Psalms 51:18

51:18 Because you favor Zion, do what is good for her! ¹ 

Fortify ²  the walls of Jerusalem! ³ 

Psalms 125:4

125:4 Do good, O Lord, to those who are good,

to the morally upright! ⁴ 

Matthew 5:44

5:44 But I say to you, love your enemy and ⁵  pray for those who persecute you,

Matthew 5:2

5:2 Then ⁶  he began to teach ⁷  them by saying:

Matthew 1:16-18

1:16 and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, by whom ⁸  Jesus was born, who is called Christ. ⁹ 

1:17 So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to Christ, ¹⁰  fourteen generations.

The Birth of Jesus Christ

1:18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ happened this way. While his mother Mary was engaged to Joseph, but before they came together, ¹¹  she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit.

James 5:14-16

5:14 Is anyone among you ill? He should summon the elders of the church, and they should pray for him and anoint ¹²  him with oil in the name of the Lord. 5:15 And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick and the Lord will raise him up – and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. ¹³  5:16 So confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great effectiveness. ¹⁴ 

[51:18]  ¹ tn Heb “do what is good for Zion in your favor.”

[51:18]  ² tn Or “Build.” The imperfect verbal form is used here to express the psalmist’s wish or request.

[51:18]  ³ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[125:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “pure of heart.” The “heart” is here viewed as the seat of one’s moral character and motives. The “pure of heart” are God’s faithful followers who trust in and love the Lord and, as a result, experience his deliverance (see Pss 7:10; 11:2; 32:11; 36:10; 64:10; 94:15; 97:11).

[5:44]  ⁵ tc Most mss ([D] L [W] Θ Ë¹³ 33 Ï lat) read “bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who mistreat you,” before “those who persecute you.” But this is surely a motivated reading, importing the longer form of this aphorism from Luke 6:27-28. The shorter text is found in א B ˹ pc sa, as well as several fathers and versional witnesses.

[5:2]  ⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[5:2]  ⁷ tn Grk “And opening his mouth he taught them, saying.” The imperfect verb ἐδίδασκεν (edidasken) has been translated ingressively.

[1:16]  ⁸ tc There are three significant variant readings at this point in the text. Some mss and versional witnesses (Θ Ë¹³ it) read, “Joseph, to whom the virgin Mary, being betrothed, bore Jesus, who is called Christ.” This reading makes even more explicit than the feminine pronoun (see sn below) the virginal conception of Jesus and as such seems to be a motivated reading. The Sinaitic Syriac ms alone indicates that Joseph was the father of Jesus (“Joseph, to whom was betrothed Mary the virgin, fathered Jesus who is called the Christ”). Although much discussed, this reading has not been found in any Greek witnesses. B. M. Metzger suggests that it was produced by a careless scribe who simply reproduced the set formula of the preceding lines in the genealogy (TCGNT 6). In all likelihood, the two competing variants were thus produced by intentional and unintentional scribal alterations respectively. The reading adopted in the translation has overwhelming support from a variety of witnesses (̹ א B C L W [˹] 33 Ï co), and therefore should be regarded as authentic. For a detailed discussion of this textual problem, see TCGNT 2-6.

[1:16]  ⁹ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

[1:17]  ¹⁰ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

[1:18]  ¹¹ tn The connotation of the Greek is “before they came together in marital and domestic union” (so BDAG 970 s.v. συνέρχομαι 3).

[5:14]  ¹² tn Grk “anointing.”

[5:15]  ¹³ tn Grk “it will be forgiven him.”

[5:16]  ¹⁴ tn Or “the fervent prayer of a righteous person is very powerful”; Grk “is very powerful in its working.”