Psalms 76:7-11

76:7 You are awesome! Yes, you!

Who can withstand your intense anger? ¹ 

76:8 From heaven you announced what their punishment would be. ² 

The earth ³  was afraid and silent

76:9 when God arose to execute judgment,

and to deliver all the oppressed of the earth. (Selah)

76:10 Certainly ⁴  your angry judgment upon men will bring you praise; ⁵ 

you reveal your anger in full measure. ⁶ 

76:11 Make vows to the Lord your God and repay them!

Let all those who surround him ⁷  bring tribute to the awesome one!

Leviticus 10:3

10:3 Moses then said to Aaron, “This is what the Lord spoke: ‘Among the ones close to me I will show myself holy, ⁸  and in the presence of all the people I will be honored.’” ⁹  So Aaron kept silent.

Isaiah 6:2-7

6:2 Seraphs ¹⁰  stood over him; each one had six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, ¹¹  and they used the remaining two to fly. 6:3 They called out to one another, “Holy, holy, holy ¹²  is the Lord who commands armies! ¹³  His majestic splendor fills the entire earth!” 6:4 The sound of their voices shook the door frames, ¹⁴  and the temple was filled with smoke.

6:5 I said, “Too bad for me! I am destroyed, ¹⁵  for my lips are contaminated by sin, ¹⁶  and I live among people whose lips are contaminated by sin. ¹⁷  My eyes have seen the king, the Lord who commands armies.” ¹⁸  6:6 But then one of the seraphs flew toward me. In his hand was a hot coal he had taken from the altar with tongs. 6:7 He touched my mouth with it and said, “Look, this coal has touched your lips. Your evil is removed; your sin is forgiven.” ¹⁹ 

Isaiah 66:2

66:2 My hand made them; ²⁰ 

that is how they came to be,” ²¹  says the Lord.

I show special favor ²²  to the humble and contrite,

who respect what I have to say. ²³ 

Jeremiah 10:7

10:7 Everyone should revere you, O King of all nations, ²⁴ 

because you deserve to be revered. ²⁵ 

For there is no one like you

among any of the wise people of the nations nor among any of their kings. ²⁶ 

Jeremiah 10:10

10:10 The Lord is the only true God.

He is the living God and the everlasting King.

When he shows his anger the earth shakes.

None of the nations can stand up to his fury.

Matthew 10:28

10:28 Do ²⁷  not be afraid of those who kill the body ²⁸  but cannot kill the soul. Instead, fear the one who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. ²⁹ 

Luke 12:4-5

12:4 “I ³⁰  tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, ³¹  and after that have nothing more they can do. 12:5 But I will warn ³²  you whom you should fear: Fear the one who, after the killing, ³³  has authority to throw you ³⁴  into hell. ³⁵  Yes, I tell you, fear him!

Acts 5:11

5:11 Great ³⁶  fear gripped ³⁷  the whole church ³⁸  and all who heard about these things.

Hebrews 12:28-29

12:28 So since we are receiving an unshakable kingdom, let us give thanks, and through this let us offer worship pleasing to God in devotion and awe. 12:29 For our God is indeed a devouring fire. ³⁹ 

Revelation 15:3-4

15:3 They ⁴⁰  sang the song of Moses the servant ⁴¹  of God and the song of the Lamb: ⁴² 

“Great and astounding are your deeds,

Lord God, the All-Powerful! ⁴³ 

Just ⁴⁴  and true are your ways,

King over the nations! ⁴⁵ 

15:4 Who will not fear you, O Lord,

and glorify ⁴⁶  your name, because you alone are holy? ⁴⁷ 

All nations ⁴⁸  will come and worship before you

for your righteous acts ⁴⁹  have been revealed.”

[76:7]  ¹ tc Heb “and who can stand before you from the time of your anger?” The Hebrew expression מֵאָז (me’az, “from the time of”) is better emended to מֵאֹז (me’oz, “from [i.e., “because of”] the strength of your anger”; see Ps 90:11).

