Psalms 98:9

98:9 before the Lord!

For he comes to judge the earth!

He judges the world fairly, ¹ 

and the nations in a just manner.

Isaiah 25:8-9

25:8 he will swallow up death permanently. ² 

The sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from every face,

and remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth.

Indeed, the Lord has announced it! ³ 

25:9 At that time they will say, ⁴ 

“Look, here ⁵  is our God!

We waited for him and he delivered us.

Here ⁶  is the Lord! We waited for him.

Let’s rejoice and celebrate his deliverance!”

Malachi 3:1-2

3:1 “I am about to send my messenger, ⁷  who will clear the way before me. Indeed, the Lord ⁸  you are seeking will suddenly come to his temple, and the messenger ⁹  of the covenant, whom you long for, is certainly coming,” says the Lord who rules over all.

3:2 Who can endure the day of his coming? Who can keep standing when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire, ¹⁰  like a launderer’s soap.

Malachi 3:1

3:1 “I am about to send my messenger, ¹¹  who will clear the way before me. Indeed, the Lord ¹²  you are seeking will suddenly come to his temple, and the messenger ¹³  of the covenant, whom you long for, is certainly coming,” says the Lord who rules over all.

Malachi 4:1-2

4:1 (3:19) ¹⁴  “For indeed the day ¹⁵  is coming, burning like a furnace, and all the arrogant evildoers will be chaff. The coming day will burn them up,” says the Lord who rules over all. “It ¹⁶  will not leave even a root or branch. 4:2 But for you who respect my name, the sun of vindication ¹⁷  will rise with healing wings, ¹⁸  and you will skip about ¹⁹  like calves released from the stall.

Malachi 1:10

1:10 “I wish that one of you would close the temple doors, ²⁰  so that you no longer would light useless fires on my altar. I am not pleased with you,” says the Lord who rules over all, “and I will no longer accept an offering from you.

Malachi 1:2

1:2 “I have shown love to you,” says the Lord, but you say, “How have you shown love to us?”

“Esau was Jacob’s brother,” the Lord explains, “yet I chose Jacob

Malachi 4:1

4:1 (3:19) ²¹  “For indeed the day ²²  is coming, burning like a furnace, and all the arrogant evildoers will be chaff. The coming day will burn them up,” says the Lord who rules over all. “It ²³  will not leave even a root or branch.

Titus 2:13

2:13 as we wait for the happy fulfillment of our hope in the glorious appearing ²⁴  of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. ²⁵ 

Titus 2:2

2:2 Older men are to be temperate, dignified, self-controlled, ²⁶  sound in faith, in love, and in endurance. ²⁷ 

Titus 3:12-14

Final Instructions and Greeting

3:12 When I send Artemas or Tychicus to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, for I have decided to spend the winter there. 3:13 Make every effort to help ²⁸  Zenas the lawyer ²⁹  and Apollos on their way; make sure they have what they need. ³⁰  3:14 Here is another way that our people ³¹  can learn ³²  to engage in good works to meet pressing needs and so not be unfruitful.

Revelation 11:18

11:18 The ³³  nations ³⁴  were enraged,

but ³⁵  your wrath has come,

and the time has come for the dead to be judged,

and the time has come to give to your servants, ³⁶ 

the prophets, their reward,

as well as to the saints

and to those who revere ³⁷  your name, both small and great,

and the time has come ³⁸  to destroy those who destroy ³⁹  the earth.”

Revelation 22:10

22:10 Then ⁴⁰  he said to me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy contained in this book, because the time is near.

[98:9]  ¹ tn The verbal forms in v. 9 probably describe God’s typical, characteristic behavior, though they may depict in dramatic fashion the outworking of divine judgment or anticipate a future judgment of worldwide proportions (“will judge…”).

[25:8]  ² sn The image of the Lord “swallowing” death would be especially powerful, for death was viewed in Canaanite mythology and culture as a hungry enemy that swallows its victims. See the note at 5:14.

