Job 17:9

17:9 But the righteous man holds to his way,

and the one with clean hands grows stronger. ¹ 

Psalms 138:8

138:8 The Lord avenges me. ² 

O Lord, your loyal love endures.

Do not abandon those whom you have made! ³ 

Proverbs 4:18

4:18 But the path of the righteous is like the bright morning light, ⁴ 

growing brighter and brighter ⁵  until full day. ⁶ 

Proverbs 4:1

Admonition to Follow Righteousness and Avoid Wickedness ⁷ 

4:1 Listen, children, ⁸  to a father’s instruction, ⁹ 

and pay attention so that ¹⁰  you may gain ¹¹  discernment.

Colossians 1:10

1:10 so that you may live ¹²  worthily of the Lord and please him in all respects ¹³  – bearing fruit in every good deed, growing in the knowledge of God,

Colossians 1:2

1:2 to the saints, the faithful ¹⁴  brothers and sisters ¹⁵  in Christ, at Colossae. Grace and peace to you ¹⁶  from God our Father! ¹⁷ 

Colossians 1:1

Salutation

1:1 From Paul, ¹⁸  an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

Colossians 1:9

Paul’s Prayer for the Growth of the Church

1:9 For this reason we also, from the day we heard about you, ¹⁹  have not ceased praying for you and asking God ²⁰  to fill ²¹  you with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,

Ephesians 4:12

4:12 to equip ²²  the saints for the work of ministry, that is, ²³  to build up the body of Christ,

Hebrews 12:23

12:23 and congregation of the firstborn, who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous, who have been made perfect,

Hebrews 13:21

13:21 equip you with every good thing to do his will, working in us ²⁴  what is pleasing before him through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever. ²⁵  Amen.

Hebrews 13:1

Final Exhortations

13:1 Brotherly love must continue.

Hebrews 5:10

5:10 and he was designated ²⁶  by God as high priest in the order of Melchizedek. ²⁷ 

Hebrews 5:2

5:2 He is able to deal compassionately with those who are ignorant and erring, since he also is subject to weakness,

Hebrews 1:5-8

The Son Is Superior to Angels

1:5 For to which of the angels did God ²⁸  ever say, “You are my son! Today I have fathered you”? ²⁹  And in another place ³⁰  he says, ³¹  “I will be his father and he will be my son.” ³²  1:6 But when he again brings ³³  his firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all the angels of God worship him!” ³⁴  1:7 And he says ³⁵  of the angels, “He makes ³⁶  his angels spirits and his ministers a flame of fire,” ³⁷  1:8 but of ³⁸  the Son he says, ³⁹ 

“Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, ⁴⁰ 

and a righteous scepter ⁴¹  is the scepter of your kingdom.

Hebrews 3:18

3:18 And to whom did he swear they would never enter into his rest, except those who were disobedient?

[17:9]  ¹ tn The last two words are the imperfect verb יֹסִיף (yosif) which means “he adds,” and the abstract noun “energy, strength.” This noun is not found elsewhere; its Piel verb occurs in Job 4:4 and 16:5. “he increases strength.”

[138:8]  ² tn Heb “avenges on my behalf.” For the meaning “to avenge” for the verb גָּמַר (gamar), see HALOT 197-98 s.v. גמר.

[138:8]  ³ tn Heb “the works of your hands.” Many medieval Hebrew mss read the singular, “work of your hands.”

[4:18]  ⁴ tn Heb “like light of brightness.” This construction is an attributive genitive: “bright light.” The word “light” (אוֹר, ’or) refers to the early morning light or the dawn (BDB 21 s.v.). The point of the simile is that the course of life that the righteous follow is like the clear, bright morning light. It is illumined, clear, easy to follow, and healthy and safe – the opposite of what darkness represents.

[4:18]  ⁵ tn The construction uses the Qal active participle of הָלַךְ (halakh) in a metaphorical sense to add the idea of continuance or continually to the participle הוֹלֵךְ (holekh). Here the path was growing light, but the added participle signifies continually.

[4:18]  ⁶ tn Heb “until the day is established.” This expression refers to the coming of the full day or the time of high noon.

[4:1]  ⁷ sn The chapter includes an exhortation to acquire wisdom (1-4a), a list of the benefits of wisdom (4b-9), a call to pursue a righteous lifestyle (10-13), a warning against a wicked lifestyle (14-19), and an exhortation to righteousness (20-27).

[4:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “sons.”

[4:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “discipline.”

[4:1]  ¹⁰ tn The Qal infinitive construct with preposition ל (lamed) indicates the purpose/result of the preceding imperative.

