Psalms 119:22

119:22 Spare me ¹  shame and humiliation,

for I observe your rules.

Psalms 119:146

119:146 I cried out to you, “Deliver me,

so that I can keep ²  your rules.”

Psalms 25:10

25:10 The Lord always proves faithful and reliable ³ 

to those who follow the demands of his covenant. ⁴ 

Psalms 105:45

105:45 so that they might keep his commands

and obey ⁵  his laws.

Praise the Lord!

Deuteronomy 6:17

6:17 Keep his ⁶  commandments very carefully, ⁷  as well as the stipulations and statutes he commanded you to observe.

Deuteronomy 6:1

Exhortation to Keep the Covenant Principles

6:1 Now these are the commandments, ⁸  statutes, and ordinances that the Lord your God instructed me to teach you so that you may carry them out in the land where you are headed ⁹ 

Deuteronomy 2:3

2:3 “You have circled around this mountain long enough; now turn north.

Proverbs 23:26

23:26 Give me your heart, my son, ¹⁰ 

and let your eyes observe my ways;

Ezekiel 36:27

36:27 I will put my Spirit within you; ¹¹  I will take the initiative and you will obey my statutes ¹²  and carefully observe my regulations. ¹³ 

John 14:23

14:23 Jesus replied, ¹⁴  “If anyone loves me, he will obey ¹⁵  my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and take up residence with him. ¹⁶ 

John 14:1

Jesus’ Parting Words to His Disciples

14:1 “Do not let your hearts be distressed. ¹⁷  You believe in God; ¹⁸  believe also in me.

John 3:20

3:20 For everyone who does evil deeds hates the light and does not come to the light, so that their deeds will not be exposed.

[119:22]  ¹ tn Heb “roll away from upon me.” Some derive the imperatival form גַּל (gal) from גָּלָה (galah, “uncover,” as in v. 18), but here the form is from גָּלַל (galal, “roll”; see Josh 5:9, where חֶרְפָּה [kherpah, “shame; reproach”] also appears as object of the verb). Some, following the lead of a Dead Sea scroll (11QPs^a), emend the form to גֹּל (gol).

[119:146]  ² tn The cohortative verbal form with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose/result after the preceding imperative.

[25:10]  ³ tn Heb “all the paths of the Lord are faithful and trustworthy.” The Lord’s “paths” refer here to his characteristic actions.

[25:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “to the ones who keep his covenant and his testimonies.”

[105:45]  ⁵ tn Heb “guard.”

[6:17]  ⁶ tn Heb “the commandments of the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[6:17]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute before the finite verb to emphasize the statement. The imperfect verbal form is used here with an obligatory nuance that can be captured in English through the imperative. Cf. NASB, NRSV “diligently keep (obey NLT).”

[6:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “commandment.” The word מִצְוָה (mitsvah) again is in the singular, serving as a comprehensive term for the whole stipulation section of the book. See note on the word “commandments” in 5:31.

[6:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “where you are going over to possess it” (so NASB); NRSV “that you are about to cross into and occupy.”

[23:26]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “my son”; the reference to a “son” is retained in the translation here because in the following lines the advice is to avoid women who are prostitutes.

[36:27]  ¹¹ tn Or “in the midst of you.” The word “you” is plural.

[36:27]  ¹² tn Heb “and I will do that which in my statutes you will walk.” The awkward syntax (verb “to do, act” + accusative sign + relative clause + prepositional phrase + second person verb) is unique, though Eccl 3:14 contains a similar construction. In the last line of that verse we read that “God acts so that (relative pronoun) they fear before him.” However, unlike Ezek 36:27, the statement has no accusative sign before the relative pronoun.

[36:27]  ¹³ tn Heb “and my laws you will guard and you will do them.” Jer 31:31-34 is parallel to this passage.

[14:23]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “answered and said to him.”

[14:23]  ¹⁵ tn Or “will keep.”

[14:23]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “we will come to him and will make our dwelling place with him.” The context here is individual rather than corporate indwelling, so the masculine singular pronoun has been retained throughout v. 23. It is important to note, however, that the pronoun is used generically here and refers equally to men, women, and children.

[14:1]  ¹⁷ sn The same verb is used to describe Jesus’ own state in John 11:33, 12:27, and 13:21. Jesus is looking ahead to the events of the evening and the next day, his arrest, trials, crucifixion, and death, which will cause his disciples extreme emotional distress.

[14:1]  ¹⁸ tn Or “Believe in God.” The translation of the two uses of πιστεύετε (pisteuete) is difficult. Both may be either indicative or imperative, and as L. Morris points out (John [NICNT], 637), this results in a bewildering variety of possibilities. To complicate matters further, the first may be understood as a question: “Do you believe in God? Believe also in me.” Morris argues against the KJV translation which renders the first πιστεύετε as indicative and the second as imperative on the grounds that for the writer of the Fourth Gospel, faith in Jesus is inseparable from faith in God. But this is precisely the point that Jesus is addressing in context. He is about to undergo rejection by his own people as their Messiah. The disciples’ faith in him as Messiah and Lord would be cast into extreme doubt by these events, which the author makes clear were not at this time foreseen by the disciples. After the resurrection it is this identification between Jesus and the Father which needs to be reaffirmed (cf. John 20:24-29). Thus it seems best to take the first πιστεύετε as indicative and the second as imperative, producing the translation “You believe in God; believe also in me.”