Joshua 1:5-9

1:5 No one will be able to resist you ¹  all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not abandon you or leave you alone. 1:6 Be strong and brave! You must lead these people in the conquest of this land that I solemnly promised their ancestors I would hand over to them. ²  1:7 Make sure you are ³  very strong and brave! Carefully obey ⁴  all the law my servant Moses charged you to keep! ⁵  Do not swerve from it to the right or to the left, so that you may be successful ⁶  in all you do. ⁷  1:8 This law scroll must not leave your lips! ⁸  You must memorize it ⁹  day and night so you can carefully obey ¹⁰  all that is written in it. Then you will prosper ¹¹  and be successful. ¹²  1:9 I repeat, ¹³  be strong and brave! Don’t be afraid and don’t panic, ¹⁴  for I, the Lord your God, am with you in all you do.” ¹⁵ 

Joshua 8:1

Israel Conquers Ai

8:1 The Lord told Joshua, “Don’t be afraid and don’t panic! ¹⁶  Take the whole army with you and march against Ai! ¹⁷  See, I am handing over to you ¹⁸  the king of Ai, along with his people, city, and land.

Joshua 11:6

11:6 The Lord told Joshua, “Don’t be afraid of them, for about this time tomorrow I will cause all of them to lie dead before Israel. You must hamstring their horses and burn ¹⁹  their chariots.”

Deuteronomy 3:2

3:2 The Lord, however, said to me, “Don’t be afraid of him because I have already given him, his whole army, ²⁰  and his land to you. You will do to him exactly what you did to King Sihon of the Amorites who lived in Heshbon.”

Deuteronomy 20:1-4

Laws Concerning War with Distant Enemies

20:1 When you go to war against your enemies and see chariotry ²¹  and troops ²²  who outnumber you, do not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, is with you. 20:2 As you move forward for battle, the priest ²³  will approach and say to the soldiers, ²⁴  20:3 “Listen, Israel! Today you are moving forward to do battle with your enemies. Do not be fainthearted. Do not fear and tremble or be terrified because of them, 20:4 for the Lord your God goes with you to fight on your behalf against your enemies to give you victory.” ²⁵ 

Jude 1:14-15

1:14 Now Enoch, the seventh in descent beginning with Adam, ²⁶  even prophesied of them, ²⁷  saying, “Look! The Lord is coming ²⁸  with thousands and thousands ²⁹  of his holy ones, 1:15 to execute judgment on ³⁰  all, and to convict every person ³¹  of all their thoroughly ungodly deeds ³²  that they have committed, ³³  and of all the harsh words that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” ³⁴ 

Psalms 27:1-2

Psalm 27 ³⁵ 

By David.

27:1 The Lord delivers and vindicates me! ³⁶ 

I fear no one! ³⁷ 

The Lord protects my life!

I am afraid of no one! ³⁸ 

27:2 When evil men attack me ³⁹ 

to devour my flesh, ⁴⁰ 

when my adversaries and enemies attack me, ⁴¹ 

they stumble and fall. ⁴² 

Isaiah 41:10-15

41:10 Don’t be afraid, for I am with you!

Don’t be frightened, for I am your God! ⁴³ 

I strengthen you –

yes, I help you –

yes, I uphold you with my saving right hand! ⁴⁴ 

41:11 Look, all who were angry at you will be ashamed and humiliated;

your adversaries ⁴⁵  will be reduced to nothing ⁴⁶  and perish.

41:12 When you will look for your opponents, ⁴⁷  you will not find them;

your enemies ⁴⁸  will be reduced to absolutely nothing.

41:13 For I am the Lord your God,

the one who takes hold of your right hand,

who says to you, ‘Don’t be afraid, I am helping you.’

41:14 Don’t be afraid, despised insignificant Jacob, ⁴⁹ 

men of ⁵⁰  Israel.

I am helping you,” says the Lord,

your protector, ⁵¹  the Holy One of Israel. ⁵² 

41:15 “Look, I am making you like ⁵³  a sharp threshing sledge,

new and double-edged. ⁵⁴ 

You will thresh the mountains and crush them;

you will make the hills like straw. ⁵⁵ 

Romans 8:31

8:31 What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

[1:5]  ¹ tn Heb “A man will not stand before you.” The second person pronouns in this verse are singular, indicating Joshua is the addressee.

