Psalms 86:5

86:5 Certainly ¹  O Lord, you are kind ²  and forgiving,

and show great faithfulness to all who cry out to you.

Psalms 86:15

86:15 But you, O Lord, are a compassionate and merciful God.

You are patient ³  and demonstrate great loyal love and faithfulness. ⁴ 

Psalms 103:8

103:8 The Lord is compassionate and merciful;

he is patient ⁵  and demonstrates great loyal love. ⁶ 

Exodus 34:6-7

34:6 The Lord passed by before him and proclaimed: ⁷  “The Lord, the Lord, ⁸  the compassionate and gracious ⁹  God, slow to anger, ¹⁰  and abounding in loyal love and faithfulness, ¹¹  34:7 keeping loyal love for thousands, ¹²  forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. But he by no means leaves the guilty unpunished, responding to the transgression ¹³  of fathers by dealing with children and children’s children, to the third and fourth generation.”

Isaiah 63:7

A Prayer for Divine Intervention

63:7 I will tell of the faithful acts of the Lord,

of the Lord’s praiseworthy deeds.

I will tell about all ¹⁴  the Lord did for us,

the many good things he did for the family of Israel, ¹⁵ 

because of ¹⁶  his compassion and great faithfulness.

Micah 7:18-19

7:18 There is no other God like you! ¹⁷ 

You ¹⁸  forgive sin

and pardon ¹⁹  the rebellion

of those who remain among your people. ²⁰ 

You do not remain angry forever, ²¹ 

but delight in showing loyal love.

7:19 You will once again ²²  have mercy on us;

you will conquer ²³  our evil deeds;

you will hurl our ²⁴  sins into the depths of the sea. ²⁵ 

Romans 5:20-21

5:20 Now the law came in ²⁶  so that the transgression ²⁷  may increase, but where sin increased, grace multiplied all the more, 5:21 so that just as sin reigned in death, so also grace will reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Ephesians 1:6-8

1:6 to the praise of the glory of his grace ²⁸  that he has freely bestowed on us in his dearly loved Son. ²⁹  1:7 In him ³⁰  we have redemption through his blood, ³¹  the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace 1:8 that he lavished on us in all wisdom and insight.

Ephesians 1:1

Salutation

1:1 From Paul, ³²  an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints [in Ephesus], ³³  the faithful ³⁴  in Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 1:14

1:14 who is the down payment ³⁵  of our inheritance, until the redemption of God’s own possession, ³⁶  to the praise of his glory.

[86:5]  ¹ tn Or “for.”

[86:5]  ² tn Heb “good.”

[86:15]  ³ tn Heb “slow to anger.”

[86:15]  ⁴ tn Heb “and great of loyal love and faithfulness.”

[103:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “slow to anger” (see Ps 86:15).

[103:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “and great of loyal love” (see Ps 86:15).

[34:6]  ⁷ tn Here is one of the clearest examples of what it means “to call on the name of the Lord,” as that clause has been translated traditionally (וַיִּקְרָא בְשֵׁם יְהוָה, vayyiqra’ vÿshem yÿhvah). It seems more likely that it means “to make proclamation of Yahweh by name.” Yahweh came down and made a proclamation – and the next verses give the content of what he said. This cannot be prayer or praise; it is a proclamation of the nature or attributes of God (which is what his “name” means throughout the Bible). Attempts to make Moses the subject of the verb are awkward, for the verb is repeated in v. 6 with Yahweh clearly doing the proclaiming.

[34:6]  ⁸ sn U. Cassuto (Exodus, 439) suggests that these two names be written as a sentence: “Yahweh, He is Yahweh.” In this manner it reflects “I am that I am.” It is impossible to define his name in any other way than to make this affirmation and then show what it means.

[34:6]  ⁹ tn See Exod 33:19.

[34:6]  ¹⁰ sn This is literally “long of anger.” His anger prolongs itself, allowing for people to repent before punishment is inflicted.

[34:6]  ¹¹ sn These two words (“loyal love” and “truth”) are often found together, occasionally in a hendiadys construction. If that is the interpretation here, then it means “faithful covenant love.” Even if they are left separate, they are dual elements of a single quality. The first word is God’s faithful covenant love; the second word is God’s reliability and faithfulness.

[34:7]  ⁹ tn That is, “for thousands of generations.”

[34:7]  ¹⁰ sn As in the ten commandments (20:5-6), this expression shows that the iniquity and its punishment will continue in the family if left unchecked. This does not go on as long as the outcomes for good (thousands versus third or fourth generations), and it is limited to those who hate God.

[63:7]  ¹¹ tn Heb “according to all which.”

[63:7]  ¹² tn Heb “greatness of goodness to the house of Israel which he did for them.”

[63:7]  ¹³ tn Heb “according to.”

[7:18]  ¹³ tn Heb “Who is a God like you?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “No one!”

[7:18]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “one who.” The prayer moves from direct address (second person) in v. 18a to a descriptive (third person) style in vv. 18b-19a and then back to direct address (second person) in vv. 19b-20. Due to considerations of English style and the unfamiliarity of the modern reader with alternation of persons in Hebrew poetry, the entire section has been rendered as direct address (second person) in the translation.

