Esther 9:17

9:17 All of this happened on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar. They then rested on the fourteenth day and made it a day for banqueting and happiness.

Psalms 18:28

18:28 Indeed, ¹  you are my lamp, Lord. ² 

My God ³  illuminates the darkness around me. ⁴ 

Psalms 97:11

97:11 The godly bask in the light;

the morally upright experience joy. ⁵ 

Proverbs 4:18-19

4:18 But the path of the righteous is like the bright morning light, ⁶ 

growing brighter and brighter ⁷  until full day. ⁸ 

4:19 The way of the wicked is like gloomy darkness; ⁹ 

they do not know what causes them to stumble. ¹⁰ 

Proverbs 11:10

11:10 When the righteous do well, ¹¹  the city rejoices; ¹² 

when the wicked perish, there is joy.

Isaiah 30:29-30

30:29 You will sing

as you do in the evening when you are celebrating a festival.

You will be happy like one who plays a flute

as he goes to the mountain of the Lord, the Rock who shelters Israel. ¹³ 

30:30 The Lord will give a mighty shout ¹⁴ 

and intervene in power, ¹⁵ 

with furious anger and flaming, destructive fire, ¹⁶ 

with a driving rainstorm and hailstones.

Isaiah 35:10

35:10 those whom the Lord has ransomed will return that way. ¹⁷ 

They will enter Zion with a happy shout.

Unending joy will crown them, ¹⁸ 

happiness and joy will overwhelm ¹⁹  them;

grief and suffering will disappear. ²⁰ 

[18:28]  ¹ tn Or “for.” The translation assumes that כִּי (ki)is asseverative here.

[18:28]  ² tn Ps 18:28 reads literally, “you light my lamp, Lord.” 2 Sam 22:29 has, “you are my lamp, Lord.” The Ps 18 reading may preserve two variants, נֵרִי (neriy, “my lamp”) and אוֹרִי (’oriy, “my light”), cf. Ps 27:1. The verb תָּאִיר (ta’ir, “you light”) in Ps 18:28 would, in this case, be a corruption of the latter. See F. M. Cross and D. N. Freedman, Studies in Ancient Yahwistic Poetry (SBLDS), 150, n. 64. The metaphor, which likens the Lord to a lamp or light, pictures him as the psalmist’s source of life. For other examples of “lamp” used in this way, see Job 18:6; 21:17; Prov 13:9; 20:20; 24:20. For other examples of “light” as a symbol for life, see Job 3:20; 33:30; Ps 56:13.

[18:28]  ³ tn 2 Sam 22:29 repeats the name “Lord.”

[18:28]  ⁴ tn Heb “my darkness.”

[97:11]  ⁵ tn Heb “Light is planted for the godly, and for the upright of heart joy.” The translation assumes an emendation of זָרַע (zara’, “planted”) to זָרַח (zara’, “shines”) which collocates more naturally with “light.” “Light” here symbolizes the joy (note the following line) that accompanies deliverance and the outpouring of divine favor.

[4:18]  ⁶ tn Heb “like light of brightness.” This construction is an attributive genitive: “bright light.” The word “light” (אוֹר, ’or) refers to the early morning light or the dawn (BDB 21 s.v.). The point of the simile is that the course of life that the righteous follow is like the clear, bright morning light. It is illumined, clear, easy to follow, and healthy and safe – the opposite of what darkness represents.

[4:18]  ⁷ tn The construction uses the Qal active participle of הָלַךְ (halakh) in a metaphorical sense to add the idea of continuance or continually to the participle הוֹלֵךְ (holekh). Here the path was growing light, but the added participle signifies continually.

[4:18]  ⁸ tn Heb “until the day is established.” This expression refers to the coming of the full day or the time of high noon.

[4:19]  ⁹ sn The simile describes ignorance or spiritual blindness, sinfulness, calamity, despair.

[4:19]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “in what they stumble.”

[11:10]  ¹¹ tn The text has “in the good [בְּטוֹב, bÿtov] of the righteous,” meaning when they do well, when they prosper. Cf. NCV, NLT “succeed”; TEV “have good fortune.”

[11:10]  ¹² sn The verb תַּעֲלֹץ (ta’alots, “to rejoice; to exult”) is paralleled with the noun רִנָּה (rinnah, “ringing cry”). The descriptions are hyperbolic, except when the person who dies is one who afflicted society (e.g., 2 Kgs 11:20; Esth 8:15). D. Kidner says, “However drab the world makes out virtue to be, it appreciates the boon of it in public life” (Proverbs [TOTC], 91).

[30:29]  ¹³ tn Heb “[you will have] joy of heart, like the one going with a flute to enter the mountain of the Lord to the Rock of Israel.” The image here is not a foundational rock, but a rocky cliff where people could hide for protection (for example, the fortress of Masada).

[30:30]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the Lord will cause the splendor of his voice to be heard.”

[30:30]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and reveal the lowering of his arm.”

[30:30]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and a flame of consuming fire.”

[35:10]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and the redeemed will walk, the ransomed of the Lord will return.”

[35:10]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “[will be] on their head[s].” “Joy” may be likened here to a crown (cf. 2 Sam 1:10). The statement may also be an ironic twist on the idiom “earth/dust on the head” (cf. 2 Sam 1:2; 13:19; 15:32; Job 2:12), referring to a mourning practice.

[35:10]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “will overtake” (NIV); NLT “they will be overcome with.”

[35:10]  ²⁰ tn Heb “grief and groaning will flee”; KJV “sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”