Isaiah 54:5

54:5 For your husband is the one who made you –

the Lord who commands armies is his name.

He is your protector, ¹  the Holy One of Israel. ² 

He is called “God of the entire earth.”

Isaiah 61:10

61:10 I ³  will greatly rejoice ⁴  in the Lord;

I will be overjoyed because of my God. ⁵ 

For he clothes me in garments of deliverance;

he puts on me a robe symbolizing vindication. ⁶ 

I look like a bridegroom when he wears a turban as a priest would;

I look like a bride when she puts on her jewelry. ⁷ 

Jeremiah 3:14

3:14 “Come back to me, my wayward sons,” says the Lord, “for I am your true master. ⁸  If you do, ⁹  I will take one of you from each town and two of you from each family group, and I will bring you back to Zion.

Hosea 2:19-20

2:19 I will commit myself to you ¹⁰  forever;

I will commit myself to you in ¹¹  righteousness and justice,

in steadfast love and tender compassion.

2:20 I will commit myself to you in faithfulness;

then ¹²  you will acknowledge ¹³  the Lord.” ¹⁴ 

John 3:29

3:29 The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands by and listens for him, rejoices greatly ¹⁵  when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. This then is my joy, and it is complete. ¹⁶ 

John 3:2

3:2 came to Jesus ¹⁷  at night ¹⁸  and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs ¹⁹  that you do unless God is with him.”

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 

Ephesians 5:25-27

5:25 Husbands, love your ²⁴  wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her 5:26 to sanctify her by cleansing her ²⁵  with the washing of the water by the word, 5:27 so that he ²⁶  may present the church to himself as glorious – not having a stain or wrinkle, or any such blemish, but holy and blameless. ²⁷ 

Revelation 21:2

21:2 And I saw the holy city – the new Jerusalem – descending out of heaven from God, made ready like a bride adorned for her husband.

Revelation 21:9-10

The New Jerusalem Descends

21:9 Then ²⁸  one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven final plagues came and spoke to me, ²⁹  saying, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb!” 21:10 So ³⁰  he took me away in the Spirit ³¹  to a huge, majestic mountain ³²  and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God.

[54:5]  ¹ tn Or “redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.

[54:5]  ² sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[61:10]  ³ sn The speaker in vv. 10-11 is not identified, but it is likely that the personified nation (or perhaps Zion) responds here to the Lord’s promise of restoration.

[61:10]  ⁴ tn The infinitive absolute appears before the finite verb for emphasis.

[61:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “my being is happy in my God”; NAB “in my God is the joy of my soul.”

[61:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “robe of vindication”; KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV “robe of righteousness.”

[61:10]  ⁷ tn Heb “like a bridegroom [who] acts like a priest [by wearing] a turban, and like a bride [who] wears her jewelry.” The words “I look” are supplied for stylistic reasons and clarification.

[3:14]  ⁸ tn Or “I am your true husband.”

[3:14]  ⁹ tn The words, “If you do” are not in the text but are implicit in the connection of the Hebrew verb with the preceding.

[2:19]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “I will betroth you to me” (so NIV) here and in the following lines. Cf. NRSV “I will take you for my wife forever.”

[2:19]  ¹¹ tn The preposition בְּ (bet), which is repeated throughout 2:19-20 [21-22], denotes price paid (BDB 90 s.v. בְּ III.3; e.g., Ezek 3:14). The text contains an allusion to the payment of bridal gifts. The Lord will impute the moral character to Israel that will be necessary for a successful covenant relationship (contra 4:1).

[2:20]  ¹² tn The vav consecutive on the suffix conjugation verb וְיָדַעַתְּ (véyada’at, “then you will know”) introduces a result clause (cf. NASB, CEV).

[2:20]  ¹³ tn Or “know.” The term יָדַע (yada’, “know, acknowledge”) is often used in covenant contexts. It can refer to the suzerain’s acknowledgment of his covenant obligations to his vassal or to the vassal’s acknowledgment of his covenant obligations to his suzerain. When used in reference to a vassal, the verb “know” is metonymical (cause for effect) for “obey.” See H. Huffmann, “The Treaty Background of Hebrew ya„daà,” BASOR 181 (1966): 31-37.

[2:20]  ¹⁴ tc The MT reads יְהוָה (yÿhvah, “the Lord”); however, many Hebrew mss read כִּי אָנִי (ki ’ani, “that it is I”), as also reflected in the Latin Vulgate (cf. CEV “know who I am”).

[3:29]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “rejoices with joy” (an idiom).

[3:29]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “Therefore this my joy is fulfilled.”

[3:2]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:2]  ¹⁸ tn Or “during the night.”

[3:2]  ¹⁹ sn The reference to signs (σημεῖα, shmeia) forms a link with John 2:23-25. Those people in Jerusalem believed in Jesus because of the signs he had performed. Nicodemus had apparently seen them too. But for Nicodemus all the signs meant is that Jesus was a great teacher sent from God. His approach to Jesus was well-intentioned but theologically inadequate; he had failed to grasp the messianic implications of the miraculous signs.

[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.

[5:25]  ²⁴ tn The Greek article has been translated as a possessive pronoun (ExSyn 215).

[5:26]  ²⁵ tn The direct object “her” is implied, but not found in the Greek text. It has been supplied in the English translation to clarify the sense of the passage.

[5:27]  ²⁶ tn The use of the pronoun αὐτός (autos) is intensive and focuses attention on Christ as the one who has made the church glorious.

[5:27]  ²⁷ tn Grk “but in order that it may be holy and blameless.”

[21:9]  ²⁸ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.

[21:9]  ²⁹ tn Grk “with me.” The translation “with me” implies that John was engaged in a dialogue with the one speaking to him (e.g., Jesus or an angel) when in reality it was a one-sided conversation, with John doing all the listening. For this reason, μετ᾿ ἐμοῦ (met’ emou, “with me”) was translated as “to me.” See also v. 15.

[21:10]  ³⁰ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of the angel’s invitation.

[21:10]  ³¹ tn Or “in the spirit.” “Spirit” could refer either to the Holy Spirit or the human spirit, but in either case John was in “a state of spiritual exaltation best described as a trance” (R. H. Mounce, Revelation [NICNT], 75).

[21:10]  ³² tn Grk “to a mountain great and high.”