Psalms 13:5

13:5 But I ¹  trust in your faithfulness.

May I rejoice because of your deliverance! ² 

Psalms 21:1

Psalm 21 ³ 

For the music director; a psalm of David.

21:1 O Lord, the king rejoices in the strength you give; ⁴ 

he takes great delight in the deliverance you provide. ⁵ 

Psalms 33:21

33:21 For our hearts rejoice in him,

for we trust in his holy name.

Psalms 48:11

48:11 Mount Zion rejoices;

the towns ⁶  of Judah are happy, ⁷ 

because of your acts of judgment. ⁸ 

Psalms 58:10-11

58:10 The godly ⁹  will rejoice when they see vengeance carried out;

they will bathe their feet in the blood of the wicked.

58:11 Then ¹⁰  observers ¹¹  will say,

“Yes indeed, the godly are rewarded! ¹² 

Yes indeed, there is a God who judges ¹³  in the earth!”

Psalms 68:1-3

Psalm 68 ¹⁴ 

For the music director; by David, a psalm, a song.

68:1 God springs into action! ¹⁵ 

His enemies scatter;

his adversaries ¹⁶  run from him. ¹⁷ 

68:2 As smoke is driven away by the wind, so you drive them away. ¹⁸ 

As wax melts before fire,

so the wicked are destroyed before God.

68:3 But the godly ¹⁹  are happy;

they rejoice before God

and are overcome with joy. ²⁰ 

Psalms 68:1

Psalm 68 ²¹ 

For the music director; by David, a psalm, a song.

68:1 God springs into action! ²² 

His enemies scatter;

his adversaries ²³  run from him. ²⁴ 

Psalms 2:1

Psalm 2 ²⁵ 

2:1 Why ²⁶  do the nations rebel? ²⁷ 

Why ²⁸  are the countries ²⁹  devising ³⁰  plots that will fail? ³¹ 

Isaiah 61:10

61:10 I ³²  will greatly rejoice ³³  in the Lord;

I will be overjoyed because of my God. ³⁴ 

For he clothes me in garments of deliverance;

he puts on me a robe symbolizing vindication. ³⁵ 

I look like a bridegroom when he wears a turban as a priest would;

I look like a bride when she puts on her jewelry. ³⁶ 

Habakkuk 3:18

3:18 I will rejoice because of ³⁷  the Lord;

I will be happy because of the God who delivers me!

Luke 1:46-47

Mary’s Hymn of Praise

1:46 And Mary ³⁸  said, ³⁹ 

“My soul exalts ⁴⁰  the Lord, ⁴¹ 

1:47 and my spirit has begun to rejoice ⁴²  in God my Savior,

Galatians 5:22

5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit ⁴³  is love, ⁴⁴  joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ⁴⁵ 

Philippians 3:1-3

True and False Righteousness

3:1 Finally, my brothers and sisters, ⁴⁶  rejoice in the Lord! To write this again is no trouble to me, and it is a safeguard for you.

3:2 Beware of the dogs, ⁴⁷  beware of the evil workers, beware of those who mutilate the flesh! ⁴⁸  3:3 For we are the circumcision, ⁴⁹  the ones who worship by the Spirit of God, ⁵⁰  exult in Christ Jesus, and do not rely on human credentials ⁵¹ 

[13:5]  ¹ tn The grammatical construction used here (conjunction with independent pronoun) highlights the contrast between the psalmist’s defeated condition envisioned in v. 4 and confident attitude he displays in v. 5.

[13:5]  ² tn Heb “may my heart rejoice in your deliverance.” The verb form is jussive. Having expressed his trust in God’s faithful character and promises, the psalmist prays that his confidence will prove to be well-placed. “Heart” is used here of the seat of the emotions.

[21:1]  ³ sn Psalm 21. The psalmist praises the Lord for the way he protects and blesses the Davidic king.

[21:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “in your strength.” The translation interprets the pronominal suffix as subjective, rather than merely descriptive (or attributive).

[21:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “and in your deliverance, how greatly he rejoices.”

[48:11]  ⁶ tn Heb “daughters.” The reference is to the cities of Judah surrounding Zion (see Ps 97:8 and H. Haag, TDOT 2:336).

[48:11]  ⁷ tn The prefixed verbal forms are understood as generalizing imperfects. (For other examples of an imperfect followed by causal לְמַעַן [lÿma’an], see Ps 23:3; Isa 49:7; 55:5.) Another option is to interpret the forms as jussives, “Let Mount Zion rejoice! Let the towns of Judah be happy!” (cf. NASB, NRSV; note the imperatives in vv. 12-13.)

[48:11]  ⁸ sn These acts of judgment are described in vv. 4-7.

