Psalms 6:6-9

6:6 I am exhausted as I groan;

all night long I drench my bed in tears; ¹ 

my tears saturate the cushion beneath me. ² 

6:7 My eyes ³  grow dim ⁴  from suffering;

they grow weak ⁵  because of all my enemies. ⁶ 

6:8 Turn back from me, all you who behave wickedly, ⁷ 

for the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping! ⁸ 

6:9 The Lord has heard my appeal for mercy;

the Lord has accepted ⁹  my prayer.

Psalms 56:8-11

56:8 You keep track of my misery. ¹⁰ 

Put my tears in your leather container! ¹¹ 

Are they not recorded in your scroll? ¹² 

56:9 My enemies will turn back when I cry out to you for help; ¹³ 

I know that God is on my side. ¹⁴ 

56:10 In God – I boast in his promise ¹⁵  –

in the Lord – I boast in his promise ¹⁶  –

56:11 in God I trust, I am not afraid.

What can mere men ¹⁷  do to me? ¹⁸ 

Psalms 126:5-6

126:5 Those who shed tears as they plant

will shout for joy when they reap the harvest. ¹⁹ 

126:6 The one who weeps as he walks along, carrying his bag ²⁰  of seed,

will certainly come in with a shout of joy, carrying his sheaves of grain. ²¹ 

Isaiah 38:3-5

38:3 “Please, Lord. Remember how I have served you ²²  faithfully and with wholehearted devotion, ²³  and how I have carried out your will.” ²⁴  Then Hezekiah wept bitterly. ²⁵ 

38:4 The Lord told Isaiah, ²⁶  38:5 “Go and tell Hezekiah: ‘This is what the Lord God of your ancestor ²⁷  David says: “I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Look, I will add fifteen years to your life,

Matthew 5:4

5:4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. ²⁸ 

John 16:20-22

16:20 I tell you the solemn truth, ²⁹  you will weep ³⁰  and wail, ³¹  but the world will rejoice; you will be sad, ³²  but your sadness will turn into ³³  joy. 16:21 When a woman gives birth, she has distress ³⁴  because her time ³⁵  has come, but when her child is born, she no longer remembers the suffering because of her joy that a human being ³⁶  has been born into the world. ³⁷  16:22 So also you have sorrow ³⁸  now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you. ³⁹ 

John 16:2

16:2 They will put you out of ⁴⁰  the synagogue, ⁴¹  yet a time ⁴²  is coming when the one who kills you will think he is offering service to God. ⁴³ 

Colossians 1:9-10

Paul’s Prayer for the Growth of the Church

1:9 For this reason we also, from the day we heard about you, ⁴⁴  have not ceased praying for you and asking God ⁴⁵  to fill ⁴⁶  you with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 1:10 so that you may live ⁴⁷  worthily of the Lord and please him in all respects ⁴⁸  – bearing fruit in every good deed, growing in the knowledge of God,

[6:6]  ¹ tn Heb “I cause to swim through all the night my bed.”

[6:6]  ² tn Heb “with my tears my bed I flood/melt.”

[6:7]  ³ tn The Hebrew text has the singular “eye” here.

[6:7]  ⁴ tn Or perhaps, “are swollen.”

[6:7]  ⁵ tn Or perhaps, “grow old.”

[6:7]  ⁶ sn In his weakened condition the psalmist is vulnerable to the taunts and threats of his enemies.

[6:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “all [you] workers of wickedness.” See Ps 5:5.

[6:8]  ⁸ sn The Lord has heard. The psalmist’s mood abruptly changes because the Lord responded positively to the lament and petition of vv. 1-7 and promised him deliverance.

[6:9]  ⁹ tn The prefixed verbal form is probably a preterite here; it is parallel to a perfect and refers to the fact that the Lord has responded favorably to the psalmist’s request.

[56:8]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “my wandering you count, you.” The Hebrew term נֹד (nod, “wandering,” derived from the verbal root נוֹד, nod, “to wander”; cf. NASB) here refers to the psalmist’s “changeable circumstances of life” and may be translated “misery.” The verb סָפַר (safar, “count”) probably carries the nuance “assess” here. Cf. NIV “my lament”; NRSV “my tossings.”

