The Song of Songs 3:3

3:3 The night watchmen found me – the ones who guard the city walls. ¹ 

“Have you seen my beloved?” ² 

The Song of Songs 5:7

5:7 The watchmen found me as they made their rounds in the city.

They beat me, they bruised me;

they took away my cloak, those watchmen on the walls!

Isaiah 21:6

21:6 For this is what the sovereign master ³  has told me:

“Go, post a guard!

He must report what he sees.

Isaiah 21:8

21:8 Then the guard ⁴  cries out:

“On the watchtower, O sovereign master, ⁵ 

I stand all day long;

at my post

I am stationed every night.

Isaiah 21:11-12

Bad News for Seir

21:11 Here is a message about Dumah: ⁶ 

Someone calls to me from Seir, ⁷ 

“Watchman, what is left of the night?

Watchman, what is left of the night?” ⁸ 

21:12 The watchman replies,

“Morning is coming, but then night. ⁹ 

If you want to ask, ask;

come back again.” ¹⁰ 

Isaiah 52:8

52:8 Listen, ¹¹  your watchmen shout;

in unison they shout for joy,

for they see with their very own eyes ¹² 

the Lord’s return to Zion.

Isaiah 56:10

56:10 All their watchmen ¹³  are blind,

they are unaware. ¹⁴ 

All of them are like mute dogs,

unable to bark.

They pant, ¹⁵  lie down,

and love to snooze.

Isaiah 62:6

62:6 I ¹⁶  post watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem;

they should keep praying all day and all night. ¹⁷ 

You who pray to ¹⁸  the Lord, don’t be silent!

Jeremiah 6:17

6:17 The Lord said, ¹⁹ 

“I appointed prophets as watchmen to warn you, ²⁰  saying:

‘Pay attention to the warning sound of the trumpet!’” ²¹ 

But they said, “We will not pay attention!”

Jeremiah 31:6

31:6 Yes, a time is coming

when watchmen ²²  will call out on the mountains of Ephraim,

“Come! Let us go to Zion

to worship the Lord our God!”’” ²³ 

Acts 20:28-31

20:28 Watch out for ²⁴  yourselves and for all the flock of which ²⁵  the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, ²⁶  to shepherd the church of God ²⁷  that he obtained ²⁸  with the blood of his own Son. ²⁹  20:29 I know that after I am gone ³⁰  fierce wolves ³¹  will come in among you, not sparing the flock. 20:30 Even from among your own group ³²  men ³³  will arise, teaching perversions of the truth ³⁴  to draw the disciples away after them. 20:31 Therefore be alert, ³⁵  remembering that night and day for three years I did not stop warning ³⁶  each one of you with tears.

Hebrews 13:17

13:17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls and will give an account for their work. ³⁷  Let them do this ³⁸  with joy and not with complaints, for this would be no advantage for you.

[3:3]  ¹ tn Heb “those who go around the city” or “those who go around in the city.” The expression הַסֹּבְבִים בָּעִיר (hassovÿvim ba’ir, “those who go around the city”) probably refers to the watchmen of the city walls rather than night city street patrol (e.g., Ps 127:1; Song 5:7; Isa 21:11; 62:6). The Israelite night watchmen of the walls is paralleled by the Akkadian sahir duri (“one who goes around the wall”) which appears in a lexical text as the equivalent of ma-sar musi (“night watchman”) (CAD 4:192). See M. H. Pope, Song of Songs (AB), 419. There is a wordplay in 3:2-3 between the verb וַאֲסוֹבְבָה (va’asovÿvah, “I will go about”) and הַסֹּבְבִים (hassovÿvim, “those who go around”). This wordplay draws attention to the ironic similarity between the woman’s action and the action of the city’s watchmen. Ironically, she failed to find her beloved as she went around in the city, but the city watchmen found her. Rather than finding the one she was looking for, she was found.

