Isaiah 35:4

35:4 Tell those who panic, ¹ 

“Be strong! Do not fear!

Look, your God comes to avenge!

With divine retribution he comes to deliver you.” ² 

Daniel 10:19

10:19 He said to me, “Don’t be afraid, you who are valued. ³  Peace be to you! Be strong! Be really strong!” When he spoke to me, I was strengthened. I said, “Sir, you may speak now, ⁴  for you have given me strength.”

Daniel 11:32

11:32 Then with smooth words he will defile ⁵  those who have rejected ⁶  the covenant. But the people who are loyal to ⁷  their God will act valiantly. ⁸ 

Haggai 2:4

2:4 Even so, take heart, Zerubbabel,’ says the Lord. ‘Take heart, Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and ⁹  all you citizens of the land,’ ¹⁰  says the Lord, ‘and begin to work. For I am with you,’ says the Lord who rules over all.

Zechariah 8:9

8:9 “The Lord who rules over all also says, ‘Gather strength, you who are listening to these words today from the mouths of the prophets who were there at the founding of the house of the Lord who rules over all, ¹¹  so that the temple might be built.

Zechariah 8:13

8:13 And it will come about that just as you (both Judah and Israel) were a curse to the nations, so I will save you and you will be a blessing. Do not be afraid! Instead, be strong!’

Zechariah 8:1

The Blessing of True Fasting

8:1 Then the word of the Lord who rules over all ¹²  came to me as follows:

Colossians 1:13

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

Colossians 1:2

1:2 to the saints, the faithful ¹⁴  brothers and sisters ¹⁵  in Christ, at Colossae. Grace and peace to you ¹⁶  from God our Father! ¹⁷ 

Colossians 1:10

1:10 so that you may live ¹⁸  worthily of the Lord and please him in all respects ¹⁹  – bearing fruit in every good deed, growing in the knowledge of God,

Ephesians 6:10

Exhortations for Spiritual Warfare

6:10 Finally, be strengthened in the Lord and in the strength of his power.

Ephesians 6:2

6:2 “Honor your father and mother,” ²⁰  which is the first commandment accompanied by a promise, namely,

Ephesians 2:1

New Life Individually

2:1 And although you were ²¹  dead ²²  in your transgressions and sins,

[35:4]  ¹ tn Heb “Say to the hasty of heart,” i.e., those whose hearts beat quickly from fear.

[35:4]  ² tn The jussive form וְיֹשַׁעֲכֶם (vÿyosha’akhem), which is subordinated to the preceding imperfect with vav conjunctive, indicates purpose.

[10:19]  ³ tn Heb “treasured man.”

[10:19]  ⁴ tn Heb “my lord may speak.”

[11:32]  ⁵ tn Or “corrupt.”

[11:32]  ⁶ tn Heb “acted wickedly toward.”

[11:32]  ⁷ tn Heb “know.” The term “know” sometimes means “to recognize.” In relational contexts it can have the connotation “recognize the authority of, be loyal to,” as it does here.

[11:32]  ⁸ sn This is an allusion to the Maccabean revolt, which struggled to bring about Jewish independence in the second century B.C.

[2:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “and take heart.” Although emphatic, the repetition of the verb is redundant in contemporary English style and has been left untranslated.

[2:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the people of the land” (עַם הָאָרֶץ, ’am ha’arets); this is a technical term referring to free citizens as opposed to slaves.

[8:9]  ¹¹ sn These prophets who were there at the founding of the house of the Lord who rules over all included at least Haggai and Zechariah, and perhaps others. The founding referred to here is not the initial laying of the temple’s foundations in 536 b.c. (Ezra 3:8) but the resumption of work two years before the time of the present narrative (i.e., in 520 b.c.), as vv. 10-12 make clear.

[8:1]  ¹² sn Lord who rules over all. There is a remarkable concentration of this name of God in this section of Zechariah. Of 53 occurrences of יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת (yÿhvah tsÿva’ot) in the Hebrew text in the book, 18 are in this chapter. The reason is the sheer human impossibility of accomplishing what lies ahead – it must be done by the Lord who rules over all.

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

[1:2]  ¹⁴ 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]  ¹⁵ 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]  ¹⁶ tn Or “Grace to you and peace.”

[1:2]  ¹⁷ 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.

[1:10]  ¹⁸ 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]  ¹⁹ 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.”

[6:2]  ²⁰ sn A quotation from Exod 20:12 and Deut 5:16.

[2:1]  ²¹ tn The adverbial participle “being” (ὄντας, ontas) is taken concessively.

[2:1]  ²² sn Chapter 2 starts off with a participle, although you were dead, that is left dangling. The syntax in Greek for vv. 1-3 constitutes one incomplete sentence, though it seems to have been done intentionally. The dangling participle leaves the readers in suspense while they wait for the solution (in v. 4) to their spiritual dilemma.