Judges 3:10

3:10 The Lord’s spirit empowered him ¹  and he led Israel. When he went to do battle, the Lord handed over to him King Cushan-Rishathaim of Aram and he overpowered him. ² 

Judges 13:25

13:25 The Lord’s spirit began to control him ³  in Mahaneh Dan between Zorah and Eshtaol.

Judges 14:19

14:19 The Lord’s spirit empowered him. He went down to Ashkelon and murdered thirty men. He took their clothes ⁴  and gave them ⁵  to the men who had solved the riddle. He was furious as he went back home. ⁶ 

Judges 15:14

15:14 When he arrived in Lehi, the Philistines shouted as they approached him. But the Lord’s spirit empowered ⁷  him. The ropes around his arms were like flax dissolving in ⁸  fire, and they ⁹  melted away from his hands.

Judges 15:1

Samson Versus the Philistines

15:1 Sometime later, during the wheat harvest, ¹⁰  Samson took a young goat as a gift and went to visit his bride. ¹¹  He said to her father, ¹²  “I want to have sex with my bride in her bedroom!” ¹³  But her father would not let him enter.

Judges 10:6

The Lord’s Patience Runs Short

10:6 The Israelites again did evil in the Lord’s sight. ¹⁴  They worshiped ¹⁵  the Baals and the Ashtars, ¹⁶  as well as the gods of Syria, Sidon, ¹⁷  Moab, the Ammonites, and the Philistines. ¹⁸  They abandoned the Lord and did not worship ¹⁹  him.

Judges 11:6

11:6 They said, ²⁰  “Come, be our commander, so we can fight with the Ammonites.”

Judges 16:14

16:14 So she made him go to sleep, wove the seven braids of his hair into the fabric on the loom, fastened it with the pin, and said to him, “The Philistines are here, ²¹  Samson!” ²²  He woke up ²³  and tore away the pin of the loom and the fabric.

Judges 16:1

Samson’s Downfall

16:1 Samson went to Gaza. There he saw a prostitute and went in to have sex with her. ²⁴ 

Judges 12:1-2

Civil Strife Mars the Victory

12:1 The Ephraimites assembled ²⁵  and crossed over to Zaphon. They said to Jephthah, “Why did you go and fight ²⁶  with the Ammonites without asking ²⁷  us to go with you? We will burn your house down right over you!” ²⁸ 

12:2 Jephthah said to them, “My people and I were entangled in controversy with the Ammonites. ²⁹  I asked for your help, but you did not deliver me from their power. ³⁰ 

Judges 1:20

1:20 Caleb received ³¹  Hebron, just as Moses had promised. He drove out the three Anakites.

Psalms 51:11

51:11 Do not reject me! ³² 

Do not take your Holy Spirit ³³  away from me! ³⁴ 

Psalms 51:1

Psalm 51 ³⁵ 

For the music director; a psalm of David, written when Nathan the prophet confronted him after David’s affair with Bathsheba. ³⁶ 

51:1 Have mercy on me, O God, because of ³⁷  your loyal love!

Because of ³⁸  your great compassion, wipe away my rebellious acts! ³⁹ 

Colossians 1:8-11

1:8 who also told us of your love in the Spirit.

Paul’s Prayer for the Growth of the Church

1:9 For this reason we also, from the day we heard about you, ⁴⁰  have not ceased praying for you and asking God ⁴¹  to fill ⁴²  you with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 1:10 so that you may live ⁴³  worthily of the Lord and please him in all respects ⁴⁴  – bearing fruit in every good deed, growing in the knowledge of God, 1:11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for the display of ⁴⁵  all patience and steadfastness, joyfully

[3:10]  ¹ tn Heb “was on him.”

[3:10]  ² tn Heb “his hand was strong against Cushan-Rishathaim.”

[13:25]  ³ tn Or “move him to action”; or “stir him.”

[14:19]  ⁴ tn Heb “equipment”; or “gear.”

[14:19]  ⁵ tn Heb “changes [of clothes].”

[14:19]  ⁶ tn Heb “he went up to his father’s house.”

[15:14]  ⁷ tn Heb “rushed on.”

[15:14]  ⁸ tn Heb “burned with.”

[15:14]  ⁹ tn Heb “his bonds.”

[15:1]  ¹⁰ sn The wheat harvest took place during the month of May. See O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 37, 88.

[15:1]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Samson visited his wife with a young goat.”

[15:1]  ¹² tn The words “to her father” are supplied in the translation (see the end of the verse).

[15:1]  ¹³ tn Heb “I will go to my wife in the bedroom.” The Hebrew idiom בּוֹא אֶל (bo’ ’el, “to go to”) often has sexual connotations. The cohortative form used by Samson can be translated as indicating resolve (“I want to go”) or request (“let me go”).

