Nehemiah 4:11

4:11 Our adversaries also boasted, ¹  “Before they are aware or anticipate ²  anything, we will come in among them and kill them, and we will bring this work to a halt!”

Genesis 32:9-12

32:9 Then Jacob prayed, ³  “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, O Lord, you said ⁴  to me, ‘Return to your land and to your relatives and I will make you prosper.’ ⁵  32:10 I am not worthy of all the faithful love ⁶  you have shown ⁷  your servant. With only my walking stick ⁸  I crossed the Jordan, ⁹  but now I have become two camps. 32:11 Rescue me, ¹⁰  I pray, from the hand ¹¹  of my brother Esau, ¹²  for I am afraid he will come ¹³  and attack me, as well as the mothers with their children. ¹⁴  32:12 But you ¹⁵  said, ‘I will certainly make you prosper ¹⁶  and will make ¹⁷  your descendants like the sand on the seashore, too numerous to count.’” ¹⁸ 

Genesis 32:28

32:28 “No longer will your name be Jacob,” the man told him, ¹⁹  “but Israel, ²⁰  because you have fought ²¹  with God and with men and have prevailed.”

Genesis 32:2

32:2 When Jacob saw them, he exclaimed, ²²  “This is the camp of God!” So he named that place Mahanaim. ²³ 

Genesis 19:14-19

19:14 Then Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law who were going to marry his daughters. ²⁴  He said, “Quick, get out of this place because the Lord is about to destroy ²⁵  the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was ridiculing them. ²⁶ 

19:15 At dawn ²⁷  the angels hurried Lot along, saying, “Get going! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, ²⁸  or else you will be destroyed when the city is judged!” ²⁹  19:16 When Lot ³⁰  hesitated, the men grabbed his hand and the hands of his wife and two daughters because the Lord had compassion on them. ³¹  They led them away and placed them ³²  outside the city. 19:17 When they had brought them outside, they ³³  said, “Run ³⁴  for your lives! Don’t look ³⁵  behind you or stop anywhere in the valley! ³⁶  Escape to the mountains or you will be destroyed!”

19:18 But Lot said to them, “No, please, Lord! ³⁷  19:19 Your ³⁸  servant has found favor with you, ³⁹  and you have shown me great ⁴⁰  kindness ⁴¹  by sparing ⁴²  my life. But I am not able to escape to the mountains because ⁴³  this disaster will overtake ⁴⁴  me and I’ll die. ⁴⁵ 

Psalms 50:15

50:15 Pray to me when you are in trouble! ⁴⁶ 

I will deliver you, and you will honor me!” ⁴⁷ 

Psalms 55:16-22

55:16 As for me, I will call out to God,

and the Lord will deliver me.

55:17 During the evening, morning, and noontime

I will lament and moan, ⁴⁸ 

and he will hear ⁴⁹  me. ⁵⁰ 

55:18 He will rescue ⁵¹  me and protect me from those who attack me, ⁵² 

even though ⁵³  they greatly outnumber me. ⁵⁴ 

55:19 God, the one who has reigned as king from long ago,

will hear and humiliate them. ⁵⁵  (Selah)

They refuse to change,

and do not fear God. ⁵⁶ 

55:20 He ⁵⁷  attacks ⁵⁸  his friends; ⁵⁹ 

he breaks his solemn promises to them. ⁶⁰ 

55:21 His words are as smooth as butter, ⁶¹ 

but he harbors animosity in his heart. ⁶² 

His words seem softer than oil,

but they are really like sharp swords. ⁶³ 

55:22 Throw your burden ⁶⁴  upon the Lord,

and he will sustain you. ⁶⁵ 

He will never allow the godly to be upended. ⁶⁶ 

Luke 6:11-12

6:11 But they were filled with mindless rage ⁶⁷  and began debating with one another what they would do ⁶⁸  to Jesus.

Choosing the Twelve Apostles

6:12 Now ⁶⁹  it was during this time that Jesus ⁷⁰  went out to the mountain ⁷¹  to pray, and he spent all night ⁷²  in prayer to God. ⁷³ 

Acts 4:24-30

4:24 When they heard this, they raised their voices to God with one mind ⁷⁴  and said, “Master of all, ⁷⁵  you who made the heaven, the earth, ⁷⁶  the sea, and everything that is in them, 4:25 who said by the Holy Spirit through ⁷⁷  your servant David our forefather, ⁷⁸ 

‘Why do the nations ⁷⁹  rage, ⁸⁰ 

and the peoples plot foolish ⁸¹  things?