[4:1]  ¹¹ tn Heb “know” (so KJV, ASV).

[1:10]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ 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.”

[1:2]  ¹⁴ 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]  ¹⁵ 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]  ¹⁶ tn Or “Grace to you and peace.”

[1:2]  ¹⁷ 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.

[1:1]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “Paul.” The word “from” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.

[1:9]  ¹⁹ 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]  ²⁰ 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]  ²¹ 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.

[4:12]  ²² tn On the translation of πρὸς τὸν καταρτισμὸν τῶν ἁγίων (pro" ton katartismon twn Jagiwn) as “to equip the saints” see BDAG 526 s.v. καταρτισμός. In this case the genitive is taken as objective and the direct object of the verbal idea implied in καταρτισμός (katartismo").

[4:12]  ²³ tn The εἰς (eis) clause is taken as epexegetical to the previous εἰς clause, namely, εἰς ἔργον διακονίας (ei" ergon diakonia").

[13:21]  ²⁴ tc Some mss (C P Ψ 6 629* 630 1505 pm latt sy^h) read ὑμῖν (Jumin, “in you”) here, but ἡμῖν (Jhmin) has stronger external support (Ì⁴⁶ א A D^vid K 0243 0285 33 81 104 326 365 629^c 1175 1739 1881 pm sy^p co). It is also more likely that ἡμῖν would have been changed to ὑμῖν in light of the “you” which occurs at the beginning of the verse than vice versa.

[13:21]  ²⁵ tc ‡ Most mss (א A [C*] 0243 0285 33 1739 1881 Ï latt) include the words “and ever” here, but the shorter reading (supported by Ì⁴⁶ C³ D Ψ 6 104 365 1505 al) is preferred on internal grounds. It seemed more likely that scribes would assimilate the wording to the common NT doxological expression “for ever and ever,” found especially in the Apocalypse (cf., e.g., 1 Tim 1:17; 2 Tim 4:18; Rev 4:9; 22:5) than to the “forever” of Heb 13:8. Nevertheless, a decision is difficult here. NA²⁷ places the phrase in brackets, indicating doubts as to its authenticity.

[5:10]  ²⁶ tn Grk “having been designated,” continuing the thought of Heb 5:9.

[5:10]  ²⁷ sn The phrase in the order of Melchizedek picks up the quotation from Ps 110:4 in Heb 5:6.

[1:5]  ²⁸ tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:5]  ²⁹ tn Grk “I have begotten you.”

[1:5]  ³⁰ tn Grk “And again,” quoting another OT passage.

[1:5]  ³¹ tn The words “he says” are not in the Greek text but are supplied to make a complete English sentence. In the Greek text this is a continuation of the previous sentence, but English does not normally employ such long and complex sentences.

[1:5]  ³² tn Grk “I will be a father to him and he will be a son to me.”

[1:6]  ³³ tn Or “And again when he brings.” The translation adopted in the text looks forward to Christ’s second coming to earth. Some take “again” to introduce the quotation (as in 1:5) and understand this as Christ’s first coming, but this view does not fit well with Heb 2:7. Others understand it as his exaltation/ascension to heaven, but this takes the phrase “into the world” in an unlikely way.

[1:6]  ³⁴ sn A quotation combining themes from Deut 32:43 and Ps 97:7.

[1:7]  ³⁵ sn The Greek correlative conjunctions μέν and δέ (men and de) emphasize the contrastive parallelism of vs. 7 (what God says about the angels) over against vv. 8-9 and vv. 10-12 (what God says about the son).

[1:7]  ³⁶ tn Grk “He who makes.”

[1:7]  ³⁷ sn A quotation from Ps 104:4.

[1:8]  ³⁸ tn Or “to.”

[1:8]  ³⁹ tn The verb “he says” (λέγει, legei) is implied from the λέγει of v. 7.

[1:8]  ⁴⁰ tn Or possibly, “Your throne is God forever and ever.” This translation is quite doubtful, however, since (1) in the context the Son is being contrasted to the angels and is presented as far better than they. The imagery of God being the Son’s throne would seem to be of God being his authority. If so, in what sense could this not be said of the angels? In what sense is the Son thus contrasted with the angels? (2) The μέν…δέ (men…de) construction that connects v. 7 with v. 8 clearly lays out this contrast: “On the one hand, he says of the angels…on the other hand, he says of the Son.” Thus, although it is grammatically possible that θεός (qeos) in v. 8 should be taken as a predicate nominative, the context and the correlative conjunctions are decidedly against it. Hebrews 1:8 is thus a strong affirmation of the deity of Christ.

[1:8]  ⁴¹ tn Grk “the righteous scepter,” but used generically.