Psalms 30:11-12

30:11 Then you turned my lament into dancing;

you removed my sackcloth and covered me with joy.

30:12 So now my heart will sing to you and not be silent;

O Lord my God, I will always give thanks to you.

Psalms 32:11--33:1

32:11 Rejoice in the Lord and be happy, you who are godly!

Shout for joy, all you who are morally upright!

Psalm 33

33:1 You godly ones, shout for joy because of the Lord!

It is appropriate for the morally upright to offer him praise.

Psalms 119:54

119:54 Your statutes have been my songs

in the house where I live.

Psalms 119:111

119:111 I claim your rules as my permanent possession,

for they give me joy.

Deuteronomy 12:12

12:12 You shall rejoice in the presence of the Lord your God, along with your sons, daughters, male and female servants, and the Levites in your villages 10  (since they have no allotment or inheritance with you). 11 

Isaiah 51:11

51:11 Those whom the Lord has ransomed will return;

they will enter Zion with a happy shout.

Unending joy will crown them, 12 

happiness and joy will overwhelm 13  them;

grief and suffering will disappear. 14 

Isaiah 65:13

65:13 So this is what the sovereign Lord says:

“Look, my servants will eat, but you will be hungry!

Look, my servants will drink, but you will be thirsty!

Look, my servants will rejoice, but you will be humiliated!

Acts 2:46-47

2:46 Every day 15  they continued to gather together by common consent in the temple courts, 16  breaking bread from 17  house to house, sharing their food with glad 18  and humble hearts, 19  2:47 praising God and having the good will 20  of all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number every day 21  those who were being saved.

Acts 16:34

16:34 The jailer 22  brought them into his house and set food 23  before them, and he rejoiced greatly 24  that he had come to believe 25  in God, together with his entire household. 26 

Revelation 18:20

18:20 (Rejoice over her, O heaven,

and you saints and apostles and prophets,

for God has pronounced judgment 27  against her on your behalf!) 28 

Revelation 19:1-5

19:1 After these things I heard what sounded like the loud voice of a vast throng in heaven, saying,

“Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God,

19:2 because his judgments are true and just. 29 

For he has judged 30  the great prostitute

who corrupted the earth with her sexual immorality,

and has avenged the blood of his servants 31  poured out by her own hands!” 32 

19:3 Then 33  a second time the crowd shouted, “Hallelujah!” The smoke rises from her forever and ever. 34  19:4 The twenty-four elders and the four living creatures threw themselves to the ground 35  and worshiped God, who was seated on the throne, saying: “Amen! Hallelujah!”

19:5 Then 36  a voice came from the throne, saying:

“Praise our God

all you his servants,

and all you who fear Him,

both the small and the great!”


sn Covered me with joy. “Joy” probably stands metonymically for festive attire here.

tn Heb “so that”; or “in order that.”

tn Heb “glory.” Some view כָבוֹד (khavod, “glory”) here as a metonymy for man’s inner being (see BDB 459 s.v. II כָּבוֹד 5), but it is preferable to emend the form to כְּבֵדִי (kÿvediy, “my liver”). Like the heart, the liver is viewed as the seat of one’s emotions. See also Pss 16:9; 57:9; 108:1, as well as H. W. Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, 64, and M. Dahood, Psalms (AB), 1:90. For an Ugaritic example of the heart/liver as the source of joy, see G. R. Driver, Canaanite Myths and Legends, 47-48: “her [Anat’s] liver swelled with laughter, her heart was filled with joy, the liver of Anat with triumph.” “Heart” is used in the translation above for the sake of English idiom; the expression “my liver sings” would seem odd indeed to the modern reader.

tn Or “forever.”

tn Heb “all [you] pure of heart.” The “heart” is here viewed as the seat of one’s moral character and motives. The “pure of heart” are God’s faithful followers who trust in and love the Lord and, as a result, experience his deliverance (see Pss 7:10; 11:2; 36:10; 64:10; 94:15; 97:11).

sn Psalm 33. In this hymn the psalmist praises the Lord as the sovereign creator and just ruler of the world who protects and vindicates those who fear him.

tn Heb “songs were your statutes to me.”

tn Heb “in the house of my dwelling place.” Some take the Hebrew noun מָגוֹר (magor) in the sense of “temporary abode,” and see this as a reference to the psalmist’s status as a resident alien (see v. 19). But the noun can refer to a dwelling place in general (see Ps 55:15).

tn Heb “for the joy of my heart [are] they.”

10 tn Heb “within your gates” (so KJV, NASB); NAB “who belongs to your community.”

11 sn They have no allotment or inheritance with you. See note on the word “inheritance” in Deut 10:9.

12 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.

13 tn Heb “overtake” (so NIV); NASB “they will obtain.”

14 tn Heb “grief and groaning will flee.”

15 tn BDAG 437 s.v. ἡμέρα 2.c has “every day” for this phrase.

16 tn Grk “in the temple.” This is actually a reference to the courts surrounding the temple proper, and has been translated accordingly.

17 tn Here κατά (kata) is used as a distributive (BDAG 512 s.v. B.1.d).

18 sn The term glad (Grk “gladness”) often refers to joy brought about by God’s saving acts (Luke 1:14, 44; also the related verb in 1:47; 10:21).

19 tn Grk “with gladness and humbleness of hearts.” It is best to understand καρδίας (kardias) as an attributed genitive, with the two nouns it modifies actually listing attributes of the genitive noun which is related to them.

20 tn Or “the favor.”

21 tn BDAG 437 s.v. ἡμέρα 2.c has “every day” for this phrase.

22 tn Grk “He”; the referent (the jailer) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

23 tn Grk “placed [food] on the table” (a figurative expression). Since the actual word for food is not specified, it would also be possible to translate “set a meal before them,” but since this is taking place in the middle of the night, the preparations necessary for a full meal would probably not have been made. More likely Paul and Silas were given whatever was on hand that needed little or no preparation.

24 tn Or “he was overjoyed.”

25 tn The translation “come to believe” reflects more of the resultative nuance of the perfect tense here.

26 tn The phrase “together with his entire household” is placed at the end of the English sentence so that it refers to both the rejoicing and the belief. A formal equivalence translation would have “and he rejoiced greatly with his entire household that he had come to believe in God,” but the reference to the entire household being baptized in v. 33 presumes that all in the household believed.

27 tn On the phrase “pronounced judgment” BDAG 567 s.v. κρίμα 4.b states, “The OT is the source of the expr. κρίνειν τὸ κρ. (cp. Zech 7:9; 8:16; Ezk 44:24) ἔκρινεν ὁ θεὸς τὸ κρίμα ὑμῶν ἐξ αὐτῆς God has pronounced judgment for you against her or God has pronounced on her the judgment she wished to impose on you (HHoltzmann, Hdb. 1893 ad loc.) Rv 18:20.”

28 tn Grk “God has judged a judgment of you of her.” Verse 20 is set in parentheses because in it the saints, etc. are addressed directly in the second person.

29 tn Compare the similar phrase in Rev 16:7.

30 tn Or “has punished.” See BDAG 568 s.v. κρίνω 5.b.α, describing the OT background which involves both the vindication of the innocent and the punishment of the guilty.

31 tn See the note on the word “servants” in 1:1.

32 tn Grk “from her hand” (referring to her responsibility in causing the blood of God’s followers to be shed).

33 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.

34 tn Or “her smoke ascends forever and ever.”

35 tn Grk “creatures fell down.” BDAG 815 s.v. πίπτω 1.b.α.ב. has “fall down, throw oneself to the ground as a sign of devotion or humility, before high-ranking persons or divine beings.”

36 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.