[3:3]  ² tn Heb “the one whom my soul loves – have you seen [him]?” The normal Hebrew word-order (verb-subject-direct object) is reversed in 3:3 (direct object-verb-subject) to emphasize the object of her search: אֵת שֶׁאָהֲבָה נַפְשִׁי רְאִיתֶם (’et she’ahavah nafshi rÿ’item, “The one whom my soul loves – have you seen [him]?”).

[21:6]  ³ tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here and in vv. 8, 16 is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[21:8]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew text has, “the lion,” but this makes little sense here. אַרְיֵה (’aryeh, “lion”) is probably a corruption of an original הָרֹאֶה (haro’eh, “the one who sees”), i.e., the guard mentioned previously in v. 6.

[21:8]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay). Some translations take this to refer to the Lord (cf. NAB, NASB, NRSV), while others take it to refer to the guard’s human master (“my lord”; cf. NIV, NLT).

[21:11]  ⁶ tn The noun דּוּמָה (dumah) means “silence,” but here it is a proper name, probably referring to a site in northern Arabia or to the nation of Edom. See BDB 189 s.v. II דּוּמָה. If Dumah was an area in northern Arabia, it would be of interest to the Edomites because of its strategic position on trade routes which they used. See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:398.

[21:11]  ⁷ sn Seir is another name for Edom. See BDB 973 s.v. שֵׂעִיר.

[21:11]  ⁸ sn The “night” probably here symbolizes distress and difficult times. See BDB 539 s.v. לַיְלָה.

[21:12]  ⁹ sn Dumah will experience some relief, but it will be short-lived as night returns.

[21:12]  ¹⁰ sn The point of the watchman’s final instructions (“if you want to ask, ask; come again”) is unclear. Perhaps they are included to add realism to the dramatic portrayal. The watchman sends the questioner away with the words, “Feel free to come back and ask again.”

[52:8]  ¹¹ tn קוֹל (qol, “voice”) is used at the beginning of the verse as an interjection.

[52:8]  ¹² tn Heb “eye in eye”; KJV, ASV “eye to eye”; NAB “directly, before their eyes.”

[56:10]  ¹³ sn The “watchmen” are probably spiritual leaders, most likely prophets and priests, responsible for giving the people moral direction.

[56:10]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “they do not know”; KJV “they are all ignorant”; NIV “they all lack knowledge.”

[56:10]  ¹⁵ tn The Hebrew text has הֹזִים (hozim), which appears to be derived from an otherwise unattested verbal root הָזָה (hazah). On the basis of alleged cognates, BDB 223 s.v. הָזָה offers the definition “dream, rave” while HALOT 243 s.v. הזה lists “pant.” In this case the dog metaphor of the preceding lines continues. The reference to dogs at the beginning of v. 11 favors the extension of the metaphor. The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has חזים (“seers”) here. In this case the “watchmen” are directly identified as prophets and depicted as lazy.

[62:6]  ¹⁶ sn The speaker here is probably the prophet.

[62:6]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “all day and all night continually they do not keep silent.” The following lines suggest that they pray for the Lord’s intervention and restoration of the city.

[62:6]  ¹⁸ tn Or “invoke”; NIV “call on”; NASB, NRSV “remind.”

[6:17]  ¹⁹ tn These words are not in the text but are implicit in the interchange of pronouns in the Hebrew of vv. 16-17. They are supplied in the translation here for clarity.

[6:17]  ²⁰ tn Heb “I appointed watchmen over you.”

[6:17]  ²¹ tn Heb “Pay attention to the sound of the trumpet.” The word “warning” is not in the Hebrew text, but is implied.

[31:6]  ²² sn Watchmen were stationed at vantage points to pass on warning of coming attack (Jer 6:17; Ezek 33:2, 6) or to spread the news of victory (Isa 52:8). Here reference is made to the watchmen who signaled the special times of the year such as the new moon and festival times when Israel was to go to Jerusalem to worship. Reference is not made to these in the Hebrew Bible but there is a good deal of instruction regarding them in the later Babylonian Talmud.

