Psalms 41:10-11

41:10 As for you, O Lord, have mercy on me and raise me up,

so I can pay them back!” ¹ 

41:11 By this ²  I know that you are pleased with me,

for my enemy does ³  not triumph ⁴  over me.

Psalms 74:9

74:9 We do not see any signs of God’s presence; ⁵ 

there are no longer any prophets ⁶ 

and we have no one to tell us how long this will last. ⁷ 

Isaiah 38:22

38:22 Hezekiah said, “What is the confirming sign that I will go up to the Lord’s temple?”

Isaiah 38:1

The Lord Hears Hezekiah’s Prayer

38:1 In those days Hezekiah was stricken with a terminal illness. ⁸  The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz visited him and told him, “This is what the Lord says, ‘Give instructions to your household, for you are about to die; you will not get well.’”

Colossians 1:5

1:5 Your faith and love have arisen ⁹  from the hope laid up ¹⁰  for you in heaven, which you have heard about in the message of truth, the gospel ¹¹ 

[41:10]  ¹ tn The cohortative with prefixed vav (ו) here indicates purpose or result (“Then I will repay them”) after the preceding imperatives.

[41:11]  ² sn By this. Having recalled his former lament and petition, the psalmist returns to the confident mood of vv. 1-3. The basis for his confidence may be a divine oracle of deliverance, assuring him that God would intervene and vindicate him. The demonstrative pronoun “this” may refer to such an oracle, which is assumed here, though its contents are not included. See P. C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 (WBC), 319, 321.

[41:11]  ³ tn Or “will.” One may translate the imperfect verbal form as descriptive (present, cf. NIV) or as anticipatory (future, cf. NEB).

[41:11]  ⁴ tn Heb “shout.”

[74:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “our signs we do not see.” Because of the reference to a prophet in the next line, it is likely that the “signs” in view here include the evidence of God’s presence as typically revealed through the prophets. These could include miraculous acts performed by the prophets (see, for example, Isa 38:7-8) or object lessons which they acted out (see, for example, Isa 20:3).

[74:9]  ⁶ tn Heb “there is not still a prophet.”

[74:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “and [there is] not with us one who knows how long.”

[38:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “was sick to the point of dying”; NRSV “became sick and was at the point of death.”

[1:5]  ⁹ tn Col 1:3-8 form one long sentence in the Greek text and have been divided at the end of v. 4 and v. 6 and within v. 6 for clarity, in keeping with the tendency in contemporary English toward shorter sentences. Thus the phrase “Your faith and love have arisen from the hope” is literally “because of the hope.” The perfect tense “have arisen” was chosen in the English to reflect the fact that the recipients of the letter had acquired this hope at conversion in the past, but that it still remains and motivates them to trust in Christ and to love one another.

[1:5]  ¹⁰ tn BDAG 113 s.v. ἀπόκειμαι 2 renders ἀποκειμένην (apokeimenhn) with the expression “reserved” in this verse.

[1:5]  ¹¹ tn The term “the gospel” (τοῦ εὐαγγελίου, tou euangeliou) is in apposition to “the word of truth” (τῷ λόγῳ τῆς ἀληθείας, tw logw th" alhqeia") as indicated in the translation.