21:2 You grant 1 him his heart’s desire;
you do not refuse his request. 2 (Selah)
37:4 Then you will take delight in the Lord, 3
and he will answer your prayers. 4
145:19 He satisfies the desire 5 of his loyal followers; 6
he hears their cry for help and delivers them.
11:23 What the righteous desire 7 leads 8 only to good,
but what the wicked hope for 9 leads 10 to wrath.
8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 20
1 tn The translation assumes the perfect verbal forms in v. 2 are generalizing, stating factually what God typically does for the king. Another option is to take them as present perfects, “you have granted…you have not refused.” See v. 4, which mentions a specific request for a long reign.
2 tn Heb “and the request of his lips you do not refuse.”
3 tn Following the imperatives of v. 3 the prefixed verbal forms with vav (ו) in v. 4 indicate result. Faith and obedience (v. 3) will bring divine blessing (v. 4).
4 tn Or “and he will give you what you desire most.” Heb “and he will grant to you the requests of your heart.”
5 tn In this context “desire” refers to the followers’ desire to be delivered from wicked enemies.
6 tn Heb “the desire of those who fear him, he does.”
7 tn Heb “the desire of the righteous.” The noun תַּאֲוַת (ta’avat) functions as an objective genitive: “what the righteous desire.”
8 tn The phrase “leads to” does not appear in the Hebrew text but has been supplied in the translation. The desire of the righteous (in itself good) ends in good things, whereas the hope of the wicked ends in wrath, i.e., divine judgment on them. Another interpretation is that the righteous desire is to do good things, but the wicked hope to produce wrath (cf. CEV “troublemakers hope to stir up trouble”).
9 tn Heb “the hope of the wicked.” The noun תִּקְוַת (tiqvat) “expectation” functions as an objective genitive: “what the wicked hope for.”
10 tn The term “leads” does not appear in the Hebrew text in this line but is implied by the parallelism. It is supplied in the translation for clarity and smoothness.
11 tn Grk “believing”; the participle here is conditional.
12 tn Grk “that you always hear me.”
13 tn The word “this” is not in the Greek text. Direct objects in Greek were often omitted when clear from the context.
14 tn Grk “And in that day.”
15 tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”
16 sn This statement is also found in John 15:16.
17 sn He refers to God here; Paul has not specifically identified him for the sake of rhetorical power (for by leaving the subject slightly ambiguous, he draws his audience into seeing God’s hand in places where he is not explicitly mentioned).
18 tn Grk “he,” or “it”; the referent (the Spirit) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
19 tc ὁ θεός (Jo qeos, “God”) is found after the verb συνεργεῖ (sunergei, “work”) in v. 28 by Ì46 A B 81 sa; the shorter reading is found in א C D F G Ψ 33 1739 1881 Ï latt sy bo. Although the inclusion is supported by a significant early papyrus, the alliance of significant Alexandrian and Western witnesses favors the shorter reading. As well, the longer reading is evidently motivated by a need for clarification. Since ὁ θεός is textually suspect, it is better to read the text without it. This leaves two good translational options: either “he works all things together for good” or “all things work together for good.” In the first instance the subject is embedded in the verb and “God” is clearly implied (as in v. 29). In the second instance, πάντα (panta) becomes the subject of an intransitive verb. In either case, “What is expressed is a truly biblical confidence in the sovereignty of God” (C. E. B. Cranfield, Romans [ICC], 1:427).
20 tc The earliest and best witnesses of the Alexandrian and Western texts, as well as a few others (א* B D* F G 6 1506 1739 1881 pc co), have no additional words for v. 1. Later scribes (A D1 Ψ 81 365 629 pc vg) added the words μὴ κατὰ σάρκα περιπατοῦσιν (mh kata sarka peripatousin, “who do not walk according to the flesh”), while even later ones (א2 D2 33vid Ï) added ἀλλὰ κατὰ πνεῦμα (alla kata pneuma, “but [who do walk] according to the Spirit”). Both the external evidence and the internal evidence are compelling for the shortest reading. The scribes were evidently motivated to add such qualifications (interpolated from v. 4) to insulate Paul’s gospel from charges that it was characterized too much by grace. The KJV follows the longest reading found in Ï.
21 tn Or “pattern.”
22 tn Or “disobeyed”; Grk “in the likeness of Adam’s transgression.”
23 tn Grk “but not as the transgression, so also [is] the gracious gift.”
24 sn Here the one man refers to Adam (cf. 5:14).