[7:18]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “pass over.”

[7:18]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “of the remnant of his inheritance.”

[7:18]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “he does not keep hold of his anger forever.”

[7:19]  ¹⁵ tn The verb יָשׁוּב (yashuv, “he will return”) is here used adverbially in relation to the following verb, indicating that the Lord will again show mercy.

[7:19]  ¹⁶ tn Some prefer to read יִכְבֹּס (yikhbos, “he will cleanse”; see HALOT 459 s.v. כבס pi). If the MT is taken as it stands, sin is personified as an enemy that the Lord subdues.

[7:19]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “their sins,” but the final mem (ם) may be enclitic rather than a pronominal suffix. In this case the suffix from the preceding line (“our”) may be understood as doing double duty.

[7:19]  ¹⁸ sn In this metaphor the Lord disposes of Israel’s sins by throwing them into the waters of the sea (here symbolic of chaos).

[5:20]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “slipped in.”

[5:20]  ¹⁸ tn Or “trespass.”

[1:6]  ¹⁹ tn Or “to the praise of his glorious grace.” Many translations translate δόξης τῆς χάριτος αὐτοῦ (doxh" th" carito" autou, literally “of the glory of his grace”) with τῆς χάριτος as an attributed genitive (cf., e.g., NIV, NRSV, ESV). The translation above has retained a literal rendering in order to make clear the relationship of this phrase to the other two similar phrases in v. 12 and 14, which affect the way one divides the material in the passage.

[1:6]  ²⁰ tn Grk “the beloved.” The term ἠγαπημένῳ (hgaphmenw) means “beloved,” but often bears connotations of “only beloved” in an exclusive sense. “His dearly loved Son” picks up this connotation.

[1:7]  ²¹ tn Grk “in whom” (the relative clause of v. 7 is subordinate to v. 6). The “him” refers to Christ.

[1:7]  ²² sn In this context his blood, the blood of Jesus Christ, refers to the price paid for believers’ redemption, which is the sacrificial death of Christ on the cross.

[1:1]  ²³ tn Grk “Paul.” The word “from” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.

[1:1]  ²⁴ tc The earliest and most important mss omit “in Ephesus” (Ì⁴⁶ א* B* 6 1739 [Mcion^T,E]), yet the opening line of this epistle makes little sense without the phrase (“to the saints who are and are faithful…”? or perhaps “to the saints who are also faithful,” though with this sense the οὖσιν [ousin] is redundant and the καί [kai] is treated somewhat unnaturally). What is interesting is Marcion’s canon list which speaks of the letter to the Laodiceans among Paul’s authentic epistles. This, coupled with some internal evidence that the writer did not know his audience personally (cf. 1:15; 3:2; absence of personal names throughout), suggests that Ephesians was an encyclical letter, intended for more than one audience. Does this mean that the shorter reading is to be preferred? Yes and no. A plausible scenario is as follows, assuming Pauline authorship (though this is strongly contested today; for arguments on behalf of Pauline authorship, see M. Barth, Ephesians [AB 34], 1:36-50; P. T. O’Brien, Ephesians, 4-47; and H. W. Hoehner, Ephesians, 2-61): Paul sent the letter from Rome, intending it first to go to Ephesus. At the same time, Colossians was dispatched. Going counterclockwise through Asia Minor, this letter would first come to Ephesus, the port of entry, then to Laodicea, then Colossae. Tychicus’ instructions may well have been for each church to “fill in the blank” on the address line. The church at Ephesus would have certainly made the most copies, being Paul’s home base for nearly three years. Hence, most of the surviving copies have “in Ephesus” in v. 1 (so א² A B² D F G Ψ 0278 33 1881 Ï latt sy co). But one might expect a hint of evidence that Laodicea also made a few copies: Both Marcion’s list and Col 4:16 may well imply this. What is to account for the early Alexandrian evidence, then? These mss were perhaps made from a very early copy, one reflecting the blank line before each church filled it in. Although it is of course only speculation (as is necessary in a historical investigation lacking some of the pieces to the puzzle), this scenario accounts for all of the data: (1) “in Ephesus” in most mss; (2) Laodicea in Marcion’s list and Col 4:16; (3) the lack of an addressee in the earliest witnesses; (4) why the earliest witnesses’ reading must be rejected as too hard; and (5) why the author seems not to know the readership. In sum, is “in Ephesus” original? Yes and no. Some address belongs there; ἐν ᾿Εφέσῳ (en Efesw) is the predominant address, but several other churches also received this circular letter as their own. For this reason the phrase has been placed in single brackets in the translation. NA²⁷ also lists the words in brackets, indicating doubt as to their authenticity.

[1:1]  ²⁵ tn Grk “and faithful.” The construction in Greek (as well as Paul’s style [and even if this letter is not by Paul it follows the general style of Paul’s letters, with some modifications]) suggests that the saints are identical to the faithful; hence, the καί (kai) is best left untranslated. See M. Barth, Ephesians (AB 34), 1:68 and ExSyn 282.

[1:14]  ²⁵ tn Or “first installment,” “pledge,” “deposit.”

[1:14]  ²⁶ tn Grk “the possession.”