[76:8]  ² tn Heb “a [legal] decision,” or “sentence.”

[76:8]  ³ tn “The earth” stands here by metonymy for its inhabitants.

[76:10]  ⁴ tn Or “for.”

[76:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “the anger of men will praise you.” This could mean that men’s anger (subjective genitive), when punished by God, will bring him praise, but this interpretation does not harmonize well with the next line. The translation assumes that God’s anger is in view here (see v. 7) and that “men” is an objective genitive. God’s angry judgment against men brings him praise because it reveals his power and majesty (see vv. 1-4).

[76:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “the rest of anger you put on.” The meaning of the statement is not entirely clear. Perhaps the idea is that God, as he prepares for battle, girds himself with every last ounce of his anger, as if it were a weapon.

[76:11]  ⁷ tn The phrase “all those who surround him” may refer to the surrounding nations (v. 12 may favor this), but in Ps 89:7 the phrase refers to God’s heavenly assembly.

[10:3]  ⁸ tn The Niphal verb of the Hebrew root קָדַשׁ (qadash) can mean either “to be treated as holy” (so here, e.g., BDB 873 s.v. קָּדַשׁ, LXX, NASB, and NEB) or “to show oneself holy” (so here, e.g., HALOT 1073 s.v. קדשׁnif.1, NIV, NRSV, NLT; J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:595, 601-3; and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 133-34). The latter rendering seems more likely here since, in the immediate context, the Lord himself had indeed shown himself to be holy by the way he responded to the illegitimate incense offering of Nadab and Abihu. They had not treated the Lord as holy, so the Lord acted on his own behalf to show that he was indeed holy.

[10:3]  ⁹ tn In this context the Niphal of the Hebrew root כָּבֵד (kaved) can mean “to be honored” (e.g., NASB and NIV here), “be glorified” (ASV, NRSV and NLT here), or “glorify oneself, show one’s glory” (cf. NAB; e.g., specifically in this verse HALOT 455 s.v. כבדnif.3; J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:595, 603-4; and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 126, 134). Comparing this clause with the previous one (see the note above), the point may be that when the Lord shows himself to be holy as he has done in 10:1-2, this results in him being honored (i.e., reverenced, feared, treated with respect) among the people. This suggests the passive rendering. It is possible, however, that one should use the reflexive rendering here as in the previous clause. If so, the passage means that the Lord showed both his holiness and his glory in one outbreak against Nadab and Abihu.

[6:2]  ¹⁰ tn Hebrew שָׂרָף (saraf, “seraph”) literally means “burning one,” perhaps suggesting that these creatures had a fiery appearance (cf. TEV, CEV “flaming creatures”; NCV “heavenly creatures of fire”). Elsewhere in the OT the word “seraph” refers to poisonous snakes (Num 21:6; Deut 8:15; Isa 14:29; 30:6). Perhaps they were called “burning ones” because of their appearance or the effect of their venomous bites, which would cause a victim to burn up with fever. It is possible that the seraphs seen by Isaiah were at least partially serpentine in appearance. Though it might seem strange for a snake-like creature to have wings, two of the texts where “seraphs” are snakes describe them as “flying” (Isa 14:29; 30:6), perhaps referring to their darting movements. See the note at 14:29.

[6:2]  ¹¹ sn Some understand “feet” here as a euphemistic reference to the genitals.

[6:3]  ¹² tn Some have seen a reference to the Trinity in the seraphs’ threefold declaration, “holy, holy, holy.” This proposal has no linguistic or contextual basis and should be dismissed as allegorical. Hebrew sometimes uses repetition for emphasis. (See IBHS 233-34 §12.5a; and GKC 431-32 §133.k.) By repeating the word “holy,” the seraphs emphasize the degree of the Lord’s holiness. For another example of threefold repetition for emphasis, see Ezek 21:27 (Heb. v. 32). (Perhaps Jer 22:29 provides another example.)

