Psalms 33:4

33:4 For ¹  the Lord’s decrees ²  are just, ³ 

and everything he does is fair. ⁴ 

Psalms 57:3

57:3 May he send help from heaven and deliver me ⁵ 

from my enemies who hurl insults! ⁶  (Selah)

May God send his loyal love and faithfulness!

Psalms 85:10

85:10 Loyal love and faithfulness meet; ⁷ 

deliverance and peace greet each other with a kiss. ⁸ 

Psalms 89:14

89:14 Equity and justice are the foundation of your throne. ⁹ 

Loyal love and faithfulness characterize your rule. ¹⁰ 

Psalms 98:3

98:3 He remains loyal and faithful to the family of Israel. ¹¹ 

All the ends of the earth see our God deliver us. ¹² 

Genesis 24:27

24:27 saying “Praised be the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has not abandoned his faithful love ¹³  for my master! The Lord has led me ¹⁴  to the house ¹⁵  of my master’s relatives!” ¹⁶ 

Genesis 24:2

24:2 Abraham said to his servant, the senior one ¹⁷  in his household who was in charge of everything he had, “Put your hand under my thigh ¹⁸ 

Genesis 15:20

15:20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites,

Isaiah 25:1

25:1 O Lord, you are my God! ¹⁹ 

I will exalt you in praise, I will extol your fame. ²⁰ 

For you have done extraordinary things,

and executed plans made long ago exactly as you decreed. ²¹ 

John 1:14

1:14 Now ²²  the Word became flesh ²³  and took up residence ²⁴  among us. We ²⁵  saw his glory – the glory of the one and only, ²⁶  full of grace and truth, who came from the Father.

John 1:17

1:17 For the law was given through Moses, but ²⁷  grace and truth came about through Jesus Christ.

James 5:11

5:11 Think of how we regard ²⁸  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. ²⁹ 

[33:4]  ¹ sn For the Lord’s decrees are just… After the call to praise (vv. 1-3), the psalmist now gives a series of reasons why the Lord is worthy of praise.

[33:4]  ² tn Heb “word.” In this context, which depicts the Lord as the sovereign creator and ruler of the world, the Lord’s “word” refers to the decrees whereby he governs his dominion.

[33:4]  ³ tn Or “upright.”

[33:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “and all his work [is] in faithfulness.”

[57:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “may he send from heaven and deliver me.” The prefixed verbal forms are understood as jussives expressing the psalmist’s prayer. The second verb, which has a vav (ו) conjunctive prefixed to it, probably indicates purpose. Another option is to take the forms as imperfects expressing confidence, “he will send from heaven and deliver me” (cf. NRSV).

[57:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “he hurls insults, one who crushes me.” The translation assumes that this line identifies those from whom the psalmist seeks deliverance. (The singular is representative; the psalmist is surrounded by enemies, see v. 4.) Another option is to understand God as the subject of the verb חָרַף (kharaf), which could then be taken as a homonym of the more common root חָרַף (“insult”) meaning “confuse.” In this case “one who crushes me” is the object of the verb. One might translate, “he [God] confuses my enemies.”

[85:10]  ⁷ tn The psalmist probably uses the perfect verbal forms in v. 10 in a dramatic or rhetorical manner, describing what he anticipates as if it were already occurring or had already occurred.

[85:10]  ⁸ sn Deliverance and peace greet each other with a kiss. The psalmist personifies these abstract qualities to emphasize that God’s loyal love and faithfulness will yield deliverance and peace for his people.

[89:14]  ⁹ sn The Lord’s throne symbolizes his kingship.

[89:14]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “are in front of your face.” The idiom can mean “confront” (Ps 17:13) or “meet, enter the presence of” (Ps 95:2).

[98:3]  ¹¹ tn Heb “he remembers his loyal love and his faithfulness to the house of Israel.”

[98:3]  ¹² tn Heb “the deliverance of our God,” with “God” being a subjective genitive (= God delivers).

[24:27]  ¹³ tn Heb “his faithfulness and his commitment.”

[24:27]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “As for me – in the way the Lord led me.”

[24:27]  ¹⁵ tn Here “house” is an adverbial accusative of termination.

[24:27]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “brothers.”

[24:2]  ¹⁷ tn The Hebrew term זָקֵן (zaqen) may refer to the servant who is oldest in age or senior in authority (or both).

[24:2]  ¹⁸ sn Put your hand under my thigh. The taking of this oath had to do with the sanctity of the family and the continuation of the family line. See D. R. Freedman, “Put Your Hand Under My Thigh – the Patriarchal Oath,” BAR 2 (1976): 2-4, 42.

[25:1]  ¹⁹ sn The prophet speaks here as one who has observed the coming judgment of the proud.

[25:1]  ²⁰ tn Heb “name.” See the note at 24:15.

[25:1]  ²¹ tn Heb “plans from long ago [in] faithfulness, trustworthiness.” The feminine noun אֱמוּנָה (’emunah, “faithfulness”) and masculine noun אֹמֶן (’omen, “trustworthiness”), both of which are derived from the root אָמַן (’aman), are juxtaposed to emphasize the basic idea conveyed by the synonyms. Here they describe the absolute reliability of the divine plans.

[1:14]  ²² tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the transition to a new topic, the incarnation of the Word. Greek style often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” but English style generally does not.

[1:14]  ²³ tn This looks at the Word incarnate in humility and weakness; the word σάρξ (sarx) does not carry overtones of sinfulness here as it frequently does in Pauline usage. See also John 3:6.

[1:14]  ²⁴ tn Grk “and tabernacled.”

[1:14]  ²⁵ tn Grk “and we saw.”

[1:14]  ²⁶ tn Or “of the unique one.” Although this word is often translated “only begotten,” such a translation is misleading, since in English it appears to express a metaphysical relationship. The word in Greek was used of an only child (a son [Luke 7:12, 9:38] or a daughter [Luke 8:42]). It was also used of something unique (only one of its kind) such as the mythological Phoenix (1 Clem. 25:2). From here it passes easily to a description of Isaac (Heb 11:17 and Josephus, Ant., 1.13.1 [1.222]) who was not Abraham’s only son, but was one-of-a-kind because he was the child of the promise. Thus the word means “one-of-a-kind” and is reserved for Jesus in the Johannine literature of the NT. While all Christians are children of God, Jesus is God’s Son in a unique, one-of-a-kind sense. The word is used in this way in all its uses in the Gospel of John (1:14, 1:18, 3:16, and 3:18).

[1:17]  ²⁷ tn “But” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the implied contrast between the Mosaic law and grace through Jesus Christ. John 1:17 seems to indicate clearly that the Old Covenant (Sinai) was being contrasted with the New. In Jewish sources the Law was regarded as a gift from God (Josephus, Ant. 3.8.10 [3.223]; Pirqe Avot 1.1; Sifre Deut 31:4 §305). Further information can be found in T. F. Glasson, Moses in the Fourth Gospel (SBT).

[5:11]  ²⁸ tn Grk “Behold! We regard…”

[5:11]  ²⁹ sn An allusion to Exod 34:6; Neh 9:17; Ps 86:15; 102:13; Joel 2:13; Jonah 4:2.