4:26 The kings of the earth stood together, ⁸² 

and the rulers assembled together,

against the Lord and against his ⁸³  Christ.’ ⁸⁴ 

4:27 “For indeed both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, assembled together in this city against ⁸⁵  your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, ⁸⁶  4:28 to do as much as your power ⁸⁷  and your plan ⁸⁸  had decided beforehand ⁸⁹  would happen. 4:29 And now, Lord, pay attention to ⁹⁰  their threats, and grant ⁹¹  to your servants ⁹²  to speak your message ⁹³  with great courage, ⁹⁴  4:30 while you extend your hand to heal, and to bring about miraculous signs ⁹⁵  and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

[4:11]  ¹ tn Heb “said.”

[4:11]  ² tn Heb “see.”

[32:9]  ³ tn Heb “said.”

[32:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “the one who said.”

[32:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “I will cause good” or “I will treat well [or “favorably”].” The idea includes more than prosperity, though that is its essential meaning. Here the form is subordinated to the preceding imperative and indicates purpose or result. Jacob is reminding God of his promise in the hope that God will honor his word.

[32:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “the loving deeds and faithfulness” (see 24:27, 49).

[32:10]  ⁷ tn Heb “you have done with.”

[32:10]  ⁸ tn Heb “for with my staff.” The Hebrew word מַקֵל (maqel), traditionally translated “staff,” has been rendered as “walking stick” because a “staff” in contemporary English refers typically to the support personnel in an organization.

[32:10]  ⁹ tn Heb “this Jordan.”

[32:11]  ¹⁰ tn The imperative has the force of a prayer here, not a command.

[32:11]  ¹¹ tn The “hand” here is a metonymy for “power.”

[32:11]  ¹² tn Heb “from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau.”

[32:11]  ¹³ tn Heb “for I am afraid of him, lest he come.”

[32:11]  ¹⁴ sn Heb “me, [the] mother upon [the] sons.” The first person pronoun “me” probably means here “me and mine,” as the following clause suggests.

[32:12]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “But you, you said.” One of the occurrences of the pronoun “you” has been left untranslated for stylistic reasons.

[32:12]  ¹⁶ tn Or “will certainly deal well with you.” The infinitive absolute appears before the imperfect, underscoring God’s promise to bless. The statement is more emphatic than in v. 9.

[32:12]  ¹⁷ tn The form is the perfect tense with a vav (ו) consecutive, carrying the nuance of the preceding verb forward.

[32:12]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “which cannot be counted because of abundance.” The imperfect verbal form indicates potential here.

[32:28]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and he said.” The referent of the pronoun “he” (the man who wrestled with Jacob) has been specified for clarity, and the order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[32:28]  ²⁰ sn The name Israel is a common construction, using a verb with a theophoric element (אֵל, ’el) that usually indicates the subject of the verb. Here it means “God fights.” This name will replace the name Jacob; it will be both a promise and a call for faith. In essence, the Lord was saying that Jacob would have victory and receive the promises because God would fight for him.

[32:28]  ²¹ sn You have fought. The explanation of the name Israel includes a sound play. In Hebrew the verb translated “you have fought” (שָׂרִיתָ, sarita) sounds like the name “Israel” (יִשְׂרָאֵל, yisra’el ), meaning “God fights” (although some interpret the meaning as “he fights [with] God”). The name would evoke the memory of the fight and what it meant. A. Dillmann says that ever after this the name would tell the Israelites that, when Jacob contended successfully with God, he won the battle with man (Genesis, 2:279). To be successful with God meant that he had to be crippled in his own self-sufficiency (A. P. Ross, “Jacob at the Jabboq, Israel at Peniel,” BSac 142 [1985]: 51-62).

[32:2]  ²² tn Heb “and Jacob said when he saw them.”

[32:2]  ²³ sn The name Mahanaim apparently means “two camps.” Perhaps the two camps were those of God and of Jacob.

[19:14]  ²⁴ sn The language has to be interpreted in the light of the context and the social customs. The men are called “sons-in-law” (literally “the takers of his daughters”), but the daughters had not yet had sex with a man. It is better to translate the phrase “who were going to marry his daughters.” Since formal marriage contracts were binding, the husbands-to-be could already be called sons-in-law.

[19:14]  ²⁵ tn The Hebrew active participle expresses an imminent action.

[19:14]  ²⁶ tn Heb “and he was like one taunting in the eyes of his sons-in-law.” These men mistakenly thought Lot was ridiculing them and their lifestyle. Their response illustrates how morally insensitive they had become.

[19:15]  ²⁷ tn Heb “When dawn came up.”

[19:15]  ²⁸ tn Heb “who are found.” The wording might imply he had other daughters living in the city, but the text does not explicitly state this.

[19:15]  ²⁹ tn Or “with the iniquity [i.e., punishment] of the city” (cf. NASB, NRSV).

[19:16]  ³⁰ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Lot) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[19:16]  ³¹ tn Heb “in the compassion of the Lord to them.”

