Job 4:13

4:13 In the troubling thoughts ¹  of the dreams ²  in the night

when a deep sleep ³  falls on men,

Job 33:15

33:15 In a dream, a night vision,

when deep sleep falls on people

as they sleep in their beds.

Luke 21:34-35

Be Ready!

21:34 “But be on your guard ⁴  so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day close down upon you suddenly like a trap. ⁵  21:35 For ⁶  it will overtake ⁷  all who live on the face of the whole earth. ⁸ 

Romans 13:13

13:13 Let us live decently as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in discord and jealousy.

Romans 13:1

Submission to Civil Government

13:1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except by God’s appointment, ⁹  and the authorities that exist have been instituted by God.

Colossians 1:1

Salutation

1:1 From Paul, ¹⁰  an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

Ephesians 5:14

5:14 For everything made evident is light, and for this reason it says: ¹¹ 

“Awake, ¹²  O sleeper! ¹³ 

Rise from the dead,

and Christ will shine on you!” ¹⁴ 

[4:13]  ¹ tn Here too the word is rare. The form שְׂעִפִּים (sÿ’ippim, “disquietings”) occurs only here and in 20:2. The form שַׂרְעַפִּים (sar’appim, “disquieting thoughts”), possibly related by dissimilation, occurs in Pss 94:19 and 139:23. There seems to be a connection with סְעִפִּים (sÿ’ippim) in 1 Kgs 18:21 with the meaning “divided opinion”; this is related to the idea of סְעִפָּה (sÿ’ippah, “bough”). H. H. Rowley (Job [NCBC], 47) concludes that the point is that like branches the thoughts lead off into different and bewildering places. E. Dhorme (Job, 50) links the word to an Arabic root (“to be passionately smitten”) for the idea of “intimate thoughts.” The idea here and in Ps 139 has more to do with anxious, troubling, disquieting thoughts, as in a nightmare.

[4:13]  ² tn Heb “visions” of the night.

[4:13]  ³ tn The word תַּרְדֵּמָה (tardemah) is a “deep sleep.” It is used in the creation account when the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam; and it is used in the story of Jonah when the prophet was asleep during the storm. The LXX interprets it to mean “fear,” rendering the whole verse “but terror falls upon men with dread and a sound in the night.”

[21:34]  ⁴ tn Grk “watch out for yourselves.”

[21:34]  ⁵ sn Or like a thief, see Luke 12:39-40. The metaphor of a trap is a vivid one. Most modern English translations traditionally place the words “like a trap” at the end of v. 34, completing the metaphor. In the Greek text (and in the NRSV and REB) the words “like a trap” are placed at the beginning of v. 35. This does not affect the meaning.

[21:35]  ⁶ tn There is debate in the textual tradition about the position of γάρ (gar) and whether v. 35 looks back to v. 34 or is independent. The textual evidence does slightly favor placing γάρ after the verb and thus linking it back to v. 34. The other reading looks like Isa 24:17. However, the construction is harsh and the translation prefers for stylistic reasons to start a new English sentence here.

[21:35]  ⁷ tn Or “come upon.”

[21:35]  ⁸ sn This judgment involves everyone: all who live on the face of the whole earth. No one will escape this evaluation.

[13:1]  ⁹ tn Grk “by God.”

[1:1]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “Paul.” The word “from” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.

[5:14]  ¹¹ sn The following passage has been typeset as poetry because many scholars regard this passage as poetic or hymnic. These terms are used broadly to refer to the genre of writing, not to the content. There are two broad criteria for determining if a passage is poetic or hymnic: “(a) stylistic: a certain rhythmical lilt when the passages are read aloud, the presence of parallelismus membrorum (i.e., an arrangement into couplets), the semblance of some metre, and the presence of rhetorical devices such as alliteration, chiasmus, and antithesis; and (b) linguistic: an unusual vocabulary, particularly the presence of theological terms, which is different from the surrounding context” (P. T. O’Brien, Philippians [NIGTC], 188-89). Classifying a passage as hymnic or poetic is important because understanding this genre can provide keys to interpretation. However, not all scholars agree that the above criteria are present in this passage, so the decision to typeset it as poetry should be viewed as a tentative decision about its genre.

[5:14]  ¹² tn Grk “Rise up.”

[5:14]  ¹³ tn The articular nominative participle ὁ καθεύδων (Jo kaqeudwn) is probably functioning as a nominative for vocative. Thus, it has been translated as “O sleeper.”

[5:14]  ¹⁴ sn A composite quotation, possibly from Isa 26:19, 51:17, 52:1, and 60:1.