Psalms 16:11

16:11 You lead me in ¹  the path of life; ² 

I experience absolute joy in your presence; ³ 

you always give me sheer delight. ⁴ 

Isaiah 35:10

35:10 those whom the Lord has ransomed will return that way. ⁵ 

They will enter Zion with a happy shout.

Unending joy will crown them, ⁶ 

happiness and joy will overwhelm ⁷  them;

grief and suffering will disappear. ⁸ 

Colossians 3:2-4

3:2 Keep thinking about things above, not things on the earth, 3:3 for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 3:4 When Christ (who is your ⁹  life) appears, then you too will be revealed in glory with him.

Hebrews 10:34

10:34 For in fact you shared the sufferings of those in prison, ¹⁰  and you accepted the confiscation of your belongings with joy, because you knew that you certainly ¹¹  had a better and lasting possession.

James 2:5

2:5 Listen, my dear brothers and sisters! ¹²  Did not God choose the poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he promised to those who love him?

James 2:1

Prejudice and the Law of Love

2:1 My brothers and sisters, ¹³  do not show prejudice ¹⁴  if you possess faith ¹⁵  in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. ¹⁶ 

James 1:4-5

1:4 And let endurance have its perfect effect, so that you will be perfect and complete, not deficient in anything. 1:5 But if anyone is deficient in wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to all generously and without reprimand, and it will be given to him.

¹ tn Heb “cause me to know”; or “cause me to experience.”

² tn This is a metaphorical way of saying, “you preserve my life.” The phrase “path of life” stands in contrast to death/Sheol in Prov 2:18-19; 5:5-6; 15:24.

³ tn Heb “abundance of joy [is] with your face.” The plural form of the noun שִׂמְחָה (simkhah, “joy”) occurs only here and in Ps 45:15. It may emphasize the degree of joy experienced.

⁴ tn Heb “delight [is] in your right hand forever.” The plural form of the adjective נָעִים (na’im, “pleasant, delightful”) may here emphasize the degree of delight experienced (see Job 36:11).

⁵ tn Heb “and the redeemed will walk, the ransomed of the Lord will return.”

⁶ tn Heb “[will be] on their head[s].” “Joy” may be likened here to a crown (cf. 2 Sam 1:10). The statement may also be an ironic twist on the idiom “earth/dust on the head” (cf. 2 Sam 1:2; 13:19; 15:32; Job 2:12), referring to a mourning practice.

⁷ tn Heb “will overtake” (NIV); NLT “they will be overcome with.”

⁸ tn Heb “grief and groaning will flee”; KJV “sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”

⁹ tc Certain mss (B^[*^] D¹ H 0278 1739 Ï sy sa) read ἡμῶν (Jhmwn, “our”), while others (Ì⁴⁶ א C D* F G P Ψ 075 33 81 1881 al latt bo) read ὑμῶν (Jumwn, “your”). Internally, it is possible that the second person pronoun arose through scribal conformity to the second person pronoun used previously in v. 3 (i.e., ὑμῶν) and following in v. 4 (ὑμεῖς, Jumeis). But in terms of external criteria, the second person pronoun has superior ms support (though there is an Alexandrian split) and ἡμῶν may have arisen through accident (error of sight) or scribal attempt to universalize the statement since all Christians have Jesus as their life. See TCGNT 557.

¹⁰ tc Most witnesses, including some important ones (א D² 1881 Ï), read δεσμοῖς μου (desmoi" mou, “my imprisonment”) here, a reading that is probably due to the widespread belief in the early Christian centuries that Paul was the author of Hebrews (cf. Phil 1:7; Col 4:18). It may have been generated by the reading δεσμοῖς without the μου (so Ì⁴⁶ Ψ 104 pc), the force of which is so ambiguous (lit., “you shared the sufferings with the bonds”) as to be virtually nonsensical. Most likely, δεσμοῖς resulted when a scribe made an error in copying δεσμίοις (desmioi"), a reading which makes excellent sense (“[of] those in prison”) and is strongly supported by early and significant witnesses of the Alexandrian and Western texttypes (A D* H 6 33 81 1739 lat sy co). Thus, δεσμίοις best explains the rise of the other readings on both internal and external grounds and is strongly preferred.

¹¹ tn Grk “you yourselves.”

¹² tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.

¹³ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.

¹⁴ tn Or “partiality.”

¹⁵ tn Grk “do not have faith with personal prejudice,” with emphasis on the last phrase.

¹⁶ tn Grk “our Lord Jesus Christ of glory.” Here δόξης (doxhs) has been translated as an attributive genitive.