Psalms 18:28

18:28 Indeed, ¹  you are my lamp, Lord. ² 

My God ³  illuminates the darkness around me. ⁴ 

Psalms 37:6

37:6 He will vindicate you in broad daylight,

and publicly defend your just cause. ⁵ 

Esther 8:16

8:16 For the Jews there was radiant happiness and joyous honor. ⁶ 

Isaiah 9:2

9:2 (9:1) The people walking in darkness

see a bright light; ⁷ 

light shines

on those who live in a land of deep darkness. ⁸ 

Isaiah 60:1

Zion’s Future Splendor

60:1 “Arise! Shine! For your light arrives!

The splendor ⁹  of the Lord shines on you!

Micah 7:9

7:9 I must endure ¹⁰  the Lord’s anger,

for I have sinned against him.

But then ¹¹  he will defend my cause, ¹² 

and accomplish justice on my behalf.

He will lead me out into the light;

I will experience firsthand ¹³  his deliverance. ¹⁴ 

Malachi 4:2

4:2 But for you who respect my name, the sun of vindication ¹⁵  will rise with healing wings, ¹⁶  and you will skip about ¹⁷  like calves released from the stall.

John 8:12

Jesus as the Light of the World

8:12 Then Jesus spoke out again, ¹⁸  “I am the light of the world. ¹⁹  The one who follows me will never ²⁰  walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

John 8:1

8:1 But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. ²¹ 

John 2:9

2:9 When ²²  the head steward tasted the water that had been turned to wine, not knowing where it came from ²³  (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), he ²⁴  called the bridegroom

[18:28]  ¹ tn Or “for.” The translation assumes that כִּי (ki)is asseverative here.

[18:28]  ² tn Ps 18:28 reads literally, “you light my lamp, Lord.” 2 Sam 22:29 has, “you are my lamp, Lord.” The Ps 18 reading may preserve two variants, נֵרִי (neriy, “my lamp”) and אוֹרִי (’oriy, “my light”), cf. Ps 27:1. The verb תָּאִיר (ta’ir, “you light”) in Ps 18:28 would, in this case, be a corruption of the latter. See F. M. Cross and D. N. Freedman, Studies in Ancient Yahwistic Poetry (SBLDS), 150, n. 64. The metaphor, which likens the Lord to a lamp or light, pictures him as the psalmist’s source of life. For other examples of “lamp” used in this way, see Job 18:6; 21:17; Prov 13:9; 20:20; 24:20. For other examples of “light” as a symbol for life, see Job 3:20; 33:30; Ps 56:13.

[18:28]  ³ tn 2 Sam 22:29 repeats the name “Lord.”

[18:28]  ⁴ tn Heb “my darkness.”

[37:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “and he will bring out like light your vindication, and your just cause like noonday.”

[8:16]  ⁶ tn Heb “light and gladness and joy and honor” (so NASB). The present translation understands the four terms to be a double hendiadys.

[9:2]  ⁷ sn The darkness symbolizes judgment and its effects (see 8:22); the light represents deliverance and its effects, brought about by the emergence of a conquering Davidic king (see vv. 3-6).

[9:2]  ⁸ tn Traditionally צַלְמָוֶת (tsalmavet) has been interpreted as a compound noun, meaning “shadow of death” (so KJV, ASV, NIV), but usage indicates that the word, though it sometimes refers to death, means “darkness.” The term should probably be repointed as an abstract noun צַלְמוּת (tsalmut). See the note at Ps 23:4.

[60:1]  ⁹ tn Or “glory” (so most English versions).

[7:9]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “lift, bear.”

[7:9]  ¹¹ tn Heb “until.”

[7:9]  ¹² tn Or “plead my case” (NASB and NIV both similar); NRSV “until he takes my side.”

[7:9]  ¹³ tn Heb “see.”

[7:9]  ¹⁴ tn Or “justice, vindication.”

[4:2]  ¹⁵ tn Here the Hebrew word צְדָקָה (tsÿdaqah), usually translated “righteousness” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV, NLT; cf. NAB “justice”), has been rendered as “vindication” because it is the vindication of God’s people that is in view in the context. Cf. BDB 842 s.v. צְדָקָה 6; “righteousness as vindicated, justification, salvation, etc.”

[4:2]  ¹⁶ sn The point of the metaphor of healing wings is unclear. The sun seems to be compared to a bird. Perhaps the sun’s “wings” are its warm rays. “Healing” may refer to a reversal of the injury done by evildoers (see Mal 3:5).

[4:2]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “you will go out and skip about.”

[8:12]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “Then again Jesus spoke to them saying.”

[8:12]  ¹⁹ sn The theory proposed by F. J. A. Hort (The New Testament in the Original Greek, vol. 2, Introduction; Appendix, 87-88), that the backdrop of 8:12 is the lighting of the candelabra in the court of women, may offer a plausible setting to the proclamation by Jesus that he is the light of the world. The last time that Jesus spoke in the narrative (assuming 7:53-8:11 is not part of the original text, as the textual evidence suggests) is in 7:38, where he was speaking to a crowd of pilgrims in the temple area. This is where he is found in the present verse, and he may be addressing the crowd again. Jesus’ remark has to be seen in view of both the prologue (John 1:4, 5) and the end of the discourse with Nicodemus (John 3:19-21). The coming of Jesus into the world provokes judgment: A choosing up of sides becomes necessary. The one who comes to the light, that is, who follows Jesus, will not walk in the darkness. The one who refuses to come, will walk in the darkness. In this contrast, there are only two alternatives. So it is with a person’s decision about Jesus. Furthermore, this serves as in implicit indictment of Jesus’ opponents, who still walk in the darkness, because they refuse to come to him. This sets up the contrast in chap. 9 between the man born blind, who receives both physical and spiritual sight, and the Pharisees (John 9:13, 15, 16) who have physical sight but remain in spiritual darkness.

[8:12]  ²⁰ tn The double negative οὐ μή (ou mh) is emphatic in 1st century Hellenistic Greek.

[8:1]  ²¹ sn The Mount of Olives is a hill running north to south about 1.8 mi (3 km) long, lying east of Jerusalem across the Kidron Valley. It was named for the large number of olive trees that grew on it.

[2:9]  ²² tn Grk “And when.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, δέ (de) has not been translated here.

[2:9]  ²³ tn Grk “and he did not know where it came from.”

[2:9]  ²⁴ tn Grk “the head steward”; here the repetition of the phrase is somewhat redundant in English and the pronoun (“he”) is substituted in the translation.