[58:10]  ⁹ tn The singular is representative here, as is the singular from “wicked” in the next line.

[58:11]  ¹⁰ tn Following the imperfects of v. 10, the prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) conjunctive probably indicates a result or consequence of what precedes.

[58:11]  ¹¹ tn Heb “man.” The singular is representative here.

[58:11]  ¹² tn Heb “surely [there] is fruit for the godly.”

[58:11]  ¹³ tn The plural participle is unusual here if the preceding אֱלֹהִים (’elohim) is here a plural of majesty, referring to the one true God. Occasionally the plural of majesty does take a plural attributive (see GKC 428-29 §132.h). It is possible that the final mem (ם) on the participle is enclitic, and that it was later misunderstood as a plural ending. Another option is to translate, “Yes indeed, there are gods who judge in the earth.” In this case, the statement reflects the polytheistic mindset of pagan observers who, despite their theological ignorance, nevertheless recognize divine retribution when they see it.

[68:1]  ¹⁴ sn Psalm 68. The psalmist depicts God as a mighty warrior and celebrates the fact that God exerts his power on behalf of his people.

[68:1]  ¹⁵ tn Or “rises up.” The verb form is an imperfect, not a jussive. The psalmist is describing God’s appearance in battle in a dramatic fashion.

[68:1]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “those who hate him.”

[68:1]  ¹⁷ sn The wording of v. 1 echoes the prayer in Num 10:35: “Spring into action, Lord! Then your enemies will be scattered and your adversaries will run from you.”

[68:2]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “as smoke is scattered, you scatter [them].”

[68:3]  ¹⁹ tn By placing the subject first the psalmist highlights the contrast between God’s ecstatic people and his defeated enemies (vv. 1-2).

[68:3]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and they are happy with joy” (cf. NEB). Some translate the prefixed verbal forms of v. 3 as jussives, “Let the godly be happy, let them rejoice before God, and let them be happy with joy!” (Cf. NASB, NIV, NRSV; note the call to praise in v. 4.)

[68:1]  ²¹ sn Psalm 68. The psalmist depicts God as a mighty warrior and celebrates the fact that God exerts his power on behalf of his people.

[68:1]  ²² tn Or “rises up.” The verb form is an imperfect, not a jussive. The psalmist is describing God’s appearance in battle in a dramatic fashion.

[68:1]  ²³ tn Heb “those who hate him.”

[68:1]  ²⁴ sn The wording of v. 1 echoes the prayer in Num 10:35: “Spring into action, Lord! Then your enemies will be scattered and your adversaries will run from you.”

[2:1]  ²⁵ sn Psalm 2. In this royal psalm the author asserts the special status of the divinely chosen Davidic king and warns the nations and their rulers to submit to the authority of God and his chosen vice-regent.

[2:1]  ²⁶ tn The question is rhetorical. Rather than seeking information, the psalmist expresses his outrage that the nations would have the audacity to rebel against God and his chosen king.

[2:1]  ²⁷ tn The Hebrew verb רָגַשׁ (ragash) occurs only here. In Dan 6:6, 11, 15 the Aramaic cognate verb describes several officials acting as a group. A Hebrew nominal derivative is used in Ps 55:14 of a crowd of people in the temple.

[2:1]  ²⁸ tn The interrogative לָמָּה (lamah, “why?”) is understood by ellipsis in the second line.

[2:1]  ²⁹ tn Or “peoples” (so many English versions).

[2:1]  ³⁰ tn The Hebrew imperfect form describes the rebellion as underway. The verb הָגָה (hagah), which means “to recite quietly, meditate,” here has the metonymic nuance “devise, plan, plot” (see Ps 38:12; Prov 24:2).

[2:1]  ³¹ tn Heb “devising emptiness.” The noun רִיק (riq, “emptiness”) may characterize their behavior as “worthless, morally bankrupt” but more likely refers to the outcome of their plots (i.e., failure). As the rest of the psalm emphasizes, their rebellion will fail.

[61:10]  ³² sn The speaker in vv. 10-11 is not identified, but it is likely that the personified nation (or perhaps Zion) responds here to the Lord’s promise of restoration.

[61:10]  ³³ tn The infinitive absolute appears before the finite verb for emphasis.

[61:10]  ³⁴ tn Heb “my being is happy in my God”; NAB “in my God is the joy of my soul.”

[61:10]  ³⁵ tn Heb “robe of vindication”; KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV “robe of righteousness.”

[61:10]  ³⁶ tn Heb “like a bridegroom [who] acts like a priest [by wearing] a turban, and like a bride [who] wears her jewelry.” The words “I look” are supplied for stylistic reasons and clarification.

