Psalms 47:7

47:7 For God is king of the whole earth!

Sing a well-written song! ¹ 

Psalms 57:7-11

57:7 I am determined, ²  O God! I am determined!

I will sing and praise you!

57:8 Awake, my soul! ³ 

Awake, O stringed instrument and harp!

I will wake up at dawn! ⁴ 

57:9 I will give you thanks before the nations, O Master!

I will sing praises to you before foreigners! ⁵ 

57:10 For your loyal love extends beyond the sky, ⁶ 

and your faithfulness reaches the clouds.

57:11 Rise up ⁷  above the sky, O God!

May your splendor cover the whole earth! ⁸ 

Psalms 63:5

63:5 As if with choice meat ⁹  you satisfy my soul. ¹⁰ 

My mouth joyfully praises you, ¹¹ 

Psalms 86:12-13

86:12 O Lord, my God, I will give you thanks with my whole heart!

I will honor your name continually! ¹² 

86:13 For you will extend your great loyal love to me, ¹³ 

and will deliver my life ¹⁴  from the depths of Sheol. ¹⁵ 

Psalms 111:1

Psalm 111 ¹⁶ 

111:1 Praise the Lord!

I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart,

in the assembly of the godly and the congregation.

Psalms 138:1

Psalm 138 ¹⁷ 

By David.

138:1 I will give you thanks with all my heart;

before the heavenly assembly ¹⁸  I will sing praises to you.

Mark 12:30-33

12:30 Love ¹⁹  the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ ²⁰  12:31 The second is: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ²¹  There is no other commandment greater than these.” 12:32 The expert in the law said to him, “That is true, Teacher; you are right to say that he is one, and there is no one else besides him. ²²  12:33 And to love him with all your heart, with all your mind, and with all your strength ²³  and to love your neighbor as yourself ²⁴  is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

John 4:24

4:24 God is spirit, ²⁵  and the people who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

John 4:1

Departure From Judea

4:1 Now when Jesus ²⁶  knew that the Pharisees ²⁷  had heard that he ²⁸  was winning ²⁹  and baptizing more disciples than John

Colossians 1:15

The Supremacy of Christ

1:15 ³⁰ He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn ³¹  over all creation, ³² 

Philippians 1:9

1:9 And I pray this, that your love may abound even more and more in knowledge and every kind of insight

Colossians 3:16

3:16 Let the word of Christ ³³  dwell in you richly, teaching and exhorting one another with all wisdom, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, all with grace ³⁴  in your hearts to God.

[47:7]  ¹ tn The meaning of the Hebrew term מַשְׂכִּיל (maskil) is uncertain. The word is derived from a verb meaning “to be prudent; to be wise.” Various options are: “a contemplative song,” “a song imparting moral wisdom,” or “a skillful [i.e., well-written] song.” The term also occurs in the superscriptions of Pss 32, 42, 44, 45, 52-55, 74, 78, 88, 89, and 142. Here, in a context of celebration, the meaning “skillful, well-written” would fit particularly well.

[57:7]  ² tn Or perhaps “confident”; Heb “my heart is steadfast.” The “heart” is viewed here as the seat of the psalmist’s volition and/or emotions.

[57:8]  ³ tn Heb “glory,” but that makes little sense in the context. Some view כָּבוֹד (kavod, “glory”) here as a metonymy for man’s inner being (see BDB 459 s.v. II כָּבוֹד 5), but it is preferable to emend the form to כְּבֵדִי (kÿvediy, “my liver”). Like the heart, the liver is viewed as the seat of one’s emotions. See also Pss 16:9; 30:12; 108:1, as well as H. W. Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, 64, and M. Dahood, Psalms (AB), 1:90. For an Ugaritic example of the heart/liver as the source of joy, see G. R. Driver, Canaanite Myths and Legends, 47-48: “her [Anat’s] liver swelled with laughter, her heart was filled with joy, the liver of Anat with triumph.”

[57:8]  ⁴ tn BDB 1007 s.v. שַׁחַר takes “dawn” as an adverbial accusative, though others understand it as a personified direct object. “Dawn” is used metaphorically for the time of deliverance and vindication the psalmist anticipates. When salvation “dawns,” the psalmist will “wake up” in praise.

[57:9]  ⁵ tn Or “the peoples.”

[57:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “for great upon the sky [or “heavens”] [is] your loyal love.”

[57:11]  ⁷ tn Or “be exalted.”

[57:11]  ⁸ tn Heb “over all the earth [be] your splendor.” Though no verb appears, the tone of the statement is a prayer or wish. (Note the imperative form in the preceding line.)