[10:6]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “in the eyes of the Lord.”

[10:6]  ¹⁵ tn Or “served;” or “followed.”

[10:6]  ¹⁶ sn The Ashtars were local manifestations of the goddess Ashtar (i.e., Astarte).

[10:6]  ¹⁷ map For location see Map1 A1; JP3 F3; JP4 F3.

[10:6]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “the gods of Syria, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites, and the gods of the Philistines.”

[10:6]  ¹⁹ tn Or “serve”; or “follow.”

[11:6]  ²⁰ tn Heb “to Jephthah.”

[16:14]  ²¹ tn Heb “are upon you.”

[16:14]  ²² tc The MT of vv. 13b-14a reads simply, “He said to her, ‘If you weave the seven braids of my head with the web.’ And she fastened with the pin and said to him.” The additional words in the translation, “and secure it with the pin, I will become weak and be like any other man.’ 16:14 So she made him go to sleep, wove the seven braids of his hair into the fabric on the loom,” which without doubt represent the original text, are supplied from the ancient Greek version. (In both vv. 13b and 14a the Greek version has “to the wall” after “with the pin,” but this is an interpretive addition that reflects a misunderstanding of ancient weaving equipment. See G. F. Moore, Judges [ICC], 353-54.) The Hebrew textual tradition was accidentally shortened during the copying process. A scribe’s eye jumped from the first instance of “with the web” to the second, causing him to leave out inadvertently the intervening words.

[16:14]  ²³ tn The Hebrew adds, “from his sleep.” This has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[16:1]  ²⁴ tn Heb “and he went in to her.” The idiom בּוֹא אֶל (bo’ ’el, “to go to”) often has sexual connotations.

[12:1]  ²⁵ tn Heb “the men of Ephraim were summoned [or “were mustered”].”

[12:1]  ²⁶ tn Heb “cross over to fight.”

[12:1]  ²⁷ tn Or “calling”; or “summoning.”

[12:1]  ²⁸ tn Heb “Your house we will burn over you with fire.”

[12:2]  ²⁹ tn Heb A man of great strife I was and my people and the Ammonites.”

[12:2]  ³⁰ tn Heb “hand.”

[1:20]  ³¹ tn Heb “they gave to Caleb.”

[51:11]  ³² tn Heb “do not cast me away from before you.”

[51:11]  ³³ sn Your Holy Spirit. The personal Spirit of God is mentioned frequently in the OT, but only here and in Isa 63:10-11 is he called “your/his Holy Spirit.”

[51:11]  ³⁴ sn Do not take…away. The psalmist expresses his fear that, due to his sin, God will take away the Holy Spirit from him. NT believers enjoy the permanent gift of the Holy Spirit and need not make such a request nor fear such a consequence. However, in the OT God’s Spirit empowered certain individuals for special tasks and only temporarily resided in them. For example, when God rejected Saul as king and chose David to replace him, the divine Spirit left Saul and came upon David (1 Sam 16:13-14).

[51:1]  ³⁵ sn Psalm 51. The psalmist confesses his sinfulness to God and begs for forgiveness and a transformation of his inner character. According to the psalm superscription, David offered this prayer when Nathan confronted him with his sin following the king’s affair with Bathsheba (see 2 Sam 11-12). However, the final two verses of the psalm hardly fit this situation, for they assume the walls of Jerusalem have been destroyed and that the sacrificial system has been temporarily suspended. These verses are probably an addition to the psalm made during the period of exile following the fall of Jerusalem in 586 b.c. The exiles could relate to David’s experience, for they, like him, and had been forced to confront their sin. They appropriated David’s ancient prayer and applied it to their own circumstances.

[51:1]  ³⁶ tn Heb “a psalm by David, when Nathan the prophet came to him when he had gone to Bathsheba.”

[51:1]  ³⁷ tn Or “according to.”

[51:1]  ³⁸ tn Or “according to.”

[51:1]  ³⁹ tn Traditionally “blot out my transgressions.” Because of the reference to washing and cleansing in the following verse, it is likely that the psalmist is comparing forgiveness to wiping an object clean (note the use of the verb מָחָה (makhah) in the sense of “wipe clean; dry” in 2 Kgs 21:13; Prov 30:20; Isa 25:8). Another option is that the psalmist is comparing forgiveness to erasing or blotting out names from a register (see Exod 32:32-33). In this case one might translate, “erase all record of my rebellious acts.”

[1:9]  ⁴⁰ 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]  ⁴¹ 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]  ⁴² 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]  ⁴³ 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]  ⁴⁴ 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.”

[1:11]  ⁴⁵ tn The expression “for the display of” is an attempt to convey in English the force of the Greek preposition εἰς (eis) in this context.