69:9 Certainly 8 zeal for 9 your house 10 consumes me;
I endure the insults of those who insult you. 11
119:139 My zeal 12 consumes 13 me,
for my enemies forget your instructions. 14
59:17 He wears his desire for justice 15 like body armor, 16
and his desire to deliver is like a helmet on his head. 17
He puts on the garments of vengeance 18
and wears zeal like a robe.
2:1 Now on the third day there was a wedding at Cana 21 in Galilee. 22 Jesus’ mother 23 was there,
1:1 From Paul, 24 an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
1 tn Heb “he was zealous with my zeal.” The repetition of forms for “zeal” in the line stresses the passion of Phinehas. The word “zeal” means a passionate intensity to protect or preserve divine or social institutions.
2 tn The word for “zeal” now occurs a third time. While some English versions translate this word here as “jealousy” (KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV), it carries the force of God’s passionate determination to defend his rights and what is right about the covenant and the community and parallels the “zeal” that Phinehas had just demonstrated.
3 tn Heb “say.”
4 tn Here too the grammar expresses an imminent future by using the particle הִנְנִי (hinni) before the participle נֹתֵן (noten) – “here I am giving,” or “I am about to give.”
5 tn Or “my pledge of friendship” (NAB), or “my pact of friendship” (NJPS). This is the designation of the leadership of the priestly ministry. The terminology is used again in the rebuke of the priests in Mal 2.
6 tn The motif is reiterated here. Phinehas was passionately determined to maintain the rights of his God by stopping the gross sinful perversions.
7 sn The atonement that he made in this passage refers to the killing of the two obviously blatant sinners. By doing this he dispensed with any animal sacrifice, for the sinners themselves died. In Leviticus it was the life of the substitutionary animal that was taken in place of the sinners that made atonement. The point is that sin was punished by death, and so God was free to end the plague and pardon the people. God’s holiness and righteousness have always been every bit as important as God’s mercy and compassion, for without righteousness and holiness mercy and compassion mean nothing.
8 tn Or “for.” This verse explains that the psalmist’s suffering is due to his allegiance to God.
9 tn Or “devotion to.”
10 sn God’s house, the temple, here represents by metonymy God himself.
11 tn Heb “the insults of those who insult you fall upon me.”
12 tn or “zeal.”
13 tn Heb “destroys,” in a hyperbolic sense.
14 tn Heb “your words.”
15 tn Or “righteousness” (KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); NCV “goodness.”
16 tn Or “a breastplate” (traditional; so many English versions); TEV “a coat of armour.”
17 tn Heb “and [as] a helmet deliverance on his head.”
18 tn Heb “and he puts on the clothes of vengeance [as] a garment.”
19 tn Or “Fervent devotion to your house.”
20 sn A quotation from Ps 69:9.
21 map For location see Map1-C3; Map2-D2; Map3-C5.
22 sn Cana in Galilee was not a very well-known place. It is mentioned only here, in 4:46, and 21:2, and nowhere else in the NT. Josephus (Life 16 [86]) says he once had his quarters there. The probable location is present day Khirbet Cana, 8 mi (14 km) north of Nazareth, or Khirbet Kenna, 4 mi (7 km) northeast of Nazareth.
23 tn Grk “in Galilee, and Jesus’ mother.”
24 tn Grk “Paul.” The word “from” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.
25 tn Grk “who” (as a continuation of the previous clause).
26 tn Or “a people who are his very own.”
27 tn Grk “for good works.”
28 tn The Greek pronoun ὅσος (Josos) means “as many as” and can be translated “All those” or “Everyone.”