Nehemia 2:2-5

2:2 So the king said to me, “Why do you appear to be depressed when you aren’t sick? What can this be other than sadness of heart?” This made me very fearful.

2:3 I replied to the king, “O king, live forever! Why would I not appear dejected when the city with the graves of my ancestors ¹  lies desolate and its gates destroyed ²  by fire?” 2:4 The king responded, ³  “What is it you are seeking?” Then I quickly prayed to the God of heaven 2:5 and said to the king, “If the king is so inclined ⁴  and if your servant has found favor in your sight, dispatch me to Judah, to the city with the graves of my ancestors, so that I can rebuild it.”

Yesaya 53:3-4

53:3 He was despised and rejected by people, ⁵ 

one who experienced pain and was acquainted with illness;

people hid their faces from him; ⁶ 

he was despised, and we considered him insignificant. ⁷ 

53:4 But he lifted up our illnesses,

he carried our pain; ⁸ 

even though we thought he was being punished,

attacked by God, and afflicted for something he had done. ⁹ 

Matius 8:14-16

Healings at Peter’s House

8:14 Now ¹⁰  when Jesus entered Peter’s house, he saw his mother-in-law lying down, ¹¹  sick with a fever. 8:15 He touched her hand, and the fever left her. Then ¹²  she got up and began to serve them. 8:16 When it was evening, many demon-possessed people were brought to him. He drove out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick. ¹³ 

Markus 5:38-43

5:38 They came to the house of the synagogue ruler where ¹⁴  he saw noisy confusion and people weeping and wailing loudly. ¹⁵  5:39 When he entered he said to them, “Why are you distressed and weeping? The child is not dead but asleep.” 5:40 And they began making fun of him. ¹⁶  But he put them all outside ¹⁷  and he took the child’s father and mother and his own companions ¹⁸  and went into the room where the child was. ¹⁹  5:41 Then, gently taking the child by the hand, he said to her, “Talitha koum,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, get up.” 5:42 The girl got up at once and began to walk around (she was twelve years old). They were completely astonished at this. ²⁰  5:43 He strictly ordered that no one should know about this, ²¹  and told them to give her something to eat.

Lukas 7:12-13

7:12 As he approached the town gate, a man ²²  who had died was being carried out, ²³  the only son of his mother (who ²⁴  was a widow ²⁵ ), and a large crowd from the town ²⁶  was with her. 7:13 When ²⁷  the Lord saw her, he had compassion ²⁸  for her and said to her, “Do not weep.” ²⁹ 

Yohanes 11:31-35

11:31 Then the people ³⁰  who were with Mary ³¹  in the house consoling her saw her ³²  get up quickly and go out. They followed her, because they thought she was going to the tomb to weep ³³  there.

11:32 Now when Mary came to the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 11:33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the people ³⁴  who had come with her weeping, he was intensely moved ³⁵  in spirit and greatly distressed. ³⁶  11:34 He asked, ³⁷  “Where have you laid him?” ³⁸  They replied, ³⁹  “Lord, come and see.” 11:35 Jesus wept. ⁴⁰ 

[2:3]  ¹ tn Heb “fathers” (also in v. 5).

[2:3]  ² tn Heb “devoured” or “eaten” (so also in Neh 2:13).

[2:4]  ³ tn Heb “said to me.”

[2:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “If upon the king it is good.” So also in v. 7.

[53:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “lacking of men.” If the genitive is taken as specifying (“lacking with respect to men”), then the idea is that he lacked company because he was rejected by people. Another option is to take the genitive as indicating genus or larger class (i.e., “one lacking among men”). In this case one could translate, “he was a transient” (cf. the use of חָדֵל [khadel] in Ps 39:5 HT [39:4 ET]).

[53:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “like a hiding of the face from him,” i.e., “like one before whom the face is hidden” (see BDB 712 s.v. מַסְתֵּר).

[53:3]  ⁷ sn The servant is likened to a seriously ill person who is shunned by others because of his horrible disease.

[53:4]  ⁸ sn Illness and pain stand by metonymy (or perhaps as metaphors) for sin and its effects, as vv. 11-12 make clear.

[53:4]  ⁹ tn The words “for something he had done” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The group now realizes he suffered because of his identification with them, not simply because he was a special target of divine anger.

[8:14]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “And.” Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the transition to a new topic.

[8:14]  ¹¹ tn Grk “having been thrown down.” The verb βεβλημένην (beblhmenhn) is a perfect passive participle of the verb βάλλω (ballw, “to throw”). This indicates the severity of her sickness.

[8:15]  ¹² tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then.”

[8:16]  ¹³ sn Note how the author distinguishes healing from exorcism here, implying that the two are not identical.

[5:38]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “and,” though such paratactic structure is rather awkward in English.

[5:38]  ¹⁵ sn This group probably includes outside or even professional mourners, not just family, because a large group seems to be present.

[5:40]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “They were laughing at him.” The imperfect verb has been taken ingressively.

[5:40]  ¹⁷ tn Or “threw them all outside.” The verb used, ἐκβάλλω (ekballw), almost always has the connotation of force in Mark.

