Psalms 34:5-6

34:5 Those who look to him for help are happy;

their faces are not ashamed.

34:6 This oppressed man cried out and the Lord heard;

he saved him from all his troubles.

Psalms 55:16-17

55:16 As for me, I will call out to God,

and the Lord will deliver me.

55:17 During the evening, morning, and noontime

I will lament and moan,

and he will hear me.

Psalms 109:4

109:4 They repay my love with accusations,

but I continue to pray.

Psalms 142:4-5

142:4 Look to the right and see!

No one cares about me.

I have nowhere to run;

no one is concerned about my life. 10 

142:5 I cry out to you, O Lord;

I say, “You are my shelter,

my security 11  in the land of the living.”

Isaiah 8:17

8:17 I will wait patiently for the Lord,

who has rejected the family of Jacob; 12 

I will wait for him.

Isaiah 45:22

45:22 Turn to me so you can be delivered, 13 

all you who live in the earth’s remote regions!

For I am God, and I have no peer.

Habakkuk 3:17-19

3:17 When 14  the fig tree does not bud,

and there are no grapes on the vines;

when the olive trees do not produce, 15 

and the fields yield no crops; 16 

when the sheep disappear 17  from the pen,

and there are no cattle in the stalls,

3:18 I will rejoice because of 18  the Lord;

I will be happy because of the God who delivers me!

3:19 The sovereign Lord is my source of strength. 19 

He gives me the agility of a deer; 20 

he enables me to negotiate the rugged terrain. 21 

(This prayer is for the song leader. It is to be accompanied by stringed instruments.) 22 

Luke 6:11-12

6:11 But they were filled with mindless rage 23  and began debating with one another what they would do 24  to Jesus.

Choosing the Twelve Apostles

6:12 Now 25  it was during this time that Jesus 26  went out to the mountain 27  to pray, and he spent all night 28  in prayer to God. 29 


tc Heb “they look to him and are radiant and their faces are not ashamed.” The third person plural subject (“they”) is unidentified; there is no antecedent in the Hebrew text. For this reason some prefer to take the perfect verbal forms in the first line as imperatives, “look to him and be radiant” (cf. NEB, NRSV). Some medieval Hebrew mss and other ancient witnesses (Aquila, the Syriac, and Jerome) support an imperatival reading for the first verb. In the second line some (with support from the LXX and Syriac) change “their faces” to “your faces,” which allows one to retain more easily the jussive force of the verb (suggested by the preceding אַל [’al]): “do not let your faces be ashamed.” It is probable that the verbal construction in the second line is rhetorical, expressing the conviction that the action in view cannot or should not happen. See GKC 322 §109.e.

tn The pronoun refers back to “this oppressed man,” namely, the psalmist.

tn The first verb is clearly a cohortative form, expressing the psalmist’s resolve. The second verb, while formally ambiguous, should also be understood as cohortative here.

tn The prefixed verb with vav (ו) consecutive normally appears in narrational contexts to indicate past action, but here it continues the anticipatory (future) perspective of the preceding line. In Ps 77:6 one finds the same sequence of cohortative + prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive. In this case as well, both forms refer to future actions.

tn Heb “my voice.”

tn Heb “in place of my love they oppose me.”

tn Heb “and I, prayer.”

tn Heb “there is no one who recognizes me.”

tn Heb “ a place of refuge perishes from me.”

10 tn Heb “there is no one who seeks for the sake of my life.”

11 tn Heb “my portion.” The psalmist compares the Lord to landed property, which was foundational to economic stability in ancient Israel.

12 tn Heb “who hides his face from the house of Jacob.”

13 tn The Niphal imperative with prefixed vav (ו) indicates purpose after the preceding imperative. The Niphal probably has a tolerative sense, “allow yourselves to be delivered, accept help.”

14 tn Or “though.”

15 tn Heb “the produce of the olive disappoints.”

16 tn Heb “food.”

17 tn Or “are cut off.”

18 tn Or “in.”

19 tn Or perhaps, “is my wall,” that is, “my protector.”

20 tn Heb “he makes my feet like those of deer.”

21 tn Heb “he makes me walk on my high places.”

22 tn Heb “For the leader, on my stringed instruments.”

23 tn The term ἄνοια (anoia) denotes a kind of insane or mindless fury; the opponents were beside themselves with rage. They could not rejoice in the healing, but could only react against Jesus.

24 tn The use of the optative (ποιήσαιεν, poihsaien, “might do”) in an indirect question indicates that the formal opposition and planning of Jesus’ enemies started here (BDF §§385.1; 386.1).

25 tn Grk “Now it happened that in.” The introductory phrase ἐγένετο (egeneto, “it happened that”), common in Luke (69 times) and Acts (54 times), is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.

26 tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

27 tn Or “to a mountain” (εἰς τὸ ὅρος, eis to Joro").

28 sn This is the only time all night prayer is mentioned in the NT.

29 tn This is an objective genitive, so prayer “to God.”