Psalms 35:13

35:13 When they were sick, I wore sackcloth, ¹ 

and refrained from eating food. ² 

(If I am lying, may my prayers go unanswered!) ³ 

Psalms 69:10

69:10 I weep and refrain from eating food, ⁴ 

which causes others to insult me. ⁵ 

Isaiah 58:3

58:3 They lament, ⁶  ‘Why don’t you notice when we fast?

Why don’t you pay attention when we humble ourselves?’

Look, at the same time you fast, you satisfy your selfish desires, ⁷ 

you oppress your workers. ⁸ 

Isaiah 58:5

58:5 Is this really the kind of fasting I want? ⁹ 

Do I want a day when people merely humble themselves, ¹⁰ 

bowing their heads like a reed

and stretching out ¹¹  on sackcloth and ashes?

Is this really what you call a fast,

a day that is pleasing to the Lord?

Daniel 10:3

10:3 I ate no choice food; no meat or wine came to my lips, ¹²  nor did I anoint myself with oil ¹³  until the end of those three weeks.

Daniel 10:12

10:12 Then he said to me, “Don’t be afraid, Daniel, for from the very first day you applied your mind ¹⁴  to understand and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard. I have come in response to your words.

Daniel 10:1

An Angel Appears to Daniel

10:1 ¹⁵ In the third ¹⁶  year of King Cyrus of Persia a message was revealed to Daniel (who was also called Belteshazzar). This message was true and concerned a great war. ¹⁷  He understood the message and gained insight by the vision.

Colossians 1:1-2

Salutation

1:1 From Paul, ¹⁸  an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, 1:2 to the saints, the faithful ¹⁹  brothers and sisters ²⁰  in Christ, at Colossae. Grace and peace to you ²¹  from God our Father! ²² 

Colossians 1:10-11

1:10 so that you may live ²³  worthily of the Lord and please him in all respects ²⁴  – bearing fruit in every good deed, growing in the knowledge of God, 1:11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for the display of ²⁵  all patience and steadfastness, joyfully

[35:13]  ¹ tn Heb “as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth.” Sackcloth was worn by mourners. When the psalmist’s enemies were sick, he was sorry for their misfortune and mourned for them.

[35:13]  ² sn Fasting was also a practice of mourners. By refraining from normal activities, such as eating food, the mourner demonstrated the sincerity of his sorrow.

[35:13]  ³ tn Heb “and my prayer upon my chest will return.” One could translate, “but my prayer was returning upon my chest,” but the use of the imperfect verbal form sets this line apart from the preceding and following lines (vv. 13a, 14), which use the perfect to describe the psalmist’s past actions.

[69:10]  ⁴ sn Fasting was a practice of mourners. By refraining from normal activities such as eating food, the mourner demonstrated the sincerity of his sorrow.

[69:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “and it becomes insults to me.”

[58:3]  ⁶ tn The words “they lament” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[58:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “you find pleasure”; NASB “you find your desire.”

[58:3]  ⁸ tn Or perhaps, “debtors.” See HALOT 865 s.v. * עָצֵב.

[58:5]  ⁹ tn Heb “choose” (so NASB, NRSV); NAB “wish.”

[58:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “a day when man humbles himself.” The words “Do I want” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[58:5]  ¹¹ tn Or “making [their] bed.”

[10:3]  ¹² tn Heb “mouth.”

[10:3]  ¹³ sn Anointing oneself with oil (usually olive oil) was a common OT practice due to the severity of the Middle Eastern sun (cf. Ps 121:6). It was also associated with rejoicing (e.g., Prov 27:9) and was therefore usually not practiced during a period of mourning.

[10:12]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “gave your heart.”

[10:1]  ¹⁵ sn This chapter begins the final unit in the book of Daniel, consisting of chapters 10-12. The traditional chapter divisions to some extent obscure the relationship of these chapters.

[10:1]  ¹⁶ tc The LXX has “first.”

[10:1]  ¹⁷ tn The meaning of the Hebrew word צָבָא (tsava’) is uncertain in this context. The word most often refers to an army or warfare. It may also mean “hard service,” and many commentators take that to be the sense here (i.e., “the service was great”). The present translation assumes the reference to be to the spiritual conflicts described, for example, in 10:16–11:1.

[1:1]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “Paul.” The word “from” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.

[1:2]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “and faithful.” The construction in Greek (as well as Paul’s style) suggests that the saints are identical to the faithful; hence, the καί (kai) is best left untranslated (cf. Eph 1:1). See ExSyn 281-82.

[1:2]  ²⁰ tn Grk “brothers,” but the Greek word may be used for “brothers and sisters” or “fellow Christians” as here (cf. BDAG 18 s.v. ἀδελφός 1, where considerable nonbiblical evidence for the plural ἀδελφοί [adelfoi] meaning “brothers and sisters” is cited).

[1:2]  ²¹ tn Or “Grace to you and peace.”

[1:2]  ²² tc Most witnesses, including some important ones (א A C F G I [P] 075 Ï it bo), read “and the Lord Jesus Christ” at the end of this verse, no doubt to conform the wording to the typical Pauline salutation. However, excellent and early witnesses (B D K L Ψ 33 81 1175 1505 1739 1881 al sa) lack this phrase. Since the omission is inexplicable as arising from the longer reading (otherwise, these mss would surely have deleted the phrase in the rest of the corpus Paulinum), it is surely authentic.

[1:10]  ²³ tn The infinitive περιπατῆσαι (peripathsai, “to walk, to live, to live one’s life”) is best taken as an infinitive of purpose related to “praying” (προσευχόμενοι, proseucomenoi) and “asking” (αἰτούμενοι, aitoumenoi) in v. 9 and is thus translated as “that you may live.”

[1:10]  ²⁴ tn BDAG 129 s.v. ἀρεσκεία states that ἀρεσκείαν (areskeian) refers to a “desire to please εἰς πᾶσαν ἀ. to please (the Lord) in all respects Col 1:10.”

[1:11]  ²⁵ tn The expression “for the display of” is an attempt to convey in English the force of the Greek preposition εἰς (eis) in this context.