Jeremiah 38:20-21

38:20 Then Jeremiah answered, “You will not be handed over to them. Please obey the Lord by doing what I have been telling you. ¹  Then all will go well with you and your life will be spared. ²  38:21 But if you refuse to surrender, the Lord has shown me a vision of what will happen. Here is what I saw:

Ezekiel 2:7

2:7 You must speak my words to them whether they listen or not, for they are rebellious.

Ezekiel 3:10-11

3:10 And he said to me, “Son of man, take all my words that I speak to you to heart and listen carefully. 3:11 Go to the exiles, to your fellow countrymen, ³  and speak to them – say to them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says,’ whether they pay attention or not.”

Acts 20:27

20:27 For I did not hold back from ⁴  announcing ⁵  to you the whole purpose ⁶  of God.

Acts 20:2

20:2 After he had gone through those regions ⁷  and spoken many words of encouragement ⁸  to the believers there, ⁹  he came to Greece, ¹⁰ 

Colossians 1:16

1:16 for all things in heaven and on earth were created by him – all things, whether visible or invisible, whether thrones or dominions, ¹¹  whether principalities or powers – all things were created through him and for him.

Galatians 1:10

1:10 Am I now trying to gain the approval of people, ¹²  or of God? Or am I trying to please people? ¹³  If I were still trying to please ¹⁴  people, ¹⁵  I would not be a slave ¹⁶  of Christ!

Galatians 2:5

2:5 But ¹⁷  we did not surrender to them ¹⁸  even for a moment, ¹⁹  in order that the truth of the gospel would remain with you. ²⁰ 

[38:20]  ¹ tn Heb “Please listen to the voice of the Lord with regard to what I have been telling you.” For the idiom “listen to the voice” = “obey” see BDB 1034 s.v. שָׁמַע 1.m. Obedience here is expressed by following the advice in the qualifying clause, i.e., what I have been telling you.

[38:20]  ² tn Heb “your life [or you yourself] will live.” Compare v. 17 and the translator’s note there for the idiom.

[3:11]  ³ tn Heb “to the sons of your people.”

[20:27]  ⁴ tn Or “did not avoid.” BDAG 1041 s.v. ὑποστέλλω 2.b has “shrink from, avoid implying fear…οὐ γὰρ ὑπεστειλάμην τοῦ μὴ ἀναγγεῖλαι I did not shrink from proclaiming Ac 20:27”; L&N 13.160 has “to hold oneself back from doing something, with the implication of some fearful concern – ‘to hold back from, to shrink from, to avoid’…‘for I have not held back from announcing to you the whole purpose of God’ Ac 20:27.”

[20:27]  ⁵ tn Or “proclaiming,” “declaring.”

[20:27]  ⁶ tn Or “plan.”

[20:2]  ⁷ tn BDAG 633 s.v. μέρος 1.b.γ gives the meanings “the parts (of a geographical area), region, district,” but the use of “district” in this context probably implies too much specificity.

[20:2]  ⁸ tn Grk “and encouraging them with many words.” The participle παρακαλέσας (parakalesa", “encouraging”) has been translated by the phrase “spoken…words of encouragement” because the formal equivalent is awkward in contemporary English.

[20:2]  ⁹ tn Grk “[to] them”; the referent (the believers there) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[20:2]  ¹⁰ tn In popular usage the term translated “Greece” here could also refer to the Roman province officially known as Achaia (BDAG 318 s.v. ῾Ελλάς).

[1:16]  ¹¹ tn BDAG 579 s.v. κυριότης 3 suggests “bearers of the ruling powers, dominions” here.

[1:10]  ¹² tn Grk “of men”; but here ἀνθρώπους (anqrwpou") is used in a generic sense of both men and women.

[1:10]  ¹³ tn Grk “men”; but here ἀνθρώποις (anqrwpoi") is used in a generic sense of both men and women.

[1:10]  ¹⁴ tn The imperfect verb has been translated conatively (ExSyn 550).

[1:10]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “men”; but here ἀνθρώποις (anqrwpoi") is used in a generic sense of both men and women.

[1:10]  ¹⁶ tn Traditionally, “servant” or “bondservant.” Though δοῦλος (doulos) is normally translated “servant,” the word does not bear the connotation of a free individual serving another. BDAG notes that “‘servant’ for ‘slave’ is largely confined to Biblical transl. and early American times…in normal usage at the present time the two words are carefully distinguished” (BDAG 260 s.v.). The most accurate translation is “bondservant” (sometimes found in the ASV for δοῦλος), in that it often indicates one who sells himself into slavery to another. But as this is archaic, few today understand its force.

[2:5]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “slaves, nor did we…” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, οὐδέ (oude) was translated as “But…even” and a new sentence started in the translation at the beginning of v. 5.

[2:5]  ¹⁸ tn Or “we did not cave in to their demands.”

[2:5]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “even for an hour” (an idiom for a very short period of time).

[2:5]  ²⁰ sn In order that the truth of the gospel would remain with you. Paul evidently viewed the demands of the so-called “false brothers” as a departure from the truth contained in the gospel he preached. This was a very serious charge (see Gal 1:8).