Psalms 45:6

45:6 Your throne, ¹  O God, is permanent. ² 

The scepter ³  of your kingdom is a scepter of justice.

Psalms 89:35-37

89:35 Once and for all I have vowed by my own holiness,

I will never deceive ⁴  David.

89:36 His dynasty will last forever. ⁵ 

His throne will endure before me, like the sun, ⁶ 

89:37 it will remain stable, like the moon, ⁷ 

his throne will endure like the skies.” ⁸  (Selah)

Daniel 2:44

2:44 In the days of those kings the God of heaven will raise up an everlasting kingdom that will not be destroyed and a kingdom that will not be left to another people. It will break in pieces and bring about the demise of all these kingdoms. But it will stand forever.

Daniel 7:13-14

7:13 I was watching in the night visions,

“And with ⁹  the clouds of the sky ¹⁰ 

one like a son of man ¹¹  was approaching.

He went up to the Ancient of Days

and was escorted ¹²  before him.

7:14 To him was given ruling authority, honor, and sovereignty.

All peoples, nations, and language groups were serving ¹³  him.

His authority is eternal and will not pass away. ¹⁴ 

His kingdom will not be destroyed. ¹⁵ 

Daniel 7:27

7:27 Then the kingdom, authority,

and greatness of the kingdoms under all of heaven

will be delivered to the people of the holy ones ¹⁶  of the Most High.

His kingdom is an eternal kingdom;

all authorities will serve him and obey him.’

Obadiah 1:21

1:21 Those who have been delivered ¹⁷  will go up on Mount Zion

in order to rule over ¹⁸  Esau’s mountain.

Then the Lord will reign as King! ¹⁹ 

Micah 4:7

4:7 I will transform the lame into the nucleus of a new nation, ²⁰ 

and those far off ²¹  into a mighty nation.

The Lord will reign over them on Mount Zion,

from that day forward and forevermore.” ²² 

Micah 4:1

Better Days Ahead for Jerusalem

4:1 In the future ²³  the Lord’s Temple Mount will be the most important mountain of all; ²⁴ 

it will be more prominent than other hills. ²⁵ 

People will stream to it.

Colossians 1:24-25

1:24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I fill up in my physical body – for the sake of his body, the church – what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ. 1:25 I became a servant of the church according to the stewardship ²⁶  from God – given to me for you – in order to complete ²⁷  the word of God,

Hebrews 1:8

1:8 but of ²⁸  the Son he says, ²⁹ 

“Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, ³⁰ 

and a righteous scepter ³¹  is the scepter of your kingdom.

Revelation 11:15

The Seventh Trumpet

11:15 Then ³²  the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven saying:

“The kingdom of the world

has become the kingdom of our Lord

and of his Christ, ³³ 

and he will reign for ever and ever.”

Revelation 20:4-6

20:4 Then ³⁴  I saw thrones and seated on them were those who had been given authority to judge. ³⁵  I also saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of the testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God. These ³⁶  had not worshiped the beast or his image and had refused to receive his mark on their forehead or hand. They ³⁷  came to life ³⁸  and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. 20:5 (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were finished.) ³⁹  This is the first resurrection. 20:6 Blessed and holy is the one who takes part ⁴⁰  in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, ⁴¹  but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.

Revelation 22:3-5

22:3 And there will no longer be any curse, ⁴²  and the throne of God and the Lamb will be in the city. ⁴³  His ⁴⁴  servants ⁴⁵  will worship ⁴⁶  him, 22:4 and they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 22:5 Night will be no more, and they will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, because the Lord God will shine on them, and they will reign forever and ever.

[45:6]  ¹ sn The king’s throne here symbolizes his rule.

[45:6]  ² tn Or “forever and ever.”

[45:6]  ³ sn The king’s scepter symbolizes his royal authority.

[89:35]  ⁴ tn Or “lie to.”

[89:36]  ⁵ tn Heb “his offspring forever will be.”

[89:36]  ⁶ tn Heb “and his throne like the sun before me.”

[89:37]  ⁷ tn Heb “like the moon it will be established forever.”

[89:37]  ⁸ tn Heb “and a witness in the sky, secure.” Scholars have offered a variety of opinions as to the identity of the “witness” referred to here, none of which is very convincing. It is preferable to join וְעֵד (vÿ’ed) to עוֹלָם (’olam) in the preceding line and translate the commonly attested phrase עוֹלָם וְעֵד (“forever”). In this case one may translate the second line, “[it] will be secure like the skies.” Another option (the one reflected in the present translation) is to take עד as a rare noun meaning “throne” or “dais.” This noun is attested in Ugaritic; see, for example, CTA 16 vi 22-23, where ksi (= כִּסֵּא, kisse’, “throne”) and ’d (= עד, “dais”) appear as synonyms in the poetic parallelism (see G. R. Driver, Canaanite Myths and Legends, 91). Emending בַּשַּׁחַק (bashakhaq, “in the heavens”) to כַּשַׁחַק (kashakhaq, “like the heavens”) – bet/kaf (כ/ב) confusion is widely attested – one can then read “[his] throne like the heavens [is] firm/stable.” Verse 29 refers to the enduring nature of the heavens, while Job 37:18 speaks of God spreading out the heavens (שְׁחָקִים, shÿkhaqim) and compares their strength to a bronze mirror. Ps 89:29 uses the term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim, “skies”) which frequently appears in parallelism to שְׁחָקִים.

[7:13]  ⁹ tc The LXX has ἐπί (epi, “upon”) here (cf. Matt 24:30; 26:64). Theodotion has μετά (meta, “with”) here (cf. Mark 14:62; Rev 1:7).

[7:13]  ¹⁰ tn Or “the heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.

