 29:17b, where, in conjunction with the preceding line, it appears to picture a reversal. Here it seems to depict supernatural growth. The desert will blossom into an orchard, and the trees of the orchard will multiply and grow tall, becoming a forest.

⁹ sn The phrase in the last days is not quoted from Joel, but represents Peter’s interpretive explanation of the current events as falling “in the last days.”

¹⁰ tn Grk “on all flesh.”

¹¹ tn The aorist participle ὑψωθείς (Juywqei") could be taken temporally: “So then, after he was exalted…” In the translation the more neutral “exalted” (a shorter form of “having been exalted”) was used to preserve the ambiguity of the original Greek.

¹² sn The expression the right hand of God represents supreme power and authority. Its use here sets up the quotation of Ps 110:1 in v. 34.

¹³ tn The aorist participle λαβών (labwn) could be taken temporally: “So then, after he was exalted…and received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit.” In the translation the more neutral “having received” was used to preserve the ambiguity of the original Greek.

¹⁴ tn Here the genitive τοῦ πνεύματος (tou pneumato") is a genitive of apposition; the promise consists of the Holy Spirit.

¹⁵ sn The use of the verb poured out looks back to 2:17-18, where the same verb occurs twice.

¹⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated for stylistic reasons. It occurs as part of the formula καὶ ἐγένετο (kai egeneto) which is often left untranslated in Luke-Acts because it is redundant in contemporary English. Here it is possible (and indeed necessary) to translate ἐγένετο as “came” so that the initial clause of the English translation contains a verb; nevertheless the translation of the conjunction καί is not necessary.

¹⁷ tn Or “a noise.”

¹⁸ tn While φέρω (ferw) generally refers to movement from one place to another with the possible implication of causing the movement of other objects, in Acts 2:2 φέρομαι (feromai) should probably be understood in a more idiomatic sense of “blowing” since it is combined with the noun for wind (πνοή, pnoh).

¹⁹ tn Or “from the sky.” The Greek word οὐρανός (ouranos) may be translated “sky” or “heaven” depending on the context.

²⁰ tn The Greek article with τὰ πάντα (ta panta) is anaphoric, referring to the previous list of vices, and has been translated here as “all such things.”