Isaiah 41:17-18

41:17 The oppressed and the poor look for water, but there is none;

their tongues are parched from thirst.

I, the Lord, will respond to their prayers; ¹ 

I, the God of Israel, will not abandon them.

41:18 I will make streams flow down the slopes

and produce springs in the middle of the valleys.

I will turn the desert into a pool of water

and the arid land into springs.

Isaiah 57:15

57:15 For this is what the high and exalted one says,

the one who rules ²  forever, whose name is holy:

“I dwell in an exalted and holy place,

but also with the discouraged and humiliated, ³ 

in order to cheer up the humiliated

and to encourage the discouraged. ⁴ 

Isaiah 66:2

66:2 My hand made them; ⁵ 

that is how they came to be,” ⁶  says the Lord.

I show special favor ⁷  to the humble and contrite,

who respect what I have to say. ⁸ 

Psalms 9:18

9:18 for the needy are not permanently ignored, ⁹ 

the hopes of the oppressed are not forever dashed. ¹⁰ 

Psalms 12:5

12:5 “Because of the violence done to the oppressed, ¹¹ 

because of the painful cries ¹²  of the needy,

I will spring into action,” ¹³  says the Lord.

“I will provide the safety they so desperately desire.” ¹⁴ 

Zephaniah 3:12-18

3:12 I will leave in your midst a humble and meek group of people, ¹⁵ 

and they will find safety in the Lord’s presence. ¹⁶ 

3:13 The Israelites who remain ¹⁷  will not act deceitfully.

They will not lie,

and a deceitful tongue will not be found in their mouth.

Indeed, they will graze peacefully like sheep ¹⁸  and lie down;

no one will terrify them.”

3:14 Shout for joy, Daughter Zion! ¹⁹ 

Shout out, Israel!

Be happy and boast with all your heart, Daughter Jerusalem!

3:15 The Lord has removed the judgment against you; ²⁰ 

he has turned back your enemy.

Israel’s king, the Lord, is in your midst!

You no longer need to fear disaster.

3:16 On that day they will say ²¹  to Jerusalem,

“Don’t be afraid, Zion!

Your hands must not be paralyzed from panic! ²² 

3:17 The Lord your God is in your midst;

he is a warrior who can deliver.

He takes great delight in you; ²³ 

he renews you by his love; ²⁴ 

he shouts for joy over you.” ²⁵ 

3:18 “As for those who grieve because they cannot attend the festivals –

I took them away from you;

they became tribute and were a source of shame to you. ²⁶ 

Matthew 5:3

5:3 “Blessed ²⁷  are the poor in spirit, ²⁸  for the kingdom of heaven belongs ²⁹  to them.

Matthew 11:5

11:5 The blind see, the ³⁰  lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news proclaimed to them.

Matthew 11:1

11:1 When ³¹  Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in their towns.

Colossians 1:26-29

1:26 that is, the mystery that has been kept hidden from ages and generations, but has now been revealed to his saints. 1:27 God wanted to make known to them the glorious ³²  riches of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 1:28 We proclaim him by instructing ³³  and teaching ³⁴  all people ³⁵  with all wisdom so that we may present every person mature ³⁶  in Christ. 1:29 Toward this goal ³⁷  I also labor, struggling according to his power that powerfully ³⁸  works in me.

James 1:9

1:9 Now the believer ³⁹  of humble means ⁴⁰  should take pride ⁴¹  in his high position. ⁴² 

James 2:5

2:5 Listen, my dear brothers and sisters! ⁴³  Did not God choose the poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he promised to those who love him?

[41:17]  ¹ tn Heb “will answer them” (so ASV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[57:15]  ² tn Heb “the one who dwells forever.” שֹׁכֵן עַד (shokhen ’ad) is sometimes translated “the one who lives forever,” and understood as a reference to God’s eternal existence. However, the immediately preceding and following descriptions (“high and exalted” and “holy”) emphasize his sovereign rule. In the next line, he declares, “I dwell in an exalted and holy [place],” which refers to the place from which he rules. Therefore it is more likely that שֹׁכֵן עַד (shokhen ’ad) means “I dwell [in my lofty palace] forever” and refers to God’s eternal kingship.

