119:16 I find delight 1 in your statutes;
I do not forget your instructions. 2
119:50 This 3 is what comforts me in my trouble,
for your promise revives me. 4
6:1 After this 7 Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee (also called the Sea of Tiberias). 8
1:23 John 9 said, “I am the voice of one shouting in the wilderness, ‘Make straight 10 the way for the Lord,’ 11 as Isaiah the prophet said.”
1 tn The imperfects in this verse emphasize the attitude the psalmist maintains toward God’s law. Another option is to translate with the future tense, “I will find delight…I will not forget.”
2 tn Heb “your word.” Many medieval Hebrew
3 tn The demonstrative “this” refers back to the hope just mentioned or forward to the statement in the second line concerning the promise’s power to revive. See the note on the word “me” at the end of the verse for further discussion.
4 tn The hope generated by the promise (see v. 49b) brings comfort because (note “for” at the beginning of the line) the promise revives the psalmist’s spirits. Another option is to take כִּי (ki) at the beginning of the second line in the sense of “that,” in which case “this” refers to the promise’s power to revive.
5 tn Grk “the flesh counts for nothing.”
6 tn Or “are spirit-giving and life-producing.”
7 tn Again, μετὰ ταῦτα (meta tauta) is a vague temporal reference. How Jesus got from Jerusalem to Galilee is not explained, which has led many scholars (e.g., Bernard, Bultmann, and Schnackenburg) to posit either editorial redaction or some sort of rearrangement or dislocation of material (such as reversing the order of chaps. 5 and 6, for example). Such a rearrangement of the material would give a simple and consistent connection of events, but in the absence of all external evidence it does not seem to be supportable. R. E. Brown (John [AB], 1:236) says that such an arrangement is attractive in some ways but not compelling, and that no rearrangement can solve all the geographical and chronological problems in John.
8 sn This is a parenthetical note by the author. Only John in the New Testament refers to the Sea of Galilee by the name Sea of Tiberias (see also John 21:1), but this is correct local usage. In the mid-20’s Herod completed the building of the town of Tiberias on the southwestern shore of the lake; after this time the name came into use for the lake itself.
9 tn Grk “He”; the referent (John the Baptist) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
10 sn This call to “make straight” is probably an allusion to preparation through repentance.
11 sn A quotation from Isa 40:3.