Jeremiah 17:14

17:14 Lord, grant me relief from my suffering

so that I may have some relief.

Rescue me from those who persecute me

so that I may be rescued. ¹ 

Psalms 80:3

80:3 O God, restore us!

Smile on us! ²  Then we will be delivered! ³ 

Psalms 80:7

80:7 O God, invincible warrior, ⁴  restore us!

Smile on us! ⁵  Then we will be delivered! ⁶ 

Psalms 80:19

80:19 O Lord God, invincible warrior, ⁷  restore us!

Smile on us! ⁸  Then we will be delivered! ⁹ 

Psalms 85:4

85:4 Restore us, O God our deliverer!

Do not be displeased with us! ¹⁰ 

Lamentations 5:21

5:21 Bring us back to yourself, O Lord, so that we may return ¹¹  to you;

renew our life ¹²  as in days before, ¹³ 

Malachi 4:6

4:6 He will encourage fathers and their children to return to me, ¹⁴  so that I will not come and strike the earth with judgment.” ¹⁵ 

Luke 1:17

1:17 And he will go as forerunner before the Lord ¹⁶  in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers back to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, ¹⁷  to make ready for the Lord a people prepared for him.”

Acts 3:26

3:26 God raised up ¹⁸  his servant and sent him first to you, to bless you by turning ¹⁹  each one of you from your iniquities.” ²⁰ 

Philippians 2:13

2:13 for the one bringing forth in you both the desire and the effort – for the sake of his good pleasure – is God.

James 1:16-18

1:16 Do not be led astray, my dear brothers and sisters. ²¹  1:17 All generous giving and every perfect gift ²²  is from above, coming down ²³  from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or the slightest hint of change. ²⁴  1:18 By his sovereign plan he gave us birth ²⁵  through the message of truth, that we would be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.

[17:14]  ¹ tn The translation fills in the details of the metaphor from a preceding context (15:18) and from the following context (17:18). The literal translation “Heal me and I will be healed. Rescue me and I will be rescued.” does not make much sense if these details are not filled in. The metaphor is filled in for clarity for the average reader.

[80:3]  ² tn The idiom “cause your face to shine” probably refers to a smile (see Eccl 8:1), which in turn suggests favor and blessing (see Num 6:25; Pss 4:6; 31:16; 44:3; 67:1; 89:15; Dan 9:17).

[80:3]  ³ tn Heb “cause your face to shine in order that we may be delivered.” After the imperative, the cohortative with prefixed vav (ו) indicates purpose/result.

[80:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “O God, hosts.” One expects the construct form אֱלֹהֵי before צְבָאוֹת (tsÿva’ot, “hosts”; see Ps 89:9), but יְהוָה אֱלֹהִים (yehvah ’elohim) precedes צְבָאוֹת (tsÿva’ot) in Pss 59:5 and 84:8 as well. See also v. 4 for a similar construction.

[80:7]  ⁵ tn The idiom “cause your face to shine” probably refers to a smile (see Eccl 8:1), which in turn suggests favor and blessing (see Num 6:25; Pss 4:6; 31:16; 44:3; 67:1; 89:15; Dan 9:17).

[80:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “cause your face to shine in order that we may be delivered.” After the imperative, the cohortative with prefixed vav (ו) indicates purpose/result.

[80:19]  ⁷ tn Heb “O Lord, God, hosts.” One expects the construct form אֱלֹהֵי before צְבָאוֹת (tsÿva’ot, “hosts”; see Ps 89:9), but יְהוָה אֱלֹהִים (yehvah ’elohim) precedes צְבָאוֹת (tsÿva’ot) in Pss 59:5 and 84:8 as well. See also vv. 4, 7, 14 for a similar construction.

[80:19]  ⁸ tn The idiom “cause your face to shine” probably refers to a smile (see Eccl 8:1), which in turn suggests favor and blessing (see Num 6:25; Pss 4:6; 31:16; 44:3; 67:1; 89:15; Dan 9:17).

[80:19]  ⁹ tn Heb “cause your face to shine in order that we may be delivered.” After the imperative, the cohortative with prefixed vav (ו) indicates purpose/result.

[85:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “break your displeasure with us.” Some prefer to emend הָפֵר (hafer, “break”) to הָסֵר (haser, “turn aside”).

[5:21]  ¹¹ tc The Kethib is וְנָשׁוּב (vÿnashuv, “and we will return,” ו [vav] conjunction + Qal imperfect 1st person common plural from שׁוּב [shuv, “to return”]). The Qere is וְנָשׁוּבָה (vÿnashuvah, “and let us return,” ו [vav] conjunction + Qal cohortative 1st person common plural from שׁוּב [shuv, “to return”]).

[5:21]  ¹² tn Heb “our days.” The term “days” is a synecdoche of time (= days) for what is experienced within that time span (= life) (e.g., Gen 5:4, 8, 11; 6:3; 9:29; 11:32; 25:7; 47:8, 9; Deut 22:19, 29; 23:7; Josh 24:31; Judg 2:7, 18; 2 Sam 19:35; Job 7:1, 16, 18; Pss 8:9; 39:5, 6; 90:9, 10, 12, 14; 103:15; Prov 31:12; Eccl 2:3; 5:17, 19; 6:3).

[5:21]  ¹³ tn Heb “as of old.”

[4:6]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “he will turn the heart[s] of [the] fathers to [the] sons, and the heart[s] of [the] sons to their fathers.” This may mean that the messenger will encourage reconciliation of conflicts within Jewish families in the postexilic community (see Mal 2:10; this interpretation is followed by most English versions). Another option is to translate, “he will turn the hearts of the fathers together with those of the children [to me], and the hearts of the children together with those of their fathers [to me].” In this case the prophet encourages both the younger and older generations of sinful society to repent and return to the Lord (cf. Mal 3:7). This option is preferred in the present translation; see Beth Glazier-McDonald, Malachi (SBLDS), 256.

[4:6]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “[the] ban” (חֵרֶם, kherem). God’s prophetic messenger seeks to bring about salvation and restoration, thus avoiding the imposition of the covenant curse, that is, the divine ban that the hopelessly unrepentant must expect (see Deut 7:2; 20:17; Judg 1:21; Zech 14:11). If the wicked repent, the purifying judgment threatened in 4:1-3 will be unnecessary.

[1:17]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “before him”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:17]  ¹⁷ sn These two lines cover all relationships: Turn the hearts of the fathers back to their children points to horizontal relationships, while (turn) the disobedient to the wisdom of the just shows what God gives from above in a vertical manner.

[3:26]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “God raising up his servant, sent him.” The participle ἀναστήσας (anasthsa") has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style. Some translations (e.g., NIV, NRSV) render this participle as temporal (“when God raised up his servant”).

[3:26]  ¹⁹ sn The picture of turning is again seen as the appropriate response to the message. See v. 19 above. In v. 19 it was “turning to,” here it is “turning away from.” The direction of the two metaphors is important.

[3:26]  ²⁰ tn For the translation of plural πονηρία (ponhria) as “iniquities,” see G. Harder, TDNT 6:565. The plural is important, since for Luke turning to Jesus means turning away from sins, not just the sin of rejecting Jesus.

[1:16]  ²¹ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.

[1:17]  ²² tn The first phrase refers to the action of giving and the second to what is given.

[1:17]  ²³ tn Or “All generous giving and every perfect gift from above is coming down.”

[1:17]  ²⁴ tn Grk “variation or shadow of turning” (referring to the motions of heavenly bodies causing variations of light and darkness).

[1:18]  ²⁵ tn Grk “Having willed, he gave us birth.”