Joshua 1:9

1:9 I repeat, ¹  be strong and brave! Don’t be afraid and don’t panic, ²  for I, the Lord your God, am with you in all you do.” ³ 

Joshua 7:6-7

7:6 Joshua tore his clothes; ⁴  he and the leaders ⁵  of Israel lay face down on the ground before the ark of the Lord until evening ⁶  and threw dirt on their heads. ⁷  7:7 Joshua prayed, ⁸  “O, Master, Lord! Why did you bring these people across the Jordan to hand us over to the Amorites so they could destroy us?

Joshua 7:9

7:9 When the Canaanites and all who live in the land hear about this, they will turn against us and destroy the very memory of us ⁹  from the earth. What will you do to protect your great reputation?” ¹⁰ 

Deuteronomy 1:21

1:21 Look, he ¹¹  has placed the land in front of you! ¹²  Go up, take possession of it, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, said to do. Do not be afraid or discouraged!”

Deuteronomy 7:18

7:18 you must not fear them. You must carefully recall ¹³  what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and all Egypt,

Deuteronomy 31:8

31:8 The Lord is indeed going before you – he will be with you; he will not fail you or abandon you. Do not be afraid or discouraged!”

Psalms 27:1

Psalm 27 ¹⁴ 

By David.

27:1 The Lord delivers and vindicates me! ¹⁵ 

I fear no one! ¹⁶ 

The Lord protects my life!

I am afraid of no one! ¹⁷ 

Psalms 46:11

46:11 The Lord who commands armies is on our side! ¹⁸ 

The God of Jacob ¹⁹  is our protector! ²⁰  (Selah)

Isaiah 12:2

12:2 Look, God is my deliverer! ²¹ 

I will trust in him ²²  and not fear.

For the Lord gives me strength and protects me; ²³ 

he has become my deliverer.” ²⁴ 

Isaiah 41:10-16

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

Don’t be frightened, for I am your God! ²⁵ 

I strengthen you –

yes, I help you –

yes, I uphold you with my saving right hand! ²⁶ 

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

your adversaries ²⁷  will be reduced to nothing ²⁸  and perish.

41:12 When you will look for your opponents, ²⁹  you will not find them;

your enemies ³⁰  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, ³¹ 

men of ³²  Israel.

I am helping you,” says the Lord,

your protector, ³³  the Holy One of Israel. ³⁴ 

41:15 “Look, I am making you like ³⁵  a sharp threshing sledge,

new and double-edged. ³⁶ 

You will thresh the mountains and crush them;

you will make the hills like straw. ³⁷ 

41:16 You will winnow them and the wind will blow them away;

the wind will scatter them.

You will rejoice in the Lord;

you will boast in the Holy One of Israel.

Isaiah 43:2

43:2 When you pass through the waters, I am with you;

when you pass ³⁸  through the streams, they will not overwhelm you.

When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned;

the flames will not harm ³⁹  you.

Jeremiah 46:27

A Promise of Hope for Israel

46:27 ⁴⁰ “You descendants of Jacob, my servants, ⁴¹  do not be afraid;

do not be terrified, people of Israel.

For I will rescue you and your descendants

from the faraway lands where you are captives. ⁴² 

The descendants of Jacob will return to their land and enjoy peace.

They will be secure and no one will terrify them.

Matthew 8:26

8:26 But ⁴³  he said to them, “Why are you cowardly, you people of little faith?” Then he got up and rebuked ⁴⁴  the winds and the sea, ⁴⁵  and it was dead calm.

[1:9]  ¹ 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]  ² tn Or perhaps, “don’t get discouraged!”

[1:9]  ³ tn Heb “in all which you go.”

[7:6]  ⁴ sn Tearing one’s clothes was an outward expression of extreme sorrow (see Gen 37:34; 44:13).

[7:6]  ⁵ tn Or “elders.”

[7:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “and fell on his face to the ground before the ark of the Lord until evening, he and the elders of Israel.”

[7:6]  ⁷ sn Throwing dirt on one’s head was an outward expression of extreme sorrow (see Lam 2:10; Ezek 27:30).

[7:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “said.”

[7:9]  ⁹ tn Heb “and cut off our name.”

[7:9]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “What will you do for your great name?”

[1:21]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun (“he”) has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons, to avoid repetition.

[1:21]  ¹² tn Or “has given you the land” (cf. NAB, NIV, NRSV).