[19:16]  ³² tn Heb “brought him out and placed him.” The third masculine singular suffixes refer specifically to Lot, though his wife and daughters accompanied him (see v. 17). For stylistic reasons these have been translated as plural pronouns (“them”).

[19:17]  ³³ tn Or “one of them”; Heb “he.” Several ancient versions (LXX, Vulgate, Syriac) read the plural “they.” See also the note on “your” in v. 19.

[19:17]  ³⁴ tn Heb “escape.”

[19:17]  ³⁵ tn The Hebrew verb translated “look” signifies an intense gaze, not a passing glance. This same verb is used later in v. 26 to describe Lot’s wife’s self-destructive look back at the city.

[19:17]  ³⁶ tn Or “in the plain”; Heb “in the circle,” referring to the “circle” or oval area of the Jordan Valley.

[19:18]  ³⁷ tn Or “my lords.” See the following note on the problem of identifying the addressee here. The Hebrew term is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[19:19]  ³⁸ tn The second person pronominal suffixes are singular in this verse (note “your eyes,” “you have made great,” and “you have acted”). Verse 18a seems to indicate that Lot is addressing the angels, but the use of the singular and the appearance of the divine title “Lord” (אֲדֹנָי, ’adonay) in v. 18b suggests he is speaking to God.

[19:19]  ³⁹ tn Heb “in your eyes.”

[19:19]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “you made great your kindness.”

[19:19]  ⁴¹ sn The Hebrew word חֶסֶד (khesed) can refer to “faithful love” or to “kindness,” depending on the context. The precise nuance here is uncertain.

[19:19]  ⁴² tn The infinitive construct explains how God has shown Lot kindness.

[19:19]  ⁴³ tn Heb “lest.”

[19:19]  ⁴⁴ tn The Hebrew verb דָּבַק (davaq) normally means “to stick to, to cleave, to join.” Lot is afraid he cannot outrun the coming calamity.

[19:19]  ⁴⁵ tn The perfect verb form with vav consecutive carries the nuance of the imperfect verbal form before it.

[50:15]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “call [to] me in a day of trouble.”

[50:15]  ⁴⁷ sn In vv. 7-15 the Lord makes it clear that he was not rebuking Israel because they had failed to offer sacrifices (v. 8a). On the contrary, they had been faithful in doing so (v. 8b). However, their understanding of the essence of their relationship with God was confused. Apparently they believed that he needed/desired such sacrifices and that offering them would ensure their prosperity. But the Lord owns all the animals of the world and did not need Israel’s meager sacrifices (vv. 9-13). Other aspects of the relationship were more important to the Lord. He desired Israel to be thankful for his blessings (v. 14a), to demonstrate gratitude for his intervention by repaying the vows they made to him (v. 14b), and to acknowledge their absolute dependence on him (v. 15a). Rather than viewing their sacrifices as somehow essential to God’s well-being, they needed to understand their dependence on him.

[55:17]  ⁴⁸ tn The first verb is clearly a cohortative form, expressing the psalmist’s resolve. The second verb, while formally ambiguous, should also be understood as cohortative here.

[55:17]  ⁴⁹ tn The prefixed verb with vav (ו) consecutive normally appears in narrational contexts to indicate past action, but here it continues the anticipatory (future) perspective of the preceding line. In Ps 77:6 one finds the same sequence of cohortative + prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive. In this case as well, both forms refer to future actions.

[55:17]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “my voice.”

[55:18]  ⁵¹ tn The perfect verbal form is here used rhetorically to indicate that the action is certain to take place (the so-called perfect of certitude).

[55:18]  ⁵² tn Heb “he will redeem in peace my life from [those who] draw near to me.”

[55:18]  ⁵³ tn Or “for.”

[55:18]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “among many they are against me.” For other examples of the preposition עִמָּד (’immad) used in the sense of “at, against,” see HALOT 842 s.v.; BDB 767 s.v.; IBHS 219 §11.2.14b.

[55:19]  ⁵⁵ tc Heb “God will hear and answer them, even [the] one who sits [from] ancient times.” The prefixed verbal from with vav (ו) consecutive carries on the anticipatory force of the preceding imperfect. The verb appears to be a Qal form from עָנָה (’anah, “to answer”). If this reading is retained, the point would be that God “answered” them in judgment. The translation assumes an emendation to the Piel וַיְעַנֵּם (vay’annem; see 2 Kgs 17:20) and understands the root as עָנָה (’anah, “to afflict”; see also 1 Kgs 8:35).

[55:19]  ⁵⁶ tn Heb “[the ones] for whom there are no changes, and they do not fear God.”

[55:20]  ⁵⁷ sn He. This must refer to the psalmist’s former friend, who was addressed previously in vv. 12-14.

[55:20]  ⁵⁸ tn Heb “stretches out his hand against.”

