Psalms 25:2

25:2 My God, I trust in you.

Please do not let me be humiliated;

do not let my enemies triumphantly rejoice over me!

Psalms 119:80

119:80 May I be fully committed to your statutes,

so that I might not be ashamed.

Psalms 119:116

119:116 Sustain me as you promised, so that I will live.

Do not disappoint me!

Isaiah 45:17

45:17 Israel will be delivered once and for all by the Lord;

you will never again be ashamed or humiliated.

Isaiah 50:7

50:7 But the sovereign Lord helps me,

so I am not humiliated.

For that reason I am steadfastly resolved;

I know I will not be put to shame.

Isaiah 54:4

54:4 Don’t be afraid, for you will not be put to shame!

Don’t be intimidated, for you will not be humiliated!

You will forget about the shame you experienced in your youth;

you will no longer remember the disgrace of your abandonment.

Romans 5:5

5:5 And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God 10  has been poured out 11  in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Romans 9:33

9:33 just as it is written,

Look, I am laying in Zion a stone that will cause people to stumble

and a rock that will make them fall, 12 

yet the one who believes in him will not be put to shame. 13 

Romans 9:2

9:2 I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 14 

Colossians 1:14

1:14 in whom we have redemption, 15  the forgiveness of sins.

Colossians 1:2

1:2 to the saints, the faithful 16  brothers and sisters 17  in Christ, at Colossae. Grace and peace to you 18  from God our Father! 19 

Colossians 1:8

1:8 who also told us of your love in the Spirit.

Ephesians 6:19-20

6:19 Pray 20  for me also, that I may be given the message when I begin to speak 21  – that I may confidently make known 22  the mystery of the gospel, 6:20 for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may be able to speak boldly as I ought to speak.

Ephesians 6:1

6:1 Children, 23  obey your parents in the Lord 24  for this is right.

Ephesians 4:16

4:16 From him the whole body grows, fitted and held together 25  through every supporting ligament. 26  As each one does its part, the body grows in love.

Ephesians 4:1

Live in Unity

4:1 I, therefore, the prisoner for the Lord, 27  urge you to live 28  worthily of the calling with which you have been called, 29 

Ephesians 2:1

New Life Individually

2:1 And although you were 30  dead 31  in your transgressions and sins,


tn Heb “may my heart be complete in your statutes.”

tn Heb “according to your word.”

tn The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose/result after the preceding imperative.

tn Heb “do not make me ashamed of my hope.” After the Hebrew verb בּוֹשׁ (bosh, “to be ashamed”) the preposition מִן (min, “from”) often introduces the reason for shame.

tn Heb “Israel will be delivered by the Lord [with] a permanent deliverance.”

tn Heb “you will not be ashamed and you will not be humiliated for ages of future time.”

tn Heb “Therefore I set my face like flint.”

tn Or “embarrassed”; NASB “humiliated…disgraced.”

tn Another option is to translate, “the disgrace of our widowhood” (so NRSV). However, the following context (vv. 6-7) refers to Zion’s husband, the Lord, abandoning her, not dying. This suggests that an אַלְמָנָה (’almanah) was a woman who had lost her husband, whether by death or abandonment.

10 tn The phrase ἡ ἀγάπη τοῦ θεοῦ (Jh agaph tou qeou, “the love of God”) could be interpreted as either an objective genitive (“our love for God”), subjective genitive (“God’s love for us”), or both (M. Zerwick’s “general” genitive [Biblical Greek, §§36-39]; D. B. Wallace’s “plenary” genitive [ExSyn 119-21]). The immediate context, which discusses what God has done for believers, favors a subjective genitive, but the fact that this love is poured out within the hearts of believers implies that it may be the source for believers’ love for God; consequently an objective genitive cannot be ruled out. It is possible that both these ideas are meant in the text and that this is a plenary genitive: “The love that comes from God and that produces our love for God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (ExSyn 121).

11 sn On the OT background of the Spirit being poured out, see Isa 32:15; Joel 2:28-29.

12 tn Grk “a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.”

13 sn A quotation from Isa 28:16; 8:14.

14 tn Grk “my sorrow is great and the anguish in my heart is unceasing.”

15 tc διὰ τοῦ αἵματος αὐτοῦ (dia tou {aimato" autou, “through his blood”) is read at this juncture by several minuscule mss (614 630 1505 2464 al) as well as a few, mostly secondary, versional and patristic witnesses. But the reading was prompted by the parallel in Eph 1:7 where the wording is solid. If these words had been in the original of Colossians, why would scribes omit them here but not in Eph 1:7? Further, the testimony on behalf of the shorter reading is quite overwhelming: {א A B C D F G Ψ 075 0150 6 33 1739 1881 Ï latt co as well as several other versions and fathers}. The conviction that “through his blood” is not authentic in Col 1:14 is as strong as the conviction that these words are authentic in Eph 1:7.

16 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.

17 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).

18 tn Or “Grace to you and peace.”

19 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 mss would surely have deleted the phrase in the rest of the corpus Paulinum), it is surely authentic.

20 tn To avoid a lengthy, convoluted sentence in English, the Greek sentence was broken up at this point and the verb “pray” was inserted in the English translation to pick up the participle προσευχόμενοι (proseuxomenoi, “praying”) in v. 18.

21 tn Grk “that a word may be given to me in the opening of my mouth.” Here “word” (λόγος, logo") is used in the sense of “message.”

22 tn The infinitive γνωρίσαι (gnwrisai, “to make known”) is functioning epexegetically to further explain what the author means by the preceding phrase “that I may be given the message when I begin to speak.”

23 tn The use of the article τά (ta) with τέκνα (tekna) functions in a generic way to distinguish this group from husbands, wives, fathers and slaves and is left, therefore, untranslated. The generic article is used with γύναῖκες (gunaikes) in 5:22, ἄνδρες (andres) in 5:25, δοῦλοι (douloi) in 6:5, and κύριοι (kurioi) in 6:9.

24 tc B D* F G as well as a few versional and patristic representatives lack “in the Lord” (ἐν κυρίῳ, en kuriw), while the phrase is well represented in Ì46 א A D1 Ivid Ψ 0278 0285 33 1739 1881 Ï sy co. Scribes may have thought that the phrase could be regarded a qualifier on the kind of parents a child should obey (viz., only Christian parents), and would thus be tempted to delete the phrase to counter such an interpretation. It is unlikely that the phrase would have been added, since the form used to express such sentiment in this Haustafel is ὡς τῷ κυρίῳ/Χριστῷ (Jw" tw kuriw/Cristw, “as to the Lord/Christ”; see 5:22; 6:5). Even though the witnesses for the omission are impressive, it is more likely that the phrase was deleted than added by scribal activity.

25 tn The Greek participle συμβιβαζόμενον (sumbibazomenon) translated “held together” also has in different contexts, the idea of teaching implied in it.

26 tn Grk “joint of supply.”

27 tn Grk “prisoner in the Lord.”

28 tn Grk “walk.” The verb “walk” in the NT letters refers to the conduct of one’s life, not to physical walking.

29 sn With which you have been called. The calling refers to the Holy Spirit’s prompting that caused them to believe. The author is thus urging his readers to live a life that conforms to their saved status before God.

30 tn The adverbial participle “being” (ὄντας, ontas) is taken concessively.

31 sn Chapter 2 starts off with a participle, although you were dead, that is left dangling. The syntax in Greek for vv. 1-3 constitutes one incomplete sentence, though it seems to have been done intentionally. The dangling participle leaves the readers in suspense while they wait for the solution (in v. 4) to their spiritual dilemma.