Psalms 40:16

40:16 May all those who seek you be happy and rejoice in you!

May those who love to experience ¹  your deliverance say continually, ² 

“May the Lord be praised!” ³ 

Psalms 68:3

68:3 But the godly ⁴  are happy;

they rejoice before God

and are overcome with joy. ⁵ 

Psalms 132:9

132:9 May your priests be clothed with integrity! ⁶ 

May your loyal followers shout for joy!

Psalms 132:16

132:16 I will protect her priests, ⁷ 

and her godly people will shout exuberantly. ⁸ 

Psalms 142:7

142:7 Free me ⁹  from prison,

that I may give thanks to your name.

Because of me the godly will assemble, ¹⁰ 

for you will vindicate me. ¹¹ 

Isaiah 66:10-11

66:10 Be happy for Jerusalem

and rejoice with her, all you who love her!

Share in her great joy,

all you who have mourned over her!

66:11 For ¹²  you will nurse from her satisfying breasts and be nourished; ¹³ 

you will feed with joy from her milk-filled breasts. ¹⁴ 

John 16:22

16:22 So also you have sorrow ¹⁵  now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you. ¹⁶ 

Romans 12:15

12:15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.

Romans 12:1

Consecration of the Believer’s Life

12:1 Therefore I exhort you, brothers and sisters, ¹⁷  by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice – alive, holy, and pleasing to God ¹⁸  – which is your reasonable service.

Colossians 1:26

1:26 that is, the mystery that has been kept hidden from ages and generations, but has now been revealed to his saints.

¹ tn Heb “those who love,” which stands metonymically for its cause, the experience of being delivered by the Lord.

² tn The three prefixed verbal forms prior to the quotation are understood as jussives. The psalmist balances out his imprecation against his enemies with a prayer of blessing upon the godly.

³ tn The prefixed verbal form is taken as a jussive, “may the Lord be magnified [in praise].” Another option is to take the verb as an imperfect, “the Lord is great” (cf. NRSV). See Ps 35:27.

⁴ tn By placing the subject first the psalmist highlights the contrast between God’s ecstatic people and his defeated enemies (vv. 1-2).

⁵ tn Heb “and they are happy with joy” (cf. NEB). Some translate the prefixed verbal forms of v. 3 as jussives, “Let the godly be happy, let them rejoice before God, and let them be happy with joy!” (Cf. NASB, NIV, NRSV; note the call to praise in v. 4.)

⁶ tn Or “righteousness.”

⁷ tn Heb “and her priests I will clothe [with] deliverance.”

⁸ tn Heb “[with] shouting they will shout.” The infinitive absolute is used to emphasize the verb.

⁹ tn Heb “bring out my life.”

¹⁰ tn Or “gather around.”

¹¹ tn The Hebrew idiom גָּמַל עַל (gamal ’al) means “to repay,” here in a positive sense.

¹² tn Or “in order that”; ASV, NRSV “that.”

¹³ tn Heb “you will suck and be satisfied, from her comforting breast.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “you will slurp and refresh yourselves from her heavy breast.”

¹⁵ tn Or “distress.”

¹⁶ sn An allusion to Isa 66:14 LXX, which reads: “Then you will see, and your heart will be glad, and your bones will flourish like the new grass; and the hand of the Lord will be made known to his servants, but he will be indignant toward his enemies.” The change from “you will see [me]” to I will see you places more emphasis on Jesus as the one who reinitiates the relationship with the disciples after his resurrection, but v. 16 (you will see me) is more like Isa 66:14. Further support for seeing this allusion as intentional is found in Isa 66:7, which uses the same imagery of the woman giving birth found in John 16:21. In the context of Isa 66 the passages refer to the institution of the messianic kingdom, and in fact the last clause of 66:14 along with the following verses (15-17) have yet to be fulfilled. This is part of the tension of present and future eschatological fulfillment that runs throughout the NT, by virtue of the fact that there are two advents. Some prophecies are fulfilled or partially fulfilled at the first advent, while other prophecies or parts of prophecies await fulfillment at the second.

¹⁷ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:13.

¹⁸ tn The participle and two adjectives “alive, holy, and pleasing to God” are taken as predicates in relation to “sacrifice,” making the exhortation more emphatic. See ExSyn 618-19.