Psalms 18:6

18:6 In my distress I called to the Lord;

I cried out to my God. ¹ 

From his heavenly temple ²  he heard my voice;

he listened to my cry for help. ³ 

Psalms 31:22-23

31:22 I jumped to conclusions and said, ⁴ 

“I am cut off from your presence!” ⁵ 

But you heard my plea for mercy when I cried out to you for help.

31:23 Love the Lord, all you faithful followers ⁶  of his!

The Lord protects those who have integrity,

but he pays back in full the one who acts arrogantly. ⁷ 

Psalms 34:3-4

34:3 Magnify the Lord with me!

Let’s praise ⁸  his name together!

34:4 I sought the Lord’s help ⁹  and he answered me;

he delivered me from all my fears.

Psalms 40:1

Psalm 40 ¹⁰ 

For the music director; By David, a psalm.

40:1 I relied completely ¹¹  on the Lord,

and he turned toward me

and heard my cry for help.

Psalms 66:19-20

66:19 However, God heard;

he listened to my prayer.

66:20 God deserves praise, ¹² 

for ¹³  he did not reject my prayer

or abandon his love for me! ¹⁴ 

Psalms 69:33

69:33 For the Lord listens to the needy;

he does not despise his captive people. ¹⁵ 

Genesis 35:2

35:2 So Jacob told his household and all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods you have among you. ¹⁶  Purify yourselves and change your clothes. ¹⁷ 

Genesis 35:1

The Return to Bethel

35:1 Then God said to Jacob, “Go up at once ¹⁸  to Bethel ¹⁹  and live there. Make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.” ²⁰ 

Genesis 1:26

1:26 Then God said, “Let us make ²¹ 

humankind ²²  in our image, after our likeness, ²³  so they may rule ²⁴  over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the cattle, and over all the earth, ²⁵  and over all the creatures that move ²⁶  on the earth.”

John 16:24

16:24 Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive it, ²⁷  so that your joy may be complete.

[18:6]  ¹ tn In this poetic narrative context the four prefixed verbal forms in v. 6 are best understood as preterites indicating past tense, not imperfects.

[18:6]  ² tn Heb “from his temple.” Verse 10, which pictures God descending from the sky, indicates that the heavenly temple is in view, not the earthly one.

[18:6]  ³ tc Heb “and my cry for help before him came into his ears.” 2 Sam 22:7 has a shorter reading, “my cry for help, in his ears.” It is likely that Ps 18:6 MT as it now stands represents a conflation of two readings: (1) “my cry for help came before him,” (2) “my cry for help came into his ears.” See F. M. Cross and D. N. Freedman, Studies in Ancient Yahwistic Poetry (SBLDS), 144, n. 13.

[31:22]  ⁴ tn Heb “and I, I said in my haste.”

[31:22]  ⁵ tn Heb “from before your eyes.”

[31:23]  ⁶ tn A “faithful follower” (חָסִיד, khasid) is one who does what is right in God’s eyes and remains faithful to God (see Pss 4:3; 12:1; 16:10; 31:23; 37:28; 86:2; 97:10).

[31:23]  ⁷ tn The participial forms in the second and third lines characterize the Lord as one who typically protects the faithful and judges the proud.

[34:3]  ⁸ tn Or “exalt.”

[34:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “I sought the Lord.”

[40:1]  ¹⁰ sn Psalm 40. The psalmist combines a song of thanksgiving for a recent act of divine deliverance (vv. 1-11) with a confident petition for renewed divine intervention (vv. 12-17).

[40:1]  ¹¹ tn Heb “relying, I relied.” The infinitive absolute precedes the finite verbal form to emphasize the verbal idea. The emphasis is reflected in the translation through the adverb “completely.” Another option is to translate, “I waited patiently” (cf. NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[66:20]  ¹² tn Heb “blessed [be] God.”

[66:20]  ¹³ tn Or “who.” In a blessing formula after בָּרוּךְ (barukh, “blessed be”) the form אֲשֶׁר (’asher), whether taken as a relative pronoun or causal particle, introduces the basis for the blessing/praise.