[25:8]  ³ tn Heb “has spoken” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[25:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “and one will say in that day.”

[25:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “this [one].”

[25:9]  ⁶ tn Heb “this [one].”

[3:1]  ⁷ tn In Hebrew the phrase “my messenger” is מַלְאָכִי (mal’akhi), the same form as the prophet’s name (see note on the name “Malachi” in 1:1). However, here the messenger appears to be an eschatological figure who is about to appear, as the following context suggests. According to 4:5, this messenger is “Elijah the prophet,” whom the NT identifies as John the Baptist (Matt 11:10; Mark 1:2) because he came in the “spirit and power” of Elijah (Matt 11:14; 17:11-12; Lk 1:17).

[3:1]  ⁸ tn Here the Hebrew term הָאָדוֹן (ha’adon) is used, not יְהוָה (yÿhvah, typically rendered Lord). Thus the focus is not on the Lord as the covenant God, but on his role as master.

[3:1]  ⁹ sn This messenger of the covenant may be equated with my messenger (that is, Elijah) mentioned earlier in the verse, or with the Lord himself. In either case the messenger functions as an enforcer of the covenant. Note the following verses, which depict purifying judgment on a people that has violated the Lord’s covenant.

[3:2]  ¹⁰ sn The refiner’s fire was used to purify metal and refine it by melting it and allowing the dross, which floated to the top, to be scooped off.

[3:1]  ¹¹ tn In Hebrew the phrase “my messenger” is מַלְאָכִי (mal’akhi), the same form as the prophet’s name (see note on the name “Malachi” in 1:1). However, here the messenger appears to be an eschatological figure who is about to appear, as the following context suggests. According to 4:5, this messenger is “Elijah the prophet,” whom the NT identifies as John the Baptist (Matt 11:10; Mark 1:2) because he came in the “spirit and power” of Elijah (Matt 11:14; 17:11-12; Lk 1:17).

[3:1]  ¹² tn Here the Hebrew term הָאָדוֹן (ha’adon) is used, not יְהוָה (yÿhvah, typically rendered Lord). Thus the focus is not on the Lord as the covenant God, but on his role as master.

[3:1]  ¹³ sn This messenger of the covenant may be equated with my messenger (that is, Elijah) mentioned earlier in the verse, or with the Lord himself. In either case the messenger functions as an enforcer of the covenant. Note the following verses, which depict purifying judgment on a people that has violated the Lord’s covenant.

[4:1]  ¹⁴ sn Beginning with 4:1, the verse numbers through 4:6 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 4:1 ET = 3:19 HT, 4:2 ET = 3:20 HT, etc., through 4:6 ET = 3:24 HT. Thus the book of Malachi in the Hebrew Bible has only three chapters, with 24 verses in ch. 3.

[4:1]  ¹⁵ sn This day is the well-known “day of the Lord” so pervasive in OT eschatological texts (see Joel 2:30-31; Amos 5:18; Obad 15). For the believer it is a day of grace and salvation; for the sinner, a day of judgment and destruction.

[4:1]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “so that it” (so NASB, NRSV). For stylistic reasons a new sentence was begun here in the translation.

[4:2]  ¹⁷ tn Here the Hebrew word צְדָקָה (tsÿdaqah), usually translated “righteousness” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV, NLT; cf. NAB “justice”), has been rendered as “vindication” because it is the vindication of God’s people that is in view in the context. Cf. BDB 842 s.v. צְדָקָה 6; “righteousness as vindicated, justification, salvation, etc.”

[4:2]  ¹⁸ sn The point of the metaphor of healing wings is unclear. The sun seems to be compared to a bird. Perhaps the sun’s “wings” are its warm rays. “Healing” may refer to a reversal of the injury done by evildoers (see Mal 3:5).

[4:2]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “you will go out and skip about.”

