Psalms 16:2-3

16:2 I say to the Lord, “You are the Lord,

my only source of well-being.” ¹ 

16:3 As for God’s chosen people who are in the land,

and the leading officials I admired so much ²  –

Romans 2:4

2:4 Or do you have contempt for the wealth of his kindness, forbearance, and patience, and yet do not know ³  that God’s kindness leads you to repentance?

Romans 15:14

Paul’s Motivation for Writing the Letter

15:14 But I myself am fully convinced about you, my brothers and sisters, ⁴  that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to instruct one another.

Romans 15:1

Exhortation for the Strong to Help the Weak

15:1 But we who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak, and not just please ourselves. ⁵ 

Romans 2:25

2:25 For circumcision ⁶  has its value if you practice the law, but ⁷  if you break the law, ⁸  your circumcision has become uncircumcision.

Romans 2:3

2:3 And do you think, ⁹  whoever you are, when you judge ¹⁰  those who practice such things and yet do them yourself, ¹¹  that you will escape God’s judgment?

Romans 1:11

1:11 For I long to see you, so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift ¹²  to strengthen you,

[16:2]  ¹ tn Heb “my good [is] not beyond you.” For the use of the preposition עַל (’al) in the sense of “beyond,” see BDB 755 s.v. 2.

[16:3]  ² tn Heb “regarding the holy ones who [are] in the land, they; and the mighty [ones] in [whom is/was] all my desire.” The difficult syntax makes the meaning of the verse uncertain. The phrase “holy ones” sometimes refers to God’s angelic assembly (see Ps 89:5, 7), but the qualifying clause “who are in the land” suggests that here it refers to God’s people (Ps 34:9) or to their priestly leaders (2 Chr 35:3).

[2:4]  ³ tn Grk “being unaware.”

[15:14]  ⁴ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:13.

[15:1]  ⁵ tn Grk “and not please ourselves.” NT Greek negatives used in contrast like this are often not absolute, but relative: “not so much one as the other.”

[2:25]  ⁶ sn Circumcision refers to male circumcision as prescribed in the OT, which was given as a covenant to Abraham in Gen 17:10-14. Its importance for Judaism can hardly be overstated: According to J. D. G. Dunn (Romans [WBC], 1:120) it was the “single clearest distinguishing feature of the covenant people.” J. Marcus has suggested that the terms used for circumcision (περιτομή, peritomh) and uncircumcision (ἀκροβυστία, akrobustia) were probably derogatory slogans used by Jews and Gentiles to describe their opponents (“The Circumcision and the Uncircumcision in Rome,” NTS 35 [1989]: 77-80).

[2:25]  ⁷ tn This contrast is clearer and stronger in Greek than can be easily expressed in English.

[2:25]  ⁸ tn Grk “if you should be a transgressor of the law.”

[2:3]  ⁹ tn Grk “do you think this,” referring to the clause in v. 3b.

[2:3]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “O man, the one who judges.”

[2:3]  ¹¹ tn Grk “and do them.” The other words are supplied to bring out the contrast implied in this clause.

[1:11]  ¹² sn Paul does not mean here that he is going to bestow upon the Roman believers what is commonly known as a “spiritual gift,” that is, a special enabling for service given to believers by the Holy Spirit. Instead, this is either a metonymy of cause for effect (Paul will use his own spiritual gifts to edify the Romans), or it simply means something akin to a blessing or benefit in the spiritual realm. It is possible that Paul uses this phrase to connote specifically the broader purpose of his letter, which is for the Romans to understand his gospel, but this seems less likely.