Psalms 119:138

119:138 The rules you impose are just, ¹ 

and absolutely reliable.

Psalms 119:152

119:152 I learned long ago that

you ordained your rules to last. ² 

Matthew 5:18

5:18 I ³  tell you the truth, ⁴  until heaven and earth pass away not the smallest letter or stroke of a letter ⁵  will pass from the law until everything takes place.

Matthew 5:1

The Beatitudes

5:1 When ⁶  he saw the crowds, he went up the mountain. ⁷  After he sat down his disciples came to him.

Matthew 1:23-25

1:23 “Look! The virgin will conceive and bear a son, and they will call him ⁸  Emmanuel,” ⁹  which means ¹⁰  “God with us.” ¹¹  1:24 When Joseph awoke from sleep he did what the angel of the Lord ¹²  told him. He took his wife, 1:25 but did not have marital relations ¹³  with her until she gave birth to a son, whom he named ¹⁴  Jesus.

¹ tn Heb “you commanded [in] justice your rules.”

² tn Heb “long ago I knew concerning your rules, that forever you established them.” See v. 89 for the same idea. The translation assumes that the preposition מִן (min) prefixed to “your rules” introduces the object of the verb יָדַע (yada’), as in 1 Sam 23:23. Another option is that the preposition indicates source, in which case one might translate, “Long ago I realized from your rules that forever you established them” (cf. NIV, NRSV).

³ tn Grk “For I tell.” Here an explanatory γάρ (gar) has not been translated.

⁴ tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”

⁵ tn Grk “Not one iota or one serif.”

⁶ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

⁷ tn Or “up a mountain” (εἰς τὸ ὄρος, eis to oro").

⁸ tn Grk “they will call his name.”

⁹ sn A quotation from Isa 7:14.

¹⁰ tn Grk “is translated.”

¹¹ sn An allusion to Isa 8:8, 10 (LXX).

¹² tn See the note on the word “Lord” in 1:20. Here the translation “the angel of the Lord” is used because the Greek article (ὁ, Jo) which precedes ἄγγελος (angelos) is taken as an anaphoric article (ExSyn 217-19) referring back to the angel mentioned in v. 20.

¹³ tn Or “did not have sexual relations”; Grk “was not knowing her.” The verb “know” (in both Hebrew and Greek) is a frequent biblical euphemism for sexual relations. However, a translation like “did not have sexual relations with her” is too graphic in light of the popularity and wide use of Matthew’s infancy narrative. Thus the somewhat more subdued but still clear “did not have marital relations” was selected.

¹⁴ tn Grk “and he called his name Jesus.” The coordinate clause has been translated as a relative clause in English for stylistic reasons.