[57:15]  ³ tn Heb “and also with the crushed and lowly of spirit.” This may refer to the repentant who have humbled themselves (see 66:2) or more generally to the exiles who have experienced discouragement and humiliation.

[57:15]  ⁴ tn Heb “to restore the lowly of spirit and to restore the heart of the crushed.”

[66:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “all these.” The phrase refers to the heavens and earth, mentioned in the previous verse.

[66:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “and all these were.” Some prefer to emend וַיִּהְיוּ (vayyihyu, “and they were”) to וְלִי הָיוּ (vÿli hayu, “and to me they were”), i.e., “and they belong to me.”

[66:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “and to this one I look” (KJV and NASB both similar).

[66:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “to the humble and the lowly in spirit and the one who trembles at my words.”

[9:18]  ⁹ tn Or “forgotten.”

[9:18]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the hope of the afflicted does [not] perish forever.” The negative particle is understood by ellipsis; note the preceding line. The imperfect verbal forms express what typically happens.

[12:5]  ¹¹ tn The term translated “oppressed” is an objective genitive; the oppressed are the recipients/victims of violence.

[12:5]  ¹² tn Elsewhere in the psalms this noun is used of the painful groans of prisoners awaiting death (79:11; 102:20). The related verb is used of the painful groaning of those wounded in combat (Jer 51:52; Ezek 26:15) and of the mournful sighing of those in grief (Ezek 9:4; 24:17).

[12:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “I will rise up.”

[12:5]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “I will place in deliverance, he pants for it.” The final two words in Hebrew (יָפִיחַ לוֹ, yafiakh lo) comprise an asyndetic relative clause, “the one who pants for it.” “The one who pants” is the object of the verb “place” and the antecedent of the pronominal suffix (in the phrase “for it”) is “deliverance.” Another option is to translate, “I will place in deliverance the witness for him,” repointing יָפִיחַ (a Hiphil imperfect from פּוּחַ, puakh, “pant”) as יָפֵחַ (yafeakh), a noun meaning “witness.” In this case the Lord would be promising protection to those who have the courage to support the oppressed in the court of law. However, the first part of the verse focuses on the oppressed, not their advocates.

[3:12]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “needy and poor people.” The terms often refer to a socioeconomic group, but here they may refer to those who are humble in a spiritual sense.

[3:12]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and they will take refuge in the name of the Lord.”

[3:13]  ¹⁷ tn Or “the remnant of Israel.”

[3:13]  ¹⁸ tn The words “peacefully like sheep” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[3:14]  ¹⁹ sn This phrase is used as an epithet for the city and the nation. “Daughter” may seem extraneous in English but consciously joins the various epithets and metaphors of Israel and Jerusalem as a woman, a device used to evoke sympathy from the reader.

[3:15]  ²⁰ tn Heb “your judgments,” that is, “the judgments directed against you.” The translation reflects the implications of the parallelism.

[3:16]  ²¹ tn Heb “it will be said.” The passive construction has been translated as active for stylistic reasons.

[3:16]  ²² tn Heb “your hands must not go limp.”

[3:17]  ²³ tn Heb “he rejoices over you with joy.”

[3:17]  ²⁴ tc The MT reads, “he is silent in his love,” but this makes no sense in light of the immediately preceding and following lines. Some take the Hiphil verb form as causative (see Job 11:3) rather than intransitive and translate, “he causes [you] to be silent by his love,” that is, “he soothes [you] by his love.” The present translation follows the LXX and assumes an original reading יְחַדֵּשׁ (yÿkhaddesh, “he renews”) with ellipsis of the object (“you”).

