Psalms 90:16-17

90:16 May your servants see your work! ¹ 

May their sons see your majesty! ² 

90:17 May our sovereign God extend his favor to us! ³ 

Make our endeavors successful!

Yes, make them successful! ⁴ 

Psalms 102:28

102:28 The children of your servants will settle down here,

and their descendants ⁵  will live securely in your presence.” ⁶ 

Isaiah 44:3-4

44:3 For I will pour water on the parched ground ⁷ 

and cause streams to flow ⁸  on the dry land.

I will pour my spirit on your offspring

and my blessing on your children.

44:4 They will sprout up like a tree in the grass, ⁹ 

like poplars beside channels of water.

Isaiah 61:9

61:9 Their descendants will be known among the nations,

their offspring among the peoples.

All who see them will recognize that

the Lord has blessed them.” ¹⁰ 

Acts 2:39

2:39 For the promise ¹¹  is for you and your children, and for all who are far away, as many as the Lord our God will call to himself.”

¹ tn Heb “may your work be revealed to your servants.” In this context (note v. 17) the verb form יֵרָאֶה (yera’eh) is best understood as an unshortened jussive (see Gen 1:9; Isa 47:3).

² tn Heb “and your majesty to their sons.” The verb “be revealed” is understood by ellipsis in the second line.

³ tn Heb “and may the delight of the Master, our God, be on us.” The Hebrew term נֹעַם (no’am, “delight”) is used in Ps 27:4 of the Lord’s “beauty,” but here it seems to refer to his favor (see BDB 653 s.v.) or kindness (HALOT 706 s.v.).

⁴ tn Heb “and the work of our hands establish over us, and the work of our hands, establish it.”

⁵ tn Or “offspring”; Heb “seed.”

⁶ tn Heb “before you will be established.”

⁷ tn Heb “the thirsty.” Parallelism suggests that dry ground is in view (see “dry land” in the next line.)

⁸ tn Heb “and streams”; KJV “floods.” The verb “cause…to flow” is supplied in the second line for clarity and for stylistic reasons.

⁹ tn The Hebrew term בֵין (ven) is usually taken as a preposition, in which case one might translate, “among the grass.” But בֵין is probably the name of a tree (cf. C. R. North, Second Isaiah, 133). If one alters the preposition bet (בְּ) to kaf (כְּ), one can then read, “like a binu-tree.” (The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a supports this reading.) This forms a nice parallel to “like poplars” in the next line. חָצִיר (khatsir) is functioning as an adverbial accusative of location.

¹⁰ tn Heb “all who see them will recognize them, that they [are] descendants [whom] the Lord has blessed.”

¹¹ sn The promise refers to the promise of the Holy Spirit that Jesus received from the Father in 2:33 and which he now pours out on others. The promise consists of the Holy Spirit (see note in 2:33). Jesus is the active mediator of God’s blessing.