32:6 For this reason every one of your faithful followers 6 should pray to you
while there is a window of opportunity. 7
Certainly 8 when the surging water 9 rises,
it will not reach them. 10
95:7 For he is our God;
we are the people of his pasture,
the sheep he owns. 11
Today, if only you would obey him! 12
95:8 He says, 13 “Do not be stubborn like they were at Meribah, 14
like they were that day at Massah 15 in the wilderness, 16
55:6 Seek the Lord while he makes himself available; 17
call to him while he is nearby!
1:1 From Paul, 25 an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, 1:2 to the saints, the faithful 26 brothers and sisters 27 in Christ, at Colossae. Grace and peace to you 28 from God our Father! 29
1 tn Grk “They will raze you to the ground.”
2 tn Grk “your children within you.” The phrase “[your] walls” has been supplied in the translation to clarify that the city of Jerusalem, metaphorically pictured as an individual, is spoken of here.
3 sn (Not) one stone on top of another is an idiom for total destruction.
4 tn Grk “leave stone on stone.”
5 tn Grk “the time of your visitation.” To clarify what this refers to, the words “from God” are supplied at the end of the verse, although they do not occur in the Greek text.
6 tn A “faithful follower” (חָסִיד, khasid) is one who does what is right in God’s eyes and remains faithful to God (see Pss 4:3; 12:1; 18:25; 31:23; 37:28; 86:2; 97:10).
7 tn Heb “at a time of finding.” This may mean, “while there is time to ‘find’ [the
8 tn The Hebrew term רַק (raq) occasionally has an asseverative force.
9 sn The surging water is here a metaphor for trouble that endangers one’s life.
10 tn Heb “him.” The translation uses the plural “them” to agree with the plural “every one of your faithful followers” in the first line of v. 6.
11 tn Heb “of his hand.”
12 tn Heb “if only you would listen to his voice.” The Hebrew particle אִם (’im, “if”) and following prefixed verbal form here express a wish (cf. Ps 81:8). Note that the apodosis (the “then” clause of the conditional sentence) is suppressed.
13 tn The words “he says” are supplied in the translation to clarify that the following words are spoken by the Lord (see vv. 9-11).
14 sn The name Meribah means “strife.” Two separate but similar incidents at Meribah are recorded in the Pentateuch (Exod 17:1-7; Num 20:1-13, see also Pss 81:7; 106:32). In both cases the Israelites complained about lack of water and the Lord miraculously provided for them.
15 sn The name Massah means “testing.” This was another name (along with Meribah) given to the place where Israel complained following the Red Sea Crossing (see Exod 17:1-7, as well as Deut 6:16; 9:22; 33:8).
16 tn Heb “do not harden your heart[s] as [at] Meribah, as [in] the day of Massah in the wilderness.”
17 tn Heb “while he allows himself to be found.” The Niphal form has a tolerative force here.
18 tn Grk “Then Jesus said to them.”
19 tn Grk “Yet a little while the light is with you.”
20 sn The warning Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you operates on at least two different levels: (1) To the Jewish people in Jerusalem to whom Jesus spoke, the warning was a reminder that there was only a little time left for them to accept him as their Messiah. (2) To those later individuals to whom the Fourth Gospel was written, and to every person since, the words of Jesus are also a warning: There is a finite, limited time in which each individual has opportunity to respond to the Light of the world (i.e., Jesus); after that comes darkness. One’s response to the Light decisively determines one’s judgment for eternity.
21 tn The idiom “sons of light” means essentially “people characterized by light,” that is, “people of God.”
22 tn Grk “him”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity and to conform with contemporary English style.
23 tn Grk “And Martha.” The connective καί (kai, “and”) has been omitted in the translation because it would produce a run-on sentence in English.
24 tn Grk “reclining at the table.”
25 tn Grk “Paul.” The word “from” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.
26 tn Grk “and faithful.” The construction in Greek (as well as Paul’s style) suggests that the saints are identical to the faithful; hence, the καί (kai) is best left untranslated (cf. Eph 1:1). See ExSyn 281-82.
27 tn Grk “brothers,” but the Greek word may be used for “brothers and sisters” or “fellow Christians” as here (cf. BDAG 18 s.v. ἀδελφός 1, where considerable nonbiblical evidence for the plural ἀδελφοί [adelfoi] meaning “brothers and sisters” is cited).
28 tn Or “Grace to you and peace.”
29 tc Most witnesses, including some important ones (א A C F G I [P] 075 Ï it bo), read “and the Lord Jesus Christ” at the end of this verse, no doubt to conform the wording to the typical Pauline salutation. However, excellent and early witnesses (B D K L Ψ 33 81 1175 1505 1739 1881 al sa) lack this phrase. Since the omission is inexplicable as arising from the longer reading (otherwise, these