Psalms 27:14

27:14 Rely ¹  on the Lord!

Be strong and confident! ² 

Rely on the Lord!

Psalms 40:1

Psalm 40 ³ 

For the music director; By David, a psalm.

40:1 I relied completely ⁴  on the Lord,

and he turned toward me

and heard my cry for help.

Proverbs 20:22

20:22 Do not say, ⁵  “I will pay back ⁶  evil!”

Wait ⁷  for the Lord, so that he may vindicate you. ⁸ 

Isaiah 8:17

8:17 I will wait patiently for the Lord,

who has rejected the family of Jacob; ⁹ 

I will wait for him.

Isaiah 30:15

30:15 For this is what the master, the Lord, the Holy One of Israel says:

“If you repented and patiently waited for me, you would be delivered; ¹⁰ 

if you calmly trusted in me you would find strength, ¹¹ 

but you are unwilling.

Lamentations 3:25-26

ט (Tet)

3:25 The Lord is good to those who trust ¹²  in him,

to the one ¹³  who seeks him.

3:26 It is good to wait patiently ¹⁴ 

for deliverance from the Lord. ¹⁵ 

Habakkuk 2:3

2:3 For the message is a witness to what is decreed; ¹⁶ 

it gives reliable testimony about how matters will turn out. ¹⁷ 

Even if the message ¹⁸  is not fulfilled right away, wait patiently; ¹⁹ 

for it will certainly come to pass – it will not arrive late.

Galatians 6:9

6:9 So we must not grow weary ²⁰  in doing good, for in due time we will reap, if we do not give up. ²¹ 

Hebrews 10:36-37

10:36 For you need endurance in order to do God’s will and so receive what is promised. ²²  10:37 For just a little longer ²³  and he who is coming will arrive and not delay. ²⁴ 

James 5:7-11

Patience in Suffering

5:7 So be patient, brothers and sisters, ²⁵  until the Lord’s return. ²⁶  Think of how the farmer waits ²⁷  for the precious fruit of the ground and is patient ²⁸  for it until it receives the early and late rains. 5:8 You also be patient and strengthen your hearts, for the Lord’s return is near. 5:9 Do not grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, ²⁹  so that you may not be judged. See, the judge stands before the gates! ³⁰  5:10 As an example of suffering and patience, brothers and sisters, ³¹  take the prophets who spoke in the Lord’s name. 5:11 Think of how we regard ³²  as blessed those who have endured. You have heard of Job’s endurance and you have seen the Lord’s purpose, that the Lord is full of compassion and mercy. ³³ 

[27:14]  ¹ tn Or “wait.”

[27:14]  ² tn Heb “be strong and let your heart be confident.”

[40:1]  ³ 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]  ⁴ 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).

[20:22]  ⁵ tn The verse is directly instructive; it begins with the negated jussive in the first colon, and follows with the imperative in the second. It warns that the righteous should not take vengeance on the wicked, for only God can do that.

[20:22]  ⁶ tn The form is the Piel cohortative of resolve – “I am determined to pay back.” The verb שָׁלֵם (shalem) means “to be complete; to be sound.” In this stem, however, it can mean “to make complete; to make good; to requite; to recompense” (KJV, ASV). The idea is “getting even” by paying back someone for the evil done.

[20:22]  ⁷ sn To “wait” (קַוֵּה, qavveh) on the Lord requires faith in him, reliance on divine justice, and patience. It means that the wrongs done to a person will have to be endured for a time.

[20:22]  ⁸ tn After the imperative, the jussive is subordinated in a purpose or result clause: “wait for the Lord so that he may deliver you.” The verb יֹשַׁע (yosha’) means “to save (KJV, ASV, NASB); to deliver (NIV); to give victory”; in this context it means “deliver from the evil done to you,” and so “vindicate” is an appropriate connotation. Cf. NCV “he will make things right.”

[8:17]  ⁹ tn Heb “who hides his face from the house of Jacob.”