[1:6]  ² tn Heb “For you will cause these people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give to them.” The pronoun “them” at the end of the verse refers to either the people or to the fathers.

[1:7]  ³ tn Or “Only be.”

[1:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “so you can be careful to do.” The use of the infinitive לִשְׁמֹר (lishmor, “to keep”) after the imperatives suggests that strength and bravery will be necessary for obedience. Another option is to take the form לִשְׁמֹר as a vocative lamed (ל) with imperative (see Isa 38:20 for an example of this construction), which could be translated, “Indeed, be careful!”

[1:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “commanded you.”

[1:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “be wise,” but the word can mean “be successful” by metonymy.

[1:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “in all which you go.”

[1:8]  ⁸ tn Heb “mouth.”

[1:8]  ⁹ tn Heb “read it in undertones,” or “recite it quietly” (see HALOT 1:237).

[1:8]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “be careful to do.”

[1:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “you will make your way prosperous.”

[1:8]  ¹² tn Heb “and be wise,” but the word can mean “be successful” by metonymy.

[1:9]  ¹³ tn Heb “Have I not commanded you?” The rhetorical question emphasizes the importance of the following command by reminding the listener that it is being repeated.

[1:9]  ¹⁴ tn Or perhaps, “don’t get discouraged!”

[1:9]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “in all which you go.”

[8:1]  ¹⁶ tn Or perhaps “and don’t get discouraged!”

[8:1]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Take with you all the people of war and arise, go up against Ai!”

[8:1]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “I have given into our hand.” The verbal form, a perfect, is probably best understood as a perfect of certitude, indicating the certainty of the action.

[11:6]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “burn with fire”; the words “with fire” are redundant in English and have not been included in the translation.

[3:2]  ²⁰ tn Heb “people.”

[20:1]  ²¹ tn Heb “horse and chariot.”

[20:1]  ²² tn Heb “people.”

[20:2]  ²³ sn The reference to the priest suggests also the presence of the ark of the covenant, the visible sign of God’s presence. The whole setting is clearly that of “holy war” or “Yahweh war,” in which God himself takes initiative as the true commander of the forces of Israel (cf. Exod 14:14-18; 15:3-10; Deut 3:22; 7:18-24; 31:6, 8).

[20:2]  ²⁴ tn Heb “and he will say to the people.” Cf. NIV, NCV, CEV “the army”; NRSV, NLT “the troops.”

[20:4]  ²⁵ tn Or “to save you” (so KJV, NASB, NCV); or “to deliver you.”

[1:14]  ²⁶ tn Grk “the seventh from Adam.”

[1:14]  ²⁷ tn Grk “against them.” The dative τούτοις (toutois) is a dativus incommodi (dative of disadvantage).

[1:14]  ²⁸ tn Grk “has come,” a proleptic aorist.

[1:14]  ²⁹ tn Grk “ten thousands.” The word μυριάς (muria"), from which the English myriad is derived, means “ten thousand.” In the plural it means “ten thousands.” This would mean, minimally, 20,000 (a multiple of ten thousand). At the same time, the term was often used in apocalyptic literature to represent simply a rather large number, without any attempt to be specific.

[1:15]  ³⁰ tn Grk “against” (κατά [kata] + genitive). English usage is satisfied with “on” at this point, but the parallel is lost in the translation to some degree, for the end of v. 15 says that this judgment is meted out on these sinners because they spoke against him (κατά + genitive).

[1:15]  ³¹ tn Or “soul.”

[1:15]  ³² tn Grk “of all their works of ungodliness.” The adverb “thoroughly” is part of the following verb “have committed.” See note on verb “committed” later in this verse.

[1:15]  ³³ tn The verb in Greek does not simply mean “have committed,” but “have committed in an ungodly way.” The verb ἀσεβέω (asebew) is cognate to the noun ἀσέβεια (asebeia, “ungodliness”). There is no easy way to express this in English, since English does not have a single word that means the same thing. Nevertheless, the tenor of v. 15 is plainly seen, regardless of the translation.