[6:3]  ¹³ tn Perhaps in this context, the title has a less militaristic connotation and pictures the Lord as the ruler of the heavenly assembly. See the note at 1:9.

[6:4]  ¹⁴ tn On the phrase אַמּוֹת הַסִּפִּים (’ammot hassippim, “pivots of the frames”) see HALOT 763 s.v. סַף.

[6:5]  ¹⁵ tn Isaiah uses the suffixed (perfect) form of the verb for rhetorical purposes. In this way his destruction is described as occurring or as already completed. Rather than understanding the verb as derived from דָּמַה (damah, “be destroyed”), some take it from a proposed homonymic root דמה, which would mean “be silent.” In this case, one might translate, “I must be silent.”

[6:5]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “a man unclean of lips am I.” Isaiah is not qualified to praise the king. His lips (the instruments of praise) are “unclean” because he has been contaminated by sin.

[6:5]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and among a nation unclean of lips I live.”

[6:5]  ¹⁸ tn Perhaps in this context, the title has a less militaristic connotation and pictures the Lord as the ruler of the heavenly assembly. See the note at 1:9.

[6:7]  ¹⁹ tn Or “ritually cleansed,” or “atoned for” (NIV).

[66:2]  ²⁰ tn Heb “all these.” The phrase refers to the heavens and earth, mentioned in the previous verse.

[66:2]  ²¹ tn Heb “and all these were.” Some prefer to emend וַיִּהְיוּ (vayyihyu, “and they were”) to וְלִי הָיוּ (vÿli hayu, “and to me they were”), i.e., “and they belong to me.”

[66:2]  ²² tn Heb “and to this one I look” (KJV and NASB both similar).

[66:2]  ²³ tn Heb “to the humble and the lowly in spirit and the one who trembles at my words.”

[10:7]  ²⁴ tn Heb “Who should not revere you…?” The question is rhetorical and expects a negative answer.

[10:7]  ²⁵ tn Heb “For it is fitting to you.”

[10:7]  ²⁶ tn Heb “their royalty/dominion.” This is a case of substitution of the abstract for the concrete “royalty, royal power” for “kings” who exercise it.

[10:28]  ²⁷ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

[10:28]  ²⁸ sn Judaism had a similar exhortation in 4 Macc 13:14-15.

[10:28]  ²⁹ sn See the note on the word hell in 5:22.

[12:4]  ³⁰ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[12:4]  ³¹ sn Judaism had a similar exhortation in 4 Macc 13:14-15.

[12:5]  ³² tn Grk “will show,” but in this reflective context such a demonstration is a warning or exhortation.

[12:5]  ³³ sn The actual performer of the killing is not here specified. It could be understood to be God (so NASB, NRSV) but it could simply emphasize that, after a killing has taken place, it is God who casts the person into hell.

[12:5]  ³⁴ tn The direct object (“you”) is understood.

[12:5]  ³⁵ sn The word translated hell is “Gehenna” (γέεννα, geenna), a Greek transliteration of the Hebrew words ge hinnom (“Valley of Hinnom”). This was the valley along the south side of Jerusalem. In OT times it was used for human sacrifices to the pagan god Molech (cf. Jer 7:31; 19:5-6; 32:35), and it came to be used as a place where human excrement and rubbish were disposed of and burned. In the intertestamental period, it came to be used symbolically as the place of divine punishment (cf. 1 En. 27:2, 90:26; 4 Ezra 7:36).

[5:11]  ³⁶ tn Grk “And great.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

[5:11]  ³⁷ tn Or “fear came on,” “fear seized”; Grk “fear happened to.”

[5:11]  ³⁸ sn This is the first occurrence of the term church (ἐκκλησία, ekklhsia) in Acts. It refers to an assembly of people.

[12:29]  ³⁹ sn A quotation from Deut 4:24; 9:3.

[15:3]  ⁴⁰ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

[15:3]  ⁴¹ tn See the note on the word “servants” in 1:1.

[15:3]  ⁴² tn Grk “saying.” The participle λέγοντες (legontes) is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.