[5:40]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “those with him.”

[5:40]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “into where the child was.”

[5:42]  ²⁰ tn The Greek word εὐθύς (euqus, often translated “immediately” or “right away”) has not been translated here. It sometimes occurs with a weakened, inferential use (BDAG 406 s.v. 2), not contributing significantly to the flow of the narrative. For further discussion, see R. J. Decker, Temporal Deixis of the Greek Verb in the Gospel of Mark with Reference to Verbal Aspect (SBG 10), 73-77.

[5:43]  ²¹ sn That no one should know about this. See the note on the phrase who he was in 3:12.

[7:12]  ²² tn Grk “behold.” The Greek word ἰδού (idou) has not been translated because it has no exact English equivalent here, but adds interest and emphasis (BDAG 468 s.v. 1).

[7:12]  ²³ tn That is, carried out for burial. This was a funeral procession.

[7:12]  ²⁴ tn Grk “and she.” The clause introduced by καί (kai) has been translated as a relative clause for the sake of English style.

[7:12]  ²⁵ sn The description of the woman as a widow would mean that she was now socially alone and without protection in 1st century Jewish culture.

[7:12]  ²⁶ tn Or “city.”

[7:13]  ²⁷ tn Grk “And seeing her, the Lord.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style. The participle ἰδών (idwn) has been taken temporally.

[7:13]  ²⁸ sn He had compassion. It is unusual for Luke to note such emotion by Jesus, though the other Synoptics tend to mention it (Matt 14:14; Mark 6:34; Matt 15:32; Mark 8:2).

[7:13]  ²⁹ tn The verb κλαίω (klaiw) denotes the loud wailing or lamenting typical of 1st century Jewish mourning.

[11:31]  ³⁰ tn Or “the Judeans”; Grk “the Jews.” Here the phrase refers to the friends, acquaintances, and relatives of Lazarus or his sisters who had come to mourn, since the Jewish religious authorities are specifically mentioned as a separate group in John 11:46-47. See also the notes on the phrase “the Jewish leaders” in v. 8 and “the Jewish people of the region” in v. 19.

[11:31]  ³¹ tn Grk “her”; the referent (Mary) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[11:31]  ³² tn Grk “Mary”; the proper name (Mary) has been replaced with the pronoun (her) in keeping with conventional English style, to avoid repetition.

[11:31]  ³³ tn Or “to mourn” (referring to the loud wailing or crying typical of public mourning in that culture).

[11:33]  ³⁴ tn Or “the Judeans”; Grk “the Jews.” Here the phrase refers to the friends, acquaintances, and relatives of Lazarus or his sisters who had come to mourn, since the Jewish religious authorities are specifically mentioned as a separate group in John 11:46-47. See also the notes on the phrase “the Jewish leaders” in v. 8, “the Jewish people of the region” in v. 19, and the word “people” in v. 31.

[11:33]  ³⁵ tn Or (perhaps) “he was deeply indignant.” The verb ἐνεβριμήσατο (enebrimhsato), which is repeated in John 11:38, indicates a strong display of emotion, somewhat difficult to translate – “shuddered, moved with the deepest emotions.” In the LXX, the verb and its cognates are used to describe a display of indignation (Dan 11:30, for example – see also Mark 14:5). Jesus displayed this reaction to the afflicted in Mark 1:43, Matt 9:30. Was he angry at the afflicted? No, but he was angry because he found himself face-to-face with the manifestations of Satan’s kingdom of evil. Here, the realm of Satan was represented by death.

[11:33]  ³⁶ tn Or “greatly troubled.” The verb ταράσσω (tarassw) also occurs in similar contexts to those of ἐνεβριμήσατο (enebrimhsato). John uses it in 14:1 and 27 to describe the reaction of the disciples to the imminent death of Jesus, and in 13:21 the verb describes how Jesus reacted to the thought of being betrayed by Judas, into whose heart Satan had entered.

[11:34]  ³⁷ tn Grk “And he said.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

[11:34]  ³⁸ tn Or “Where have you placed him?”

[11:34]  ³⁹ tn Grk “They said to him.” The indirect object αὐτῷ (autw) has not been translated here for stylistic reasons.

[11:35]  ⁴⁰ sn Jesus wept. The Greek word used here for Jesus’ weeping (ἐδάκρυσεν, edakrusen) is different from the one used to describe the weeping of Mary and the Jews in v. 33 which indicated loud wailing and cries of lament. This word simply means “to shed tears” and has more the idea of quiet grief. But why did Jesus do this? Not out of grief for Lazarus, since he was about to be raised to life again. L. Morris (John [NICNT], 558) thinks it was grief over the misconception of those round about. But it seems that in the context the weeping is triggered by the thought of Lazarus in the tomb: This was not personal grief over the loss of a friend (since Lazarus was about to be restored to life) but grief over the effects of sin, death, and the realm of Satan. It was a natural complement to the previous emotional expression of anger (11:33). It is also possible that Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus because he knew there was also a tomb for himself ahead.