Psalms 50:7

50:7 He says: ¹ 

“Listen my people! I am speaking!

Listen Israel! I am accusing you! ² 

I am God, your God!

Deuteronomy 32:46

32:46 he said to them, “Keep in mind all the words I am solemnly proclaiming to you today; you must command your children to observe carefully all the words of this law.

Isaiah 55:3-4

55:3 Pay attention and come to me!

Listen, so you can live! ³ 

Then I will make an unconditional covenantal promise to ⁴  you,

just like the reliable covenantal promises I made to David. ⁵ 

55:4 Look, I made him a witness to nations, ⁶ 

a ruler and commander of nations.”

John 3:11

3:11 I tell you the solemn truth, ⁷  we speak about what we know and testify about what we have seen, but ⁸  you people ⁹  do not accept our testimony. ¹⁰ 

John 3:32-33

3:32 He testifies about what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony. 3:33 The one who has accepted his testimony has confirmed clearly that God is truthful. ¹¹ 

Acts 20:21

20:21 testifying ¹²  to both Jews and Greeks about repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus. ¹³ 

Acts 20:1

Paul Travels Through Macedonia and Greece

20:1 After the disturbance had ended, Paul sent for the disciples, and after encouraging ¹⁴  them and saying farewell, ¹⁵  he left to go to Macedonia. ¹⁶ 

Acts 5:9

5:9 Peter then told her, “Why have you agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord? Look! The feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out!”

[50:7]  ¹ tn The words “he says” are supplied in the translation for clarification. God’s charges against his people follow.

[50:7]  ² tn Heb “Israel, and I will testify against you.” The imperative “listen” is understood in the second line by ellipsis (note the preceding line).

[55:3]  ³ tn The jussive with vav (ו) conjunctive following the imperative indicates purpose/result.

[55:3]  ⁴ tn Or “an eternal covenant with.”

[55:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “the reliable expressions of loyalty of David.” The syntactical relationship of חַסְדֵי (khasde, “expressions of loyalty”) to the preceding line is unclear. If the term is appositional to בְּרִית (bÿrit, “covenant”), then the Lord here transfers the promises of the Davidic covenant to the entire nation. Another option is to take חַסְדֵי (khasde) as an adverbial accusative and to translate “according to the reliable covenantal promises.” In this case the new covenantal arrangement proposed here is viewed as an extension or perhaps fulfillment of the Davidic promises. A third option, the one reflected in the above translation, is to take the last line as comparative. In this case the new covenant being proposed is analogous to the Davidic covenant. Verses 4-5, which compare David’s international prominence to what Israel will experience, favors this view. In all three of these interpretations, “David” is an objective genitive; he is the recipient of covenantal promises. A fourth option would be to take David as a subjective genitive and understand the line as giving the basis for the preceding promise: “Then I will make an unconditional covenantal promise to you, because of David’s faithful acts of covenantal loyalty.”

[55:4]  ⁶ sn Ideally the Davidic king was to testify to the nations of God’s greatness (cf. Pss 18:50 HT [18:49 ET]; 22:28 HT [22:27 ET]). See J. H. Eaton, Kingship in the Psalms (SBT), 182-84.

[3:11]  ⁷ tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

[3:11]  ⁸ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to show the contrast present in the context.

[3:11]  ⁹ tn The word “people” is not in the Greek text, but is supplied in the translation to indicate that the verb is second person plural (referring to more than Nicodemus alone).

[3:11]  ¹⁰ sn Note the remarkable similarity of Jesus’ testimony to the later testimony of the Apostle John himself in 1 John 1:2: “And we have seen and testify and report to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was revealed to us.” This is only one example of how thoroughly the author’s own thoughts were saturated with the words of Jesus (and also how difficult it is to distinguish the words of Jesus from the words of the author in the Fourth Gospel).

[3:33]  ¹¹ tn Or “is true.”

[20:21]  ¹² tn BDAG 233 s.v. διαμαρτύρομαι 1 has “testify of, bear witness to (orig. under oath)…of repentance to Judeans and Hellenes Ac 20:21.”

[20:21]  ¹³ tc Several mss, including some of the more important ones (Ì⁷⁴ א Α C [D] E 33 36 323 945 1175 1241 1505 1739 pm and a number of versions), read Χριστόν (Criston, “Christ”) at the end of this verse. This word is lacking in B H L P Ψ 614 pm. Although the inclusion is supported by many earlier and better mss, internal evidence is on the side of the omission: In Acts, both “Lord Jesus” and “Lord Jesus Christ” occur, though between 16:31 and the end of the book “Lord Jesus Christ” appears only in 28:31, perhaps as a kind of climactic assertion. Thus, the shorter reading is to be preferred.

[20:1]  ¹⁴ tn Or “exhorting.”

[20:1]  ¹⁵ tn Or “and taking leave of them.”

[20:1]  ¹⁶ sn Macedonia was the Roman province of Macedonia in Greece.