Psalms 145:14

145:14 ¹ The Lord supports all who fall,

and lifts up all who are bent over. ² 

Psalms 147:6

147:6 The Lord lifts up the oppressed,

but knocks ³  the wicked to the ground.

Luke 13:11-13

13:11 and a woman was there ⁴  who had been disabled by a spirit ⁵  for eighteen years. She ⁶  was bent over and could not straighten herself up completely. ⁷  13:12 When ⁸  Jesus saw her, he called her to him ⁹  and said, “Woman, ¹⁰  you are freed ¹¹  from your infirmity.” ¹²  13:13 Then ¹³  he placed his hands on her, and immediately ¹⁴  she straightened up and praised God.

Luke 13:2

13:2 He ¹⁵  answered them, “Do you think these Galileans were worse sinners ¹⁶  than all the other Galileans, because they suffered these things?

Colossians 1:6

1:6 that has come to you. Just as in the entire world this gospel ¹⁷  is bearing fruit and growing, so it has also been bearing fruit and growing ¹⁸  among you from the first day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth.

[145:14]  ¹ tc Psalm 145 is an acrostic psalm, with each successive verse beginning with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. However, in the traditional Hebrew (Masoretic) text of Psalm 145 there is no verse beginning with the letter nun. One would expect such a verse to appear as the fourteenth verse, between the mem (מ) and samek (ס) verses. Several ancient witnesses, including one medieval Hebrew manuscript, the Qumran scroll from cave 11, the LXX, and the Syriac, supply the missing nun (נ) verse, which reads as follows: “The Lord is reliable in all his words, and faithful in all his deeds.” One might paraphrase this as follows: “The Lord’s words are always reliable; his actions are always faithful.” Scholars are divided as to the originality of this verse. L. C. Allen argues for its inclusion on the basis of structural considerations (Psalms 101-150 [WBC], 294-95), but there is no apparent explanation for why, if original, it would have been accidentally omitted. The psalm may be a partial acrostic, as in Pss 25 and 34 (see M. Dahood, Psalms [AB], 3:335). The glaring omission of the nun line would have invited a later redactor to add such a line.

[145:14]  ² tn Perhaps “discouraged” (see Ps 57:6).

[147:6]  ³ tn Heb “brings down.”

[13:11]  ⁴ tn Grk “and behold, a woman.” The Greek word ἰδού (idou) at the beginning of this statement has not been translated because it has no exact English equivalent here, but adds interest and emphasis (BDAG 468 s.v. 1).

[13:11]  ⁵ tn Grk “a woman having a spirit of weakness” (or “a spirit of infirmity”).

[13:11]  ⁶ tn Grk “years, and.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style. Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[13:11]  ⁷ tn Or “and could not straighten herself up at all.” If εἰς τὸ παντελές (ei" to pantele") is understood to modify δυναμένη (dunamenh), the meaning is “she was not able at all to straighten herself up”; but the phrase may be taken with ἀνακύψαι (anakuyai) and understood to mean the same as the adverb παντελῶς (pantelws), with the meaning “she was not able to straighten herself up completely.” See BDAG 754 s.v. παντελής 1 for further discussion. The second option is preferred in the translation because of proximity: The phrase in question follows ἀνακύψαι in the Greek text.

[13:12]  ⁸ tn The participle ἰδών (idwn) has been taken temporally. Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[13:12]  ⁹ tn The verb προσεφώνησεν (prosefwnhsen) has been translated as “called (her) to (him),” with the direct object (“her”) and the indirect object (“him”) both understood.

[13:12]  ¹⁰ sn Woman was a polite form of address (see BDAG 208-9 s.v. γυνή), similar to “Madam” or “Ma’am” used in English in different regions.

[13:12]  ¹¹ tn Or “released.”

[13:12]  ¹² tn Or “sickness.”

[13:13]  ¹³ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[13:13]  ¹⁴ sn The healing took place immediately.

[13:2]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “And he.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the transition to a new topic.

[13:2]  ¹⁶ sn Jesus did not want his hearers to think that tragedy was necessarily a judgment on these people because they were worse sinners.

[1:6]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “just as in the entire world it is bearing fruit.” The antecedent (“the gospel”) of the implied subject (“it”) of ἐστιν (estin) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:6]  ¹⁸ tn Though the participles are periphrastic with the present tense verb ἐστίν (estin), the presence of the temporal indicator “from the day” in the next clause indicates that this is a present tense that reaches into the past and should be translated as “has been bearing fruit and growing.” For a discussion of this use of the present tense, see ExSyn 519-20.