Psalms 73:28

73:28 But as for me, God’s presence is all I need. ¹ 

I have made the sovereign Lord my shelter,

as ²  I declare all the things you have done.

Jeremiah 30:21

30:21 One of their own people will be their leader.

Their ruler will come from their own number. ³ 

I will invite him to approach me, and he will do so. ⁴ 

For no one would dare approach me on his own. ⁵ 

I, the Lord, affirm it! ⁶ 

Hebrews 10:22

10:22 let us draw near with a sincere heart in the assurance that faith brings, ⁷  because we have had our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience ⁸  and our bodies washed in pure water.

James 5:17

5:17 Elijah was a human being ⁹  like us, and he prayed earnestly ¹⁰  that it would not rain and there was no rain on the land for three years and six months!

[73:28]  ¹ tn Heb “but as for me, the nearness of God for me [is] good.”

[73:28]  ² tn The infinitive construct with -לְ (lÿ) is understood here as indicating an attendant circumstance. Another option is to take it as indicating purpose (“so that I might declare”) or result (“with the result that I declare”).

[30:21]  ³ sn The statement their ruler will come from their own number accords with the regulation in Deut 17:15. They would not be ruled by a foreign leader but by one of their own people. In v. 9 he is specifically said to come from the Davidic line. See the study note there.

[30:21]  ⁴ sn Ordinarily this prerogative was confined to the priests and the Levites and even then under strict regulations (cf., e.g., Num 8:19; 16:10; Lev 16:10; 21:17; 22:3). Uzziah king of Judah violated this and suffered leprosy for having done so (2 Chr 26:16-20). It is clear, however, that both David and Solomon on occasion exercised priestly functions in the presence of the ark or the altar which it was normally lawful for only the priests to approach (cf., e.g., 2 Sam 6:13-14; 1 Kgs 8:22, 54-55). Here reference is probably not to the normal prerogatives of offering sacrifice or burning incense but access to God’s special presence at special times for the purpose of consultation.

[30:21]  ⁵ tn Heb “For who is he who would pledge his heart to draw near to me.” The question is a rhetorical one expecting the answer “no one” and is a way of expressing an emphatic negative (see BDB 566 s.v. מִי f[c]). The concept of “pledging” something refers to putting up security in guarantee of payment. Here the word is used figuratively of “putting up one’s heart [i.e., his very being (cf. BDB 524 s.v. לֵב 7 and Ps 22:26)]” for the privilege of access to God. The rhetorical question denies that any one would do that if he were not bidden by God to do so.

[30:21]  ⁶ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[10:22]  ⁷ tn Grk “in assurance of faith.”

[10:22]  ⁸ sn The phrase our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience combines the OT imagery of the sprinkling with blood to give ritual purity with the emphasis on the interior cleansing provided by the new covenant: It is the heart that is cleansed and the conscience made perfect (cf. Heb 8:10; 9:9, 14; 10:2, 16).

[5:17]  ⁹ tn Although it is certainly true that Elijah was a “man,” here ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") has been translated as “human being” because the emphasis in context is not on Elijah’s masculine gender, but on the common humanity he shared with the author and the readers.

[5:17]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “he prayed with prayer” (using a Hebrew idiom to show intensity).