[1:10]  ²⁰ sn The rhetorical language suggests that as long as the priesthood and people remain disobedient, the temple doors may as well be closed because God is not “at home” to receive them or their worship there.

[4:1]  ²¹ sn Beginning with 4:1, the verse numbers through 4:6 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 4:1 ET = 3:19 HT, 4:2 ET = 3:20 HT, etc., through 4:6 ET = 3:24 HT. Thus the book of Malachi in the Hebrew Bible has only three chapters, with 24 verses in ch. 3.

[4:1]  ²² sn This day is the well-known “day of the Lord” so pervasive in OT eschatological texts (see Joel 2:30-31; Amos 5:18; Obad 15). For the believer it is a day of grace and salvation; for the sinner, a day of judgment and destruction.

[4:1]  ²³ tn Heb “so that it” (so NASB, NRSV). For stylistic reasons a new sentence was begun here in the translation.

[2:13]  ²⁴ tn Grk “the blessed hope and glorious appearing.”

[2:13]  ²⁵ tn The terms “God and Savior” both refer to the same person, Jesus Christ. This is one of the clearest statements in the NT concerning the deity of Christ. The construction in Greek is known as the Granville Sharp rule, named after the English philanthropist-linguist who first clearly articulated the rule in 1798. Sharp pointed out that in the construction article-noun-καί-noun (where καί [kai] = “and”), when two nouns are singular, personal, and common (i.e., not proper names), they always had the same referent. Illustrations such as “the friend and brother,” “the God and Father,” etc. abound in the NT to prove Sharp’s point. The only issue is whether terms such as “God” and “Savior” could be considered common nouns as opposed to proper names. Sharp and others who followed (such as T. F. Middleton in his masterful The Doctrine of the Greek Article) demonstrated that a proper name in Greek was one that could not be pluralized. Since both “God” (θεός, qeos) and “savior” (σωτήρ, swthr) were occasionally found in the plural, they did not constitute proper names, and hence, do fit Sharp’s rule. Although there have been 200 years of attempts to dislodge Sharp’s rule, all attempts have been futile. Sharp’s rule stands vindicated after all the dust has settled. For more information on Sharp’s rule see ExSyn 270-78, esp. 276. See also 2 Pet 1:1 and Jude 4.

[2:2]  ²⁶ tn Or “sensible.”

[2:2]  ²⁷ sn Temperate…in endurance. See the same cluster of virtues in 1 Thess 1:3 and 1 Cor 13:13.

[3:13]  ²⁸ tn Grk “Eagerly help.”

[3:13]  ²⁹ tn Although it is possible the term νομικός (nomikos) indicates an expert in Jewish religious law here, according to L&N 33.338 and 56.37 it is more probable that Zenas was a specialist in civil law.

[3:13]  ³⁰ tn Grk “that nothing may be lacking for them.”

[3:14]  ³¹ tn Grk “that those who are ours” (referring to the Christians).

[3:14]  ³² tn Grk “and also let our people learn.”

[11:18]  ³³ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[11:18]  ³⁴ tn Or “The Gentiles” (the same Greek word may be translated “Gentiles” or “nations”).

[11:18]  ³⁵ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.

[11:18]  ³⁶ tn See the note on the word “servants” in 1:1.

[11:18]  ³⁷ tn Grk “who fear.”

[11:18]  ³⁸ tn The words “the time has come” do not occur except at the beginning of the verse; the phrase has been repeated for emphasis and contrast. The Greek has one finite verb (“has come”) with a compound subject (“your wrath,” “the time”), followed by three infinitive clauses (“to be judged,” “to give,” “to destroy”). The rhetorical power of the repetition of the finite verb in English thus emulates the rhetorical power of its lone instance in Greek.

[11:18]  ³⁹ tn Or “who deprave.” There is a possible wordplay here on two meanings for διαφθείρω (diafqeirw), with the first meaning “destroy” and the second meaning either “to ruin” or “to make morally corrupt.” See L&N 20.40.

[22:10]  ⁴⁰ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.