Joshua 1:7-9

1:7 Make sure you are ¹  very strong and brave! Carefully obey ²  all the law my servant Moses charged you to keep! ³  Do not swerve from it to the right or to the left, so that you may be successful ⁴  in all you do. ⁵  1:8 This law scroll must not leave your lips! ⁶  You must memorize it ⁷  day and night so you can carefully obey ⁸  all that is written in it. Then you will prosper ⁹  and be successful. ¹⁰  1:9 I repeat, ¹¹  be strong and brave! Don’t be afraid and don’t panic, ¹²  for I, the Lord your God, am with you in all you do.” ¹³ 

Jeremiah 9:3

The Lord Laments That He Has No Choice But to Judge Them

9:3 The Lord says, ¹⁴ 

“These people are like soldiers who have readied their bows.

Their tongues are always ready to shoot out lies. ¹⁵ 

They have become powerful in the land,

but they have not done so by honest means. ¹⁶ 

Indeed, they do one evil thing after another ¹⁷ 

and do not pay attention to me. ¹⁸ 

Jeremiah 9:1

9:1 (8:23) ¹⁹  I wish that my head were a well full of water ²⁰ 

and my eyes were a fountain full of tears!

If they were, I could cry day and night

for those of my dear people ²¹  who have been killed.

Colossians 1:13

1:13 He delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son he loves, ²² 

Ephesians 6:10-19

Exhortations for Spiritual Warfare

6:10 Finally, be strengthened in the Lord and in the strength of his power. 6:11 Clothe yourselves with the full armor of God so that you may be able to stand against the schemes ²³  of the devil. 6:12 For our struggle ²⁴  is not against flesh and blood, ²⁵  but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, ²⁶  against the spiritual forces ²⁷  of evil in the heavens. ²⁸  6:13 For this reason, take up the full armor of God so that you may be able to stand your ground ²⁹  on the evil day, and having done everything, to stand. 6:14 Stand firm therefore, by fastening ³⁰  the belt of truth around your waist, ³¹  by putting on the breastplate of righteousness, 6:15 by fitting your ³²  feet with the preparation that comes from the good news ³³  of peace, ³⁴  6:16 and in all of this, ³⁵  by taking up the shield ³⁶  of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 6:17 And take the helmet of salvation ³⁷  and the sword ³⁸  of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 6:18 With every prayer and petition, pray ³⁹  at all times in the Spirit, and to this end ⁴⁰  be alert, with all perseverance and requests for all the saints. 6:19 Pray ⁴¹  for me also, that I may be given the message when I begin to speak ⁴²  – that I may confidently make known ⁴³  the mystery of the gospel,

Hebrews 12:4

12:4 You have not yet resisted to the point of bloodshed ⁴⁴  in your struggle against sin.

Revelation 21:8

21:8 But to the cowards, unbelievers, detestable persons, murderers, the sexually immoral, and those who practice magic spells, ⁴⁵  idol worshipers, ⁴⁶  and all those who lie, their place ⁴⁷  will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. ⁴⁸  That ⁴⁹  is the second death.”

[1:7]  ¹ tn Or “Only be.”

[1:7]  ² 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]  ³ tn Heb “commanded you.”

[1:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “be wise,” but the word can mean “be successful” by metonymy.

[1:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “in all which you go.”

[1:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “mouth.”

[1:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “read it in undertones,” or “recite it quietly” (see HALOT 1:237).

[1:8]  ⁸ tn Heb “be careful to do.”

[1:8]  ⁹ tn Heb “you will make your way prosperous.”

[1:8]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and be wise,” but the word can mean “be successful” by metonymy.

[1:9]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² tn Or perhaps, “don’t get discouraged!”

[1:9]  ¹³ tn Heb “in all which you go.”

[9:3]  ¹⁴ tn The words “The Lord says” have been moved up from the end of the verse to make clear that a change in speaker has occurred.

[9:3]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “They have readied [or strung] their tongue as their bow for lies.”

[9:3]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “but not through honesty.”

[9:3]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “they go from evil to evil.”

[9:3]  ¹⁸ tn Or “do not acknowledge me”; Heb “do not know me.” But “knowing” in Hebrew thought often involves more than intellectual knowledge; it involves emotional and volitional commitment as well. For יָדַע meaning “acknowledge” see 1 Chr 28:9; Isa 29:21; Hos 2:20; Prov 3:6. This word is also found in ancient Near Eastern treaty contexts where it has the idea of a vassal king acknowledging the sovereignty of a greater king (cf. H. Huffmon, “The Treaty Background of Hebrew yada,” BASOR 181 [1966]: 31-37).

[9:1]  ¹⁹ sn Beginning with 9:1, the verse numbers through 9:26 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 9:1 ET = 8:23 HT, 9:2 ET = 9:1 HT, 9:3 ET = 9:2 HT, etc., through 9:26 ET = 9:25 HT. Beginning with 10:1 the verse numbers in the ET and HT are again the same.

[9:1]  ²⁰ tn Heb “I wish that my head were water.”

[9:1]  ²¹ tn Heb “daughter of my people.” For the translation given here see 4:11 and the note on the phrase “dear people” there.

[1:13]  ²² tn Here αὐτοῦ (autou) has been translated as a subjective genitive (“he loves”).

[6:11]  ²³ tn Or “craftiness.” See BDAG 625 s.v. μεθοδεία.

[6:12]  ²⁴ tn BDAG 752 s.v. πάλη says, “struggle against…the opponent is introduced by πρός w. the acc.”

[6:12]  ²⁵ tn Grk “blood and flesh.”