[7:18]  ¹³ tn Heb “recalling, you must recall.” The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute before the finite verb for emphasis. Cf. KJV, ASV “shalt well remember.”

[27:1]  ¹⁴ sn Psalm 27. The author is confident of the Lord’s protection and asks the Lord to vindicate him.

[27:1]  ¹⁵ 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]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Whom shall I fear?” The rhetorical question anticipates the answer, “No one!”

[27:1]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Of whom shall I be afraid?” The rhetorical question anticipates the answer, “No one!”

[46:11]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “the Lord of hosts is with us.” The title “Lord of hosts” here pictures the Lord as a mighty warrior-king who leads armies into battle (see Ps 24:10). The military imagery is further developed in vv. 8-9.

[46:11]  ¹⁹ tn That is, Israel, or Judah (see Ps 20:1).

[46:11]  ²⁰ tn Heb “our elevated place” (see Pss 9:9; 18:2).

[12:2]  ²¹ tn Or “salvation” (KJV, NIV, NRSV).

[12:2]  ²² tn The words “in him” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[12:2]  ²³ tc The Hebrew text has, “for my strength and protection [is] the Lord, the Lord (Heb “Yah, Yahweh).” The word יְהוָה (yehvah) is probably dittographic or explanatory here (note that the short form of the name [יָהּ, yah] precedes, and that the graphically similar וַיְהִי [vayÿhi] follows). Exod 15:2, the passage from which the words of v. 2b are taken, has only יָהּ. The word זִמְרָת (zimrat) is traditionally understood as meaning “song,” in which case one might translate, “for the Lord gives me strength and joy” (i.e., a reason to sing); note that in v. 5 the verb זָמַר (zamar, “sing”) appears. Many recent commentators, however, have argued that the noun is here instead a homonym, meaning “protection” or “strength.” See HALOT 274 s.v. III *זמר.

[12:2]  ²⁴ tn Or “salvation” (so many English versions, e.g., KJV, NIV, NRSV, NLT); NAB “my savior.”

[41:10]  ²⁵ 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]  ²⁶ 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]  ²⁷ tn Heb “the men of your strife”; NASB “those who contend with you.”

[41:11]  ²⁸ tn Heb “like nothing”; NAB “come to nought.”

[41:12]  ²⁹ tn Heb “the men of your struggle”; NASB “those who quarrel with you.”

[41:12]  ³⁰ tn Heb “the men of your battle”; NAB “who do battle with you.”

[41:14]  ³¹ tn Heb “O worm Jacob” (NAB, NIV). The worm metaphor suggests that Jacob is insignificant and despised.

[41:14]  ³² 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]  ³³ tn Heb “your kinsman redeemer.” A גָּאַל (ga’al, “kinsman redeemer”) was a protector of the extended family’s interests.

[41:14]  ³⁴ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[41:15]  ³⁵ tn Heb “into” (so NIV); ASV “have made thee to be.”

[41:15]  ³⁶ tn Heb “owner of two-mouths,” i.e., double-edged.

[41:15]  ³⁷ sn The mountains and hills symbolize hostile nations that are obstacles to Israel’s restoration.

[43:2]  ³⁸ tn The verb is understood by ellipsis (note the preceding line).

[43:2]  ³⁹ tn Heb “burn” (so NASB); NAB, NRSV, NLT “consume”; NIV “set you ablaze.”

[46:27]  ⁴⁰ sn Jer 46:27-28 are virtually the same as 30:10-11. The verses are more closely related to that context than to this. But the presence of a note of future hope for the Egyptians may have led to a note of encouragement also to the Judeans who were under threat of judgment at the same time (cf. the study notes on 46:2, 13 and 25:1-2 for the possible relative dating of these prophecies).

[46:27]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “And/But you do not be afraid, my servant Jacob.” Here and elsewhere in the verse the terms Jacob and Israel are poetic for the people of Israel descended from the patriarch Jacob. The terms have been supplied throughout with plural referents for greater clarity.

[46:27]  ⁴² tn Heb “For I will rescue you from far away, your descendants from the land of their captivity.”

[8:26]  ⁴³ tn Grk “And.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.

[8:26]  ⁴⁴ tn Or “commanded” (often with the implication of a threat, L&N 33.331).

[8:26]  ⁴⁵ sn Who has authority over the seas and winds is discussed in the OT: Ps 104:3; 135:7; 107:23-30. When Jesus rebuked the winds and the sea he was making a statement about who he was.