Psalms 119:31

119:31 I hold fast ¹  to your rules.

O Lord, do not let me be ashamed!

Psalms 119:157

119:157 The enemies who chase me are numerous. ² 

Yet I do not turn aside from your rules.

Psalms 44:18

44:18 We have not been unfaithful, ³ 

nor have we disobeyed your commands. ⁴ 

Job 23:11

23:11 My feet ⁵  have followed ⁶  his steps closely;

I have kept to his way and have not turned aside. ⁷ 

Isaiah 38:3

38:3 “Please, Lord. Remember how I have served you ⁸  faithfully and with wholehearted devotion, ⁹  and how I have carried out your will.” ¹⁰  Then Hezekiah wept bitterly. ¹¹ 

Isaiah 42:4

42:4 He will not grow dim or be crushed ¹² 

before establishing justice on the earth;

the coastlands ¹³  will wait in anticipation for his decrees.” ¹⁴ 

Acts 20:23-24

20:23 except ¹⁵  that the Holy Spirit warns ¹⁶  me in town after town ¹⁷  that ¹⁸  imprisonment ¹⁹  and persecutions ²⁰  are waiting for me. 20:24 But I do not consider my life ²¹  worth anything ²²  to myself, so that ²³  I may finish my task ²⁴  and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the good news ²⁵  of God’s grace.

Hebrews 12:1-3

The Lord’s Discipline

12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, ²⁶  we must get rid of every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and run with endurance the race set out for us, 12:2 keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy set out for him he endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. ²⁷  12:3 Think of him who endured such opposition against himself by sinners, so that you may not grow weary in your souls and give up.

[119:31]  ¹ tn Or “cling to.”

[119:157]  ² tn Heb “many [are] those who chase me and my enemies.”

[44:18]  ³ tn Heb “our heart did not turn backward.” Cf. Ps 78:57.

[44:18]  ⁴ tn Heb “and our steps did [not] turn aside from your path.” The negative particle is understood by ellipsis (see the preceding line). God’s “path” refers to his commands, i.e., the moral pathway he has prescribed for the psalmist. See Pss 17:5; 25:4.

[23:11]  ⁵ tn Heb “my foot.”

[23:11]  ⁶ tn Heb “held fast.”

[23:11]  ⁷ tn The last clause, “and I have not turned aside,” functions adverbially in the sentence. The form אָט (’at) is a pausal form of אַתֶּה (’atteh), the Hiphil of נָטָה (natah, “stretch out”).

[38:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “walked before you.” For a helpful discussion of the background and meaning of this Hebrew idiom, see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 254.

[38:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “and with a complete heart”; KJV, ASV “with a perfect heart.”

[38:3]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and that which is good in your eyes I have done.”

[38:3]  ¹¹ tn Heb “wept with great weeping”; NCV “cried loudly”; TEV “began to cry bitterly.”

[42:4]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ tn Or “islands” (NIV); NLT “distant lands beyond the sea.”

[42:4]  ¹⁴ tn Or “his law” (KJV, ASV, NASB, NIV) or “his instruction” (NLT).

[20:23]  ¹⁵ tn BDAG 826 s.v. πλήν 1.d has “πλὴν ὅτι except that…Ac 20:23.”

[20:23]  ¹⁶ tn The verb διαμαρτύρομαι (diamarturomai) can mean “warn” (BDAG 233 s.v. διαμαρτύρομαι 2 has “solemnly urge, exhort, warn…w. dat. of pers. addressed”), and this meaning better fits the context here, although BDAG categorizes Acts 20:23 under the meaning “testify of, bear witness to” (s.v. 1).

[20:23]  ¹⁷ tn The Greek text here reads κατὰ πόλιν (kata polin).

[20:23]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “saying that,” but the participle λέγον (legon) is redundant in English and has not been translated.

[20:23]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “bonds.”

[20:23]  ²⁰ tn Or “troubles,” “suffering.” See Acts 19:21; 21:4, 11.

[20:24]  ²¹ tn Grk “soul.”

[20:24]  ²² tn Or “I do not consider my life worth a single word.” According to BDAG 599 s.v. λόγος 1.a.α, “In the textually uncertain pass. Ac 20:24 the text as it stands in N., οὐδενὸς λόγου (v.l. λόγον) ποιοῦμαι τὴν ψυχὴν τιμίαν, may well mean: I do not consider my life worth a single word (cp. λόγου ἄξιον [ἄξιος 1a] and our ‘worth mention’).”

[20:24]  ²³ tn BDAG 1106 s.v. ὡς 9 describes this use as “a final particle, expressing intention/purpose, with a view to, in order to.”

[20:24]  ²⁴ tn Grk “course.” See L&N 42.26, “(a figurative extension of meaning of δρόμος ‘race’) a task or function involving continuity, serious, effort, and possibly obligation – ‘task, mission’…Ac 20:24.” On this Pauline theme see also Phil 1:19-26; Col 1:24; 2 Tim 4:6-7.

[20:24]  ²⁵ tn Or “to the gospel.”

[12:1]  ²⁶ tn Grk “having such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us.”

[12:2]  ²⁷ sn An allusion to Ps 110:1.