Deuteronomy 16:11

16:11 You shall rejoice before him ¹  – you, your son, your daughter, your male and female slaves, the Levites in your villages, ²  the resident foreigners, the orphans, and the widows among you – in the place where the Lord chooses to locate his name.

Deuteronomy 16:14-15

16:14 You are to rejoice in your festival, you, your son, your daughter, your male and female slaves, the Levites, the resident foreigners, the orphans, and the widows who are in your villages. ³  16:15 You are to celebrate the festival seven days before the Lord your God in the place he ⁴  chooses, for he ⁵  will bless you in all your productivity and in whatever you do; ⁶  so you will indeed rejoice!

Psalms 37:21

37:21 Evil men borrow, but do not repay their debt,

but the godly show compassion and are generous. ⁷ 

Isaiah 64:5

64:5 You assist ⁸  those who delight in doing what is right, ⁹ 

who observe your commandments. ¹⁰ 

Look, you were angry because we violated them continually.

How then can we be saved? ¹¹ 

Isaiah 64:2

64:2 (64:1) As when fire ignites dry wood,

or fire makes water boil,

let your adversaries know who you are, ¹² 

and may the nations shake at your presence!

Colossians 1:7

1:7 You learned the gospel ¹³  from Epaphras, our dear fellow slave ¹⁴  – a ¹⁵  faithful minister of Christ on our ¹⁶  behalf –

[16:11]  ¹ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in 16:1.

[16:11]  ² tn Heb “gates.”

[16:14]  ³ tn Heb “in your gates.”

[16:15]  ⁴ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 16:1.

[16:15]  ⁵ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in 16:1.

[16:15]  ⁶ tn Heb “in all the work of your hands” (so NASB, NIV); NAB, NRSV “in all your undertakings.”

[37:21]  ⁷ tn Heb “an evil [man] borrows and does not repay; but a godly [man] is gracious and gives.” The singular forms are used in a representative sense; the typical evildoer and godly individual are in view. The three active participles and one imperfect (“repay”) draw attention to the characteristic behavior of the two types.

[64:5]  ⁸ tn Heb “meet [with kindness].”

[64:5]  ⁹ tn Heb “the one who rejoices and does righteousness.”

[64:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “in your ways they remember you.”

[64:5]  ¹¹ tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “look, you were angry and we sinned against them continually [or perhaps, “in ancient times”] and we were delivered.” The statement makes little sense as it stands. The first vav [ו] consecutive (“and we sinned”) must introduce an explanatory clause here (see Num 1:48 and Isa 39:1 for other examples of this relatively rare use of the vav [ו] consecutive). The final verb (if rendered positively) makes no sense in this context – God’s anger at their sin resulted in judgment, not deliverance. One of the alternatives involves an emendation to וַנִּרְשָׁע (vannirsha’, “and we were evil”; LXX, NRSV, TEV). The Vulgate and the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a support the MT reading. One can either accept an emendation or cast the statement as a question (as above).

[64:2]  ¹² tn Heb “to make known your name to your adversaries.” Perhaps the infinitive construct with preposition -לְ (lamed) should be construed with “come down” in v. 1a, or subordinated to the following line: “To make known your name to your adversaries, let the nations shake from before you.”

[1:7]  ¹³ tn Or “learned it.” The Greek text simply has “you learned” without the reference to “the gospel,” but “the gospel” is supplied to clarify the sense of the clause. Direct objects were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

[1:7]  ¹⁴ tn The Greek word translated “fellow slave” is σύνδουλος (sundoulo"); the σύν- prefix here denotes association. Though δοῦλος is normally translated “servant,” the word does not bear the connotation of a free individual serving another. BDAG notes that “‘servant’ for ‘slave’ is largely confined to Biblical transl. and early American times…in normal usage at the present time the two words are carefully distinguished” (BDAG 260 s.v.). The most accurate translation is “bondservant” (sometimes found in the ASV for δοῦλος), in that it often indicates one who sells himself into slavery to another. But as this is archaic, few today understand its force.

[1:7]  ¹⁵ tn The Greek text has “who (ὅς, Jos) is a faithful minister.” The above translation conveys the antecedent of the relative pronoun quite well and avoids the redundancy with the following substantival participle of v. 8, namely, “who told” (ὁ δηλώσας, Jo dhlwsa").

[1:7]  ¹⁶ tc ‡ Judging by the superior witnesses for the first person pronoun ἡμῶν (Jhmwn, “us”; Ì⁴⁶ א* A B D* F G 326* 1505 al) vs. the second person pronoun ὑμῶν (Jumwn, “you”; found in א² C D¹ Ψ 075 33 1739 1881 Ï lat sy co), ἡμῶν should be regarded as original. Although it is possible that ἡμῶν was an early alteration of ὑμῶν (either unintentionally, as dittography, since it comes seventeen letters after the previous ἡμῶν; or intentionally, to conform to the surrounding first person pronouns), this supposition is difficult to maintain in light of the varied and valuable witnesses for this reading. Further, the second person is both embedded in the verb ἐμάθετε (emaqete) and is explicit in v. 8 (ὑμῶν). Hence, the motivation to change to the first person pronoun is counterbalanced by such evidence. The second person pronoun may have been introduced unintentionally via homoioarcton with the ὑπέρ (Juper) that immediately precedes it. As well, the second person reading is somewhat harder for it seems to address Epaphras’ role only in relation to Paul and his colleagues, rather than in relation to the Colossians. Nevertheless, the decision must be based ultimately on external evidence (because the internal evidence can be variously interpreted), and this strongly supports ἡμῶν.