1 Timothy 6:19

6:19 In this way they will save up ¹  a treasure for themselves as a firm foundation ²  for the future and so lay hold of ³  what is truly life.

Psalms 63:8

63:8 My soul ⁴  pursues you; ⁵ 

your right hand upholds me.

Proverbs 3:18

3:18 She is like ⁶  a tree of life ⁷  to those who obtain her, ⁸ 

and everyone who grasps hold of her will be blessed. ⁹ 

The Song of Songs 3:4

3:4 Scarcely ¹⁰  had I passed them by

when I found my beloved!

I held onto him ¹¹  tightly and would not let him go ¹² 

until I brought him to my mother’s house, ¹³ 

to the bedroom chamber ¹⁴  of the one who conceived me.

Philippians 3:12-14

Keep Going Forward

3:12 Not that I have already attained this – that is, I have not already been perfected – but I strive to lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus also laid hold of me. ¹⁵  3:13 Brothers and sisters, ¹⁶  I do not consider myself to have attained this. Instead I am single-minded: ¹⁷  Forgetting the things that are behind and reaching out for the things that are ahead, 3:14 with this goal in mind, ¹⁸  I strive toward the prize of the upward call of God ¹⁹  in Christ Jesus.

Hebrews 3:14

3:14 For we have become partners with Christ, if in fact we hold our initial confidence ²⁰  firm until the end.

Hebrews 6:18

6:18 so that we who have found refuge in him ²¹  may find strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us through two unchangeable things, since it is impossible for God to lie.

Hebrews 6:1

6:1 Therefore we must progress beyond ²²  the elementary ²³  instructions about Christ ²⁴  and move on ²⁵  to maturity, not laying this foundation again: repentance from dead works and faith in God,

Hebrews 2:1

Warning Against Drifting Away

2:1 Therefore we must pay closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.

Revelation 3:3

3:3 Therefore, remember what you received and heard, ²⁶  and obey it, ²⁷  and repent. If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will never ²⁸  know at what hour I will come against ²⁹  you.

[6:19]  ¹ tn Grk “saving up” (the continuation of 6:18). Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started at the beginning of v. 19.

[6:19]  ² tn Grk “treasuring up a good foundation.”

[6:19]  ³ tn Grk “that they may lay hold of.”

[63:8]  ⁴ tn Or “I.” The Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) with a pronominal suffix is often equivalent to a pronoun, especially in poetry (see BDB 660 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ 4.a).

[63:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “clings after.” The expression means “to pursue with determination” (see Judg 20:45; 1 Sam 14:22; 1 Chr 10:2; Jer 42:16).

[3:18]  ⁶ tn The comparative “like” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is implied by the metaphor; it is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity.

[3:18]  ⁷ sn The metaphor compares wisdom to the symbol of vitality and fullness of life. This might be an allusion to Gen 3:22, suggesting that what was lost as a result of the Fall may be recovered through wisdom: long and beneficial life (R. Marcus, “The Tree of Life in Proverbs,” JBL 62 [1943]: 117-20).

[3:18]  ⁸ tn Heb “lay hold of her.”

[3:18]  ⁹ tn The singular participle מְאֻשָּׁר (mÿ’ushar, literally, “he will be blessed”) functions as a distributive singular for a plural subject (GKC 464 §145.l): “each and everyone will be blessed.” Not recognizing this point of syntax, the BHS editors unnecessarily suggest emending this singular form to the plural.

[3:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “like a little.” The term כִּמְעַט (kim’at), which is composed of the comparative preposition כְּ (kÿ, “like”) prefixed to the noun מְעַט (mÿ’at, “the small, the little, the few”), is an idiom that means “within a little” or “scarcely” (BDB 590 s.v. מְעַט b.2.a).

[3:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “I held him” (אֲחַזְתִּיו, ’akhaztiv). The term אָחַז (’akhaz, “grasp”) denotes to forcefully seize someone to avoid losing hold of him (BDB 28 s.v. אָחַז b).

