Luke 7:34

7:34 The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him, ¹  a glutton and a drunk, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ ² 

Psalms 51:8

51:8 Grant me the ultimate joy of being forgiven! ³ 

May the bones ⁴  you crushed rejoice! ⁵ 

Isaiah 35:10

35:10 those whom the Lord has ransomed will return that way. ⁶ 

They will enter Zion with a happy shout.

Unending joy will crown them, ⁷ 

happiness and joy will overwhelm ⁸  them;

grief and suffering will disappear. ⁹ 

Hosea 14:9

Concluding Exhortation

14:9 Who is wise?

Let him discern ¹⁰  these things!

Who is discerning?

Let him understand them!

For the ways of the Lord are right;

the godly walk in them,

but in them the rebellious stumble.

Jonah 4:10-11

4:10 The Lord said, “You were upset ¹¹  about this little ¹²  plant, something for which you have not worked nor did you do anything to make it grow. It grew up overnight and died the next day. ¹³  4:11 Should I ¹⁴  not be even more ¹⁵  concerned ¹⁶  about Nineveh, this enormous city? ¹⁷  There are more than one hundred twenty thousand people in it who do not know right from wrong, ¹⁸  as well as many animals!” ¹⁹ 

Romans 3:4

3:4 Absolutely not! Let God be proven true, and every human being ²⁰  shown up as a liar, ²¹  just as it is written: “so that you will be justified ²²  in your words and will prevail when you are judged.” ²³ 

Romans 3:19

3:19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under ²⁴  the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world may be held accountable to God.

Romans 15:9-13

15:9 and thus the Gentiles glorify God for his mercy. ²⁵  As it is written, “Because of this I will confess you among the Gentiles, and I will sing praises to your name.” ²⁶  15:10 And again it says: “Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people.” ²⁷  15:11 And again, “Praise the Lord all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples praise him.” ²⁸  15:12 And again Isaiah says, “The root of Jesse will come, and the one who rises to rule over the Gentiles, in him will the Gentiles hope.” ²⁹  15:13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe in him, ³⁰  so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

[7:34]  ¹ tn Grk “Behold a man.”

[7:34]  ² sn Neither were they happy with Jesus (the Son of Man), even though he was the opposite of John and associated freely with people like tax collectors and sinners. Either way, God’s messengers were subject to complaint.

[51:8]  ³ tn Heb “cause me to hear happiness and joy.” The language is metonymic: the effect of forgiveness (joy) has been substituted for its cause. The psalmist probably alludes here to an assuring word from God announcing that his sins are forgiven (a so-called oracle of forgiveness). The imperfect verbal form is used here to express the psalmist’s wish or request. The synonyms “happiness” and “joy” are joined together as a hendiadys to emphasize the degree of joy he anticipates.

[51:8]  ⁴ sn May the bones you crushed rejoice. The psalmist compares his sinful condition to that of a person who has been physically battered and crushed. Within this metaphorical framework, his “bones” are the seat of his emotional strength.

[51:8]  ⁵ tn In this context of petitionary prayer, the prefixed verbal form is understood as a jussive, expressing the psalmist’s wish or request.

[35:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “and the redeemed will walk, the ransomed of the Lord will return.”

[35:10]  ⁷ tn Heb “[will be] on their head[s].” “Joy” may be likened here to a crown (cf. 2 Sam 1:10). The statement may also be an ironic twist on the idiom “earth/dust on the head” (cf. 2 Sam 1:2; 13:19; 15:32; Job 2:12), referring to a mourning practice.

[35:10]  ⁸ tn Heb “will overtake” (NIV); NLT “they will be overcome with.”

[35:10]  ⁹ tn Heb “grief and groaning will flee”; KJV “sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”

[14:9]  ¹⁰ tn The shortened form of the prefix-conjugation verb וְיָבֵן (vÿyaven) indicates that it is a jussive rather than an imperfect. When a jussive comes from a superior to an inferior, it may connote exhortation and instruction or advice and counsel. For the functions of the jussive, see IBHS 568-70 §34.3.

[4:10]  ¹¹ tn Heb “were troubled.” The verb חוּס (khus) has a basic three-fold range of meanings: (1) “to be troubled about,” (2) “to look with compassion upon,” and (3) “to show pity, to spare [someone from death/judgment]” (HALOT 298 s.v. חוס; BDB 299 s.v. חוּס). Clearly, here God is referring to Jonah’s remorse and anger when the plant died (vv. 7-9), so here it means “to be troubled about” (HALOT 298 s.v. 1.c) rather than “to pity” (BDB 299 s.v. c). Elsewhere חוּס describes emotional grief caused by the loss of property (Gen 45:20) and the death of family members (Deut 13:9 [ET 13:8]). The verb חוּס is derived from a common Semitic root which has a basic meaning “to pour out; to flow” which is used in reference to emotion and tears in particular. This is seen in the Hebrew expression תָחוּס עֵין (takhush ’en, “the eyes flow”) picturing tears of concern and grief (c.f., Gen 45:20; Deut 13:9 [ET 13:8]). The verb חוּס will be used again in v. 11 but in a different sense (see note on v. 11).

