Psalms 22:27

22:27 Let all the people of the earth acknowledge the Lord and turn to him! ¹ 

Let all the nations ²  worship you! ³ 

Psalms 96:7

96:7 Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the nations,

ascribe to the Lord splendor and strength!

Revelation 5:9

5:9 They were singing a new song: ⁴ 

“You are worthy to take the scroll

and to open its seals

because you were killed, ⁵ 

and at the cost of your own blood ⁶  you have purchased ⁷  for God

persons ⁸  from every tribe, language, ⁹  people, and nation.

Revelation 7:9

7:9 After these things I looked, and here was ¹⁰  an enormous crowd that no one could count, made up of persons from every nation, tribe, ¹¹  people, and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb dressed in long white robes, and with palm branches in their hands.

Revelation 14:6

Three Angels and Three Messages

14:6 Then ¹²  I saw another ¹³  angel flying directly overhead, ¹⁴  and he had ¹⁵  an eternal gospel to proclaim ¹⁶  to those who live ¹⁷  on the earth – to every nation, tribe, ¹⁸  language, and people.

¹ tn Heb “may all the ends of the earth remember and turn to the Lord.” The prefixed verbal forms in v. 27 are understood as jussives (cf. NEB). Another option (cf. NIV, NRSV) is to take the forms as imperfects and translate, “all the people of the earth will acknowledge and turn…and worship.” See vv. 29-32.

² tn Heb “families of the nations.”

³ tn Heb “before you.”

⁴ tn The redundant participle λέγοντες (legontes) has not been translated here.

⁵ tn Or “slaughtered”; traditionally, “slain.”

⁶ tn The preposition ἐν (en) is taken to indicate price here, like the Hebrew preposition ב (bet) does at times. BDAG 329 s.v. ἐν 5.b states, “The ἐν which takes the place of the gen. of price is also instrumental ἠγόρασας ἐν τῷ αἵματί σου Rv 5:9 (cp. 1 Ch 21:24 ἀγοράζω ἐν ἀργυρίῳ).”

⁷ tc The Greek text as it stands above (i.e., the reading τῷ θεῷ [tw qew] alone) is found in codex A. א 2050 2344 Ï sy add the term “us” (ἡμᾶς, Jhmas), either before or after τῷ θεῷ, as an attempt to clarify the object of “purchased” (ἠγόρασας, hgorasa"). A few mss (1 vg^ms) delete the reference to God altogether and simply replace it with “us” (ἡμᾶς). This too is an attempt to remove ambiguity in the phrase and provide an object for “purchased.” The shorter reading, supported by the best witness for Revelation, best accounts for the other readings.

⁸ tn The word “persons” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

⁹ tn Grk “and language,” but καί (kai) has not been translated since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more.

¹⁰ tn The phrase “and here was” expresses the sense of καὶ ἰδού (kai idou).

¹¹ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated before each of the following categories, since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more.

¹² tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.

¹³ tc Most mss (Ì47 א* Ï sa) lack ἄλλον (allon, “another”) here, but the support for it is stronger (Ì^115vid א² A C P 051 1006 1611 1841 2053 2329 al latt sy bo). The problem that its inclusion represents is that there is no reference to any other angel in the immediate context (the last mention was in 11:15). In this instance, the longer reading is harder. The word was probably intentionally omitted in order to resolve the tension; less likely, it might have been accidentally omitted since its spelling is similar to “angel” (ἄγγελος, angelos).

¹⁴ tn L&N 1.10 states, “a point or region of the sky directly above the earth – ‘high in the sky, midpoint in the sky, directly overhead, straight above in the sky.’”

¹⁵ tn Grk “having.”

¹⁶ tn Or “an eternal gospel to announce as good news.”

¹⁷ tn Grk “to those seated on the earth.”

¹⁸ tn Grk “and tribe,” but καί (kai) has not been translated here or before the following term since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more.