Mazmur 21:2

21:2 You grant ¹  him his heart’s desire;

you do not refuse his request. ²  (Selah)

Mazmur 37:4

37:4 Then you will take delight in the Lord, ³ 

and he will answer your prayers. ⁴ 

Mazmur 145:19

145:19 He satisfies the desire ⁵  of his loyal followers; ⁶ 

he hears their cry for help and delivers them.

Matius 5:6

5:6 “Blessed are those who hunger ⁷  and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.

Yohanes 14:18

14:18 “I will not abandon ⁸  you as orphans, ⁹  I will come to you. ¹⁰ 

Yohanes 16:24

16:24 Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive it, ¹¹  so that your joy may be complete.

Yohanes 16:1

16:1 “I have told you all these things so that you will not fall away. ¹² 

Yohanes 5:14-15

5:14 After this Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “Look, you have become well. Don’t sin any more, ¹³  lest anything worse happen to you.” 5:15 The man went away and informed the Jewish leaders ¹⁴  that Jesus was the one who had made him well.

[21:2]  ¹ tn The translation assumes the perfect verbal forms in v. 2 are generalizing, stating factually what God typically does for the king. Another option is to take them as present perfects, “you have granted…you have not refused.” See v. 4, which mentions a specific request for a long reign.

[21:2]  ² tn Heb “and the request of his lips you do not refuse.”

[37:4]  ³ tn Following the imperatives of v. 3 the prefixed verbal forms with vav (ו) in v. 4 indicate result. Faith and obedience (v. 3) will bring divine blessing (v. 4).

[37:4]  ⁴ tn Or “and he will give you what you desire most.” Heb “and he will grant to you the requests of your heart.”

[145:19]  ⁵ tn In this context “desire” refers to the followers’ desire to be delivered from wicked enemies.

[145:19]  ⁶ tn Heb “the desire of those who fear him, he does.”

[5:6]  ⁷ sn Those who hunger are people like the poor Jesus has already mentioned. The term has OT roots both in conjunction with the poor (Isa 32:6-7; 58:6-7, 9-10; Ezek 18:7, 16) or by itself (Ps 37:16-19; 107:9).

[14:18]  ⁸ tn Or “leave.”

[14:18]  ⁹ tn The entire phrase “abandon you as orphans” could be understood as an idiom meaning, “leave you helpless.”

[14:18]  ¹⁰ sn I will come to you. Jesus had spoken in 14:3 of going away and coming again to his disciples. There the reference was both to the parousia (the second coming of Christ) and to the postresurrection appearances of Jesus to the disciples. Here the postresurrection appearances are primarily in view, since Jesus speaks of the disciples “seeing” him after the world can “see” him no longer in the following verse. But many commentators have taken v. 18 as a reference to the coming of the Spirit, since this has been the topic of the preceding verses. Still, vv. 19-20 appear to contain references to Jesus’ appearances to the disciples after his resurrection. It may well be that another Johannine double meaning is found here, so that Jesus ‘returns’ to his disciples in one sense in his appearances to them after his resurrection, but in another sense he ‘returns’ in the person of the Holy Spirit to indwell them.

[16:24]  ¹¹ tn The word “it” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

[16:1]  ¹² tn Grk “so that you will not be caused to stumble.”

[16:1]  sn In Johannine thought the verb σκανδαλίζω (skandalizw) means to trip up disciples and cause them to fall away from Jesus’ company (John 6:61, 1 John 2:10). Similar usage is found in Didache 16:5, an early Christian writing from around the beginning of the 2nd century a.d. An example of a disciple who falls away is Judas Iscariot. Here and again in 16:4 Jesus gives the purpose for his telling the disciples about coming persecution: He informs them so that when it happens, the disciples will not fall away, which in this context would refer to the confusion and doubt which they would certainly experience when such persecution began. There may have been a tendency for the disciples to expect immediately after Jesus’ victory over death the institution of the messianic kingdom, particularly in light of the turn of events recorded in the early chapters of Acts. Jesus here forestalls such disillusionment for the disciples by letting them know in advance that they will face persecution and even martyrdom as they seek to carry on his mission in the world after his departure. This material has parallels in the Olivet Discourse (Matt 24-25) and the synoptic parallels.

[5:14]  ¹³ tn Since this is a prohibition with a present imperative, the translation “stop sinning” is sometimes suggested. This is not likely, however, since the present tense is normally used in prohibitions involving a general condition (as here) while the aorist tense is normally used in specific instances. Only when used opposite the normal usage (the present tense in a specific instance, for example) would the meaning “stop doing what you are doing” be appropriate.

[5:15]  ¹⁴ tn Or “the Jewish authorities”; Grk “the Jews.” See the note on the phrase “Jewish leaders” in v. 10.