Genesis 22:8

22:8 “God will provide ¹  for himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son,” Abraham replied. The two of them continued on together.

Psalms 40:6-8

40:6 Receiving sacrifices and offerings are not your primary concern. ² 

You make that quite clear to me! ³ 

You do not ask for burnt sacrifices and sin offerings.

40:7 Then I say,

“Look! I come!

What is written in the scroll pertains to me. ⁴ 

40:8 I want to do what pleases you, ⁵  my God.

Your law dominates my thoughts.” ⁶ 

Psalms 89:19-20

89:19 Then you ⁷  spoke through a vision to your faithful followers ⁸  and said:

“I have energized a warrior; ⁹ 

I have raised up a young man ¹⁰  from the people.

89:20 I have discovered David, my servant.

With my holy oil I have anointed him as king. ¹¹ 

Isaiah 30:21

30:21 You ¹²  will hear a word spoken behind you, saying,

“This is the correct ¹³  way, walk in it,”

whether you are heading to the right or the left.

Isaiah 30:1

Egypt Will Prove Unreliable

30:1 “The rebellious ¹⁴  children are as good as dead,” ¹⁵  says the Lord,

“those who make plans without consulting me, ¹⁶ 

who form alliances without consulting my Spirit, ¹⁷ 

and thereby compound their sin. ¹⁸ 

Colossians 1:13

1:13 He delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son he loves, ¹⁹ 

Colossians 1:2

1:2 to the saints, the faithful ²⁰  brothers and sisters ²¹  in Christ, at Colossae. Grace and peace to you ²²  from God our Father! ²³ 

Colossians 1:9-10

Paul’s Prayer for the Growth of the Church

1:9 For this reason we also, from the day we heard about you, ²⁴  have not ceased praying for you and asking God ²⁵  to fill ²⁶  you with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 1:10 so that you may live ²⁷  worthily of the Lord and please him in all respects ²⁸  – bearing fruit in every good deed, growing in the knowledge of God,

[22:8]  ¹ tn Heb “will see for himself.” The construction means “to look out for; to see to it; to provide.”

[40:6]  ² tn Heb “sacrifice and offering you do not desire.” The statement is exaggerated for the sake of emphasis (see Ps 51:16 as well). God is pleased with sacrifices, but his first priority is obedience and loyalty (see 1 Sam 15:22). Sacrifices and offerings apart from genuine allegiance are meaningless (see Isa 1:11-20).

[40:6]  ³ tn Heb “ears you hollowed out for me.” The meaning of this odd expression is debated (this is the only collocation of “hollowed out” and “ears” in the OT). It may have been an idiomatic expression referring to making a point clear to a listener. The LXX has “but a body you have prepared for me,” a reading which is followed in Heb 10:5.

[40:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “in the roll of the scroll it is written concerning me.” Apparently the psalmist refers to the law of God (see v. 8), which contains the commandments God desires him to obey. If this is a distinctly royal psalm, then the psalmist/king may be referring specifically to the regulations of kingship prescribed in Deut 17:14-20. See P. C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 (WBC), 315.

[40:8]  ⁵ tn Or “your will.”

[40:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “your law [is] in the midst of my inner parts.” The “inner parts” are viewed here as the seat of the psalmist’s thought life and moral decision making.

[89:19]  ⁷ tn The pronoun “you” refers to the Lord, who is addressed here. The quotation that follows further develops the announcement of vv. 3-4.

[89:19]  ⁸ tc Many medieval mss read the singular here, “your faithful follower.” In this case the statement refers directly to Nathan’s oracle to David (see 2 Sam 7:17).

[89:19]  ⁹ tn Heb “I have placed help upon a warrior.”

[89:19]  ¹⁰ tn Or perhaps “a chosen one.”

[89:20]  ¹¹ tn The words “as king” are supplied in the translation for clarification, indicating that a royal anointing is in view.

[30:21]  ¹² tn Heb “your ears” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[30:21]  ¹³ tn The word “correct’ is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[30:1]  ¹⁴ tn Or “stubborn” (NCV); cf. NIV “obstinate.”

[30:1]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Woe [to] rebellious children.”

[30:1]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “making a plan, but not from me.”

[30:1]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and pouring out a libation, but not [from] my spirit.” This translation assumes that the verb נָסַךְ (nasakh) means “pour out,” and that the cognate noun מַסֵּכָה (massekhah) means “libation.” In this case “pouring out a libation” alludes to a ceremony that formally ratifies an alliance. Another option is to understand the verb נָסַךְ as a homonym meaning “weave,” and the cognate noun מַסֵּכָה as a homonym meaning “covering.” In this case forming an alliance is likened to weaving a garment.

[30:1]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “consequently adding sin to sin.”

[1:13]  ¹⁹ tn Here αὐτοῦ (autou) has been translated as a subjective genitive (“he loves”).

[1:2]  ²⁰ tn Grk “and faithful.” The construction in Greek (as well as Paul’s style) suggests that the saints are identical to the faithful; hence, the καί (kai) is best left untranslated (cf. Eph 1:1). See ExSyn 281-82.

[1:2]  ²¹ tn Grk “brothers,” but the Greek word may be used for “brothers and sisters” or “fellow Christians” as here (cf. BDAG 18 s.v. ἀδελφός 1, where considerable nonbiblical evidence for the plural ἀδελφοί [adelfoi] meaning “brothers and sisters” is cited).

[1:2]  ²² tn Or “Grace to you and peace.”

[1:2]  ²³ tc Most witnesses, including some important ones (א A C F G I [P] 075 Ï it bo), read “and the Lord Jesus Christ” at the end of this verse, no doubt to conform the wording to the typical Pauline salutation. However, excellent and early witnesses (B D K L Ψ 33 81 1175 1505 1739 1881 al sa) lack this phrase. Since the omission is inexplicable as arising from the longer reading (otherwise, these mss would surely have deleted the phrase in the rest of the corpus Paulinum), it is surely authentic.

[1:9]  ²⁴ 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]  ²⁵ 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]  ²⁶ 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]  ²⁷ 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]  ²⁸ 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.”