Psalms 35:7

35:7 I did not harm them, but they hid a net to catch me

and dug a pit to trap me. ¹ 

Psalms 35:12

35:12 They repay me evil for the good I have done; ² 

I am overwhelmed with sorrow. ³ 

Psalms 38:20

38:20 They repay me evil for the good I have done;

though I have tried to do good to them, they hurl accusations at me. ⁴ 

Psalms 38:2

38:2 For your arrows pierce ⁵  me,

and your hand presses me down. ⁶ 

Psalms 13:1

Psalm 13 ⁷ 

For the music director; a psalm of David.

13:1 How long, Lord, will you continue to ignore me? ⁸ 

How long will you pay no attention to me? ⁹ 

John 10:32

10:32 Jesus said to them, ¹⁰  “I have shown you many good deeds ¹¹  from the Father. For which one of them are you going to stone me?”

John 10:2

10:2 The one who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.

Colossians 1:15

The Supremacy of Christ

1:15 ¹² He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn ¹³  over all creation, ¹⁴ 

[35:7]  ¹ tc Heb “for without cause they hid for me a pit of their net, without cause they dug for my life.” It appears that the words “pit” and “net” have been transposed. “Net” goes with the verb “hid” in the first line (see v. 8, as well as Pss 9:15; 31:4), while “pit” goes with the verb “dug” in the second line (see Ps 7:15).

[35:12]  ² tn Heb “they repay me evil instead of good.”

[35:12]  ³ tn Heb “[there is] bereavement to my soul.”

[38:20]  ⁴ tn Heb “the ones who repay evil instead of good accuse me, instead of my pursuing good.”

[38:2]  ⁵ tn The verb Hebrew נָחַת (nakhat) apparently here means “penetrate, pierce” (note the use of the Qal in Prov 17:10). The psalmist pictures the Lord as a warrior who shoots arrows at him (see Ps 7:12-13).

[38:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “and your hand [?] upon me.” The meaning of the verb נָחַת (nakhat) is unclear in this context. It is preferable to emend the form to וַתָּנַח (vattanakh) from the verb נוּחַ (nuakh, “rest”). In this case the text would read literally, “and your hand rests upon me” (see Isa 25:10, though the phrase is used in a positive sense there, unlike Ps 38:2).

[13:1]  ⁷ sn Psalm 13. The psalmist, who is close to death, desperately pleads for God’s deliverance and affirms his trust in God’s faithfulness.

[13:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “will you forget me continually.”

[13:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “will you hide your face from me.”

[10:32]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “Jesus answered them.”

[10:32]  ¹¹ tn Or “good works.”

[1:15]  ¹² sn This passage has been typeset as poetry because many scholars regard this passage as poetic or hymnic. These terms are used broadly to refer to the genre of writing, not to the content. There are two broad criteria for determining if a passage is poetic or hymnic: “(a) stylistic: a certain rhythmical lilt when the passages are read aloud, the presence of parallelismus membrorum (i.e., an arrangement into couplets), the semblance of some metre, and the presence of rhetorical devices such as alliteration, chiasmus, and antithesis; and (b) linguistic: an unusual vocabulary, particularly the presence of theological terms, which is different from the surrounding context” (P. T. O’Brien, Philippians [NIGTC], 188-89). Classifying a passage as hymnic or poetic is important because understanding this genre can provide keys to interpretation. However, not all scholars agree that the above criteria are present in this passage, so the decision to typeset it as poetry should be viewed as a tentative decision about its genre.

[1:15]  ¹³ tn The Greek term πρωτότοκος (prwtotokos) could refer either to first in order of time, such as a first born child, or it could refer to one who is preeminent in rank. M. J. Harris, Colossians and Philemon (EGGNT), 43, expresses the meaning of the word well: “The ‘firstborn’ was either the eldest child in a family or a person of preeminent rank. The use of this term to describe the Davidic king in Ps 88:28 LXX (=Ps 89:27 EVV), ‘I will also appoint him my firstborn (πρωτότοκον), the most exalted of the kings of the earth,’ indicates that it can denote supremacy in rank as well as priority in time. But whether the πρωτό- element in the word denotes time, rank, or both, the significance of the -τοκος element as indicating birth or origin (from τίκτω, give birth to) has been virtually lost except in ref. to lit. birth.” In Col 1:15 the emphasis is on the priority of Jesus’ rank as over and above creation (cf. 1:16 and the “for” clause referring to Jesus as Creator).

[1:15]  ¹⁴ tn The genitive construction πάσης κτίσεως (pash" ktisew") is a genitive of subordination and is therefore translated as “over all creation.” See ExSyn 103-4.