Isaiah 16:3-4

16:3 “Bring a plan, make a decision! ¹ 

Provide some shade in the middle of the day! ² 

Hide the fugitives! Do not betray ³  the one who tries to escape!

16:4 Please let the Moabite fugitives live ⁴  among you.

Hide them ⁵  from the destroyer!”

Certainly ⁶  the one who applies pressure will cease, ⁷ 

the destroyer will come to an end,

those who trample will disappear ⁸  from the earth.

Genesis 18:2-5

18:2 Abraham ⁹  looked up ¹⁰  and saw ¹¹  three men standing across ¹²  from him. When he saw them ¹³  he ran from the entrance of the tent to meet them and bowed low ¹⁴  to the ground. ¹⁵ 

18:3 He said, “My lord, ¹⁶  if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by and leave your servant. ¹⁷  18:4 Let a little water be brought so that ¹⁸  you may all ¹⁹  wash your feet and rest under the tree. 18:5 And let me get ²⁰  a bit of food ²¹  so that you may refresh yourselves ²²  since you have passed by your servant’s home. After that you may be on your way.” ²³  “All right,” they replied, “you may do as you say.”

Genesis 19:2

19:2 He said, “Here, my lords, please turn aside to your servant’s house. Stay the night ²⁴  and wash your feet. Then you can be on your way early in the morning.” ²⁵  “No,” they replied, “we’ll spend the night in the town square.” ²⁶ 

Jude 1:20-21

1:20 But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith, by praying in the Holy Spirit, ²⁷  1:21 maintain ²⁸  yourselves in the love of God, while anticipating ²⁹  the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that brings eternal life. ³⁰ 

Acts 16:15

16:15 After she and her household were baptized, she urged us, ³¹  “If ³²  you consider me to be a believer in the Lord, ³³  come and stay in my house.” And she persuaded ³⁴  us.

Acts 16:34

16:34 The jailer ³⁵  brought them into his house and set food ³⁶  before them, and he rejoiced greatly ³⁷  that he had come to believe ³⁸  in God, together with his entire household. ³⁹ 

Romans 12:13

12:13 Contribute to the needs of the saints, pursue hospitality.

Hebrews 13:2-3

13:2 Do not neglect hospitality, because through it some have entertained angels without knowing it. ⁴⁰  13:3 Remember those in prison as though you were in prison with them, ⁴¹  and those ill-treated as though you too felt their torment. ⁴² 

[16:3]  ¹ sn It is unclear who is being addressed in this verse. Perhaps the prophet, playing the role of a panic stricken Moabite refugee, requests the leaders of Judah (the imperatives are plural) to take pity on the fugitives.

[16:3]  ² tn Heb “Make your shade like night in the midst of noonday.” “Shade” here symbolizes shelter, while the heat of noonday represents the intense suffering of the Moabites. By comparing the desired shade to night, the speaker visualizes a huge dark shadow cast by a large tree that would provide relief from the sun’s heat.

[16:3]  ³ tn Heb “disclose, uncover.”

[16:4]  ⁴ tn That is, “live as resident foreigners.”

[16:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “Be a hiding place for them.”

[16:4]  ⁶ tn The present translation understands כִּי (ki) as asseverative, but one could take it as explanatory (“for,” KJV, NASB) or temporal (“when,” NAB, NRSV). In the latter case, v. 4b would be logically connected to v. 5.

[16:4]  ⁷ tn A perfect verbal form is used here and in the next two lines for rhetorical effect; the demise of the oppressor(s) is described as if it had already occurred.

[16:4]  ⁸ tc The Hebrew text has, “they will be finished, the one who tramples, from the earth.” The plural verb form תַּמּוּ, (tammu, “disappear”) could be emended to agree with the singular subject רֹמֵס (romes, “the one who tramples”) or the participle can be emended to a plural (רֹמֵסִם, romesim) to agree with the verb. The translation assumes the latter. Haplography of mem (ם) seems likely; note that the word after רֹמֵס begins with a mem.

[18:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[18:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “lifted up his eyes.”

[18:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “and saw, and look.” The particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) draws attention to what he saw. The drawn-out description focuses the reader’s attention on Abraham’s deliberate, fixed gaze and indicates that what he is seeing is significant.

[18:2]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew preposition עַל (’al) indicates the three men were nearby, but not close by, for Abraham had to run to meet them.

[18:2]  ¹¹ tn The pronoun “them” has been supplied in the translation for clarification. In the Hebrew text the verb has no stated object.

[18:2]  ¹² tn The form וַיִּשְׁתַּחוּ (vayyishtakhu, “and bowed low”) is from the verb הִשְׁתַּחֲוָה (hishtakhavah, “to worship, bow low to the ground”). It is probably from a root חָוָה (khavah), though some derive it from שָׁחָה (shakhah).

