Genesis 32:30

32:30 So Jacob named the place Peniel, ¹  explaining, ²  “Certainly ³  I have seen God face to face ⁴  and have survived.” ⁵ 

Exodus 33:20

33:20 But he added, “You cannot see my face, for no one can ⁶  see me and live.” ⁷ 

Deuteronomy 4:38

4:38 to dispossess nations greater and stronger than you and brought you here this day to give you their land as your property. ⁸ 

Deuteronomy 5:26

5:26 Who is there from the entire human race ⁹  who has heard the voice of the living God speaking from the middle of the fire as we have, and has lived?

Isaiah 6:5

6:5 I said, “Too bad for me! I am destroyed, ¹⁰  for my lips are contaminated by sin, ¹¹  and I live among people whose lips are contaminated by sin. ¹²  My eyes have seen the king, the Lord who commands armies.” ¹³ 

[32:30]  ¹ sn The name Peniel means “face of God.” Since Jacob saw God face to face here, the name is appropriate.

[32:30]  ² tn The word “explaining” is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[32:30]  ³ tn Or “because.”

[32:30]  ⁴ sn I have seen God face to face. See the note on the name “Peniel” earlier in the verse.

[32:30]  ⁵ tn Heb “and my soul [= life] has been preserved.”

[33:20]  ⁶ tn In view of the use of the verb “can, be able to” in the first clause, this imperfect tense is given a potential nuance.

[33:20]  ⁷ tn Gesenius notes that sometimes a negative statement takes the place of a conditional clause; here it is equal to “if a man sees me he does not live” (GKC 498 §159.gg). The other passages that teach this are Gen 32:30; Deut 4:33, 5:24, 26; Judg 6:22, 13:22, and Isa 6:5.

[4:38]  ⁸ tn Heb “(as) an inheritance,” that is, landed property that one can pass on to one’s descendants.

[5:26]  ⁹ tn Heb “who is there of all flesh.”

[6:5]  ¹⁰ tn Isaiah uses the suffixed (perfect) form of the verb for rhetorical purposes. In this way his destruction is described as occurring or as already completed. Rather than understanding the verb as derived from דָּמַה (damah, “be destroyed”), some take it from a proposed homonymic root דמה, which would mean “be silent.” In this case, one might translate, “I must be silent.”

[6:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “a man unclean of lips am I.” Isaiah is not qualified to praise the king. His lips (the instruments of praise) are “unclean” because he has been contaminated by sin.

[6:5]  ¹² tn Heb “and among a nation unclean of lips I live.”

[6:5]  ¹³ tn Perhaps in this context, the title has a less militaristic connotation and pictures the Lord as the ruler of the heavenly assembly. See the note at 1:9.