[30:15]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “in returning and in quietness you will be delivered.” Many English versions render the last phrase “shall be saved” or something similar (e.g., NAB, NASB, NRSV).

[30:15]  ¹¹ tn Heb “in quietness and in trust is your strength” (NASB and NRSV both similar).

[3:25]  ¹² tn Heb “wait for him”

[3:25]  ¹³ tn Heb “to the soul…” The term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “soul”) is a synecdoche of part (= “the soul who seeks him”) for the whole person (= “the person who seeks him”).

[3:26]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “waiting and silently.” The two adjectives וְיָחִיל וְדוּמָם (vÿyakhil vÿdumam, “waiting and silently”) form a hendiadys: The first functions verbally and the second functions adverbially: “to wait silently.” The adjective דוּמָם (dumam, “silently”) also functions as a metonymy of association, standing for patience or rest (HALOT 217 s.v.). This metonymical nuance is captured well in less literal English versions: “wait in patience” (TEV) and “wait patiently” (CEV, NJPS). The more literal English versions do not express the metonymy as well: “quietly wait” (KJV, NKJV, ASV), “waits silently” (NASB), “wait quietly” (RSV, NRSV, NIV).

[3:26]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “deliverance of the Lord.” In the genitive-construct, the genitive יהוה (YHWH, “the Lord”) denotes source, that is, he is the source of the deliverance: “deliverance from the Lord.”

[2:3]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “For the vision is still for the appointed time.” The Hebrew word עוֹד (’od, “still”) is better emended to עֵד (’ed, “witness”) in light of the parallelism (see the note on the word “turn out” in the following line). The “appointed time” refers to the time when the divine judgment anticipated in vv. 6-20 will be realized.

[2:3]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and a witness to the end and it does not lie.” The Hebrew term יָפֵחַ (yafeakh) has been traditionally understood as a verb form from the root פּוּחַ (puakh, “puff, blow”; cf. NEB “it will come in breathless haste”; NASB “it hastens toward the goal”) but recent scholarship has demonstrated that it is actually a noun meaning “witness” (cf. NIV “it speaks of the end / and will not prove false”; NRSV “it speaks of the end, and does not lie”). See J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (OTL), 106. “The end” corresponds to “the appointed time” of the preceding line and refers to the time when the prophecy to follow will be fulfilled.

[2:3]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “it”; the referent (the message) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[2:3]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “If it should delay, wait for it.” The Hebrew word חָזוֹן (khazon, “vision, message”) is the subject of the third person verbs in v. 3 and the antecedent of the pronominal suffix in the phrase “for it.”

[6:9]  ²⁰ tn Or “not become discouraged,” “not lose heart” (L&N 25.288).

[6:9]  ²¹ tn Or “if we do not become extremely weary,” “if we do not give out,” “if we do not faint from exhaustion” (L&N 23.79).

[10:36]  ²² tn Grk “the promise,” referring to the thing God promised, not to the pledge itself.

[10:37]  ²³ sn A quotation from Isa 26:20.

[10:37]  ²⁴ sn A quotation from Hab 2:3.

[5:7]  ²⁵ tn Grk “brothers”; this phrase occurs again three times in the paragraph. See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.

[5:7]  ²⁶ tn Or “advent”; or “coming” (also in v. 8).

[5:7]  ²⁷ tn Grk “Behold! The farmer waits.”

[5:7]  ²⁸ tn Grk “being patient.”

[5:9]  ²⁹ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.

[5:9]  ³⁰ sn The term gates is used metaphorically here. The physical referent would be the entrances to the city, but the author uses the term to emphasize the imminence of the judge’s approach.

[5:10]  ³¹ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.

[5:11]  ³² tn Grk “Behold! We regard…”

[5:11]  ³³ sn An allusion to Exod 34:6; Neh 9:17; Ps 86:15; 102:13; Joel 2:13; Jonah 4:2.