[18:2]  ¹³ sn The reader knows this is a theophany. The three visitors are probably the Lord and two angels (see Gen 19:1). It is not certain how soon Abraham recognized the true identity of the visitors. His actions suggest he suspected this was something out of the ordinary, though it is possible that his lavish treatment of the visitors was done quite unwittingly. Bowing down to the ground would be reserved for obeisance of kings or worship of the Lord. Whether he was aware of it or not, Abraham’s action was most appropriate.

[18:3]  ¹⁰ tc The MT has the form אֲדֹנָי (’adonay, “Master”) which is reserved for God. This may reflect later scribal activity. The scribes, knowing it was the Lord, may have put the proper pointing with the word instead of the more common אֲדֹנִי (’adoni, “my master”).

[18:3]  ¹¹ tn Heb “do not pass by from upon your servant.”

[18:4]  ¹³ tn The imperative after the jussive indicates purpose here.

[18:4]  ¹⁴ tn The word “all” has been supplied in the translation because the Hebrew verb translated “wash” and the pronominal suffix on the word “feet” are plural, referring to all three of the visitors.

[18:5]  ¹⁶ tn The Qal cohortative here probably has the nuance of polite request.

[18:5]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “a piece of bread.” The Hebrew word לֶחֶם (lekhem) can refer either to bread specifically or to food in general. Based on Abraham’s directions to Sarah in v. 6, bread was certainly involved, but v. 7 indicates that Abraham had a more elaborate meal in mind.

[18:5]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “strengthen your heart.” The imperative after the cohortative indicates purpose here.

[18:5]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “so that you may refresh yourselves, after [which] you may be on your way – for therefore you passed by near your servant.”

[19:2]  ¹⁹ tn The imperatives have the force of invitation.

[19:2]  ²⁰ tn These two verbs form a verbal hendiadys: “you can rise up early and go” means “you can go early.”

[19:2]  ²¹ sn The town square refers to the wide street area at the gate complex of the city.

[1:20]  ²² tn The participles in v. 20 have been variously interpreted. Some treat them imperativally or as attendant circumstance to the imperative in v. 21 (“maintain”): “build yourselves up…pray.” But they do not follow the normal contours of either the imperatival or attendant circumstance participles, rendering this unlikely. A better option is to treat them as the means by which the readers are to maintain themselves in the love of God. This both makes eminently good sense and fits the structural patterns of instrumental participles elsewhere.

[1:21]  ²⁵ tn Or “keep.”

[1:21]  ²⁶ tn Or “waiting for.”

[1:21]  ²⁷ tn Grk “unto eternal life.”

[16:15]  ²⁸ tn Grk “urged us, saying.” The participle λέγουσα (legousa) is redundant in English and has not been translated.

[16:15]  ²⁹ tn This is a first class condition in Greek, with the statement presented as real or true for the sake of the argument.

[16:15]  ³⁰ tn Or “faithful to the Lord.” BDAG 821 s.v. πίστος 2 states concerning this verse, “Of one who confesses the Christian faith believing or a believer in the Lord, in Christ, in God πιστ. τῷ κυρίῳ Ac 16:15.” L&N 11.17 has “one who is included among the faithful followers of Christ – ‘believer, Christian, follower.’”

[16:15]  ³¹ tn Although BDAG 759 s.v. παραβιάζομαι has “urge strongly, prevail upon,” in contemporary English “persuade” is a more frequently used synonym for “prevail upon.”

[16:34]  ³¹ tn Grk “He”; the referent (the jailer) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[16:34]  ³² tn Grk “placed [food] on the table” (a figurative expression). Since the actual word for food is not specified, it would also be possible to translate “set a meal before them,” but since this is taking place in the middle of the night, the preparations necessary for a full meal would probably not have been made. More likely Paul and Silas were given whatever was on hand that needed little or no preparation.

[16:34]  ³³ tn Or “he was overjoyed.”

[16:34]  ³⁴ tn The translation “come to believe” reflects more of the resultative nuance of the perfect tense here.

[16:34]  ³⁵ tn The phrase “together with his entire household” is placed at the end of the English sentence so that it refers to both the rejoicing and the belief. A formal equivalence translation would have “and he rejoiced greatly with his entire household that he had come to believe in God,” but the reference to the entire household being baptized in v. 33 presumes that all in the household believed.

[13:2]  ³⁴ sn This is a vague allusion to people described in scripture and extra-biblical literature and may include Abraham and Sarah (Gen 18:2-15), Lot (Gen 19:1-14), Gideon (Judg 6:11-18), Manoah (Judg 13:3-22), and possibly Tobit (Tob 12:1-20).

[13:3]  ³⁷ tn Grk “as being imprisoned together.”

[13:3]  ³⁸ tn Or “since you too are vulnerable”; Grk “you also being in the body.”