Psalms 37:6

37:6 He will vindicate you in broad daylight,

and publicly defend your just cause. ¹ 

Isaiah 42:3-4

42:3 A crushed reed he will not break,

a dim wick he will not extinguish; ² 

he will faithfully make just decrees. ³ 

42:4 He will not grow dim or be crushed ⁴ 

before establishing justice on the earth;

the coastlands ⁵  will wait in anticipation for his decrees.” ⁶ 

Micah 7:9

7:9 I must endure ⁷  the Lord’s anger,

for I have sinned against him.

But then ⁸  he will defend my cause, ⁹ 

and accomplish justice on my behalf.

He will lead me out into the light;

I will experience firsthand ¹⁰  his deliverance. ¹¹ 

Luke 12:2

12:2 Nothing is hidden ¹²  that will not be revealed, ¹³  and nothing is secret that will not be made known.

Romans 2:5

2:5 But because of your stubbornness ¹⁴  and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourselves in the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment is revealed! ¹⁵ 

Romans 2:1

The Condemnation of the Moralist

2:1 ¹⁶ Therefore ¹⁷  you are without excuse, ¹⁸  whoever you are, ¹⁹  when you judge someone else. ²⁰  For on whatever grounds ²¹  you judge another, you condemn yourself, because you who judge practice the same things.

Colossians 4:5

4:5 Conduct yourselves ²²  with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunities.

[37:6]  ¹ tn Heb “and he will bring out like light your vindication, and your just cause like noonday.”

[42:3]  ² sn The “crushed reed” and “dim wick” symbolize the weak and oppressed who are on the verge of extinction.

[42:3]  ³ tn Heb “faithfully he will bring out justice” (cf. NASB, NRSV).

[42:4]  ⁴ tn For rhetorical effect the terms used to describe the “crushed (רָצַץ, ratsats) reed” and “dim (כָּהָה, kahah) wick” in v. 3 are repeated here.

[42:4]  ⁵ tn Or “islands” (NIV); NLT “distant lands beyond the sea.”

[42:4]  ⁶ tn Or “his law” (KJV, ASV, NASB, NIV) or “his instruction” (NLT).

[7:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “lift, bear.”

[7:9]  ⁸ tn Heb “until.”

[7:9]  ⁹ tn Or “plead my case” (NASB and NIV both similar); NRSV “until he takes my side.”

[7:9]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “see.”

[7:9]  ¹¹ tn Or “justice, vindication.”

[12:2]  ¹² tn Or “concealed.”

[12:2]  ¹³ sn I.e., be revealed by God. The passive voice verbs here (“be revealed,” be made known”) see the revelation as coming from God. The text is both a warning about bad things being revealed and an encouragement that good things will be made known, though the stress with the images of darkness and what is hidden in vv. 2-3 is on the attempt to conceal.

[2:5]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “hardness.” Concerning this imagery, see Jer 4:4; Ezek 3:7; 1 En. 16:3.

[2:5]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.”

[2:1]  ¹⁶ sn Rom 2:1-29 presents unusual difficulties for the interpreter. There have been several major approaches to the chapter and the group(s) it refers to: (1) Rom 2:14 refers to Gentile Christians, not Gentiles who obey the Jewish law. (2) Paul in Rom 2 is presenting a hypothetical viewpoint: If anyone could obey the law, that person would be justified, but no one can. (3) The reference to “the ones who do the law” in 2:13 are those who “do” the law in the right way, on the basis of faith, not according to Jewish legalism. (4) Rom 2:13 only speaks about Christians being judged in the future, along with such texts as Rom 14:10 and 2 Cor 5:10. (5) Paul’s material in Rom 2 is drawn heavily from Diaspora Judaism, so that the treatment of the law presented here cannot be harmonized with other things Paul says about the law elsewhere (E. P. Sanders, Paul, the Law, and the Jewish People, 123); another who sees Rom 2 as an example of Paul’s inconsistency in his treatment of the law is H. Räisänen, Paul and the Law [WUNT], 101-9. (6) The list of blessings and curses in Deut 27–30 provide the background for Rom 2; the Gentiles of 2:14 are Gentile Christians, but the condemnation of Jews in 2:17-24 addresses the failure of Jews as a nation to keep the law as a whole (A. Ito, “Romans 2: A Deuteronomistic Reading,” JSNT 59 [1995]: 21-37).

[2:1]  ¹⁷ tn Some interpreters (e.g., C. K. Barrett, Romans [HNTC], 43) connect the inferential Διό (dio, “therefore”) with 1:32a, treating 1:32b as a parenthetical comment by Paul.

[2:1]  ¹⁸ tn That is, “you have nothing to say in your own defense” (so translated by TCNT).

[2:1]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “O man.”

[2:1]  ²⁰ tn Grk “Therefore, you are without excuse, O man, everyone [of you] who judges.”

[2:1]  ²¹ tn Grk “in/by (that) which.”

[4:5]  ²² tn Grk “walk.” The verb περιπατέω (peripatew) is a common NT idiom for one’s lifestyle, behavior, or manner of conduct (L&N 41.11).