Exodus 12:12

12:12 I will pass through ¹  the land of Egypt in the same ²  night, and I will attack ³  all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both of humans and of animals, ⁴  and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment. ⁵  I am the Lord.

Psalms 97:7

97:7 All who worship idols are ashamed,

those who boast about worthless idols.

All the gods bow down before him. ⁶ 

Isaiah 19:1

The Lord Will Judge Egypt

19:1 Here is a message about Egypt:

Look, the Lord rides on a swift-moving cloud

and approaches Egypt.

The idols of Egypt tremble before him;

the Egyptians lose their courage. ⁷ 

Isaiah 46:1-2

The Lord Carries His People

46:1 Bel ⁸  kneels down,

Nebo ⁹  bends low.

Their images weigh down animals and beasts. ¹⁰ 

Your heavy images are burdensome to tired animals. ¹¹ 

46:2 Together they bend low and kneel down;

they are unable to rescue the images; ¹² 

they themselves ¹³  head off into captivity. ¹⁴ 

Zephaniah 2:11

2:11 The Lord will terrify them, ¹⁵ 

for ¹⁶  he will weaken ¹⁷  all the gods of the earth.

All the distant nations will worship the Lord in their own lands. ¹⁸ 

Mark 3:11

3:11 And whenever the unclean spirits ¹⁹  saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.”

Luke 10:18-20

10:18 So ²⁰  he said to them, “I saw ²¹  Satan fall ²²  like lightning ²³  from heaven. 10:19 Look, I have given you authority to tread ²⁴  on snakes and scorpions ²⁵  and on the full force of the enemy, ²⁶  and nothing will ²⁷  hurt you. 10:20 Nevertheless, do not rejoice that ²⁸  the spirits submit to you, but rejoice ²⁹  that your names stand written ³⁰  in heaven.”

Luke 10:2

10:2 He ³¹  said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore ask the Lord of the harvest ³²  to send out ³³  workers into his harvest.

Colossians 1:14-16

1:14 in whom we have redemption, ³⁴  the forgiveness of sins.

The Supremacy of Christ

1:15 ³⁵ He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn ³⁶  over all creation, ³⁷ 

1:16 for all things in heaven and on earth were created by him – all things, whether visible or invisible, whether thrones or dominions, ³⁸  whether principalities or powers – all things were created through him and for him.

[12:12]  ¹ tn The verb וְעָבַרְתִּי (vÿ’avarti) is a Qal perfect with vav (ו) consecutive, announcing the future action of God in bringing judgment on the land. The word means “pass over, across, through.” This verb provides a contextual motive for the name “Passover.”

[12:12]  ² tn Heb “this night.”

[12:12]  ³ tn The verb נָכָה (nakhah) means “to strike, smite, attack”; it does not always mean “to kill,” but that is obviously its outcome in this context. This is also its use in 2:12, describing how Moses killed the Egyptian and buried him in the sand.

[12:12]  ⁴ tn Heb “from man and to beast.”

[12:12]  ⁵ tn The phrase אֶעֱשֶׂה שְׁפָטִים (’e’eseh shÿfatim) is “I will do judgments.” The statement clearly includes what had begun in Exod 6:1. But the statement that God would judge the gods of Egypt is appropriately introduced here (see also Num 33:4) because with the judgment on Pharaoh and the deliverance from bondage, Yahweh would truly show himself to be the one true God. Thus, “I am Yahweh” is fitting here (see B. Jacob, Exodus, 312).

[97:7]  ⁶ tn The translation assumes that the prefixed verbal form in the first line is an imperfect (“are ashamed”) and that the ambiguous form in the third line is a perfect (“bow down”) because the psalmist appears to be describing the effect of the Lord’s mighty theophany on those who witness it (see vv. 5, 8). Another option is to take the prefixed form in the first line as a jussive (“let all who worship idols be ashamed”) and the ambiguous form in the third line as an imperative (“All you gods, bow down before him!”; cf. NIV).

[19:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “and the heart of Egypt melts within it.”

[46:1]  ⁸ sn Bel was the name of a Babylonian god. The name was originally associated with Enlil, but later was applied to Marduk. See HALOT 132 s.v. בֵּל.

[46:1]  ⁹ sn Nebo is a variation of the name of the Babylonian god Nabu.

[46:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “their images belong to animals and beasts”; NIV “their idols are borne by beasts of burden”; NLT “are being hauled away.”

[46:1]  ¹¹ tn Heb “your loads are carried [as] a burden by a weary [animal].”

[46:2]  ¹² tn Heb “[the] burden,” i.e., their images, the heavy burden carried by the animals.

[46:2]  ¹³ tn נַפְשָׁם (nafsham, “their souls/lives”) is equivalent here to a third masculine plural suffix, but the third feminine singular verb הָלָכָה (halakhah, “they go”) agrees with the feminine noun נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “soul, life”).

[46:2]  ¹⁴ sn The downfall of Babylon is depicted here. The idols are carried off by the victorious enemy; the gods are likened to defeated captives who cower before the enemy and are taken into exile.

[2:11]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “will be awesome over [or, “against”] them.”

[2:11]  ¹⁶ tn Or “certainly.”

