Acts 10:45

10:45 The ¹  circumcised believers ²  who had accompanied Peter were greatly astonished ³  that ⁴  the gift of the Holy Spirit ⁵  had been poured out ⁶  even on the Gentiles,

Psalms 72:6

72:6 He ⁷  will descend like rain on the mown grass, ⁸ 

like showers that drench ⁹  the earth. ¹⁰ 

Proverbs 1:23

1:23 If only ¹¹  you will respond ¹²  to my rebuke, ¹³ 

then ¹⁴  I will pour ¹⁵  out my thoughts ¹⁶  to you

and ¹⁷  I will make ¹⁸  my words known to you.

Isaiah 32:15-16

32:15 This desolation will continue until new life is poured out on us from heaven. ¹⁹ 

Then the desert will become an orchard

and the orchard will be considered a forest. ²⁰ 

32:16 Justice will settle down in the desert

and fairness will live in the orchard. ²¹ 

Isaiah 44:3

44:3 For I will pour water on the parched ground ²² 

and cause streams to flow ²³  on the dry land.

I will pour my spirit on your offspring

and my blessing on your children.

Ezekiel 11:19

11:19 I will give them one heart and I will put a new spirit within them; ²⁴  I will remove the hearts of stone from their bodies ²⁵  and I will give them tender hearts, ²⁶ 

Ezekiel 36:25-27

36:25 I will sprinkle you with pure water ²⁷  and you will be clean from all your impurities. I will purify you from all your idols. 36:26 I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will remove the heart of stone ²⁸  from your body and give you a heart of flesh. ²⁹  36:27 I will put my Spirit within you; ³⁰  I will take the initiative and you will obey my statutes ³¹  and carefully observe my regulations. ³² 

Ezekiel 39:29

39:29 I will no longer hide my face from them, when I pour out my Spirit on the house of Israel, ³³  declares the sovereign Lord.”

Zechariah 12:10

12:10 “I will pour out on the kingship ³⁴  of David and the population of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication so that they will look to me, ³⁵  the one they have pierced. They will lament for him as one laments for an only son, and there will be a bitter cry for him like the bitter cry for a firstborn. ³⁶ 

John 7:39

7:39 (Now he said this about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were going to receive, for the Spirit had not yet been given, ³⁷  because Jesus was not yet glorified.) ³⁸ 

Titus 3:4-6

3:4 ³⁹  But “when the kindness of God our Savior and his love for mankind appeared, 3:5 he saved us not by works of righteousness that we have done but on the basis of his mercy, through the washing of the new birth and the renewing of the Holy Spirit, 3:6 whom he poured out on us in full measure ⁴⁰  through Jesus Christ our Savior.

[10:45]  ¹ tn Grk “And the.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

[10:45]  ² tn Or “The Jewish Christians”; Grk “The believers from the circumcision.”

[10:45]  ³ sn The Jewish Christians who were with Peter were greatly astonished because they thought the promise of the Spirit would be limited only to those of Israel. God’s plan was taking on fresh dimensions even as it was a reflection of what the prophets had promised.

[10:45]  ⁴ tn Or “because.”

[10:45]  ⁵ tn That is, the gift consisting of the Holy Spirit. Here τοῦ πνεύματος (tou pneumato") is a genitive of apposition; the gift consists of the Spirit.

[10:45]  ⁶ sn The gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out. Compare the account in Acts 2, especially 2:33. Note also Joel 2:17-21 and Acts 11:15-18.

[72:6]  ⁷ tn That is, the king (see vv. 2, 4).

[72:6]  ⁸ tn The rare term zg refers to a sheep’s fleece in Deut 18:4 and Job 31:20, but to “mown” grass or crops here and in Amos 7:1.

[72:6]  ⁹ tc The form in the Hebrew text appears to be an otherwise unattested noun. Many prefer to emend the form to a verb from the root זָרַף (zaraf). BHS in textual note b on this verse suggests a Hiphil imperfect, third masculine plural יַזְרִיפוּ (yazrifu), while HALOT 283 s.v. *זרף prefers a Pilpel perfect, third masculine plural זִרְזְפוּ (zirzÿfu). The translation assumes the latter.

[72:6]  ¹⁰ sn The imagery of this verse compares the blessings produced by the king’s reign to fructifying rains that cause the crops to grow.

[1:23]  ¹¹ tn The imperfect tense is in the conditional protasis without the conditional particle, followed by the clause beginning with הִנֵּה (hinneh, “then”). The phrase “If only…” does not appear in the Hebrew but is implied by the syntax; it is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity.

[1:23]  ¹² tn Heb “turn.” The verb is from שׁוּב (shuv, “to return; to respond; to repent”).

[1:23]  ¹³ sn The noun תּוֹכַחַת (tokhakhat, “rebuke”) is used in all kinds of disputes including rebuking, arguing, reasoning, admonishing, and chiding. The term is broad enough to include here warning and rebuke. Cf. KJV, NAB, NRSV “reproof”; TEV “when I reprimand you”; CEV “correct you.”

[1:23]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “Behold!”

[1:23]  ¹⁵ tn The Hiphil cohortative of נָבַע (nava’, “to pour out”) describes the speaker’s resolution to pour out wisdom on those who respond.

