Psalms 25:19

25:19 Watch my enemies, for they outnumber me;

they hate me and want to harm me. ¹ 

Acts 9:1

The Conversion of Saul

9:1 Meanwhile Saul, still breathing out threats ²  to murder ³  the Lord’s disciples, went to the high priest

Acts 26:11

26:11 I punished ⁴  them often in all the synagogues ⁵  and tried to force ⁶  them to blaspheme. Because I was so furiously enraged ⁷  at them, I went to persecute ⁸  them even in foreign cities.

[25:19]  ¹ tn Heb “see my enemies for they are numerous, and [with] violent hatred they hate me.”

[9:1]  ² tn Or “Saul, making dire threats.”

[9:1]  ³ tn The expression “breathing out threats and murder” is an idiomatic expression for “making threats to murder” (see L&N 33.293). Although the two terms “threats” and “murder” are syntactically coordinate, the second is semantically subordinate to the first. In other words, the content of the threats is to murder the disciples.

[26:11]  ⁴ tn Grk “and punishing…I tried.” The participle τιμωρῶν (timwrwn) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style. Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

[26:11]  ⁵ sn See the note on synagogue in 6:9.

[26:11]  ⁶ tn The imperfect verb ἠνάγκαζον (hnankazon) has been translated as a conative imperfect (so BDAG 60 s.v. ἀναγκάζω 1, which has “ἠνάγκαζον βλασφημεῖν I tried to force them to blaspheme Ac 26:11”).

[26:11]  ⁷ tn Or “was so insanely angry with them.” BDAG 322 s.v. ἐμμαίνομαι states, “to be filled with such anger that one appears to be mad, be enraged…περισσῶς ἐμμαινόμενος αὐτοῖς being furiously enraged at them Ac 26:11”; L&N 88.182 s.v. ἐμμαίνομαι, “to be so furiously angry with someone as to be almost out of one’s mind – ‘to be enraged, to be infuriated, to be insanely angry’ …‘I was so infuriated with them that I even went to foreign cities to persecute them’ Ac 26:11.”

[26:11]  ⁸ tn Or “I pursued them even as far as foreign cities.”