[2:11]  ¹⁷ tn The meaning of this rare Hebrew word is unclear. If the meaning is indeed “weaken,” then this line may be referring to the reduction of these gods’ territory through conquest (see Adele Berlin, Zephaniah [AB 25A], 110-11). Cf. NEB “reduce to beggary”; NASB “starve”; NIV “when he destroys”; NRSV “shrivel.”

[2:11]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and all the coastlands of the nations will worship [or, “bow down”] to him, each from his own place.”

[3:11]  ¹⁹ sn Unclean spirits refers to evil spirits.

[10:18]  ²⁰ tn Here δέ (de) has been translated as “so” to indicate that Jesus’ reply in vv. 18-20 follows from the positive report of the messengers in v. 17.

[10:18]  ²¹ tn This is an imperfect tense verb.

[10:18]  ²² tn In Greek, this is a participle and comes at the end of the verse, making it somewhat emphatic.

[10:18]  ²³ tn This is probably best taken as allusion to Isa 14:12; the phrase in common is ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ (ek tou ouranou). These exorcisms in Jesus’ name are a picture of Satan’s greater defeat at Jesus’ hands (D. L. Bock, Luke [BECNT], 2:1006-7).

[10:19]  ²⁴ tn Or perhaps, “trample on” (which emphasizes the impact of the feet on the snakes). See L&N 15.226.

[10:19]  ²⁵ sn Snakes and scorpions are examples of the hostility in the creation that is defeated by Jesus. The use of battle imagery shows who the kingdom fights against. See Acts 28:3-6.

[10:19]  ²⁶ tn Or “I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and [authority] over the full force of the enemy.” The second prepositional phrase can be taken either as modifying the infinitive πατεῖν (patein, “to tread”) or the noun ἐξουσίαν (exousian, “power”). The former is to be preferred and has been represented in the translation.

[10:19]  ²⁷ tn This is an emphatic double negative in the Greek text.

[10:20]  ²⁸ tn Grk “do not rejoice in this, that.” This is awkward in contemporary English and has been simplified to “do not rejoice that.”

[10:20]  ²⁹ tn The verb here is a present imperative, so the call is to an attitude of rejoicing.

[10:20]  ³⁰ tn The verb here, a perfect tense, stresses a present reality of that which was a completed action, that is, their names were etched in the heavenly stone, as it were.

[10:2]  ³¹ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[10:2]  ³² sn The phrase Lord of the harvest recognizes God’s sovereignty over the harvest process.

[10:2]  ³³ tn Grk “to thrust out.”

[1:14]  ³⁴ tc διὰ τοῦ αἵματος αὐτοῦ (dia tou {aimato" autou, “through his blood”) is read at this juncture by several minuscule mss (614 630 1505 2464 al) as well as a few, mostly secondary, versional and patristic witnesses. But the reading was prompted by the parallel in Eph 1:7 where the wording is solid. If these words had been in the original of Colossians, why would scribes omit them here but not in Eph 1:7? Further, the testimony on behalf of the shorter reading is quite overwhelming: {א A B C D F G Ψ 075 0150 6 33 1739 1881 Ï latt co as well as several other versions and fathers}. The conviction that “through his blood” is not authentic in Col 1:14 is as strong as the conviction that these words are authentic in Eph 1:7.

[1:15]  ³⁵ sn This passage has been typeset as poetry because many scholars regard this passage as poetic or hymnic. These terms are used broadly to refer to the genre of writing, not to the content. There are two broad criteria for determining if a passage is poetic or hymnic: “(a) stylistic: a certain rhythmical lilt when the passages are read aloud, the presence of parallelismus membrorum (i.e., an arrangement into couplets), the semblance of some metre, and the presence of rhetorical devices such as alliteration, chiasmus, and antithesis; and (b) linguistic: an unusual vocabulary, particularly the presence of theological terms, which is different from the surrounding context” (P. T. O’Brien, Philippians [NIGTC], 188-89). Classifying a passage as hymnic or poetic is important because understanding this genre can provide keys to interpretation. However, not all scholars agree that the above criteria are present in this passage, so the decision to typeset it as poetry should be viewed as a tentative decision about its genre.

[1:15]  ³⁶ tn The Greek term πρωτότοκος (prwtotokos) could refer either to first in order of time, such as a first born child, or it could refer to one who is preeminent in rank. M. J. Harris, Colossians and Philemon (EGGNT), 43, expresses the meaning of the word well: “The ‘firstborn’ was either the eldest child in a family or a person of preeminent rank. The use of this term to describe the Davidic king in Ps 88:28 LXX (=Ps 89:27 EVV), ‘I will also appoint him my firstborn (πρωτότοκον), the most exalted of the kings of the earth,’ indicates that it can denote supremacy in rank as well as priority in time. But whether the πρωτό- element in the word denotes time, rank, or both, the significance of the -τοκος element as indicating birth or origin (from τίκτω, give birth to) has been virtually lost except in ref. to lit. birth.” In Col 1:15 the emphasis is on the priority of Jesus’ rank as over and above creation (cf. 1:16 and the “for” clause referring to Jesus as Creator).

[1:15]  ³⁷ tn The genitive construction πάσης κτίσεως (pash" ktisew") is a genitive of subordination and is therefore translated as “over all creation.” See ExSyn 103-4.

[1:16]  ³⁸ tn BDAG 579 s.v. κυριότης 3 suggests “bearers of the ruling powers, dominions” here.