Psalms 25:22

25:22 O God, rescue ¹  Israel

from all their distress! ² 

Psalms 102:16

102:16 when the Lord rebuilds Zion,

and reveals his splendor,

Psalms 122:6-9

122:6 Pray ³  for the peace of Jerusalem!

May those who love her prosper! ⁴ 

122:7 May there be peace inside your defenses,

and prosperity ⁵  inside your fortresses! ⁶ 

122:8 For the sake of my brothers and my neighbors

I will say, “May there be peace in you!”

122:9 For the sake of the temple of the Lord our God

I will pray for you to prosper. ⁷ 

Psalms 137:5-6

137:5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem,

may my right hand be crippled! ⁸ 

137:6 May my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth,

if I do not remember you,

and do not give Jerusalem priority

over whatever gives me the most joy. ⁹ 

Isaiah 62:1

The Lord Takes Delight in Zion

62:1 “For the sake of Zion I will not be silent;

for the sake of Jerusalem ¹⁰  I will not be quiet,

until her vindication shines brightly ¹¹ 

and her deliverance burns like a torch.”

Isaiah 62:6-7

62:6 I ¹²  post watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem;

they should keep praying all day and all night. ¹³ 

You who pray to ¹⁴  the Lord, don’t be silent!

62:7 Don’t allow him to rest until he reestablishes Jerusalem, ¹⁵ 

until he makes Jerusalem the pride ¹⁶  of the earth.

Jeremiah 51:50

51:50 You who have escaped the sword, ¹⁷ 

go, do not delay. ¹⁸ 

Remember the Lord in a faraway land.

Think about Jerusalem. ¹⁹ 

Jeremiah 51:2

51:2 I will send people to winnow Babylonia like a wind blowing away chaff. ²⁰ 

They will winnow her and strip her land bare. ²¹ 

This will happen when ²²  they come against her from every direction,

when it is time to destroy her. ²³ 

Colossians 1:28-29

1:28 We proclaim him by instructing ²⁴  and teaching ²⁵  all people ²⁶  with all wisdom so that we may present every person mature ²⁷  in Christ. 1:29 Toward this goal ²⁸  I also labor, struggling according to his power that powerfully ²⁹  works in me.

[25:22]  ¹ tn Or “redeem.”

[25:22]  ² tn Heb “his distresses.”

[122:6]  ³ tn Heb “ask [for].”

[122:6]  ⁴ tn Or “be secure.”

[122:7]  ⁵ tn or “security.”

[122:7]  ⁶ tn The psalmist uses second feminine singular pronominal forms to address personified Jerusalem.

[122:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “I will seek good for you.” The psalmist will seek Jerusalem’s “good” through prayer.

[137:5]  ⁸ tn Heb “may my right hand forget.” In this case one must supply an object, such as “how to move.” The elliptical nature of the text has prompted emendations (see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 [WBC], 236). The translation assumes an emendation to תִּכְשַׁח (tikhshakh), from an otherwise unattested root כשׁח, meaning “to be crippled; to be lame.” See HALOT 502 s.v. כשׁח, which cites Arabic cognate evidence in support of the proposal. The corruption of the MT can be explained as an error of transposition facilitated by the use of שָׁכַח (shakhakh, “forget”) just before this.

[137:6]  ⁹ tn Heb “if I do not lift up Jerusalem over the top of my joy.”

[62:1]  ¹⁰ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[62:1]  ¹¹ tn Heb “goes forth like brightness.”

[62:6]  ¹² sn The speaker here is probably the prophet.

[62:6]  ¹³ tn Heb “all day and all night continually they do not keep silent.” The following lines suggest that they pray for the Lord’s intervention and restoration of the city.

[62:6]  ¹⁴ tn Or “invoke”; NIV “call on”; NASB, NRSV “remind.”

[62:7]  ¹⁵ tn “Jerusalem” is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons; note the following line.

[62:7]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “[the object of] praise.”

[51:50]  ¹⁷ sn God’s exiled people are told to leave doomed Babylon (see v. 45).

[51:50]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “don’t stand.”

[51:50]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “let Jerusalem go up upon your heart.” The “heart” is often viewed as the seat of one’s mental faculties and thought life.

[51:2]  ²⁰ tn Or “I will send foreign people against Babylonia.” The translation follows the reading of the Greek recensions of Aquila and Symmachus and the Latin version (the Vulgate). That reading is accepted by the majority of modern commentaries and several of the modern versions (e.g., NRSV, REB, NAB, and God’s Word). It fits better with the verb that follows it than the reading of the Hebrew text and the rest of the versions. The difference in the two readings is again only the difference in vocalization, the Hebrew text reading זָרִים (zarim) and the versions cited reading זֹרִים (zorim). If the Hebrew text is followed, there is a wordplay between the two words, “foreigners” and “winnow.” The words “like a wind blowing away chaff” have been supplied in the translation to clarify for the reader what “winnow” means.

[51:2]  ²¹ tn Or “They will strip her land bare like a wind blowing away chaff.” The alternate translation would be necessary if one were to adopt the alternate reading of the first line (the reading of the Hebrew text). The explanation of “winnow” would then be necessary in the second line. The verb translated “strip…bare” means literally “to empty out” (see BDB 132 s.v. בָּקַק Polel). It has been used in 19:7 in the Qal of “making void” Judah’s plans in a wordplay on the word for “bottle.” See the study note on 19:7 for further details.

[51:2]  ²² tn This assumes that the particle כִּי (ki) is temporal (cf. BDB 473 s.v. כִּי 2.a). This is the interpretation adopted also by NRSV and G. L. Keown, P. J. Scalise, T. G. Smothers, Jeremiah 26-52 (WBC), 349. J. Bright (Jeremiah [AB], 345) and J. A. Thompson (Jeremiah [NICOT], 747, n. 3) interpret it as asseverative or emphatic, “Truly, indeed.” Many of the modern English versions merely ignore it. Reading it as temporal makes it unnecessary to emend the following verb as Bright and Thompson do (from הָיוּ [hayu] to יִהְיוּ [yihyu]).

[51:2]  ²³ tn Heb “in the day of disaster.”

[1:28]  ²⁴ tn Or “admonishing,” or “warning.” BDAG 679 s.v. νουθετέω states, “to counsel about avoidance or cessation of an improper course of conduct,, admonish, warn, instruct.” After the participle νουθετοῦντες (nouqetounte", “instructing”) the words πάντα ἄνθρωπον (panta anqrwpon, “all men”) occur in the Greek text, but since the same phrase appears again after διδάσκοντες (didaskontes) it was omitted in translation to avoid redundancy in English.

[1:28]  ²⁵ tn The two participles “instructing” (νουθετοῦντες, nouqetounte") and “teaching” (διδάσκοντες, didaskonte") are translated as participles of means (“by”) related to the finite verb “we proclaim” (καταγγέλλομεν, katangellomen).

[1:28]  ²⁶ tn Here ἄνθρωπον (anqrwpon) is twice translated as a generic (“people” and “person”) since both men and women are clearly intended in this context.

[1:28]  ²⁷ tn Since Paul’s focus is on the present experience of the Colossians, “mature” is a better translation of τέλειον (teleion) than “perfect,” since the latter implies a future, eschatological focus.

[1:29]  ²⁸ tn The Greek phrase εἴς ὅ (eis Jo, “toward which”) implies “movement toward a goal” and has been rendered by the English phrase “Toward this goal.”

[1:29]  ²⁹ tn The prepositional phrase ἐν δυνάμει (en dunamei) seems to be functioning adverbially, related to the participle, and has therefore been translated “powerfully.”