[56:8]  ¹¹ tn Traditionally “your bottle.” Elsewhere the Hebrew word נֹאד (no’d, “leather container”) refers to a container made from animal skin which is used to hold wine or milk (see Josh 9:4, 13; Judg 4:19; 1 Sam 16:20). If such a container is metaphorically in view here, then the psalmist seems to be asking God to store up his tears as a reminder of his suffering.

[56:8]  ¹² tn The word “recorded” is supplied in the translation for clarification. The rhetorical question assumes a positive response (see the first line of the verse).

[56:9]  ¹³ tn Heb “then my enemies will turn back in the day I cry out.” The Hebrew particle אָז (’az, “then”) is probably used here to draw attention to the following statement.

[56:9]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “this I know, that God is for me.”

[56:10]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “in God I praise a word.” The syntax of the Hebrew text is difficult. The statement is similar to that of v. 4, except that the third person pronominal suffix is omitted here, where the text has simply “a word” instead of “his word.” (1) One could translate, “in God I will boast [with] a word.” In this case, the “word” refers to a song of praise. (2) If one assumes that God’s word is in view, as in v. 4, then one option is to translate, “in God I boast, [in] his word.” In this case the prepositional phrase “in God” goes with the following verb “I boast” (see Ps 44:8) and “[his] word” is appositional to “in God” and more specifically identifies the basis for the psalmist’s confidence. God’s “word” is here understood as an assuring promise of protection. (3) The present translation reflects another option: In this case “I praise [his] word” is a parenthetical statement, with “[his] word” being the object of the verb. The sentence begun with the prepositional phrase “in God” is then completed in v. 11, with the prepositional phrase being repeated after the parenthesis.

[56:10]  ¹⁶ tn The phrase “in the Lord” parallels “in God” in the first line. Once again the psalmist parenthetically remarks “I boast in [his] word” before completing the sentence in v. 11.

[56:11]  ¹⁷ tn The statement is similar to that of v. 4, except “flesh” is used there instead of “man.”

[56:11]  ¹⁸ tn The rhetorical question assumes the answer, “Nothing!” The imperfect is used in a modal sense here, indicating capability or potential.

[126:5]  ¹⁹ sn O. Borowski says regarding this passage: “The dependence on rain for watering plants, the uncertainty of the quantity and timing of the rains, and the possibility of crop failure due to pests and diseases appear to have kept the farmer in a gloomy mood during sowing” (Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 54). Perhaps the people were experiencing a literal drought, the effects of which cause them to lament their plight as they plant their seed in hopes that the rain would come. However, most take the language as metaphorical. Like a farmer sowing his seed, the covenant community was enduring hardship as they waited for a new outpouring of divine blessing. Yet they are confident that a time of restoration will come and relieve their anxiety, just as the harvest brings relief and joy to the farmer.

[126:6]  ²⁰ tn The noun occurs only here and in Job 28:18 in the OT. See HALOT 646 s.v. I מֶשֶׁךְ which gives “leather pouch” as the meaning.

[126:6]  ²¹ tn The Hebrew noun אֲלֻמָּה (’alummah, “sheaf”) occurs only here and in Gen 37:7 in the OT.

[38:3]  ²² tn Heb “walked before you.” For a helpful discussion of the background and meaning of this Hebrew idiom, see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 254.

[38:3]  ²³ tn Heb “and with a complete heart”; KJV, ASV “with a perfect heart.”

[38:3]  ²⁴ tn Heb “and that which is good in your eyes I have done.”

[38:3]  ²⁵ tn Heb “wept with great weeping”; NCV “cried loudly”; TEV “began to cry bitterly.”

[38:4]  ²⁶ tn Heb “and the word of the Lord came to Isaiah, saying.”

[38:5]  ²⁷ tn Heb “father” (so KJV, NAB, NIV).

[5:4]  ²⁸ sn The promise they will be comforted is the first of several “reversals” noted in these promises. The beatitudes and the reversals that accompany them serve in the sermon as an invitation to enter into God’s care, because one can know God cares for those who turn to him.

[16:20]  ²⁹ tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

[16:20]  ³⁰ tn Or “wail,” “cry.”

[16:20]  ³¹ tn Or “lament.”

[16:20]  ³² tn Or “sorrowful.”

[16:20]  ³³ tn Grk “will become.”

[16:21]  ³⁴ sn The same word translated distress here has been translated sadness in the previous verse (a wordplay that is not exactly reproducible in English).