[31:6]  ²³ sn Not only will Israel and Judah be reunited under one ruler (cf. 23:5-6), but they will share a unified place and practice of worship once again in contrast to Israel using the illicit places of worship, illicit priesthood, and illicit feasts instituted by Jeroboam (1 Kgs 12:26-31) and continued until the downfall of Samaria in 722 b.c.

[20:28]  ²⁴ tn Or “Be on your guard for” (cf. v. 29). Paul completed his responsibility to the Ephesians with this warning.

[20:28]  ²⁵ tn Grk “in which.”

[20:28]  ²⁶ tn Or “guardians.” BDAG 379-80 s.v. ἐπίσκοπος 2 states, “The term was taken over in Christian communities in ref. to one who served as overseer or supervisor, with special interest in guarding the apostolic tradition…Ac 20:28.” This functional term describes the role of the elders (see v. 17). They were to guard and shepherd the congregation.

[20:28]  ²⁷ tc The reading “of God” (τοῦ θεοῦ, tou qeou) is found in א B 614 1175 1505 al vg sy; other witnesses have “of the Lord” (τοῦ κυρίου, tou kuriou) here (so Ì⁷⁴ A C* D E Ψ 33 1739 al co), while the majority of the later minuscule mss conflate these two into “of the Lord and God” (τοῦ κυρίου καὶ [τοῦ] θεοῦ, tou kuriou kai [tou] qeou). Although the evidence is evenly balanced between the first two readings, τοῦ θεοῦ is decidedly superior on internal grounds. The final prepositional phrase of this verse, διὰ τοῦ αἵματος τοῦ ἰδίου (dia tou {aimato" tou idiou), could be rendered “through his own blood” or “through the blood of his own.” In the latter translation, the object that “own” modifies must be supplied (see tn below for discussion). But this would not be entirely clear to scribes; those who supposed that ἰδίου modified αἵματος would be prone to alter “God” to “Lord” to avoid the inference that God had blood. In a similar way, later scribes would be prone to conflate the two titles, thereby affirming the deity (with the construction τοῦ κυρίου καὶ θεοῦ following the Granville Sharp rule and referring to a single person [see ExSyn 272, 276-77, 290]) and substitutionary atonement of Christ. For these reasons, τοῦ θεοῦ best explains the rise of the other readings and should be considered authentic.

[20:28]  ²⁸ tn Or “acquired.”

[20:28]  ²⁹ tn Or “with his own blood”; Grk “with the blood of his own.” The genitive construction could be taken in two ways: (1) as an attributive genitive (second attributive position) meaning “his own blood”; or (2) as a possessive genitive, “with the blood of his own.” In this case the referent is the Son, and the referent has been specified in the translation for clarity. See further C. F. DeVine, “The Blood of God,” CBQ 9 (1947): 381-408.

[20:29]  ³⁰ tn Grk “after my departure.”

[20:29]  ³¹ tn That is, people like fierce wolves. See BDAG 167-68 s.v. βαρύς 4 on the term translated “fierce.” The battle that will follow would be a savage one.

[20:30]  ³² tn Grk “from among yourselves.”

[20:30]  ³³ tn The Greek term here is ἀνήρ (anhr), which only rarely is used in a generic sense to refer to both males and females. Since Paul is speaking to the Ephesian elders at this point and there is nothing in the context to suggest women were included in that group (“from among your own group”), it is most likely Paul was not predicting that these false teachers would include women.

[20:30]  ³⁴ tn Grk “speaking crooked things”; BDAG 237 s.v. διαστρέφω 2 has “λαλεῖν διεστραμμένα teach perversions (of the truth) Ac 20:30.”

[20:31]  ³⁵ tn Or “be watchful.”

[20:31]  ³⁶ tn Or “admonishing.”

[13:17]  ³⁷ tn Or “as ones who will give an account”; Grk “as giving an account.”

[13:17]  ³⁸ tn Grk “that they may do this.”