Psalms 68:18

68:18 You ascend on high, ¹ 

you have taken many captives. ² 

You receive tribute ³  from ⁴  men,

including even sinful rebels.

Indeed the Lord God lives there! ⁵ 

Isaiah 14:2

14:2 Nations will take them and bring them back to their own place. Then the family of Jacob will make foreigners their servants as they settle in the Lord’s land. ⁶  They will make their captors captives and rule over the ones who oppressed them.

Isaiah 33:1

The Lord Will Restore Zion

33:1 The destroyer is as good as dead, ⁷ 

you who have not been destroyed!

The deceitful one is as good as dead, ⁸ 

the one whom others have not deceived!

When you are through destroying, you will be destroyed;

when you finish ⁹  deceiving, others will deceive you!

Isaiah 49:24-26

49:24 Can spoils be taken from a warrior,

or captives be rescued from a conqueror? ¹⁰ 

49:25 Indeed,” says the Lord,

“captives will be taken from a warrior;

spoils will be rescued from a conqueror.

I will oppose your adversary

and I will rescue your children.

49:26 I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh;

they will get drunk on their own blood, as if it were wine. ¹¹ 

Then all humankind ¹²  will recognize that

I am the Lord, your deliverer,

your protector, ¹³  the powerful ruler of Jacob.” ¹⁴ 

Ephesians 4:8

4:8 Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he captured ¹⁵  captives; he gave gifts to men.” ¹⁶ 

Ephesians 4:2

4:2 with all humility and gentleness, ¹⁷  with patience, bearing with ¹⁸  one another in love,

Ephesians 2:1

New Life Individually

2:1 And although you were ¹⁹  dead ²⁰  in your transgressions and sins,

[68:18]  ¹ tn Heb “to the elevated place”; or “on high.” This probably refers to the Lord’s throne on Mount Zion.

[68:18]  ² tn Heb “you have taken captives captive.”

[68:18]  ³ tn Or “gifts.”

[68:18]  ⁴ tn Or “among.”

[68:18]  ⁵ tn Heb “so that the Lord God might live [there].” Many take the infinitive construct with -לְ (lamed) as indicating purpose here, but it is unclear how the offering of tribute enables the Lord to live in Zion. This may be an occurrence of the relatively rare emphatic lamed (see HALOT 510-11 s.v. II לְ, though this text is not listed as an example there). If so, the statement corresponds nicely to the final line of v. 16, which also affirms emphatically that the Lord lives in Zion.

[14:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “and the house of Jacob will take possession of them [i.e., the nations], on the land of the Lord, as male servants and female servants.”

[33:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “Woe [to] the destroyer.”

[33:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “and the deceitful one”; NAB, NIV “O traitor”; NRSV “you treacherous one.” In the parallel structure הוֹי (hoy, “woe [to]”) does double duty.

[33:1]  ⁹ tc The form in the Hebrew text appears to derive from an otherwise unattested verb נָלָה (nalah). The translation follows the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a in reading ככלתך, a Piel infinitival form from the verbal root כָּלָה (kalah), meaning “finish.”

[49:24]  ¹⁰ tc The Hebrew text has צָדִיק (tsadiq, “a righteous [one]”), but this makes no sense in the parallelism. The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a reads correctly עריץ (“violent [one], tyrant”; see v. 25).

[49:26]  ¹¹ sn Verse 26a depicts siege warfare and bloody defeat. The besieged enemy will be so starved they will their own flesh. The bloodstained bodies lying on the blood-soaked battle site will look as if they collapsed in drunkenness.

[49:26]  ¹² tn Heb “flesh” (so KJV, NASB).

[49:26]  ¹³ tn Heb “your redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.

[49:26]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the powerful [one] of Jacob.” See 1:24.

[4:8]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “he led captive captivity.”

[4:8]  ¹⁶ sn A quotation which is perhaps ultimately derived from Ps 68:18. However, the wording here differs from that of Ps 68 in both the Hebrew text and the LXX in a few places, the most significant of which is reading “gave gifts to” in place of “received gifts from” as in HT and LXX. It has sometimes been suggested that the author of Ephesians modified the text he was citing in order to better support what he wanted to say here. Such modifications are sometimes found in rabbinic exegesis from this and later periods, but it is also possible that the author was simply citing a variant of Ps 68 known to him but which has not survived outside its quotation here (W. H. Harris, The Descent of Christ [AGJU 32], 104). Another possibility is that the words here, which strongly resemble Ps 68:19 HT and LXX (68:18 ET), are actually part of an early Christian hymn quoted by the author.

[4:2]  ¹⁷ tn Or “meekness.” The word is often used in Hellenistic Greek of the merciful execution of justice on behalf of those who have no voice by those who are in a position of authority (Matt 11:29; 21:5).

[4:2]  ¹⁸ tn Or “putting up with”; or “forbearing.”

[2:1]  ¹⁹ tn The adverbial participle “being” (ὄντας, ontas) is taken concessively.

[2:1]  ²⁰ sn Chapter 2 starts off with a participle, although you were dead, that is left dangling. The syntax in Greek for vv. 1-3 constitutes one incomplete sentence, though it seems to have been done intentionally. The dangling participle leaves the readers in suspense while they wait for the solution (in v. 4) to their spiritual dilemma.