[3:17]  ²⁵ tn Heb “he rejoices over you with a shout of joy.”

[3:18]  ²⁶ tn Heb “The ones grieving from an assembly I gathered from you they were, tribute upon her, a reproach.” Any translation of this difficult verse must be provisional at best. The present translation assumes three things: (1) The preposition מִן (min) prefixed to “assembly” is causal (the individuals are sorrowing because of the assemblies or festivals they are no longer able to hold). (2) מַשְׂאֵת (mas’et) means “tribute” and refers to the exiled people being treated as the spoils of warfare (see R. D. Patterson, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah [WEC], 385-86). (3) The third feminine singular suffix refers to personified Jerusalem, which is addressed earlier in the verse (the pronominal suffix in “from you” is second feminine singular). For other interpretive options see Adele Berlin, Zephaniah (AB 25A), 146.

[5:3]  ²⁷ sn The term Blessed introduces the first of several beatitudes promising blessing to those whom God cares for. They serve as an invitation to come into the grace God offers.

[5:3]  ²⁸ sn The poor in spirit is a reference to the “pious poor” for whom God especially cares. See Ps 14:6; 22:24; 25:16; 34:6; 40:17; 69:29.

[5:3]  ²⁹ sn The present tense (belongs) here is significant. Jesus makes the kingdom and its blessings currently available. This phrase is unlike the others in the list with the possessive pronoun being emphasized.

[11:5]  ³⁰ tn Grk “and the,” but καί (kai) has not been translated since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more. Two other conjunctions are omitted in this series.

[11:1]  ³¹ tn Grk “And it happened when.” The introductory phrase καὶ ἐγένετο (kai egeneto, “it happened that”) is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.

[1:27]  ³² tn The genitive noun τῆς δόξης (ths doxhs) is an attributive genitive and has therefore been translated as “glorious riches.”

[1:28]  ³³ tn Or “admonishing,” or “warning.” BDAG 679 s.v. νουθετέω states, “to counsel about avoidance or cessation of an improper course of conduct,, admonish, warn, instruct.” After the participle νουθετοῦντες (nouqetounte", “instructing”) the words πάντα ἄνθρωπον (panta anqrwpon, “all men”) occur in the Greek text, but since the same phrase appears again after διδάσκοντες (didaskontes) it was omitted in translation to avoid redundancy in English.

[1:28]  ³⁴ tn The two participles “instructing” (νουθετοῦντες, nouqetounte") and “teaching” (διδάσκοντες, didaskonte") are translated as participles of means (“by”) related to the finite verb “we proclaim” (καταγγέλλομεν, katangellomen).

[1:28]  ³⁵ tn Here ἄνθρωπον (anqrwpon) is twice translated as a generic (“people” and “person”) since both men and women are clearly intended in this context.

[1:28]  ³⁶ tn Since Paul’s focus is on the present experience of the Colossians, “mature” is a better translation of τέλειον (teleion) than “perfect,” since the latter implies a future, eschatological focus.

[1:29]  ³⁷ tn The Greek phrase εἴς ὅ (eis Jo, “toward which”) implies “movement toward a goal” and has been rendered by the English phrase “Toward this goal.”

[1:29]  ³⁸ tn The prepositional phrase ἐν δυνάμει (en dunamei) seems to be functioning adverbially, related to the participle, and has therefore been translated “powerfully.”

[1:9]  ³⁹ tn Grk “brother.” Here the term “brother” means “fellow believer” or “fellow Christian” (cf. TEV, NLT “Christians”; CEV “God’s people”). The term broadly connotes familial relationships within the family of God (cf. BDAG 18 s.v. ἀδελφός 2.a).

[1:9]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “the lowly brother,” but “lowly/humble” is clarified in context by the contrast with “wealthy” in v. 10.

[1:9]  ⁴¹ tn Grk “let him boast.”

[1:9]  ⁴² tn Grk “his height,” “his exaltation.”

[2:5]  ⁴³ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.