[1:23]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “my spirit.” The term “spirit” (רוּחַ, ruakh) functions as a metonymy (= spirit) of association (= thoughts), as indicated by the parallelism with “my words” (דְּבָרַי, dÿbaray). The noun רוּחַ (ruakh, “spirit”) can have a cognitive nuance, e.g., “spirit of wisdom” (Exod 28:3; Deut 34:9). It is used metonymically for “words” (Job 20:3) and “mind” (Isa 40:13; Ezek 11:5; 20:32; 1 Chr 28:12; see BDB 925 s.v. רוּחַ 6). The “spirit of wisdom” produces skill and capacity necessary for success (Isa 11:2; John 7:37-39).

[1:23]  ¹⁷ tn The conjunction “and” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for the sake of smoothness.

[1:23]  ¹⁸ tn Here too the form is the cohortative, stressing the resolution of wisdom to reveal herself to the one who responds.

[32:15]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “until a spirit is emptied out on us from on high.” The words “this desolation will continue” are supplied in the translation for clarification and stylistic purposes. The verb עָרָה (’arah), used here in the Niphal, normally means “lay bare, expose.” The term רוּחַ (ruakh, “spirit”) is often understood here as a reference to the divine spirit (cf. 44:3 and NASB, NIV, CEV, NLT), but it appears here without an article (cf. NRSV “a spirit”), pronominal suffix, or a genitive (such as “of the Lord”). The translation assumes that it carries an impersonal nuance “vivacity, vigor” in this context.

[32:15]  ²⁰ sn The same statement appears in 29:17b, where, in conjunction with the preceding line, it appears to picture a reversal. Here it seems to depict supernatural growth. The desert will blossom into an orchard, and the trees of the orchard will multiply and grow tall, becoming a forest.

[32:16]  ²¹ sn This new era of divine blessing will also include a moral/ethical transformation, as justice and fairness fill the land and replace the social injustice so prevalent in Isaiah’s time.

[44:3]  ²² tn Heb “the thirsty.” Parallelism suggests that dry ground is in view (see “dry land” in the next line.)

[44:3]  ²³ tn Heb “and streams”; KJV “floods.” The verb “cause…to flow” is supplied in the second line for clarity and for stylistic reasons.

[11:19]  ²⁴ tc The MT reads “you”; many Hebrew mss along with the LXX and other ancient versions read “within them.”

[11:19]  ²⁵ tn Heb “their flesh.”

[11:19]  ²⁶ tn Heb “heart of flesh.”

[36:25]  ²⁷ sn The Lord here uses a metaphor from the realm of ritual purification. For the use of water in ritual cleansing, see Exod 30:19-20; Lev 14:51; Num 19:18; Heb 10:22.

[36:26]  ²⁸ sn That is, a heart which symbolizes a will that is stubborn and unresponsive (see 1 Sam 25:37). In Rabbinic literature a “stone” was associated with an evil inclination (b. Sukkah 52a).

[36:26]  ²⁹ sn That is, a heart which symbolizes a will that is responsive and obedient to God.

[36:27]  ³⁰ tn Or “in the midst of you.” The word “you” is plural.

[36:27]  ³¹ tn Heb “and I will do that which in my statutes you will walk.” The awkward syntax (verb “to do, act” + accusative sign + relative clause + prepositional phrase + second person verb) is unique, though Eccl 3:14 contains a similar construction. In the last line of that verse we read that “God acts so that (relative pronoun) they fear before him.” However, unlike Ezek 36:27, the statement has no accusative sign before the relative pronoun.

[36:27]  ³² tn Heb “and my laws you will guard and you will do them.” Jer 31:31-34 is parallel to this passage.

[39:29]  ³³ sn See Ezek 11:19; 37:14.

[12:10]  ³⁴ tn Or “dynasty”; Heb “house.”

[12:10]  ³⁵ tc Because of the difficulty of the concept of the mortal piercing of God, the subject of this clause, and the shift of pronoun from “me” to “him” in the next, many mss read אַלֵי אֵת אֲשֶׁר (’ale ’et ’asher, “to the one whom,” a reading followed by NAB, NRSV) rather than the MT’s אֵלַי אֵת אֲשֶׁר (’ela ’et ’asher, “to me whom”). The reasons for such alternatives, however, are clear – they are motivated by scribes who found such statements theologically objectionable – and they should be rejected in favor of the more difficult reading (lectio difficilior) of the MT.

[12:10]  ³⁶ tn The Hebrew term בְּכוֹר (bÿkhor, “firstborn”), translated usually in the LXX by πρωτότοκος (prwtotokos), has unmistakable messianic overtones as the use of the Greek term in the NT to describe Jesus makes clear (cf. Col 1:15, 18). Thus, the idea of God being pierced sets the stage for the fatal wounding of Jesus, the Messiah and the Son of God (cf. John 19:37; Rev 1:7). Note that some English translations supply “son” from the context (e.g., NIV, TEV, NLT).

[7:39]  ³⁷ tn Grk “for the Spirit was not yet.” Although only B and a handful of other NT mss supply the participle δεδομένον (dedomenon), this is followed in the translation to avoid misunderstanding by the modern English reader that prior to this time the Spirit did not exist. John’s phrase is expressed from a human standpoint and has nothing to do with the preexistence of the third Person of the Godhead. The meaning is that the era of the Holy Spirit had not yet arrived; the Spirit was not as yet at work in a way he later would be because Jesus had not yet returned to his Father. Cf. also Acts 19:2.

[7:39]  ³⁸ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.

[3:4]  ³⁹ tn Verses 4-7 are set as poetry in NA²⁶/NA²⁷. These verses probably constitute the referent of the expression “this saying” in v. 8.

[3:6]  ⁴⁰ tn Or “on us richly.”