2 Samuel 20:19-20

20:19 I represent the peaceful and the faithful in Israel. You are attempting to destroy an important city ¹  in Israel. Why should you swallow up the Lord’s inheritance?”

20:20 Joab answered, “Get serious! ²  I don’t want to swallow up or destroy anything!

Psalms 35:25

35:25 Do not let them say to themselves, ³  “Aha! We have what we wanted!” ⁴ 

Do not let them say, “We have devoured him!”

Psalms 56:2

56:2 Those who anticipate my defeat ⁵  attack me all day long.

Indeed, ⁶  many are fighting against me, O Exalted One. ⁷ 

Psalms 57:3

57:3 May he send help from heaven and deliver me ⁸ 

from my enemies who hurl insults! ⁹  (Selah)

May God send his loyal love and faithfulness!

Psalms 57:1

Psalm 57 ¹⁰ 

For the music director; according to the al-tashcheth style; ¹¹  a prayer ¹²  of David, written when he fled from Saul into the cave. ¹³ 

57:1 Have mercy on me, O God! Have mercy on me!

For in you I have taken shelter. ¹⁴ 

In the shadow of your wings ¹⁵  I take shelter

until trouble passes.

Colossians 1:1-2

Salutation

1:1 From Paul, ¹⁶  an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, 1:2 to the saints, the faithful ¹⁷  brothers and sisters ¹⁸  in Christ, at Colossae. Grace and peace to you ¹⁹  from God our Father! ²⁰ 

Colossians 1:4

1:4 since ²¹  we heard about your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you have for all the saints.

[20:19]  ¹ tn Heb “a city and a mother.” The expression is a hendiadys, meaning that this city was an important one in Israel and had smaller cities dependent on it.

[20:20]  ² tn Heb “Far be it, far be it from me.” The expression is clearly emphatic, as may be seen in part by the repetition. P. K. McCarter, however, understands it to be coarser than the translation adopted here. He renders it as “I’ll be damned if…” (II Samuel [AB], 426, 429), which (while it is not a literal translation) may not be too far removed from the way a soldier might have expressed himself.

[35:25]  ³ tn Heb “in their heart[s].”

[35:25]  ⁴ tn Heb “Aha! Our desire!” The “desire” of the psalmist’s enemies is to triumph over him.

[56:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “to those who watch me [with evil intent].” See also Pss 5:8; 27:11; 54:5; 59:10.

[56:2]  ⁶ tn Or “for.”

[56:2]  ⁷ tn Some take the Hebrew term מָרוֹם (marom, “on high; above”) as an adverb modifying the preceding participle and translate, “proudly” (cf. NASB; NIV “in their pride”). The present translation assumes the term is a divine title here. The Lord is pictured as enthroned “on high” in Ps 92:8. (Note the substantival use of the term in Isa 24:4 and see C. A. Briggs and E. G. Briggs (Psalms [ICC], 2:34), who prefer to place the term at the beginning of the next verse.)

[57:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “may he send from heaven and deliver me.” The prefixed verbal forms are understood as jussives expressing the psalmist’s prayer. The second verb, which has a vav (ו) conjunctive prefixed to it, probably indicates purpose. Another option is to take the forms as imperfects expressing confidence, “he will send from heaven and deliver me” (cf. NRSV).

[57:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “he hurls insults, one who crushes me.” The translation assumes that this line identifies those from whom the psalmist seeks deliverance. (The singular is representative; the psalmist is surrounded by enemies, see v. 4.) Another option is to understand God as the subject of the verb חָרַף (kharaf), which could then be taken as a homonym of the more common root חָרַף (“insult”) meaning “confuse.” In this case “one who crushes me” is the object of the verb. One might translate, “he [God] confuses my enemies.”

[57:1]  ¹⁰ sn Psalm 57. The psalmist asks for God’s protection and expresses his confidence that his ferocious enemies will be destroyed by their own schemes.

[57:1]  ¹¹ tn Heb “do not destroy.” Perhaps this refers to a particular style of music, a tune title, or a musical instrument. These words also appear in the heading to Pss 58-59, 75.

[57:1]  ¹² tn The precise meaning of the Hebrew word מִכְתָּם (miktam), which also appears in the heading to Pss 16, 56, 58-60 is uncertain. HALOT 582-83 s.v. defines it as “inscription.”

[57:1]  ¹³ sn According to the superscription, David wrote this psalm on the occasion when he fled from Saul and hid in “the cave.” This probably refers to either the incident recorded in 1 Sam 22:1 or to the one recorded in 1 Sam 24:3.

[57:1]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “my life has taken shelter.” The Hebrew perfect verbal form probably refers here to a completed action with continuing results.

[57:1]  ¹⁵ sn In the shadow of your wings. The metaphor likens God to a protective mother bird (see also Pss 17:8; 36:7).

[1:1]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “Paul.” The word “from” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.

[1:2]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “and faithful.” The construction in Greek (as well as Paul’s style) suggests that the saints are identical to the faithful; hence, the καί (kai) is best left untranslated (cf. Eph 1:1). See ExSyn 281-82.

[1:2]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “brothers,” but the Greek word may be used for “brothers and sisters” or “fellow Christians” as here (cf. BDAG 18 s.v. ἀδελφός 1, where considerable nonbiblical evidence for the plural ἀδελφοί [adelfoi] meaning “brothers and sisters” is cited).

[1:2]  ¹⁹ tn Or “Grace to you and peace.”

[1:2]  ²⁰ tc Most witnesses, including some important ones (א A C F G I [P] 075 Ï it bo), read “and the Lord Jesus Christ” at the end of this verse, no doubt to conform the wording to the typical Pauline salutation. However, excellent and early witnesses (B D K L Ψ 33 81 1175 1505 1739 1881 al sa) lack this phrase. Since the omission is inexplicable as arising from the longer reading (otherwise, these mss would surely have deleted the phrase in the rest of the corpus Paulinum), it is surely authentic.

[1:4]  ²¹ tn The adverbial participle ἀκούσαντες (akousante") is understood to be temporal and translated with “since.” A causal idea may also be in the apostle’s mind, but the context emphasizes temporal ideas, e.g., “from the day” (v. 6).