[66:20]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “did not turn aside my prayer and his loyal love with me.”

[69:33]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “his prisoners he does not despise.”

[35:2]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “which are in your midst.”

[35:2]  ¹⁷ sn The actions of removing false gods, becoming ritually clean, and changing garments would become necessary steps in Israel when approaching the Lord in worship.

[35:1]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “arise, go up.” The first imperative gives the command a sense of urgency.

[35:1]  ¹⁹ map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.

[35:1]  ²⁰ sn God is calling on Jacob to fulfill his vow he made when he fled from…Esau (see Gen 28:20-22).

[1:26]  ²¹ sn The plural form of the verb has been the subject of much discussion through the years, and not surprisingly several suggestions have been put forward. Many Christian theologians interpret it as an early hint of plurality within the Godhead, but this view imposes later trinitarian concepts on the ancient text. Some have suggested the plural verb indicates majesty, but the plural of majesty is not used with verbs. C. Westermann (Genesis, 1:145) argues for a plural of “deliberation” here, but his proposed examples of this use (2 Sam 24:14; Isa 6:8) do not actually support his theory. In 2 Sam 24:14 David uses the plural as representative of all Israel, and in Isa 6:8 the Lord speaks on behalf of his heavenly court. In its ancient Israelite context the plural is most naturally understood as referring to God and his heavenly court (see 1 Kgs 22:19-22; Job 1:6-12; 2:1-6; Isa 6:1-8). (The most well-known members of this court are God’s messengers, or angels. In Gen 3:5 the serpent may refer to this group as “gods/divine beings.” See the note on the word “evil” in 3:5.) If this is the case, God invites the heavenly court to participate in the creation of humankind (perhaps in the role of offering praise, see Job 38:7), but he himself is the one who does the actual creative work (v. 27). Of course, this view does assume that the members of the heavenly court possess the divine “image” in some way. Since the image is closely associated with rulership, perhaps they share the divine image in that they, together with God and under his royal authority, are the executive authority over the world.

[1:26]  ²² tn The Hebrew word is אָדָם (’adam), which can sometimes refer to man, as opposed to woman. The term refers here to humankind, comprised of male and female. The singular is clearly collective (see the plural verb, “[that] they may rule” in v. 26b) and the referent is defined specifically as “male and female” in v. 27. Usage elsewhere in Gen 1-11 supports this as well. In 5:2 we read: “Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and called their name ‘humankind’ (אָדָם).” The noun also refers to humankind in 6:1, 5-7 and in 9:5-6.

[1:26]  ²³ tn The two prepositions translated “in” and “according to” have overlapping fields of meaning and in this context seem to be virtually equivalent. In 5:3 they are reversed with the two words. The word צֶלֶם (tselem, “image”) is used frequently of statues, models, and images – replicas (see D. J. A. Clines, “The Etymology of Hebrew selem,” JNSL 3 [1974]: 19-25). The word דְּמוּת (dÿmut, “likeness”) is an abstract noun; its verbal root means “to be like; to resemble.” In the Book of Genesis the two terms describe human beings who in some way reflect the form and the function of the creator. The form is more likely stressing the spiritual rather than the physical. The “image of God” would be the God-given mental and spiritual capacities that enable people to relate to God and to serve him by ruling over the created order as his earthly vice-regents.

[1:26]  ²⁴ tn Following the cohortative (“let us make”), the prefixed verb form with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose/result (see Gen 19:20; 34:23; 2 Sam 3:21). God’s purpose in giving humankind his image is that they might rule the created order on behalf of the heavenly king and his royal court. So the divine image, however it is defined, gives humankind the capacity and/or authority to rule over creation.

[1:26]  ²⁵ tc The MT reads “earth”; the Syriac reads “wild animals” (cf. NRSV).

[1:26]  ²⁶ tn Heb “creep” (also in v. 28).

[16:24]  ²⁷ tn The word “it” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context.