Psalms 44:4

44:4 You are my ¹  king, O God!

Decree ²  Jacob’s ³  deliverance!

Psalms 68:28

68:28 God has decreed that you will be powerful. ⁴ 

O God, you who have acted on our behalf, demonstrate your power,

Psalms 91:11-12

91:11 For he will order his angels ⁵ 

to protect you in all you do. ⁶ 

91:12 They will lift you up in their hands,

so you will not slip and fall on a stone. ⁷ 

Ezekiel 9:6

9:6 Old men, young men, young women, little children, and women – wipe them out! But do not touch anyone who has the mark. Begin at my sanctuary!” So they began with the elders who were at the front of the temple.

Revelation 7:2-3

7:2 Then ⁸  I saw another angel ascending from the east, ⁹  who had ¹⁰  the seal ¹¹  of the living God. He ¹²  shouted out with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given permission ¹³  to damage the earth and the sea: ¹⁴  7:3 “Do not damage the earth or the sea or the trees until we have put a seal on the foreheads of the servants ¹⁵  of our God.”

¹ sn The speaker changes here to an individual, perhaps the worship leader or the king. The oscillation between singular (vv. 4, 6) and plural (vv. 1-3, 5, 7-8) in vv. 1-8 may reflect an antiphonal ceremony.

² tc The LXX assumes a participle here (מְצַוֶּה [mÿtsavveh], “the one who commands/decrees”) which would stand in apposition to “my God.” It is possible that the MT, which has the imperative (צַוֵּה, tsavveh) form, has suffered haplography of the letter mem (ם). Note that the preceding word (אֱלֹהִים, ’elohim) ends in mem. Another option is that the MT is divided in the wrong place; perhaps one could move the final mem from אֱלֹהִים to the beginning of the next word and read מְצַוֶּה אֱלֹהָי (’elohay mÿtsavveh, “[You are my king,] my God, the one who decrees”).

³ tn That is, Israel. See Pss 14:7; 22:23.

⁴ tn Heb “God has commanded your strength.” The statement is apparently addressed to Israel (see v. 26).

⁵ tn Heb “for his angels he will command concerning you.”

⁶ tn Heb “in all your ways.”

⁷ tn Heb “so your foot will not strike a stone.”

⁸ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.

⁹ tn Grk “from the rising of the sun.” BDAG 74 s.v. ἀνατολή 2.a takes this as a geographical direction: “ἀπὸ ἀ. ἡλίου…from the east Rv 7:2; 16:12…simply ἀπὸ ἀ. …21:13.”

¹⁰ tn Grk “having,” but v. 3 makes it clear that the angel’s purpose is to seal others with the seal he carries.

¹¹ tn Or “signet” (L&N 6.54).

¹² tn Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation. Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

¹³ tn The word “permission” is implied; Grk “to whom it was given to them to damage the earth.”

¹⁴ tn Grk “saying.” The participle λέγων (legwn) is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.

¹⁵ tn See the note on the word “servants” in 1:1.