Psalms 16:10

16:10 You will not abandon me ¹  to Sheol; ² 

you will not allow your faithful follower ³  to see ⁴  the Pit. ⁵ 

Isaiah 38:17

38:17 “Look, the grief I experienced was for my benefit. ⁶ 

You delivered me ⁷  from the pit of oblivion. ⁸ 

For you removed all my sins from your sight. ⁹ 

Acts 13:33-37

13:33 that this promise ¹⁰  God has fulfilled to us, their children, by raising ¹¹  Jesus, as also it is written in the second psalm, ‘You are my Son; ¹²  today I have fathered you.’ ¹³  13:34 But regarding the fact that he has raised Jesus ¹⁴  from the dead, never ¹⁵  again to be ¹⁶  in a state of decay, God ¹⁷  has spoken in this way: ‘I will give you ¹⁸  the holy and trustworthy promises ¹⁹  made to David.’ ²⁰  13:35 Therefore he also says in another psalm, ²¹  ‘You will not permit your Holy One ²²  to experience ²³  decay.’ ²⁴  13:36 For David, after he had served ²⁵  God’s purpose in his own generation, died, ²⁶  was buried with his ancestors, ²⁷  and experienced ²⁸  decay, 13:37 but the one ²⁹  whom God raised up did not experience ³⁰  decay.

[16:10]  ¹ tn Or “my life.” The suffixed form of נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “being”) is often equivalent to a pronoun in poetic texts.

[16:10]  ² sn In ancient Israelite cosmology Sheol is the realm of the dead, viewed as being under the earth’s surface. See L. I. J. Stadelmann, The Hebrew Conception of the World, 165-76.

[16:10]  ³ tn A “faithful follower” (חָסִיד [khasid], traditionally rendered “holy one”) is one who does what is right in God’s eyes and remains faithful to God (see Pss 4:3; 12:1; 18:25; 31:23; 37:28; 86:2; 97:10). The psalmist here refers to himself, as the parallel line (“You will not abandon me to Sheol”) indicates.

[16:10]  ⁴ tn That is, “experience.” The psalmist is confident that the Lord will protect him in his present crisis (see v. 1) and prevent him from dying.

[16:10]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew word שָׁחַת (shakhat, “pit”) is often used as a title for Sheol (see Pss 30:9; 49:9; 55:24; 103:4). Note the parallelism with the previous line.

[38:17]  ⁶ tn Heb “Look, for peace bitterness was to me bitter”; NAB “thus is my bitterness transformed into peace.”

[38:17]  ⁷ tc The Hebrew text reads, “you loved my soul,” but this does not fit syntactically with the following prepositional phrase. חָשַׁקְתָּ (khashaqta, “you loved”), may reflect an aural error; most emend the form to חָשַׂכְת, (khasakht, “you held back”).

[38:17]  ⁸ tn בְּלִי (bÿli) most often appears as a negation, meaning “without,” suggesting the meaning “nothingness, oblivion,” here. Some translate “decay” or “destruction.”

[38:17]  ⁹ tn Heb “for you threw behind your back all my sins.”

[13:33]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “that this”; the referent (the promise mentioned in the previous verse) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[13:33]  ¹¹ tn Or “by resurrecting.” The participle ἀναστήσας (anasthsa") is taken as instrumental here.

[13:33]  ¹² sn You are my Son. The key to how the quotation is used is the naming of Jesus as “Son” to the Father. The language is that of kingship, as Ps 2 indicates. Here is the promise about what the ultimate Davidic heir would be.

[13:33]  ¹³ tn Grk “I have begotten you.” The traditional translation for γεγέννηκα (gegennhka, “begotten”) is misleading to the modern English reader because it is no longer in common use. Today one speaks of “fathering” a child in much the same way speakers of English formerly spoke of “begetting a child.”

[13:34]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[13:34]  ¹⁵ tn Although μηκέτι (mhketi) can mean “no longer” or “no more,” the latter is more appropriate here, since to translate “no longer” in this context could give the reader the impression that Jesus did experience decay before his resurrection. Since the phrase “no more again to be” is somewhat awkward in English, the simpler phrase “never again to be” was used instead.

[13:34]  ¹⁶ tn The translation “to be in again” for ὑποστρέφω (Jupostrefw) is given in L&N 13.24.

[13:34]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[13:34]  ¹⁸ tn The pronoun “you” is plural here. The promises of David are offered to the people.

[13:34]  ¹⁹ tn Or “the trustworthy decrees made by God to David.” The phrase τὰ ὅσια Δαυὶδ τὰ πιστά (ta Josia Dauid ta pista) is “compressed,” that is, in a very compact or condensed form. It could be expanded in several different ways. BDAG 728 s.v. ὅσιος 3 understands it to refer to divine decrees: “I will grant you the sure decrees of God relating to David.” BDAG then states that this quotation from Isa 55:3 is intended to show that the following quotation from Ps 16:10 could not refer to David himself, but must refer to his messianic descendant (Jesus). L&N 33.290 render the phrase “I will give to you the divine promises made to David, promises that can be trusted,” although they also note that τὰ ὅσια in Acts 13:34 can mean “divine decrees” or “decrees made by God.” In contemporary English it is less awkward to translate πιστά as an adjective (“trustworthy”). The concept of “divine decrees,” not very understandable to the modern reader, has been replaced by “promises,” and since God is the implied speaker in the context, it is clear that these promises were made by God.

[13:34]  ²⁰ sn A quotation from Isa 55:3. The point of this citation is to make clear that the promise of a Davidic line and blessings are made to the people as well.

[13:35]  ²¹ tn Grk “Therefore he also says in another”; the word “psalm” is not in the Greek text but is implied.

[13:35]  ²² tn The Greek word translated “Holy One” here (ὅσιόν, {osion) is related to the use of ὅσια (Josia) in v. 34. The link is a wordplay. The Holy One, who does not die, brings the faithful holy blessings of promise to the people.

[13:35]  ²³ tn Grk “to see,” but the literal translation of the phrase “to see decay” could be misunderstood to mean simply “to look at decay,” while here “see decay” is really figurative for “experience decay.”

[13:35]  ²⁴ sn A quotation from Ps 16:10.

[13:36]  ²⁵ tn The participle ὑπηρετήσας (Juphrethsa") is taken temporally.

[13:36]  ²⁶ tn The verb κοιμάω (koimaw) literally means “sleep,” but it is often used in the Bible as a euphemism for the death of a believer.

[13:36]  ²⁷ tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “was gathered to his fathers” (a Semitic idiom).

[13:36]  ²⁸ tn Grk “saw,” but the literal translation of the phrase “saw decay” could be misunderstood to mean simply “looked at decay,” while here “saw decay” is really figurative for “experienced decay.” This remark explains why David cannot fulfill the promise.

[13:37]  ²⁹ sn The one whom God raised up refers to Jesus.

[13:37]  ³⁰ tn Grk “see,” but the literal translation of the phrase “did not see decay” could be misunderstood to mean simply “did not look at decay,” while here “did not see decay” is really figurative for “did not experience decay.”