Daniel 6:16-17

6:16 So the king gave the order, ¹  and Daniel was brought and thrown into a den ²  of lions. The king consoled ³  Daniel by saying, “Your God whom you continually serve will rescue you!” 6:17 Then a stone was brought and placed over the opening ⁴  to the den. The king sealed ⁵  it with his signet ring and with those ⁶  of his nobles so that nothing could be changed with regard to Daniel.

Psalms 34:19

34:19 The godly ⁷  face many dangers, ⁸ 

but the Lord saves ⁹  them ¹⁰  from each one of them.

Psalms 66:11-12

66:11 You led us into a trap; ¹¹ 

you caused us to suffer. ¹² 

66:12 You allowed men to ride over our heads;

we passed through fire and water,

but you brought us out into a wide open place. ¹³ 

Psalms 124:1-5

Psalm 124 ¹⁴ 

A song of ascents, ¹⁵  by David.

124:1 “If the Lord had not been on our side” –

let Israel say this! –

124:2 if the Lord had not been on our side,

when men attacked us, ¹⁶ 

124:3 they would have swallowed us alive,

when their anger raged against us.

124:4 The water would have overpowered us;

the current ¹⁷  would have overwhelmed ¹⁸  us. ¹⁹ 

124:5 The raging water

would have overwhelmed us. ²⁰ 

Jeremiah 38:6

38:6 So the officials ²¹  took Jeremiah and put him in the cistern ²²  of Malkijah, one of the royal princes, ²³  that was in the courtyard of the guardhouse. There was no water in the cistern, only mud. So when they lowered Jeremiah into the cistern with ropes he sank in the mud. ²⁴ 

Lamentations 3:52-54

צ (Tsade)

3:52 For no good reason ²⁵  my enemies

hunted me down ²⁶  like a bird.

3:53 They shut me ²⁷  up in a pit

and threw stones at me.

3:54 The waters closed over my head;

I thought ²⁸  I was about to die. ²⁹ 

Lamentations 3:2

3:2 He drove me into captivity ³⁰  and made me walk ³¹ 

in darkness and not light.

Colossians 1:8-10

1:8 who also told us of your love in the Spirit.

Paul’s Prayer for the Growth of the Church

1:9 For this reason we also, from the day we heard about you, ³²  have not ceased praying for you and asking God ³³  to fill ³⁴  you with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 1:10 so that you may live ³⁵  worthily of the Lord and please him in all respects ³⁶  – bearing fruit in every good deed, growing in the knowledge of God,

Colossians 4:17

4:17 And tell Archippus, “See to it that you complete the ministry you received in the Lord.”

Colossians 4:1

4:1 Masters, treat your slaves with justice and fairness, because you know that you also have a master in heaven.

Colossians 4:12-13

4:12 Epaphras, who is one of you and a slave ³⁷  of Christ, ³⁸  greets you. He is always struggling in prayer on your behalf, so that you may stand mature and fully assured ³⁹  in all the will of God. 4:13 For I can testify that he has worked hard ⁴⁰  for you and for those in Laodicea and Hierapolis.

[6:16]  ¹ tn Aram “said.” So also in vv. 24, 25.

[6:16]  ² sn The den was perhaps a pit below ground level which could be safely observed from above.

[6:16]  ³ tn Aram “answered and said [to Daniel].”

[6:17]  ⁴ tn Aram “mouth.”

[6:17]  ⁵ sn The purpose of the den being sealed was to prevent unauthorized tampering with the opening of the den. Any disturbance of the seal would immediately alert the officials to improper activity of this sort.

[6:17]  ⁶ tn Aram “the signet rings.”

[34:19]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew text uses the singular form; the representative or typical godly person is envisioned.

[34:19]  ⁸ tn Or “trials.”

[34:19]  ⁹ tn The Hebrew imperfect verbal form highlights the generalizing statement and draws attention to the fact that the Lord typically delivers the godly.

[34:19]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “him,” agreeing with the singular form in the preceding line.

[66:11]  ¹¹ tn Heb “you brought us into a net.” This rare word for “net” also occurs in Ezek 12:13; 13:21; 17:20.

[66:11]  ¹² tn Heb “you placed suffering on our hips.” The noun מוּעָקָה (mu’aqah, “suffering”) occurs only here in the OT.

[66:12]  ¹³ tc The MT reads רְוָיָה (“saturation”) but this should be emended to רְוָחָה (rÿvakhah, “wide open place”; i.e., “relief”), a reading supported by several ancient versions (LXX, Syriac, Jerome, Targum).

[124:1]  ¹⁴ sn Psalm 124. Israel acknowledges that the Lord delivered them from certain disaster.

[124:1]  ¹⁵ sn The precise significance of this title, which appears in Pss 120-134, is unclear. Perhaps worshipers recited these psalms when they ascended the road to Jerusalem to celebrate annual religious festivals. For a discussion of their background see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 219-21.

[124:2]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “rose up against us.”

[124:4]  ¹⁷ tn Or “stream.”