[63:5]  ⁹ tn Heb “like fat and fatness.”

[63:5]  ¹⁰ tn Or “me.”

[63:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and [with] lips of joy my mouth praises.”

[86:12]  ¹² tn Or “forever.”

[86:13]  ¹³ tn Heb “for your loyal love [is] great over me.”

[86:13]  ¹⁴ tn Or “for he will have delivered my life.” The verb form indicates a future perfect here.

[86:13]  ¹⁵ tn Or “lower Sheol.”

[111:1]  ¹⁶ sn Psalm 111. The psalmist praises God for his marvelous deeds, especially the way in which he provides for and delivers his people. The psalm is an acrostic. After the introductory call to praise, every poetic line (twenty-two in all) begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

[138:1]  ¹⁷ sn Psalm 138. The psalmist vows to thank the Lord for his deliverance and protection.

[138:1]  ¹⁸ tn The referent of the Hebrew term אֱלֹהִים (’elohim) is unclear. It refers either to the angelic assembly (see Gen 3:5; Ps 8:5) or to the pagan gods (see Pss 82:1, 6; 86:8; 97:7), in which case the psalmist’s praise takes on a polemical tone.

[12:30]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “You will love.” The future indicative is used here with imperatival force (see ExSyn 452 and 569).

[12:30]  ²⁰ sn A quotation from Deut 6:4-5 and Josh 22:5 (LXX). The fourfold reference to different parts of the person says, in effect, that one should love God with all one’s being.

[12:31]  ²¹ sn A quotation from Lev 19:18.

[12:32]  ²² sn A quotation from Deut 4:35.

[12:33]  ²³ sn A quotation from Deut 6:5.

[12:33]  ²⁴ sn A quotation from Lev 19:18.

[4:24]  ²⁵ tn Here πνεῦμα (pneuma) is understood as a qualitative predicate nominative while the articular θεός (qeos) is the subject.

[4:1]  ²⁶ tc Several early and important witnesses, along with the majority of later ones (Ì^66c,75 A B C L W^s Ψ 083 ˹³ 33 Ï sa), have κύριος (kurio", “Lord”) here instead of ᾿Ιησοῦς (Ihsou", “Jesus”). As significant as this external support is, the internal evidence seems to be on the side of ᾿Ιησοῦς. “Jesus” is mentioned two more times in the first two verses of chapter four in a way that is stylistically awkward (so much so that the translation has substituted the pronoun for the first one; see tn note below). This seems to be sufficient reason to motivate scribes to change the wording to κύριος. Further, the reading ᾿Ιησοῦς is not without decent support, though admittedly not as strong as that for κύριος (Ì^66* א D Θ 086 ˹ 565 1241 al lat bo). On the other hand, this Gospel speaks of Jesus as Lord in the evangelist’s narrative descriptions elsewhere only in 11:2; 20:18, 20; 21:12; and probably 6:23, preferring ᾿Ιησοῦς most of the time. This fact could be used to argue that scribes, acquainted with John’s style, changed κύριος to ᾿Ιησοῦς. But the immediate context generally is weighed more heavily than an author’s style. It is possible that neither word was in the original text and scribes supplied what they thought most appropriate (see TCGNT 176). But without ms evidence to this effect coupled with the harder reading ᾿Ιησοῦς, this conjecture must remain doubtful. All in all, it is best to regard ᾿Ιησοῦς as the original reading here.

[4:1]  ²⁷ sn See the note on Pharisees in 1:24.

[4:1]  ²⁸ tn Grk “Jesus”; the repetition of the proper name is somewhat redundant in English (see the beginning of the verse) and so the pronoun (“he”) has been substituted here.

[4:1]  ²⁹ tn Grk “was making.”

[1:15]  ³⁰ 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]  ³¹ 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]  ³² 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.

[3:16]  ³³ tc Since “the word of Christ” occurs nowhere else in the NT, two predictable variants arose: “word of God” and “word of the Lord.” Even though some of the witnesses for these variants are impressive (κυρίου [kuriou, “of the Lord”] in א* I 1175 pc bo; θεοῦ [qeou, “of God”] in A C* 33 104 323 945 al), the reading Χριστοῦ (Cristou, “of Christ”) is read by an excellent cross-section of witnesses (Ì⁴⁶ א² B C² D F G Ψ 075 1739 1881 Ï lat sa). On both internal and external grounds, Χριστοῦ is strongly preferred.

[3:16]  ³⁴ tn Grk “with grace”; “all” is supplied as it is implicitly related to all the previous instructions in the verse.