[4:10]  ¹² tn The noun קִיקָיוֹן (qiqayon, “plant”) has the suffixed ending וֹן- which denotes a diminutive (see IBHS 92 §5.7b); so it can be nuanced “little plant.” The contrast between Jonah’s concern for his “little” plant (v. 10) and God’s concern about this “enormous” city (v. 11) could not be greater! Jonah’s misplaced priorities look exceedingly foolish and self-centered in comparison to God’s global concern about the fate of 120,000 pagans.

[4:10]  ¹³ tn Heb “which was a son of a night and perished [as] a son of a night.”

[4:11]  ¹⁴ tn The emphatic use of the independent pronouns “you” and “I” (אַתָּה, ’attah, and אֲנִי, ’ani) in vv. 10 and 11 creates an ironic comparison and emphasizes the strong contrast between the attitudes of Jonah and the Lord.

[4:11]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “You…Should I not spare…?” This is an a fortiori argument from lesser to greater. Since Jonah was “upset” (חוּס, khus) about such a trivial matter as the death of a little plant (the lesser), God had every right to “spare” (חוּס) the enormously populated city of Nineveh (the greater). The phrase “even more” does not appear in Hebrew but is implied by this a fortiori argument.

[4:11]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Should I not spare?”; or “Should I not show compassion?” The verb חוּס (khus) has a basic three-fold range of meanings: (1) “to be troubled about,” (2) “to look with compassion upon,” and (3) “to show pity, to spare (someone from death/judgment)” (HALOT 298 s.v. חוס; BDB 299 s.v. חוּס). In v. 10 it refers to Jonah’s lament over the death of his plant, meaning “to be upset about” or “to be troubled about” (HALOT 298 s.v. 1.c). However, here in v. 11 it means “to show pity, spare” from judgment (BDB 298 s.v. b; HALOT 298 s.v. 1.a; e.g., 1 Sam 24:11; Jer 21:7; Ezek 24:14). It is often used in contexts which contemplate whether God will or will not spare a sinful people from judgment (Ezek 5:11; 7:4, 9; 8:19; 9:5, 10; 20:17). So this repetition of the same verb but in a different sense creates a polysemantic wordplay in vv. 10-11. However, the wordplay is obscured by the appropriate translation for each usage – “be upset about” in v. 10 and “to spare” in v. 11 – therefore, the translation above attempts to bring out the wordplay in English: “to be [even more] concerned about.”

[4:11]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “the great city.”

[4:11]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “their right from their left.” Interpreters wonder exactly what deficiency is meant by the phrase “do not know their right from their left.” The expression does not appear elsewhere in biblical Hebrew. It probably does not mean, as sometimes suggested, that Nineveh had 120,000 small children (the term אָדָם, ’adam, “people,” does not seem to be used of children alone). In any case, it refers to a deficiency in discernment that Jonah and the initial readers of Jonah would no doubt have considered themselves free of. For partial parallels see 2 Sam 19:35; Eccl 10:2; Ezek 22:26; 44:23.

[4:11]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and many animals.”

[3:4]  ²⁰ tn Grk “every man”; but ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") is used in a generic sense here to stress humanity rather than masculinity.

[3:4]  ²¹ tn Grk “Let God be true, and every man a liar.” The words “proven” and “shown up” are supplied in the translation to clarify the meaning.

[3:4]  ²² tn Grk “might be justified,” a subjunctive verb, but in this type of clause it carries the same sense as the future indicative verb in the latter part. “Will” is more idiomatic in contemporary English.

[3:4]  ²³ tn Or “prevail when you judge.” A quotation from Ps 51:4.

[3:19]  ²⁴ tn Grk “in,” “in connection with.”

[15:9]  ²⁵ tn There are two major syntactical alternatives which are both awkward: (1) One could make “glorify” dependent on “Christ has become a minister” and coordinate with “to confirm” and the result would be rendered “Christ has become a minister of circumcision to confirm the promises…and so that the Gentiles might glorify God.” (2) One could make “glorify” dependent on “I tell you” and coordinate with “Christ has become a minister” and the result would be rendered “I tell you that Christ has become a minister of circumcision…and that the Gentiles glorify God.” The second rendering is preferred.

[15:9]  ²⁶ sn A quotation from Ps 18:49.

[15:10]  ²⁷ sn A quotation from Deut 32:43.

[15:11]  ²⁸ sn A quotation from Ps 117:1.

[15:12]  ²⁹ sn A quotation from Isa 11:10.

[15:13]  ³⁰ tn Grk “in the believing” or “as [you] believe,” with the object “him” supplied from the context. The referent could be God (15:13a) or Christ (15:12).