[1:15]  ³⁴ sn An apparent quotation from 1 En. 1:9. There is some doubt as to whether Jude is actually quoting from the text of 1 Enoch; the text here in Jude differs in some respects from the extant text of this pseudepigraphic book. It is sometimes suggested that Jude may instead have been quoting from oral tradition which had roots older than the written text.

[27:1]  ³⁵ sn Psalm 27. The author is confident of the Lord’s protection and asks the Lord to vindicate him.

[27:1]  ³⁶ tn Heb “the Lord [is] my light and my deliverance.” “Light” is often used as a metaphor for deliverance and the life/blessings it brings. See Pss 37:6; 97:11; 112:4; Isa 49:6; 51:4; Mic 7:8. Another option is that “light” refers here to divine guidance (see Ps 43:3).

[27:1]  ³⁷ tn Heb “Whom shall I fear?” The rhetorical question anticipates the answer, “No one!”

[27:1]  ³⁸ tn Heb “Of whom shall I be afraid?” The rhetorical question anticipates the answer, “No one!”

[27:2]  ³⁹ tn Heb “draw near to me.”

[27:2]  ⁴⁰ sn To devour my flesh. The psalmist compares his enemies to dangerous, hungry predators (see 2 Kgs 9:36; Ezek 39:17).

[27:2]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “my adversaries and my enemies against me.” The verb “draw near” (that is, “attack”) is understood by ellipsis; see the previous line.

[27:2]  ⁴² tn The Hebrew verbal forms are perfects. The translation assumes the psalmist is generalizing here, but another option is to take this as a report of past experience, “when evil men attacked me…they stumbled and fell.”

[41:10]  ⁴³ tn According to BDB (1043 s.v. שָׁעָה), the verb תִּשְׁתָּע (tishta’) in the second line of the poetic couplet is a Hitpael form from the root שָׁעָה (sha’ah, “gaze,” with metathesis of the stem prefix and the first root letter). Taking the Hitpael as iterative, one may then translate “do not anxiously look about.” However, the alleged Hitpael form of שָׁעָה (sha’ah) only occurs here and in verse 23. HALOT 1671 s.v. שׁתע proposes that the verb is instead a Qal form from the root שׁתע (“fear”) which is attested in cognate Semitic languages, including Ugaritic (discovered after the publishing of BDB), suggests the existence of this root. The poetic structure of v. 10 also supports the proposal, for the form in question is in synonymous parallelism to יָרֵא (yare’, “fear”).

[41:10]  ⁴⁴ tn The “right hand” is a symbol of the Lord’s power to deliver (Exod 15:6, 12) and protect (Ps 63:9 HT [63:8 ET]). Here צֶדֶק (tsedeq) has its well-attested nuance of “vindicated righteousness,” i.e., “victory, deliverance” (see 45:8; 51:5, and BDB 841-42 s.v.).

[41:11]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “the men of your strife”; NASB “those who contend with you.”

[41:11]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “like nothing”; NAB “come to nought.”

[41:12]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “the men of your struggle”; NASB “those who quarrel with you.”

[41:12]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “the men of your battle”; NAB “who do battle with you.”

[41:14]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “O worm Jacob” (NAB, NIV). The worm metaphor suggests that Jacob is insignificant and despised.

[41:14]  ⁵⁰ tn On the basis of the parallelism (note “worm”) and an alleged Akkadian cognate, some read “louse” or “weevil.” Cf. NAB “O maggot Israel”; NRSV “you insect Israel.”

[41:14]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “your kinsman redeemer.” A גָּאַל (ga’al, “kinsman redeemer”) was a protector of the extended family’s interests.

[41:14]  ⁵² sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[41:15]  ⁵³ tn Heb “into” (so NIV); ASV “have made thee to be.”

[41:15]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “owner of two-mouths,” i.e., double-edged.

[41:15]  ⁵⁵ sn The mountains and hills symbolize hostile nations that are obstacles to Israel’s restoration.