[15:3]  ⁴³ tn On this word BDAG 755 s.v. παντοκράτωρ states, “the Almighty, All-Powerful, Omnipotent (One) only of God…(ὁ) κύριος ὁ θεὸς ὁ π. …Rv 1:8; 4:8; 11:17; 15:3; 16:7; 21:22.”

[15:3]  ⁴⁴ tn Or “righteous,” although the context favors justice as the theme.

[15:3]  ⁴⁵ tc Certain mss (Ì⁴⁷ א*^,2 C 1006 1611 1841 pc) read “ages” (αἰώνων, aiwnwn) instead of “nations” (ἐθνῶν, eqnwn), which itself is supported by several mss (א¹ A 051 Ï). The ms evidence seems to be fairly balanced, though αἰώνων has somewhat better support. The replacement of “ages” with “nations” is possibly a scribal attempt to harmonize this verse with the use of “nations” in the following verse. On the other hand, the idea of “nations” fits well with v. 4 and it may be that “ages” is a scribal attempt to assimilate this text to 1 Tim 1:17: “the king of the ages” (βασιλεὺς τῶν αἰώνων, basileu" twn aiwnwn). The decision is a difficult one since both scenarios deal well with the evidence, though the verbal parallel with 1 Tim 1:17 is exact while the parallel with v. 4 is not. The term “king” occurs 17 other times (most occurrences refer to earthly kings) in Revelation and it is not used with either “ages” or “nations” apart from this verse. Probably the reading “nations” should be considered original due to the influence of 1 Tim 1:17.

[15:4]  ⁴⁶ tn Or “and praise.”

[15:4]  ⁴⁷ sn Because you alone are holy. In the Greek text the sentence literally reads “because alone holy.” Three points can be made in connection with John’s language here: (1) Omitting the second person, singular verb “you are” lays stress on the attribute of God’s holiness. (2) The juxtaposition of alone with holy stresses the unique nature of God’s holiness and complete “otherness” in relationship to his creation. It is not just moral purity which is involved in the use of the term holy, though it certainly includes that. It is also the pervasive OT idea that although God is deeply involved in the governing of his creation, he is to be regarded as separate and distinct from it. (3) John’s use of the term holy is also intriguing since it is the term ὅσιος (Josios) and not the more common NT term ἅγιος (Jagios). The former term evokes images of Christ’s messianic status in early Christian preaching. Both Peter in Acts 2:27 and Paul in Acts 13:35 apply Psalm 16:10 (LXX) to Jesus, referring to him as the “holy one” (ὅσιος). It is also the key term in Acts 13:34 (Isa 55:3 [LXX]) where it refers to the “holy blessings” (i.e., forgiveness and justification) brought about through Jesus in fulfillment of Davidic promise. Thus, in Rev 15:3-4, when John refers to God as “holy,” using the term ὅσιος in a context where the emphasis is on both God and Christ, there might be an implicit connection between divinity and the Messiah. This is bolstered by the fact that the Lamb is referred to in other contexts as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords (cf. 1:5; 17:14; 19:16 and perhaps 11:15; G. K. Beale, Revelation [NIGTC], 796-97).

[15:4]  ⁴⁸ tn Or “all the Gentiles” (the same Greek word may be translated “Gentiles” or “nations”).

[15:4]  ⁴⁹ tn Or perhaps, “your sentences of condemnation.” On δικαίωμα (dikaiwma) in this context BDAG 249 s.v. 2. states, “righteous deed…δι᾿ ἑνὸς δικαιώματος (opp. παράπτωμα) Ro 5:18. – B 1:2 (cp. Wengst, Barnabas-brief 196, n.4); Rv 15:4 (here perh.= ‘sentence of condemnation’ [cp. Pla., Leg. 9, 864e; ins fr. Asia Minor: LBW 41, 2 [κατὰ] τὸ δι[καί]ωμα τὸ κυρω[θέν]= ‘acc. to the sentence which has become valid’]; difft. Wengst, s. above); 19:8.”