1 John 2:14

2:14 I have written to you, children, that ¹  you have known the Father. ²  I have written to you, fathers, that ³  you have known him who has been from the beginning. I have written to you, young people, that ⁴  you are strong, and the word of God resides in you, and you have conquered the evil one.

Psalms 148:12

148:12 you young men and young women,

you elderly, along with you children!

Proverbs 20:29

20:29 The glory ⁵  of young men is their strength,

and the splendor ⁶  of old men is gray hair. ⁷ 

Joel 2:28

An Outpouring of the Spirit

2:28 (3:1) ⁸  After all of this ⁹ 

I will pour out my Spirit ¹⁰  on all kinds of people. ¹¹ 

Your sons and daughters will prophesy.

Your elderly will have revelatory dreams; ¹² 

your young men will see prophetic visions.

Zechariah 9:17

9:17 How precious and fair! ¹³  Grain will make the young men flourish and new wine the young women.

Titus 2:6

2:6 Encourage younger men likewise to be self-controlled, ¹⁴ 

[2:14]  ¹ tn See the note on “that” in v. 12.

[2:14]  ² sn The versification of vv. 13 and 14 (so also NAB, NRSV, NLT) follows that of the NA²⁷ and UBS⁴ editions of the Greek text. Some English translations, however, break the verses between the sentence addressed to children and the sentence addressed to fathers (KJV, NKJV, NASB, NIV). The same material has been translated in each case; the only difference is the versification of that material.

[2:14]  ³ tn See the note on “that” in v. 12.

[2:14]  ⁴ tn See the note on “that” in v. 12.

[20:29]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew term תִּפְאֶרֶת (tif’eret) means “beauty; glory”; in a context like this it means “honor” in the sense of glorying or boasting (BDB 802 s.v. 3.b).

[20:29]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew term הֲדַר (hadar), the noun in construct, means “splendor; honor; ornament.” The latter sense is used here, since grey hair is like a crown on the head.

[20:29]  ⁷ sn “Grey hair” is a metonymy of adjunct; it represents everything valuable about old age – dignity, wisdom, honor, experience, as well as worry and suffering of life. At the very least, since they survived, they must know something. At the most, they were the sages and elders of the people.

[2:28]  ⁸ sn Beginning with 2:28, the verse numbers through 3:21 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 2:28 ET = 3:1 HT, 2:29 ET = 3:2 HT, 2:30 ET = 3:3 HT, 2:31 ET = 3:4 HT, 2:32 ET = 3:5 HT, 3:1 ET = 4:1 HT, etc., through 3:21 ET = 4:21 HT. Thus Joel in the Hebrew Bible has 4 chapters, the 5 verses of ch. 3 being included at the end of ch. 2 in the English Bible.

[2:28]  ⁹ tn Heb “Now it will be after this.”

[2:28]  ¹⁰ sn This passage plays a key role in the apostolic explanation of the coming of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost recorded in Acts 2:17-21. Peter introduces his quotation of this passage with “this is that spoken by the prophet Joel” (Acts 2:16; cf. the similar pesher formula used at Qumran). The New Testament experience at Pentecost is thus seen in some sense as a fulfillment of this Old Testament passage, even though that experience did not exhaustively fulfill Joel’s words. Some portions of Joel’s prophecy have no precise counterpart in that experience. For example, there is nothing in the experience recorded in Acts 2 that exactly corresponds to the earthly and heavenly signs described in Joel 3:3-4. But inasmuch as the messianic age had already begun and the “last days” had already commenced with the coming of the Messiah (cf. Heb 1:1-2), Peter was able to point to Joel 3:1-5 as a text that was relevant to the advent of Jesus and the bestowal of the Spirit. The equative language that Peter employs (“this is that”) stresses an incipient fulfillment of the Joel passage without precluding or minimizing a yet future and more exhaustive fulfillment in events associated with the return of Christ.

[2:28]  ¹¹ tn Heb “all flesh.” As a term for humanity, “flesh” suggests the weakness and fragility of human beings as opposed to God who is “spirit.” The word “all” refers not to all human beings without exception (cf. NAB, NASB “all mankind”; NLT “all people”), but to all classes of human beings without distinction (cf. NCV).

[2:28]  ¹² tn Heb “your old men will dream dreams.”

[9:17]  ¹³ sn This expostulation best fits the whole preceding description of God’s eschatological work on behalf of his people. His goodness is especially evident in his nurturing of the young men and women of his kingdom.

[2:6]  ¹⁴ tn Or “sensible.”