[55:20]  ⁵⁹ tc The form should probably be emended to an active participle (שֹׁלְמָיו, sholÿmayv) from the verbal root שָׁלַם (shalam, “be in a covenant of peace with”). Perhaps the translation “his friends” suggests too intimate a relationship. Another option is to translate, “he attacks those who made agreements with him.”

[55:20]  ⁶⁰ tn Heb “he violates his covenant.”

[55:21]  ⁶¹ tn Heb “the butter-like [words] of his mouth are smooth.” The noun מַחְמָאֹת (makhma’ot, “butter-like [words]”) occurs only here. Many prefer to emend the form to מֵחֶמְאָה (mekhem’ah, from [i.e., “than”] butter”), cf. NEB, NRSV “smoother than butter.” However, in this case “his mouth” does not agree in number with the plural verb חָלְקוּ (kholqu, “they are smooth”). Therefore some further propose an emendation of פִּיו (piv, “his mouth”) to פָּנָיו (panayv, “his face”). In any case, the point seems to that the psalmist’s former friend spoke kindly to him and gave the outward indications of friendship.

[55:21]  ⁶² tn Heb “and war [is in] his heart.”

[55:21]  ⁶³ tn Heb “his words are softer than oil, but they are drawn swords.”

[55:22]  ⁶⁴ tn The Hebrew noun occurs only here.

[55:22]  ⁶⁵ tn The pronoun is singular; the psalmist addresses each member of his audience individually.

[55:22]  ⁶⁶ tn Heb “he will never allow swaying for the righteous.”

[6:11]  ⁶⁷ tn The term ἄνοια (anoia) denotes a kind of insane or mindless fury; the opponents were beside themselves with rage. They could not rejoice in the healing, but could only react against Jesus.

[6:11]  ⁶⁸ tn The use of the optative (ποιήσαιεν, poihsaien, “might do”) in an indirect question indicates that the formal opposition and planning of Jesus’ enemies started here (BDF §§385.1; 386.1).

[6:12]  ⁶⁹ tn Grk “Now it happened that in.” The introductory phrase ἐγένετο (egeneto, “it happened that”), common in Luke (69 times) and Acts (54 times), is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.

[6:12]  ⁷⁰ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[6:12]  ⁷¹ tn Or “to a mountain” (εἰς τὸ ὅρος, eis to Joro").

[6:12]  ⁷² sn This is the only time all night prayer is mentioned in the NT.

[6:12]  ⁷³ tn This is an objective genitive, so prayer “to God.”

[4:24]  ⁷⁴ sn With one mind. Compare Acts 1:14.

[4:24]  ⁷⁵ tn Or “Lord of all.”

[4:24]  ⁷⁶ tn Grk “and the earth, and the sea,” but καί (kai) has not been translated before “the earth” and “the sea” since contemporary English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more.

[4:25]  ⁷⁷ tn Grk “by the mouth of” (an idiom).

[4:25]  ⁷⁸ tn Or “ancestor”; Grk “father.”

[4:25]  ⁷⁹ tn Or “Gentiles.”

[4:25]  ⁸⁰ sn The Greek word translated rage includes not only anger but opposition, both verbal and nonverbal. See L&N 88.185.

[4:25]  ⁸¹ tn Or “futile”; traditionally, “vain.”

[4:26]  ⁸² tn Traditionally, “The kings of the earth took their stand.”

[4:26]  ⁸³ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

[4:26]  ⁸⁴ sn A quotation from Ps 2:1-2.

[4:27]  ⁸⁵ sn The application of Ps 2:1-2 is that Jews and Gentiles are opposing Jesus. The surprise of the application is that Jews are now found among the enemies of God’s plan.

[4:27]  ⁸⁶ sn A wordplay on “Christ,” v. 26, which means “one who has been anointed.”

[4:28]  ⁸⁷ tn Grk “hand,” here a metaphor for God’s strength or power or authority.

[4:28]  ⁸⁸ tn Or “purpose,” “will.”

[4:28]  ⁸⁹ tn Or “had predestined.” Since the term “predestine” is something of a technical theological term, not in wide usage in contemporary English, the translation “decide beforehand” was used instead (see L&N 30.84). God’s direction remains as the major theme.

[4:29]  ⁹⁰ tn Or “Lord, take notice of.”

[4:29]  ⁹¹ sn Grant to your servants to speak your message with great courage. The request is not for a stop to persecution or revenge on the opponents, but for boldness (great courage) to carry out the mission of proclaiming the message of what God is doing through Jesus.

[4:29]  ⁹² tn Grk “slaves.” See the note on the word “servants” in 2:18.

[4:29]  ⁹³ tn Grk “word.”

[4:29]  ⁹⁴ tn Or “with all boldness.”

[4:30]  ⁹⁵ tn The miraculous nature of these signs is implied in the context.