[16:21]  ³⁵ tn Grk “her hour.”

[16:21]  ³⁶ tn Grk “that a man” (but in a generic sense, referring to a human being).

[16:21]  ³⁷ sn Jesus now compares the situation of the disciples to a woman in childbirth. Just as the woman in the delivery of her child experiences real pain and anguish (has distress), so the disciples will also undergo real anguish at the crucifixion of Jesus. But once the child has been born, the mother’s anguish is turned into joy, and she forgets the past suffering. The same will be true of the disciples, who after Jesus’ resurrection and reappearance to them will forget the anguish they suffered at his death on account of their joy.

[16:22]  ³⁸ tn Or “distress.”

[16:22]  ³⁹ sn An allusion to Isa 66:14 LXX, which reads: “Then you will see, and your heart will be glad, and your bones will flourish like the new grass; and the hand of the Lord will be made known to his servants, but he will be indignant toward his enemies.” The change from “you will see [me]” to I will see you places more emphasis on Jesus as the one who reinitiates the relationship with the disciples after his resurrection, but v. 16 (you will see me) is more like Isa 66:14. Further support for seeing this allusion as intentional is found in Isa 66:7, which uses the same imagery of the woman giving birth found in John 16:21. In the context of Isa 66 the passages refer to the institution of the messianic kingdom, and in fact the last clause of 66:14 along with the following verses (15-17) have yet to be fulfilled. This is part of the tension of present and future eschatological fulfillment that runs throughout the NT, by virtue of the fact that there are two advents. Some prophecies are fulfilled or partially fulfilled at the first advent, while other prophecies or parts of prophecies await fulfillment at the second.

[16:2]  ⁴⁰ tn Or “expel you from.”

[16:2]  ⁴¹ sn See the note on synagogue in 6:59.

[16:2]  ⁴² tn Grk “an hour.”

[16:2]  ⁴³ sn Jesus now refers not to the time of his return to the Father, as he has frequently done up to this point, but to the disciples’ time of persecution. They will be excommunicated from Jewish synagogues. There will even be a time when those who kill Jesus’ disciples will think that they are offering service to God by putting the disciples to death. Because of the reference to service offered to God, it is almost certain that Jewish opposition is intended here in both cases rather than Jewish opposition in the first instance (putting the disciples out of synagogues) and Roman opposition in the second (putting the disciples to death). Such opposition materializes later and is recorded in Acts: The stoning of Stephen in 7:58-60 and the slaying of James the brother of John by Herod Agrippa I in Acts 12:2-3 are notable examples.

[1:9]  ⁴⁴ tn Or “heard about it”; Grk “heard.” There is no direct object stated in the Greek (direct objects were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context). A direct object is expected by an English reader, however, so most translations supply one. Here, however, it is not entirely clear what the author “heard”: a number of translations supply “it” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV; NAB “this”), but this could refer back either to (1) “your love in the Spirit” at the end of v. 8, or (2) “your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you have for all the saints” (v. 4). In light of this uncertainty, other translations supply “about you” (TEV, NIV, CEV, NLT). This is preferred by the present translation since, while it does not resolve the ambiguity entirely, it does make it less easy for the English reader to limit the reference only to “your love in the Spirit” at the end of v. 8.

[1:9]  ⁴⁵ tn The term “God” does not appear in the Greek text, but the following reference to “the knowledge of his will” makes it clear that “God” is in view as the object of the “praying and asking,” and should therefore be included in the English translation for clarity.

[1:9]  ⁴⁶ tn The ἵνα (Jina) clause has been translated as substantival, indicating the content of the prayer and asking. The idea of purpose may also be present in this clause.

[1:10]  ⁴⁷ tn The infinitive περιπατῆσαι (peripathsai, “to walk, to live, to live one’s life”) is best taken as an infinitive of purpose related to “praying” (προσευχόμενοι, proseucomenoi) and “asking” (αἰτούμενοι, aitoumenoi) in v. 9 and is thus translated as “that you may live.”

[1:10]  ⁴⁸ tn BDAG 129 s.v. ἀρεσκεία states that ἀρεσκείαν (areskeian) refers to a “desire to please εἰς πᾶσαν ἀ. to please (the Lord) in all respects Col 1:10.”