[3:18]  ³⁷ tn Or “in.”

[1:46]  ³⁸ tc A few witnesses, especially Latin mss, (a b l* Ir^arm Or^lat mss Nic) read “Elizabeth” here, since she was just speaking, but the ms evidence overwhelmingly supports “Mary” as the speaker.

[1:46]  ³⁹ sn The following passage has been typeset as poetry because many scholars regard this passage as poetic or hymnic. These terms are used broadly to refer to the genre of writing, not to the content. There are two broad criteria for determining if a passage is poetic or hymnic: “(a) stylistic: a certain rhythmical lilt when the passages are read aloud, the presence of parallelismus membrorum (i.e., an arrangement into couplets), the semblance of some metre, and the presence of rhetorical devices such as alliteration, chiasmus, and antithesis; and (b) linguistic: an unusual vocabulary, particularly the presence of theological terms, which is different from the surrounding context” (P. T. O’Brien, Philippians [NIGTC], 188-89). Classifying a passage as hymnic or poetic is important because understanding this genre can provide keys to interpretation. However, not all scholars agree that the above criteria are present in this passage, so the decision to typeset it as poetry should be viewed as a tentative decision about its genre.

[1:46]  ⁴⁰ tn Or “lifts up the Lord in praise.”

[1:46]  ⁴¹ sn This psalm (vv. 46-55) is one of the few praise psalms in the NT. Mary praises God and then tells why both in terms of his care for her (vv. 46-49) and for others, including Israel (vv. 50-55). Its traditional name, the “Magnificat,” comes from the Latin for the phrase My soul magnifies the Lord at the hymn’s start.

[1:47]  ⁴² tn Or “rejoices.” The translation renders this aorist, which stands in contrast to the previous line’s present tense, as ingressive, which highlights Mary’s joyous reaction to the announcement. A comprehensive aorist is also possible here.

[5:22]  ⁴³ tn That is, the fruit the Spirit produces.

[5:22]  ⁴⁴ sn Another way to punctuate this is “love” followed by a colon (love: joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control). It is thus possible to read the eight characteristics following “love” as defining love.

[5:22]  ⁴⁵ tn Or “reliability”; see BDAG 818 s.v. πίστις 1.a.

[3:1]  ⁴⁶ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:12.

[3:2]  ⁴⁷ sn Dogs is a figurative reference to false teachers whom Paul regards as just as filthy as dogs.

[3:2]  ⁴⁸ tn Grk “beware of the mutilation.”

[3:3]  ⁴⁹ tn There is a significant wordplay here in the Greek text. In v. 2 a rare, strong word is used to describe those who were pro-circumcision (κατατομή, katatomh, “mutilation”; see BDAG 528 s.v.), while in v. 3 the normal word for circumcision is used (περιτομή, peritomh; see BDAG 807 s.v.). Both have τομή (the feminine form of the adjective τομός [tomo"], meaning “cutting, sharp”) as their root; the direction of the action of the former is down or off (from κατά, kata), hence the implication of mutilation or emasculation, while the direction of the action of the latter is around (from περί, peri). The similarity in sound yet wide divergence of meaning between the two words highlights in no uncertain terms the differences between Paul and his opponents.

[3:3]  ⁵⁰ tc The verb λατρεύω (latreuw; here the participial form, λατρεύοντες [latreuonte"]) either takes a dative direct object or no object at all, bearing virtually a technical nuance of “worshiping God” (see BDAG 587 s.v.). In this text, πνεύματι (pneumati) takes an instrumental force (“by the Spirit”) rather than functioning as object of λατρεύοντες. However, the word after πνεύματι is in question, no doubt because of the collocation with λατρεύοντες. Most witnesses, including some of the earliest and best representatives of the Alexandrian, Western, and Byzantine texts (א* A B C D² F G 0278^vid 33 1739 1881 Ï co Ambr), read θεοῦ (qeou; thus, “worship by the Spirit of God”). But several other important witnesses (א² D* P Ψ 075 365 1175 lat sy Chr) have the dative θεῷ (qew) here (“worship God by the Spirit”). Ì⁴⁶ is virtually alone in its omission of the divine name, probably due to an unintentional oversight. The dative θεῷ was most likely a scribal emendation intended to give the participle its proper object, and thus avoid confusion about the force of πνεύματι. Although the Church came to embrace the full deity of the Spirit, the NT does not seem to speak of worshiping the Spirit explicitly. The reading θεῷ thus appears to be a clarifying reading. On external and internal grounds, then, θεοῦ is the preferred reading.

[3:3]  ⁵¹ tn Grk “have no confidence in the flesh.”