Mazmur 68:18

68:18 You ascend on high, ¹ 

you have taken many captives. ² 

You receive tribute ³  from ⁴  men,

including even sinful rebels.

Indeed the Lord God lives there! ⁵ 

Ulangan 23:14

23:14 For the Lord your God walks about in the middle of your camp to deliver you and defeat ⁶  your enemies for you. Therefore your camp should be holy, so that he does not see anything indecent ⁷  among you and turn away from you.

Yesaya 12:6

12:6 Cry out and shout for joy, O citizens of Zion,

for the Holy One of Israel ⁸  acts mightily ⁹  among you!”

Yehezkiel 43:7

43:7 He said to me: “Son of man, this is the place of my throne ¹⁰  and the place for the soles of my feet, ¹¹  where I will live among the people of Israel forever. The house of Israel will no longer profane my holy name, neither they nor their kings, by their spiritual prostitution or by the pillars of their kings set up when they die. ¹² 

Yehezkiel 43:9

43:9 Now they must put away their spiritual prostitution and the pillars of their kings far from me, and then I will live among them forever.

Hosea 11:9

11:9 I cannot carry out ¹³  my fierce anger!

I cannot totally destroy Ephraim!

Because I am God, and not man – the Holy One among you –

I will not come in wrath!

Yoel 2:27

2:27 You will be convinced that I am in the midst of Israel.

I am the Lord your God; there is no other.

My people will never again be put to shame.

Zefanya 3:15

3:15 The Lord has removed the judgment against you; ¹⁴ 

he has turned back your enemy.

Israel’s king, the Lord, is in your midst!

You no longer need to fear disaster.

Zakharia 2:5

2:5 But I (the Lord says) will be a wall of fire surrounding Jerusalem ¹⁵  and the source of glory in her midst.’”

Zakharia 2:10-11

2:10 “Sing out and be happy, Zion my daughter! ¹⁶  For look, I have come; I will settle in your midst,” says the Lord. 2:11 “Many nations will join themselves to the Lord on the day of salvation, ¹⁷  and they will also be my ¹⁸  people. Indeed, I will settle in the midst of you all.” Then you will know that the Lord who rules over all has sent me to you.

Zakharia 8:3

8:3 The Lord says, ‘I have returned to Zion and will live within Jerusalem. ¹⁹  Now Jerusalem will be called “truthful city,” “mountain of the Lord who rules over all,” “holy mountain.”’

Matius 18:20

18:20 For where two or three are assembled in my name, I am there among them.”

Wahyu 2:1

To the Church in Ephesus

2:1 “To the angel of the church in Ephesus, ²⁰  write the following: ²¹ 

“This is the solemn pronouncement of ²²  the one who has a firm grasp on ²³  the seven stars in his right hand ²⁴  – the one who walks among the seven golden ²⁵  lampstands:

[68:18]  ¹ tn Heb “to the elevated place”; or “on high.” This probably refers to the Lord’s throne on Mount Zion.

[68:18]  ² tn Heb “you have taken captives captive.”

[68:18]  ³ tn Or “gifts.”

[68:18]  ⁴ tn Or “among.”

[68:18]  ⁵ tn Heb “so that the Lord God might live [there].” Many take the infinitive construct with -לְ (lamed) as indicating purpose here, but it is unclear how the offering of tribute enables the Lord to live in Zion. This may be an occurrence of the relatively rare emphatic lamed (see HALOT 510-11 s.v. II לְ, though this text is not listed as an example there). If so, the statement corresponds nicely to the final line of v. 16, which also affirms emphatically that the Lord lives in Zion.

[23:14]  ⁶ tn Heb “give [over] your enemies.”

[23:14]  ⁷ tn Heb “nakedness of a thing”; NLT “any shameful thing.” The expression עֶרְוַת דָּבָר (’ervat davar) refers specifically to sexual organs and, by extension, to any function associated with them. There are some aspects of human life that are so personal and private that they ought not be publicly paraded. Cultically speaking, even God is offended by such impropriety (cf. Gen 9:22-23; Lev 18:6-12, 16-19; 20:11, 17-21). See B. Seevers, NIDOTTE 3:528-30.

[12:6]  ⁸ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[12:6]  ⁹ tn Or “is great” (TEV). However, the context emphasizes his mighty acts of deliverance (cf. NCV), not some general or vague character quality.

[43:7]  ¹⁰ sn God’s throne is mentioned in Isa 6:1; Jer 3:17.

[43:7]  ¹¹ sn See 1 Chr 28:2; Ps 99:5; 132:7; Isa 60:13; Lam 2:1.

[43:7]  ¹² tn Heb “by their corpses in their death.” But the term normally translated “corpses” is better understood here as a reference to funeral pillars or funerary offerings. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 2:583-85, and L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:257.

[11:9]  ¹³ tn The three imperfect verbs function as imperfects of capability, similar to the imperfects of capability in 11:8. See IBHS 564 §34.1a.

[3:15]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “your judgments,” that is, “the judgments directed against you.” The translation reflects the implications of the parallelism.

[2:5]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “her”; the referent (Jerusalem) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[2:10]  ¹⁶ sn This individualizing of Zion as a daughter draws attention to the corporate nature of the covenant community and also to the tenderness with which the Lord regards his chosen people.

[2:11]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “on that day.” The descriptive phrase “of salvation” has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[2:11]  ¹⁸ tc The LXX and Syriac have the 3rd person masculine singular suffix in both places (“his people” and “he will settle”; cf. NAB, TEV) in order to avoid the Lord’s speaking of himself in the third person. Such resort is unnecessary, however, in light of the common shifting of person in Hebrew narrative (cf. 3:2).

[8:3]  ¹⁹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[2:1]  ²⁰ map For location see JP1 D2; JP2 D2; JP3 D2; JP4 D2.

[2:1]  ²¹ tn The phrase “the following” after “write” is supplied to clarify that what follows is the content of what is to be written.

[2:1]  ²² tn Grk “These things says [the One]…” The expression τάδε λέγει (tade legei) occurs eight times in the NT, seven of which are in Rev 2-3. “The pronoun is used to add solemnity to the prophetic utterance that follows. …In classical drama, it was used to introduce a new actor to the scene (Smyth, Greek Grammar, 307 [§1241]). But the τάδε λέγει formula in the NT derives from the OT, where it was used to introduce a prophetic utterance (BAGD, s.v. ὅδε, 1)” (ExSyn 328). Thus, the translation “this is the solemn pronouncement of” for τάδε λέγει is very much in keeping with the OT connotations of this expression.

[2:1]  sn The expression This is the solemn pronouncement of reflects an OT idiom. The LXX has the same Greek phrase (τάδε λέγει, tade legei) about 350 times, with nearly 320 of them having “the Lord” (Heb יהוה, Yahweh) as subject. That the author of Revelation would use such an expression seven times with the risen Christ as the speaker may well imply something of Christ’s sovereignty and deity. Cf. also Acts 21:11 in which the Holy Spirit is the speaker of this expression.

[2:1]  ²³ tn Grk “holds,” but the term (i.e., κρατῶν, kratwn) with an accusative object, along with the context, argues for a sense of firmness. (Cf. ExSyn 132.)

[2:1]  ²⁴ sn On seven stars in his right hand see 1:16.

[2:1]  ²⁵ tn Grk “lampstands of gold” with the genitive τῶν χρυσῶν (twn cruswn) translated as an attributive genitive.