Genesis 32:26

32:26 Then the man ¹  said, “Let me go, for the dawn is breaking.” ²  “I will not let you go,” Jacob replied, ³  “unless you bless me.” ⁴ 

Habakkuk 2:3

2:3 For the message is a witness to what is decreed; ⁵ 

it gives reliable testimony about how matters will turn out. ⁶ 

Even if the message ⁷  is not fulfilled right away, wait patiently; ⁸ 

for it will certainly come to pass – it will not arrive late.

Luke 18:7

18:7 Won’t ⁹  God give justice to his chosen ones, who cry out ¹⁰  to him day and night? ¹¹  Will he delay ¹²  long to help them?

Ephesians 6:18

6:18 With every prayer and petition, pray ¹³  at all times in the Spirit, and to this end ¹⁴  be alert, with all perseverance and requests for all the saints.

Hebrews 10:36-37

10:36 For you need endurance in order to do God’s will and so receive what is promised. ¹⁵  10:37 For just a little longer ¹⁶  and he who is coming will arrive and not delay. ¹⁷ 

[32:26]  ¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the man) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[32:26]  ² tn Heb “dawn has arisen.”

[32:26]  ³ tn Heb “and he said, ‘I will not let you go.’” The referent of the pronoun “he” (Jacob) has been specified for clarity, and the order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[32:26]  ⁴ sn Jacob wrestled with a man thinking him to be a mere man, and on that basis was equal to the task. But when it had gone on long enough, the night visitor touched Jacob and crippled him. Jacob’s request for a blessing can only mean that he now knew that his opponent was supernatural. Contrary to many allegorical interpretations of the passage that make fighting equivalent to prayer, this passage shows that Jacob stopped fighting, and then asked for a blessing.

[2:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “For the vision is still for the appointed time.” The Hebrew word עוֹד (’od, “still”) is better emended to עֵד (’ed, “witness”) in light of the parallelism (see the note on the word “turn out” in the following line). The “appointed time” refers to the time when the divine judgment anticipated in vv. 6-20 will be realized.

[2:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “and a witness to the end and it does not lie.” The Hebrew term יָפֵחַ (yafeakh) has been traditionally understood as a verb form from the root פּוּחַ (puakh, “puff, blow”; cf. NEB “it will come in breathless haste”; NASB “it hastens toward the goal”) but recent scholarship has demonstrated that it is actually a noun meaning “witness” (cf. NIV “it speaks of the end / and will not prove false”; NRSV “it speaks of the end, and does not lie”). See J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (OTL), 106. “The end” corresponds to “the appointed time” of the preceding line and refers to the time when the prophecy to follow will be fulfilled.

[2:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “it”; the referent (the message) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[2:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “If it should delay, wait for it.” The Hebrew word חָזוֹן (khazon, “vision, message”) is the subject of the third person verbs in v. 3 and the antecedent of the pronominal suffix in the phrase “for it.”

[18:7]  ⁹ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[18:7]  ¹⁰ sn The prayers have to do with the righteous who cry out to him to receive justice. The context assumes the righteous are persecuted.

[18:7]  ¹¹ tn The emphatic particles in this sentence indicate that God will indeed give justice to the righteous.

[18:7]  ¹² sn The issue of delay has produced a whole host of views for this verse. (1) Does this assume provision to endure in the meantime? Or (2) does it mean God restricts the level of persecution until he comes? Either view is possible.

[6:18]  ¹³ tn Both “pray” and “be alert” are participles in the Greek text (“praying…being alert”). Both are probably instrumental, loosely connected with all of the preceding instructions. As such, they are not additional commands to do but instead are the means through which the prior instructions are accomplished.

[6:18]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “and toward it.”

[10:36]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “the promise,” referring to the thing God promised, not to the pledge itself.

[10:37]  ¹⁶ sn A quotation from Isa 26:20.

[10:37]  ¹⁷ sn A quotation from Hab 2:3.