Yesterday we heard how Saul's servant, Ziba, showed his loyalty and helped David on his way. And how Shimei from Saul's family cursed and persecuted David all along the way. No wonder David was exhausted after that climb. David refused to put him to death or to punish him. (But we find out later that he didn't forget about Shimei.) David's friend, Hushai, joined himself to Absalom, as David asked him to do. And Nathan's prophecy to David was unknowingly fulfilled through Ahithophel's advice to Absolom.
https://www.bible.com/bible/68/2sa.17.nlt
Psalm 116 is a poem sharing personal experience.
Translation notes:
1I love [You, Lord, the LORD] because he hears my voice
and my prayer for mercy.
2Because [You bend//he bends] down to listen,
I will pray [to You] as long as I have breath!
3Death wrapped its ropes around me;
the terrors of the gravea overtook me.
I saw only trouble and sorrow.
4Then I called on [You, Lord://the name of the LORD:]
“[Lord, please//Please, LORD,] save me!”
This use of ‘the name’ is a metonymy based on the Jewish avoidance of actually saying the Lord’s name. ‘The name’ stands for the whole person of the Lord. In English, calling on a name is quite unnatural. I would never call on Chad’s name. I would just call Chad or call on Chad. See v.13.
5How kind [You are!//the LORD is!] How good [You are//he is]!
[You, O our God, are so merciful!//So merciful, this God of ours!]
6[You, Lord, protect//The LORD protects] those of childlike faith;
I was facing death, and he saved me.
7Let my soul be at rest again,
for [You, Lord, have//the LORD has] been good to me.
8[You have//He has] saved me from death,
my eyes from tears,
my feet from stumbling.
9And so I walk in [your presence, Lord,//the LORD’s presence]
as I live here on earth!
10I believed in you, [O Lord] so I said,
“I am deeply troubled[0//, LORD].”
11In my anxiety I cried out to you,
“These people are all liars!”
12What can I offer [You, Lord//the LORD]
for all [You have//he has] done for me?
13I will [pour out an offering of wine to You giving thanks for Your saving me//lift up the cup of salvation]
Before looking into this while I was recording, I wrongly guessed at the meaning of ‘lift up the cup of salvation’, as “I will drink a toast to God because of my salvation.” As it happens, that is kind of what The Message has. This just shows what happens when modern readers confront a literal translation of such a figure. And note that NLT is inconsistent in reverting to a literal translation here, while most of the time translating in a meaning-based way.
and [I will] praise [You//the LORD’s name for saving me].
Like we saw in verse 4, if we were really going to literally ‘praise the Lord’s name’— meaning just his name, and not praise His person, it appears like idolatry to me. (I do hear people saying things like that, but when they do I take it that they are parodying Bible language.) How often do we hear people using a phrase like, “They praised Obama’s name for his speech at…” I think almost always, when people say things like that about our president, they just praise Obama and leave his name out of it.
14I will keep my promises to [You, Lord//the LORD]
in the presence of all [your/his] people.
15[You Lord care//The LORD cares] deeply
when [your/his] loved ones die[s].
16O LORD, I am your servant;
yes, I am your servant, born into your household;
you have freed me from my chains.
17[[[I will offer a sacrifice of thankful prayers to You.////
I will offer you a sacrifice of thanksgiving
[and I will give thankful prayers to You.//and call on You, Lord, because of your wonderful reputation// and call on the name of the LORD].]]]
Note here that “sacrifice of thanksgiving” is ambiguous in English. It could mean that his offering will consist of thanksgiving, or that he will offer an animal sacrifice as an act of thanksgiving. It is likely that the former is the meaning here. And if the two halves of the parallelism in this verse are mutually completing, then the meaning could be boiled down to this: Thankful prayers will be the sacrifice that I will offer continually to you.
18I will fulfill my vows to [You, Lord,//the LORD]
in the presence of all [your/his] people—
19in [your house, Lord,//the house of the LORD]
in the heart of Jerusalem.
[O Lord, I praise You!//Praise the LORD!]
https://www.bible.com/bible/116/psa.116
I always look forward each year to reading the Gospel of John. John’s Gospel is different from all the other gospels. John was probably very young when he became Jesus’ follower, perhaps 25 years old. But he seems to have waited until very late in life to begin writing, perhaps when he was 85 years old. This was long after the other Gospels and even the epistles were written. The title he gives himself in this book is ‘the disciple whom Jesus loved’. This doesn’t mean that Jesus didn’t love the other 11. John consciously made an original account, and very consciously left out things that are included in the three Synoptic Gospels. Where he does include things the others wrote about, he includes details that the others didn’t mention. Those stories are made to fit his themes. His gospel is thematically arranged, not chronologically arranged.
John uses simple words, such as light, word, lamb, and door. But the concepts he deals with are anything but simple. The meaning goes deep, so deep that you could spend a lifetime studying the prologue in chapter one alone and never get to the bottom of it. Note also that John very artistically makes use of double meaning, using a word with two meanings simultaneously.
Translation notes:
2He [(that is the One I am calling ‘the Word’)] existed in the beginning with God.
5[That//The] light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness can never extinguish it.
13They are reborn—not with a physical birth [which is the result of//resulting from] human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.
14So the Word became humand and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and [He is worthy of being fully believed//faithfulness].e And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.
16From [the abundance of Him who we call ‘the Word’//his abundance] we have all received one gracious blessing after another.
17For the law was given through Moses, but God’s unfailing love and [true teachings that are worthy of full belief//faithfulness] came through [Christ Jesus//Jesus Christ].
Verse 14 and 17 represent quite a challenge for the translator. The word ‘truth’ in Greek should be taken to mean the same thing in both verses. I think the translators desired to find one word that would work here, but I feel that ‘faithfulness’ shifts the meaning from what John intended.
19This was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders sent priests and Temple assistantsh from Jerusalem to ask John, “[Whose place are you claiming to fulfill?//Who are you?]”
20He came right out and said, “I am not the Messiah.”
21“Well then, [whose place are you taking?//who are you?]” they asked. “Are you [taking Elijah’s place//Elijah]?”
“No,” he replied.
“Are you the Prophet we are expecting?”
“No.”
22“Then [who gave you any authority to work like this?//who are you?] We need an answer for those who sent us. What do you have to say about yourself?”
23John replied in the words of the prophet Isaiah:
“I am [the/a] voice shouting in the wilderness,
‘Clear the way for the LORD’s coming!’”
31[Before now] I did not recognize him as the Messiah, but I have been baptizing with water so that he might be revealed to Israel.”
33I didn’t know he was the one, but when God sent me to baptize with water, he told me, ‘The one on whom you see the Spirit descend and rest [upon, He] is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’
34I saw this happen to Jesus, so I testify that he is [God’s Chosen One.//the Chosen One of God.]l”
45Philip went to look for Nathanael and told him, “We have found the very [one/person] Moseso and the prophets wrote about! His name is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth.”
50Jesus [responded//asked him], “Do you believe this just because I told you I had seen you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than this.”
I don’t think we use ‘asked’ to introduce rhetorical questions in English. And Greek doesn’t use this verb either.
51Then he said, “I tell you the truth, you will all see [“]heaven open and the angels of God going up and down on[” Me,] the Son of Man, the one who is the stairway between heaven and earth.
It is often necessary in other languages to include ‘I/Me’, because in most languages one just doesn’t talk of oneself using the third person, he. This is not grammatical in most languages.
https://www.bible.com/bible/116/jhn.1
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