[6:12]  ²⁶ tn BDAG 561 s.v. κοσμοκράτωρ suggests “the rulers of this sinful world” as a gloss.

[6:12]  ²⁷ tn BDAG 837 s.v. πνευματικός 3 suggests “the spirit-forces of evil” in Ephesians 6:12.

[6:12]  ²⁸ sn The phrase spiritual forces of evil in the heavens serves to emphasize the nature of the forces which oppose believers as well as to indicate the locality from which they originate.

[6:13]  ²⁹ tn The term ἀνθίστημι (anqisthmi) carries the idea of resisting or opposing something or someone (BDAG 80 s.v.). In Eph 6:13, when used in combination with στῆναι (sthnai; cf. also στῆτε [sthte] in v. 14) and in a context of battle imagery, it seems to have the idea of resisting, standing firm, and being able to stand your ground.

[6:14]  ³⁰ sn The four participles fastening… putting on…fitting…taking up… indicate the means by which believers can take their stand against the devil and his schemes. The imperative take in v. 17 communicates another means by which to accomplish the standing, i.e., by the word of God.

[6:14]  ³¹ tn Grk “girding your waist with truth.” In this entire section the author is painting a metaphor for his readers based on the attire of a Roman soldier prepared for battle and its similarity to the Christian prepared to do battle against spiritually evil forces. Behind the expression “with truth” is probably the genitive idea “belt of truth.” Since this is an appositional genitive (i.e., belt which is truth), the author simply left unsaid the idea of the belt and mentioned only his real focus, namely, the truth. (The analogy would have been completely understandable to his 1st century readers.) The idea of the belt is supplied in the translation to clarify the sense in English.

[6:15]  ³² tn The definite article τοῖς (tois) was taken as a possessive pronoun, i.e., “your,” since it refers to a part of the physical body.

[6:15]  ³³ tn Grk “gospel.” However, this is not a technical term here.

[6:15]  ³⁴ tn Grk “in preparation of the gospel of peace.” The genitive τοῦ εὐαγγελίου (tou euangeliou) was taken as a genitive of source, i.e., “that comes from….”

[6:16]  ³⁵ tn Grk “in everything.”

[6:16]  ³⁶ sn The Greek word translated shield (θυρεός, qureos) refers to the Roman soldier’s large rectangular wooden shield, called in Latin scutum, about 4 ft (1.2 m) high, covered with leather on the outside. Before a battle in which flaming arrows might be shot at them, the soldiers wet the leather covering with water to extinguish the arrows. The Roman legionaries could close ranks with these shields, the first row holding theirs edge to edge in front, and the rows behind holding the shields above their heads. In this formation they were practically invulnerable to arrows, rocks, and even spears.

[6:17]  ³⁷ sn An allusion to Isa 59:17.

[6:17]  ³⁸ sn The Greek term translated sword (μάχαιρα, macaira) refers to the Roman gladius, a short sword about 2 ft (60 cm) long, used for close hand-to-hand combat. This is the only clearly offensive weapon in the list of armor mentioned by the author (he does not, for example, mention the lance [Latin pilum]).

[6:18]  ³⁹ tn Both “pray” and “be alert” are participles in the Greek text (“praying…being alert”). Both are probably instrumental, loosely connected with all of the preceding instructions. As such, they are not additional commands to do but instead are the means through which the prior instructions are accomplished.

[6:18]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “and toward it.”

[6:19]  ⁴¹ tn To avoid a lengthy, convoluted sentence in English, the Greek sentence was broken up at this point and the verb “pray” was inserted in the English translation to pick up the participle προσευχόμενοι (proseuxomenoi, “praying”) in v. 18.

[6:19]  ⁴² tn Grk “that a word may be given to me in the opening of my mouth.” Here “word” (λόγος, logo") is used in the sense of “message.”

[6:19]  ⁴³ tn The infinitive γνωρίσαι (gnwrisai, “to make known”) is functioning epexegetically to further explain what the author means by the preceding phrase “that I may be given the message when I begin to speak.”

[12:4]  ⁴⁴ tn Grk “until blood.”

[21:8]  ⁴⁵ tn On the term φαρμακεία (farmakeia, “magic spells”) see L&N 53.100: “the use of magic, often involving drugs and the casting of spells upon people – ‘to practice magic, to cast spells upon, to engage in sorcery, magic, sorcery.’ φαρμακεία: ἐν τῇ φαρμακείᾳ σου ἐπλανήθησαν πάντα τὰ ἔθνη ‘with your magic spells you deceived all the peoples (of the world)’ Re 18:23.”

[21:8]  ⁴⁶ tn Grk “idolaters.”

[21:8]  ⁴⁷ tn Grk “their share.”

[21:8]  ⁴⁸ tn Traditionally, “brimstone.”

[21:8]  ⁴⁹ tn Grk “sulfur, which is.” The relative pronoun has been translated as “that” to indicate its connection to the previous clause. The nearest logical antecedent is “the lake [that burns with fire and sulfur],” although “lake” (λίμνη, limnh) is feminine gender, while the pronoun “which” (ὅ, Jo) is neuter gender. This means that (1) the proper antecedent could be “their place” (Grk “their share,”) agreeing with the relative pronoun in number and gender, or (2) the neuter pronoun still has as its antecedent the feminine noun “lake,” since agreement in gender between pronoun and antecedent was not always maintained, with an explanatory phrase occurring with a neuter pronoun regardless of the case of the antecedent. In favor of the latter explanation is Rev 20:14, where the phrase “the lake of fire” is in apposition to the phrase “the second death.”