Zephaniah 3:9

3:9 Know for sure that I will then enable

the nations to give me acceptable praise. ¹ 

All of them will invoke the Lord’s name when they pray, ² 

and will worship him in unison. ³ 

Matthew 6:9

6:9 So pray this way: ⁴ 

Our Father ⁵  in heaven, may your name be honored, ⁶ 

Matthew 7:7-11

Ask, Seek, Knock

7:7 “Ask ⁷  and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door ⁸  will be opened for you. 7:8 For everyone who asks ⁹  receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. 7:9 Is ¹⁰  there anyone among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 7:10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? ¹¹  7:11 If you then, although you are evil, ¹²  know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts ¹³  to those who ask him!

Matthew 7:2

7:2 For by the standard you judge you will be judged, and the measure you use will be the measure you receive. ¹⁴ 

Colossians 1:2

1:2 to the saints, the faithful ¹⁵  brothers and sisters ¹⁶  in Christ, at Colossae. Grace and peace to you ¹⁷  from God our Father! ¹⁸ 

Ephesians 1:17

1:17 I pray that ¹⁹  the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, ²⁰  may give you spiritual wisdom and revelation ²¹  in your growing knowledge of him, ²² 

Ephesians 3:14

Prayer for Strengthened Love

3:14 For this reason ²³  I kneel ²⁴  before the Father, ²⁵ 

[3:9]  ¹ tn Heb “Certainly [or perhaps, “For”] then I will restore to the nations a pure lip.”

[3:9]  ² tn Heb “so that all of them will call on the name of the Lord.”

[3:9]  ³ tn Heb “so that [they] will serve him [with] one shoulder.”

[6:9]  ⁴ sn Pray this way. What follows, although traditionally known as the Lord’s prayer, is really the disciples’ prayer. It represents how they are to approach God, by acknowledging his uniqueness and their need for his provision and protection.

[6:9]  ⁵ sn God is addressed in terms of intimacy (Father). The original Semitic term here was probably Abba. The term is a little unusual in a personal prayer, especially as it lacks qualification. It is not the exact equivalent of “daddy” (as is sometimes popularly suggested), but it does suggest a close, familial relationship.

[6:9]  ⁶ tn Grk “hallowed be your name.”

[7:7]  ⁷ sn The three present imperatives in this verse (Ask…seek…knock) are probably intended to call for a repeated or continual approach before God.

[7:7]  ⁸ tn Grk “it”; the referent (a door) is implied by the context and has been specified in the translation here and in v. 8 for clarity.

[7:8]  ⁹ sn The actions of asking, seeking, and knocking are repeated here from v. 7 with the encouragement that God does respond.

[7:9]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “Or is there.”

[7:10]  ¹¹ sn The two questions of vv. 9-10 expect the answer, “No parent would do this!”

[7:11]  ¹² tn The participle ὄντες (ontes) has been translated concessively.

[7:11]  ¹³ sn The provision of the good gifts is probably a reference to the wisdom and guidance supplied in response to repeated requests. The teaching as a whole stresses not that we get everything we want, but that God gives the good that we need.

[7:2]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “by [the measure] with which you measure it will be measured to you.”

[1:2]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “and faithful.” The construction in Greek (as well as Paul’s style) suggests that the saints are identical to the faithful; hence, the καί (kai) is best left untranslated (cf. Eph 1:1). See ExSyn 281-82.

[1:2]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “brothers,” but the Greek word may be used for “brothers and sisters” or “fellow Christians” as here (cf. BDAG 18 s.v. ἀδελφός 1, where considerable nonbiblical evidence for the plural ἀδελφοί [adelfoi] meaning “brothers and sisters” is cited).

[1:2]  ¹⁷ tn Or “Grace to you and peace.”

[1:2]  ¹⁸ tc Most witnesses, including some important ones (א A C F G I [P] 075 Ï it bo), read “and the Lord Jesus Christ” at the end of this verse, no doubt to conform the wording to the typical Pauline salutation. However, excellent and early witnesses (B D K L Ψ 33 81 1175 1505 1739 1881 al sa) lack this phrase. Since the omission is inexplicable as arising from the longer reading (otherwise, these mss would surely have deleted the phrase in the rest of the corpus Paulinum), it is surely authentic.

[1:17]  ¹⁹ tn The words “I pray” are not in the Greek text, but have been supplied to clarify the meaning; v. 17 is a subordinate clause to v. 16 (“I pray” in v. 17 is implied from v. 16). Eph 1:15-23 constitutes one sentence in Greek, but a new sentence was started here in the translation in light of contemporary English usage.

[1:17]  ²⁰ tn Or “glorious Father.” The genitive phrase “of glory” is most likely an attributive genitive. The literal translation “Father of glory” has been retained because of the parallelism with the first line of the verse: “the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory.”

[1:17]  ²¹ tn Or “the Spirit of wisdom and revelation,” or “a spirit of wisdom and revelation.” Verse 17 involves a complex exegetical problem revolving around the Greek term πνεῦμα (pneuma). Some take it to mean “the Spirit,” others “a spirit,” and still others “spiritual.” (1) If “the Spirit” is meant, the idea must be a metonymy of cause for effect, because the author had just indicated in vv. 13-14 that the Spirit was already given (hence, there is no need for him to pray that he be given again). But the effect of the Spirit is wisdom and revelation. (2) If “a spirit” is meant, the idea may be that the readers will have the ability to gain wisdom and insight as they read Paul’s letters, but the exact meaning of “a spirit” remains ambiguous. (3) To take the genitives following πνεῦμα as attributed genitives (see ExSyn 89-91), in which the head noun (“S/spirit”) functions semantically like an adjective (“spiritual”) is both grammatically probable and exegetically consistent.

[1:17]  ²² tn Grk “in the knowledge of him.”

[3:14]  ²³ sn For this reason resumes the point begun in v. 1, after a long parenthesis.

[3:14]  ²⁴ tn Grk “I bend my knees.”

[3:14]  ²⁵ tc Most Western and Byzantine witnesses, along with a few others (א² D F G Ψ 0278 1881 Ï lat sy), have “of our Lord Jesus Christ” after “Father,” but such an edifying phrase cannot explain the rise of the reading that lacks it, especially when the shorter reading is attested by early and important witnesses such as Ì⁴⁶ א* A B C P 6 33 81 365 1175 1739 co Or Hier.