Zephaniah 3:10

3:10 From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, ¹ 

those who pray to me ²  will bring me tribute.

Malachi 1:11

1:11 For from the east to the west my name will be great among the nations. Incense and pure offerings will be offered in my name everywhere, for my name will be great among the nations,” ³  says the Lord who rules over all.

John 4:21-24

4:21 Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, ⁴  a time ⁵  is coming when you will worship ⁶  the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 4:22 You people ⁷  worship what you do not know. We worship what we know, because salvation is from the Jews. ⁸  4:23 But a time ⁹  is coming – and now is here ¹⁰  – when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks ¹¹  such people to be ¹²  his worshipers. ¹³  4:24 God is spirit, ¹⁴  and the people who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Romans 15:27-28

15:27 For they were pleased to do this, and indeed they are indebted to the Jerusalem saints. ¹⁵  For if the Gentiles have shared in their spiritual things, they are obligated also to minister to them in material things. 15:28 Therefore after I have completed this and have safely delivered this bounty to them, ¹⁶  I will set out for Spain by way of you,

Romans 15:1

Exhortation for the Strong to Help the Weak

15:1 But we who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak, and not just please ourselves. ¹⁷ 

Romans 2:5

2:5 But because of your stubbornness ¹⁸  and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourselves in the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment is revealed! ¹⁹ 

Romans 2:9

2:9 There will be ²⁰  affliction and distress on everyone ²¹  who does evil, on the Jew first and also the Greek, ²² 

¹ tn Or “Nubia”; Heb “Cush.” “Cush” is traditionally assumed to refer to the region south of Egypt, i.e. Nubia or northern Sudan, referred to as “Ethiopia” by classical authors (not the more recent Abyssinia).

² tn Heb “those who pray to me, the daughter of my dispersed ones.” The meaning of the phrase is unclear. Perhaps the text is corrupt at this point or a proper name should be understood. For a discussion of various options see Adele Berlin, Zephaniah (AB 25A), 134-35.

³ sn My name will be great among the nations. In what is clearly a strongly ironic shift of thought, the Lord contrasts the unbelief and virtual paganism of the postexilic community with the conversion and obedience of the nations that will one day worship the God of Israel.

⁴ sn Woman was a polite form of address (see BDAG 208-9 s.v. γυνή 1), similar to “Madam” or “Ma’am” used in English in different regions.

⁵ tn Grk “an hour.”

⁶ tn The verb is plural.

⁷ tn The word “people” is not in the Greek text, but is supplied to indicate that the Greek verb translated “worship” is second person plural and thus refers to more than the woman alone.

⁸ tn Or “from the Judeans.” See the note on “Jew” in v. 9.

⁹ tn Grk “an hour.”

¹⁰ tn “Here” is not in the Greek text but is supplied to conform to contemporary English idiom.

¹¹ sn See also John 4:27.

¹² tn Or “as.” The object-complement construction implies either “as” or “to be.”

¹³ tn This is a double accusative construction of object and complement with τοιούτους (toioutous) as the object and the participle προσκυνοῦντας (proskunounta") as the complement.

¹⁴ tn Here πνεῦμα (pneuma) is understood as a qualitative predicate nominative while the articular θεός (qeos) is the subject.

¹⁵ tn Grk “to them”; the referent (the Jerusalem saints) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁶ tn Grk “have sealed this fruit to them.”

¹⁷ tn Grk “and not please ourselves.” NT Greek negatives used in contrast like this are often not absolute, but relative: “not so much one as the other.”

¹⁸ tn Grk “hardness.” Concerning this imagery, see Jer 4:4; Ezek 3:7; 1 En. 16:3.

¹⁹ tn Grk “in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.”

²⁰ tn No verb is expressed in this verse, but the verb “to be” is implied by the Greek construction. Literally “suffering and distress on everyone…”

²¹ tn Grk “every soul of man.”

²² sn Paul uses the term Greek here and in v. 10 to refer to non-Jews, i.e., Gentiles.