[3:4]  ¹² tn The verb רָפָה (rafah, “to let go”) means to relax one’s grip on an object or a person (HALOT 1276-77 s.v. רפה; BDB 952 s.v. רָפָה 2). The Hiphil stem means “to let loose” (Job 7:19; 27:6; Song 3:4; Sir 6:27) or “to release from one’s hands” (Deut 9:14; Josh 10:6; Ps 37:8). The negative expression לֹא רָפָה (lo’ rafah, “to not let [someone or something] go”) denotes an intense desire or effort to not lose possession of someone or something (Job 27:6; Prov 4:13). Here the expression וְלֹא אַרְפֶּנּוּ (vÿlo’ ’arpennu, “I would not let him go”) pictures her determination to hold on to him so she would not lose him again. The shift from a suffix-conjugation (perfect) אֲחַזְתִּיו (’akhaztiv, “I grasped him”) to a prefix-conjugation (imperfect) אַרְפֶּנּוּ (’arpennu, “I would [not] let him go”) depicts a shift from a completed/consummative action (perfect: she took hold of his hand) to an ongoing/progressive action (imperfect: she would not let go of it). A basic distinction between the perfect and imperfect tenses is that of consummative versus progressive action. The literary/syntactical structure of אֲחַזְתִּיו וְלֹא אַרְפֶּנּוּ (“I grasped him and I would not let him go”) in 3:4 mirrors that of בִּקַּשְׁתִּיו וְלֹא מְצָאתִיו (biqqashtiv vÿlo’ mÿtsa’tiv, “I searched for him but I could not find him”) in 3:1-2. This parallelism in the literary and syntactical structure emphasizes the fortunate reversal of situation.

[3:4]  ¹³ sn There is debate about the reason why the woman brought her beloved to her mother’s house. Campbell notes that the mother’s house is sometimes referred to as the place where marital plans were made (Gen 24:28; Ruth 1:8). Some suggest, then, that the woman here was unusually bold and took the lead in proposing marriage plans with her beloved. This approach emphasizes that the marriage plans in 3:4 are followed by the royal wedding procession (3:6-11) and the wedding night (4:1-5:1). On the other hand, others suggest that the parallelism of “house of my mother” and “chamber of she who conceived me” focuses on the bedroom of her mother’s house. Fields suggests that her desire was to make love to her beloved in the very bedroom chambers where she herself was conceived, to complete the cycle of life/love. If this is the idea, it would provide a striking parallel to a similar picture in 8:5 in which the woman exults that they had made love in the very location where her beloved had been conceived: “Under the apple tree I aroused you; it was there your mother conceived you, there she who bore you conceived you.”

[3:4]  ¹⁴ tn The term חֶדֶר (kheder, “chamber”) literally means “dark room” (HALOT s.v. חֶדֶר 293) and often refers to a bedroom (Gen 43:30; Exod 7:28; Judg 3:24; 15:1; 16:9, 12; 2 Sam 4:7; 13:10; 1Kgs 1:15; 2 Kgs 6:12; 9:2; Eccl 10:20; Isa 26:20; Joel 2:16; Prov 24:4; Song 1:4; 3:4).

[3:12]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “that for which I also was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.” The passive has been translated as active in keeping with contemporary English style.

[3:13]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:12.

[3:13]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “But this one thing (I do).”

[3:14]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “according to the goal.”

[3:14]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “prize, namely, the heavenly calling of God.”

[3:14]  ²⁰ tn Grk “the beginning of the confidence.”

[6:18]  ²¹ tn Grk “have taken refuge”; the basis of that refuge is implied in the preceding verse.

[6:1]  ²² tn Grk “Therefore leaving behind.” The implication is not of abandoning this elementary information, but of building on it.

[6:1]  ²³ tn Or “basic.”

[6:1]  ²⁴ tn Grk “the message of the beginning of Christ.”

[6:1]  ²⁵ tn Grk “leaving behind…let us move on.”

[3:3]  ²⁶ tn The expression πῶς εἴληφας καὶ ἤκουσας (pw" eilhfa" kai hkousa") probably refers to the initial instruction in the Christian life they had received and been taught; this included doctrine and ethical teaching.

[3:3]  ²⁷ tn Grk “keep it,” in the sense of obeying what they had initially been taught.

[3:3]  ²⁸ tn The negation here is with οὐ μή (ou mh, the strongest possible form of negation in Koine Greek).

[3:3]  ²⁹ tn Or “come on.”