Psalms 36:5

36:5 O Lord, your loyal love reaches to the sky; ¹ 

your faithfulness to the clouds. ² 

Psalms 85:10

85:10 Loyal love and faithfulness meet; ³ 

deliverance and peace greet each other with a kiss. ⁴ 

Psalms 89:2

89:2 For I say, “Loyal love is permanently established; ⁵ 

in the skies you set up your faithfulness.” ⁶ 

Psalms 89:5

89:5 O Lord, the heavens ⁷  praise your amazing deeds,

as well as your faithfulness in the angelic assembly. ⁸ 

Psalms 103:11

103:11 For as the skies are high above the earth,

so his loyal love towers ⁹  over his faithful followers. ¹⁰ 

Isaiah 55:9

55:9 for just as the sky ¹¹  is higher than the earth,

so my deeds ¹²  are superior to ¹³  your deeds

and my plans ¹⁴  superior to your plans.

Micah 7:18-20

7:18 There is no other God like you! ¹⁵ 

You ¹⁶  forgive sin

and pardon ¹⁷  the rebellion

of those who remain among your people. ¹⁸ 

You do not remain angry forever, ¹⁹ 

but delight in showing loyal love.

7:19 You will once again ²⁰  have mercy on us;

you will conquer ²¹  our evil deeds;

you will hurl our ²²  sins into the depths of the sea. ²³ 

7:20 You will be loyal to Jacob

and extend your loyal love to Abraham, ²⁴ 

which you promised on oath to our ancestors ²⁵ 

in ancient times. ²⁶ 

Ephesians 2:4-7

2:4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, 2:5 even though we were dead in transgressions, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you are saved! ²⁷  – 2:6 and he raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 2:7 to demonstrate in the coming ages ²⁸  the surpassing wealth of his grace in kindness toward ²⁹  us in Christ Jesus.

[36:5]  ¹ tn Heb “[is] in the heavens.”

[36:5]  ² sn The Lord’s loyal love/faithfulness is almost limitless. He is loyal and faithful to his creation and blesses mankind and the animal kingdom with physical life and sustenance (vv. 6-9).

[85:10]  ³ 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]  ⁴ 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.

[89:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “built.”

[89:2]  ⁶ sn You set up your faithfulness. This may allude to the Lord’s heavenly throne, which symbolizes his just rule and from which the Lord decrees his unconditional promises (see vv. 8, 14).

[89:5]  ⁷ tn As the following context makes clear, the personified “heavens” here stand by metonymy for the angelic beings that surround God’s heavenly throne.

[89:5]  ⁸ tn Heb “in the assembly of the holy ones.” The phrase “holy ones” sometimes refers to God’s people (Ps 34:9) or to their priestly leaders (2 Chr 35:3), but here it refers to God’s heavenly assembly and the angels that surround his throne (see vv. 6-7).

[103:11]  ⁹ tn For this sense of the verb גָבַר (gavar), see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 17, 19.

[103:11]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “those who fear him.”

[55:9]  ¹¹ tn Or “the heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.

[55:9]  ¹² tn Heb “ways” (so many English versions).

[55:9]  ¹³ tn Heb “are higher than.”

[55:9]  ¹⁴ tn Or “thoughts” (so many English versions).

[7:18]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Who is a God like you?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “No one!”

[7:18]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “one who.” The prayer moves from direct address (second person) in v. 18a to a descriptive (third person) style in vv. 18b-19a and then back to direct address (second person) in vv. 19b-20. Due to considerations of English style and the unfamiliarity of the modern reader with alternation of persons in Hebrew poetry, the entire section has been rendered as direct address (second person) in the translation.

[7:18]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “pass over.”

[7:18]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “of the remnant of his inheritance.”

[7:18]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “he does not keep hold of his anger forever.”

[7:19]  ²⁰ tn The verb יָשׁוּב (yashuv, “he will return”) is here used adverbially in relation to the following verb, indicating that the Lord will again show mercy.

[7:19]  ²¹ tn Some prefer to read יִכְבֹּס (yikhbos, “he will cleanse”; see HALOT 459 s.v. כבס pi). If the MT is taken as it stands, sin is personified as an enemy that the Lord subdues.

[7:19]  ²² tn Heb “their sins,” but the final mem (ם) may be enclitic rather than a pronominal suffix. In this case the suffix from the preceding line (“our”) may be understood as doing double duty.

[7:19]  ²³ sn In this metaphor the Lord disposes of Israel’s sins by throwing them into the waters of the sea (here symbolic of chaos).

[7:20]  ²⁴ tn More literally, “You will extend loyalty to Jacob, and loyal love to Abraham.

[7:20]  ²⁵ tn Heb “our fathers.” The Hebrew term refers here to more distant ancestors, not immediate parents.

[7:20]  ²⁶ tn Heb “which you swore [or, “pledged”] to our fathers from days of old.”

[2:5]  ²⁷ tn Or “by grace you have been saved.” The perfect tense in Greek connotes both completed action (“you have been saved”) and continuing results (“you are saved”).

[2:7]  ²⁸ tn Or possibly “to the Aeons who are about to come.”

[2:7]  ²⁹ tn Or “upon.”