OET interlinear ACTs 4:25

uW Translation Notes:

Note 1 topic: figures-of-speech / metonymy

ὁ τοῦ πατρὸς ἡμῶν, διὰ Πνεύματος Ἁγίου στόματος Δαυεὶδ παιδός σου εἰπών

the_‹one› ˱of˲_the father ˱of˲_us by /the/_Spirit Holy ˱of˲_/the/_mouth (Some words not found in SR-GNT: ὁ τοῦ πατρὸς ἡμῶν διὰ Πνεύματος Ἁγίου στόματος Δαυὶδ παιδός σου εἰπών ἵνα τί ἐφρύαξαν ἔθνη καὶ λαοὶ ἐμελέτησαν κενά)

The word mouth refers to what David said by using his mouth. Alternate translation: “the one whose Holy Spirit inspired our father David, your servant, to say”

Note 2 topic: figures-of-speech / quotesinquotes

τοῦ πατρὸς ἡμῶν, διὰ Πνεύματος Ἁγίου στόματος Δαυεὶδ παιδός σου εἰπών, ἵνα τί ἐφρύαξαν ἔθνη, καὶ λαοὶ ἐμελέτησαν κενά?

˱of˲_the father ˱of˲_us by /the/_Spirit Holy ˱of˲_/the/_mouth (Some words not found in SR-GNT: ὁ τοῦ πατρὸς ἡμῶν διὰ Πνεύματος Ἁγίου στόματος Δαυὶδ παιδός σου εἰπών ἵνα τί ἐφρύαξαν ἔθνη καὶ λαοὶ ἐμελέτησαν κενά)

As the believers pray together, they quote from one of the psalms that David composed, Psalm 2:1–2. If it would be helpful in your language, you could translate this so that there is not a quotation within a quotation. Alternate translation: “whose Holy Spirit inspired our father David, your servant, to ask why the nations raged and why the peoples imagined useless things.”

Note 3 topic: figures-of-speech / exclusive

ἡμῶν

˱of˲_us

The believers are using the word our to refer to themselves but not to God, so use the exclusive form of that word in your translation if your language marks that distinction.

Note 4 topic: figures-of-speech / metaphor

τοῦ πατρὸς

˱of˲_the father

Here, father means “ancestor.” Alternate translation: “ancestor”

παιδός

servant

The believers are using the word servant here in its ordinary sense, not as a title for the Messiah, so it would not be appropriate to translate it as “Messiah,” as you may have done when it was a title in 3:13 and 3:26.

Note 5 topic: figures-of-speech / ellipsis

ἵνα τί ἐφρύαξαν ἔθνη, καὶ λαοὶ ἐμελέτησαν κενά

for_reason why raged /the/_pagans and peoples pondered vain_‹things›

Here some words have been left out that a sentence would need in many languages in order to be complete. You can supply these words from earlier in the sentence. Alternate translation: “Why did the nations rage, and why did the peoples imagine useless things”

Note 6 topic: figures-of-speech / parallelism

ἵνα τί ἐφρύαξαν ἔθνη, καὶ λαοὶ ἐμελέτησαν κενά

for_reason why raged /the/_pagans and peoples pondered vain_‹things›

These two phrases mean basically the same thing. The second emphasizes the meaning of the first by repeating the same idea with different words. Hebrew poetry was based on this kind of repetition, and it would be good to show this to your readers by including both phrases in your translation rather than combining them. However, if the repetition might be confusing, you could connect the phrases with a word other than and in order to show that the second phrase is repeating the first one, not saying something additional. Alternate translation: “Why did the nations rage, indeed, why did the peoples imagine useless things”

Note 7 topic: figures-of-speech / rquestion

ἵνα τί ἐφρύαξαν ἔθνη, καὶ λαοὶ ἐμελέτησαν κενά?

for_reason why raged /the/_pagans and peoples pondered vain_‹things›

In this psalm, David uses the question form to emphasize the futility of opposing God. If you would not use a rhetorical question for this purpose in your language, you could translate this as a statement or an exclamation. Alternate translation: “The nations should not have raged, and the peoples should not have imagined useless things!”

Note 8 topic: figures-of-speech / explicit

κενά

vain_‹things›

The phrase useless things implicitly describes plans to oppose God, which can never succeed. Alternate translation: “ways to oppose God, which always prove useless”