[124:4]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “would have passed over.”

[124:4]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “our being.” 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).

[124:5]  ²⁰ tn Heb “then they would have passed over our being, the raging waters.”

[38:6]  ²¹ tn Heb “they.”

[38:6]  ²² sn A cistern was a pear-shaped pit with a narrow opening. Cisterns were cut or dug in the limestone rock and lined with plaster to prevent seepage. They were used to collect and store rain water or water carried up from a spring.

[38:6]  ²³ tn Heb “the son of the king.” See the translator’s note on Jer 36:26 for the rendering here.

[38:6]  ²⁴ tn Heb “And they let Jeremiah down with ropes and in the cistern there was no water, only mud, and Jeremiah sank in the mud.” The clauses have been reordered and restructured to create a more natural and smoother order in English.

[3:52]  ²⁵ tn Heb “without cause.”

[3:52]  ²⁶ tn The construction צוֹד צָדוּנִי (tsod tsaduni, “they have hunted me down”) is emphatic: Qal infinitive absolute of the same root of Qal perfect 3rd person common plural + 1st person common singular suffix.

[3:53]  ²⁷ tn Heb “my life.”

[3:54]  ²⁸ tn Heb “I said,” meaning “I said to myself” = “I thought.”

[3:54]  ²⁹ tn Heb “I was about to be cut off.” The verb נִגְזָרְתִּי (nigzarti), Niphal perfect 1st person common singular from גָּזַר (gazar, “to be cut off”), functions in an ingressive sense: “about to be cut off.” It is used in reference to the threat of death (e.g., Ezek 37:11). To be “cut off” from the hand of the living means to experience death (Ps 88:6).

[3:2]  ³⁰ tn The verb נָהַג (nahag) describes the process of directing (usually a group of) something along a route, hence commonly “to drive,” when describing flocks, caravans, or prisoners and spoils of war (1 Sam 23:5; 30:2). But with people it may also have a positive connotation “to shepherd” or “to guide” (Ps 48:14; 80:1). The line plays on this through the reversal of expectations. Rather than being safely shepherded by the Lord their king, he has driven them away into captivity.

[3:2]  ³¹ tn The Hiphil of הָלַךְ (halakh, “to walk”) may be nuanced either “brought” (BDB 236 s.v. 1) or “caused to walk” (BDB 237 s.v. 5.a).

[1:9]  ³² tn Or “heard about it”; Grk “heard.” There is no direct object stated in the Greek (direct objects were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context). A direct object is expected by an English reader, however, so most translations supply one. Here, however, it is not entirely clear what the author “heard”: a number of translations supply “it” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV; NAB “this”), but this could refer back either to (1) “your love in the Spirit” at the end of v. 8, or (2) “your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you have for all the saints” (v. 4). In light of this uncertainty, other translations supply “about you” (TEV, NIV, CEV, NLT). This is preferred by the present translation since, while it does not resolve the ambiguity entirely, it does make it less easy for the English reader to limit the reference only to “your love in the Spirit” at the end of v. 8.

[1:9]  ³³ tn The term “God” does not appear in the Greek text, but the following reference to “the knowledge of his will” makes it clear that “God” is in view as the object of the “praying and asking,” and should therefore be included in the English translation for clarity.

[1:9]  ³⁴ tn The ἵνα (Jina) clause has been translated as substantival, indicating the content of the prayer and asking. The idea of purpose may also be present in this clause.

[1:10]  ³⁵ tn The infinitive περιπατῆσαι (peripathsai, “to walk, to live, to live one’s life”) is best taken as an infinitive of purpose related to “praying” (προσευχόμενοι, proseucomenoi) and “asking” (αἰτούμενοι, aitoumenoi) in v. 9 and is thus translated as “that you may live.”

[1:10]  ³⁶ tn BDAG 129 s.v. ἀρεσκεία states that ἀρεσκείαν (areskeian) refers to a “desire to please εἰς πᾶσαν ἀ. to please (the Lord) in all respects Col 1:10.”

[4:12]  ³⁷ tn See the note on “fellow slave” in 1:7.

[4:12]  ³⁸ tc ‡ Strong Alexandrian testimony, along with some other witnesses, suggests that ᾿Ιησοῦ (Ihsou, “Jesus”) follows Χριστοῦ (Cristou, “Christ”; so א A B C I L 0278 33 81 365 629 1175 2464 al lat), but the evidence for the shorter reading is diverse (Ì⁴⁶ D F G Ψ 075 1739 1881 Ï it sy Hier), cutting across all major texttypes. There can be little motivation for omitting the name of Jesus; hence, the shorter reading is judged to be original. NA²⁷ has ᾿Ιησοῦ in brackets, indicating some doubts as to its authenticity.

[4:12]  ³⁹ tn Or “filled.”

[4:13]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “pain.” This word appears only three times in the NT outside of this verse (Rev 16:10, 11; 21:4) where the translation “pain” makes sense. For the present verse it has been translated “worked hard.” See BDAG 852 s.v. πόνος 1.