[7:13]  ¹¹ sn This text is probably the main OT background for Jesus’ use of the term “son of man.” In both Jewish and Christian circles the reference in the book of Daniel has traditionally been understood to refer to an individual, usually in a messianic sense. Many modern scholars, however, understand the reference to have a corporate identity. In this view, the “son of man” is to be equated with the “holy ones” (vv. 18, 21, 22, 25) or the “people of the holy ones” (v. 27) and understood as a reference to the Jewish people. Others understand Daniel’s reference to be to the angel Michael.

[7:13]  ¹² tn Aram “they brought him near.”

[7:14]  ¹³ tn Some take “serving” here in the sense of “worshiping.”

[7:14]  ¹⁴ tn Aram “is an eternal authority which will not pass away.”

[7:14]  ¹⁵ tn Aram “is one which will not be destroyed.”

[7:27]  ¹⁶ tn If the “holy ones” are angels, then this probably refers to the angels as protectors of God’s people. If the “holy ones” are God’s people, then this is an appositional construction, “the people who are the holy ones.” See 8:24 for the corresponding Hebrew phrase and the note there.

[1:21]  ¹⁷ tc The present translation follows the reading מוּשָׁעִים (musha’im, “those who have been delivered”; cf. NRSV, CEV) rather than מוֹשִׁעִים (moshi’im,“deliverers”; cf. NASB, NIV, NLT) of the MT (cf. LXX, Aquila, Theodotion, and Syriac).

[1:21]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “to judge.” In this context the term does not mean “to render judgment on,” but “to rule over” (cf. NAB “to rule”; NIV “to govern”).

[1:21]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “then the kingdom will belong to the Lord.”

[4:7]  ²⁰ tn Heb “make the lame into a remnant.”

[4:7]  ²¹ tn The precise meaning of this difficult form is uncertain. The present translation assumes the form is a Niphal participle of an otherwise unattested denominative verb הָלָא (hala’, “to be far off”; see BDB 229 s.v.), but attractive emendations include הַנַּחֲלָה (hannakhalah, “the sick one[s]”) from חָלָה (khalah) and הַנִּלְאָה (hannil’ah, “the weary one[s]”) from לָאָה (la’ah).

[4:7]  ²² tn Heb “from now until forever.”

[4:1]  ²³ tn Heb “at the end of days.”

[4:1]  ²⁴ tn Heb “will be established as the head of the mountains.”

[4:1]  ²⁵ tn Heb “it will be lifted up above the hills.”

[1:25]  ²⁶ tn BDAG 697 s.v. οἰκονομία 1.b renders the term here as “divine office.”

[1:25]  ²⁷ tn See BDAG 828 s.v. πληρόω 3. The idea here seems to be that the apostle wants to “complete the word of God” in that he wants to preach it to every person in the known world (cf. Rom 15:19). See P. T. O’Brien, Colossians, Philemon (WBC), 82.

[1:8]  ²⁸ tn Or “to.”

[1:8]  ²⁹ tn The verb “he says” (λέγει, legei) is implied from the λέγει of v. 7.

[1:8]  ³⁰ tn Or possibly, “Your throne is God forever and ever.” This translation is quite doubtful, however, since (1) in the context the Son is being contrasted to the angels and is presented as far better than they. The imagery of God being the Son’s throne would seem to be of God being his authority. If so, in what sense could this not be said of the angels? In what sense is the Son thus contrasted with the angels? (2) The μέν…δέ (men…de) construction that connects v. 7 with v. 8 clearly lays out this contrast: “On the one hand, he says of the angels…on the other hand, he says of the Son.” Thus, although it is grammatically possible that θεός (qeos) in v. 8 should be taken as a predicate nominative, the context and the correlative conjunctions are decidedly against it. Hebrews 1:8 is thus a strong affirmation of the deity of Christ.

[1:8]  ³¹ tn Grk “the righteous scepter,” but used generically.

[11:15]  ³² tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.

[11:15]  ³³ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

[20:4]  ³⁴ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.

[20:4]  ³⁵ tn Grk “I saw thrones, and those seated on them, and judgment was given to them.” BDAG 567 s.v. κρίμα 3 says, “judging, judgment, the κρίμα ἐδόθη αὐτοῖς authority to judge was given to them Rv 20:4.”

[20:4]  ³⁶ tn Grk “God, and who.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation by supplying the pronoun “these” as subject.

[20:4]  ³⁷ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[20:4]  ³⁸ tn On the use of the aorist ἔζησαν (ezhsan) BDAG 425 s.v. ζάω 1.a.β says, “of dead persons who return to life become alive again: of humans in general (3 Km 17:23) Mt 9:18; Ac 9:41; 20:12; Rv 20:4, 5.”

[20:5]  ³⁹ sn This statement appears to be a parenthetical comment by the author.

[20:6]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “who has a share.”

[20:6]  ⁴¹ tn The shift from the singular pronoun (“the one”) to the plural (“them”) in the passage reflects the Greek text: The singular participle ὁ ἔχων (Jo ecwn) is followed by the plural pronoun τούτων (toutwn). In the interests of English style, this is obscured in most modern translations except the NASB.

[22:3]  ⁴² tn Or “be anything accursed” (L&N 33.474).

[22:3]  ⁴³ tn Grk “in it”; the referent (the city, the new Jerusalem) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[22:3]  ⁴⁴ tn Grk “city, and his.” Although this is a continuation of the previous sentence in Greek, a new sentence was started here in the translation because of the introduction of the Lamb’s followers.

[22:3]  ⁴⁵ tn See the note on the word “servants” in 1:1.

[22:3]  ⁴⁶ tn Or “will serve.”