Joshua 1:6-7

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. ¹  1:7 Make sure you are ²  very strong and brave! Carefully obey ³  all the law my servant Moses charged you to keep! ⁴  Do not swerve from it to the right or to the left, so that you may be successful ⁵  in all you do. ⁶ 

Joshua 1:9

1:9 I repeat, ⁷  be strong and brave! Don’t be afraid and don’t panic, ⁸  for I, the Lord your God, am with you in all you do.” ⁹ 

Isaiah 35:4

35:4 Tell those who panic, ¹⁰ 

“Be strong! Do not fear!

Look, your God comes to avenge!

With divine retribution he comes to deliver you.” ¹¹ 

Haggai 2:4

2:4 Even so, take heart, Zerubbabel,’ says the Lord. ‘Take heart, Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and ¹²  all you citizens of the land,’ ¹³  says the Lord, ‘and begin to work. For I am with you,’ says the Lord who rules over all.

Zechariah 8:9

8:9 “The Lord who rules over all also says, ‘Gather strength, you who are listening to these words today from the mouths of the prophets who were there at the founding of the house of the Lord who rules over all, ¹⁴  so that the temple might be built.

Zechariah 8:13

8:13 And it will come about that just as you (both Judah and Israel) were a curse to the nations, so I will save you and you will be a blessing. Do not be afraid! Instead, be strong!’

Zechariah 8:1

The Blessing of True Fasting

8:1 Then the word of the Lord who rules over all ¹⁵  came to me as follows:

Colossians 1:13

1:13 He delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son he loves, ¹⁶ 

Ephesians 6:10

Exhortations for Spiritual Warfare

6:10 Finally, be strengthened in the Lord and in the strength of his power.

Ephesians 6:2

6:2 “Honor your father and mother,” ¹⁷  which is the first commandment accompanied by a promise, namely,

Ephesians 2:1

New Life Individually

2:1 And although you were ¹⁸  dead ¹⁹  in your transgressions and sins,

[1:6]  ¹ 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]  ² tn Or “Only be.”

[1:7]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn Heb “commanded you.”

[1:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “be wise,” but the word can mean “be successful” by metonymy.

[1:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “in all which you go.”

[1:9]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ tn Or perhaps, “don’t get discouraged!”

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

[35:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Say to the hasty of heart,” i.e., those whose hearts beat quickly from fear.

[35:4]  ¹¹ tn The jussive form וְיֹשַׁעֲכֶם (vÿyosha’akhem), which is subordinated to the preceding imperfect with vav conjunctive, indicates purpose.

[2:4]  ¹² tn Heb “and take heart.” Although emphatic, the repetition of the verb is redundant in contemporary English style and has been left untranslated.

[2:4]  ¹³ tn Heb “the people of the land” (עַם הָאָרֶץ, ’am ha’arets); this is a technical term referring to free citizens as opposed to slaves.

[8:9]  ¹⁴ sn These prophets who were there at the founding of the house of the Lord who rules over all included at least Haggai and Zechariah, and perhaps others. The founding referred to here is not the initial laying of the temple’s foundations in 536 b.c. (Ezra 3:8) but the resumption of work two years before the time of the present narrative (i.e., in 520 b.c.), as vv. 10-12 make clear.

[8:1]  ¹⁵ sn Lord who rules over all. There is a remarkable concentration of this name of God in this section of Zechariah. Of 53 occurrences of יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת (yÿhvah tsÿva’ot) in the Hebrew text in the book, 18 are in this chapter. The reason is the sheer human impossibility of accomplishing what lies ahead – it must be done by the Lord who rules over all.

[1:13]  ¹⁶ tn Here αὐτοῦ (autou) has been translated as a subjective genitive (“he loves”).

[6:2]  ¹⁷ sn A quotation from Exod 20:12 and Deut 5:16.

[2:1]  ¹⁸ tn The adverbial participle “being” (ὄντας, ontas) is taken concessively.

[2:1]  ¹⁹ sn Chapter 2 starts off with a participle, although you were dead, that is left dangling. The syntax in Greek for vv. 1-3 constitutes one incomplete sentence, though it seems to have been done intentionally. The dangling participle leaves the readers in suspense while they wait for the solution (in v. 4) to their spiritual dilemma.