Genesis 31:1

Jacob’s Flight from Laban

31:1 Jacob heard that Laban’s sons were complaining, ¹  “Jacob has taken everything that belonged to our father! He has gotten rich ²  at our father’s expense!” ³ 

Deuteronomy 8:12-14

8:12 When you eat your fill, when you build and occupy good houses, 8:13 when your cattle and flocks increase, when you have plenty of silver and gold, and when you have abundance of everything, 8:14 be sure ⁴  you do not feel self-important and forget the Lord your God who brought you from the land of Egypt, the place of slavery,

Psalms 49:6-7

49:6 They trust ⁵  in their wealth

and boast ⁶  in their great riches.

49:7 Certainly a man cannot rescue his brother; ⁷ 

he cannot pay God an adequate ransom price ⁸ 

Psalms 49:17

49:17 For he will take nothing with him when he dies;

his wealth will not follow him down into the grave. ⁹ 

Psalms 52:7

52:7 “Look, here is the man who would not make ¹⁰  God his protector!

He trusted in his great wealth

and was confident about his plans to destroy others.” ¹¹ 

Psalms 62:10

62:10 Do not trust in what you can gain by oppression! ¹² 

Do not put false confidence in what you can gain by robbery! ¹³ 

If wealth increases, do not become attached to it! ¹⁴ 

Proverbs 10:15

10:15 The wealth of a rich person is like ¹⁵  a fortified city, ¹⁶ 

but the poor are brought to ruin ¹⁷  by ¹⁸  their poverty.

Proverbs 11:28

11:28 The one who trusts in his riches will fall,

but the righteous ¹⁹  will flourish like a green leaf. ²⁰ 

Proverbs 30:9

30:9 lest I become satisfied and act deceptively ²¹ 

and say, “Who is the Lord?”

Or lest I become poor and steal

and demean ²²  the name of my God.

Mark 10:24

10:24 The disciples were astonished at these words. But again Jesus said to them, ²³  “Children, how hard it is ²⁴  to enter the kingdom of God!

Luke 12:15

12:15 Then ²⁵  he said to them, “Watch out and guard yourself from ²⁶  all types of greed, ²⁷  because one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”

Colossians 3:5

3:5 So put to death whatever in your nature belongs to the earth: ²⁸  sexual immorality, impurity, shameful passion, ²⁹  evil desire, and greed which is idolatry.

Colossians 3:1

Exhortations to Seek the Things Above

3:1 Therefore, if you have been raised with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

Colossians 1:10

1:10 so that you may live ³⁰  worthily of the Lord and please him in all respects ³¹  – bearing fruit in every good deed, growing in the knowledge of God,

Colossians 1:17

1:17 He himself is before all things and all things are held together ³²  in him.

[31:1]  ¹ tn Heb “and he heard the words of the sons of Laban, saying.”

[31:1]  ² sn The Hebrew word translated “gotten rich” (כָּבוֹד, cavod) has the basic idea of “weight.” If one is heavy with possessions, then that one is wealthy (13:2). Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph all became wealthy when they left the promised land. Jacob’s wealth foreshadows what will happen to Israel when they leave the land of Egypt (Exod 12:35-38).

[31:1]  ³ tn Heb “and from that which belonged to our father he has gained all this wealth.”

[8:14]  ⁴ tn The words “be sure” are not in the Hebrew text; vv. 12-14 are part of the previous sentence. For stylistic reasons a new sentence was started at the beginning of v. 12 in the translation and the words “be sure” repeated from v. 11 to indicate the connection.

[49:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “the ones who trust.” The substantival participle stands in apposition to “those who deceive me” (v. 5).

[49:6]  ⁶ tn The imperfect verbal form emphasizes their characteristic behavior.

[49:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “a brother, he surely does not ransom, a man.” The sequence אִישׁ...אָח (’akh...’ish, “a brother…a man”) is problematic, for the usual combination is אָח...אָח (“a brother…a brother”) or אִישׁ...אִישׁ (“a man…a man”). When אִישׁ and אָח are combined, the usual order is אָח...אִישׁ (“a man…a brother”), with “brother” having a third masculine singular suffix, “his brother.” This suggests that “brother” is the object of the verb and “man” the subject. (1) Perhaps the altered word order and absence of the suffix can be explained by the text’s poetic character, for ellipsis is a feature of Hebrew poetic style. (2) Another option, supported by a few medieval Hebrew mss, is to emend “brother” to the similar sounding אַךְ (’akh, “surely; but”) which occurs in v. 15 before the verb פָּדָה (padah, “ransom”). If this reading is accepted the Qal imperfect יִפְדֶּה (yifddeh, “he can [not] ransom”) would need to be emended to a Niphal (passive) form, יִפָּדֶה (yifadeh, “he can[not] be ransomed”) unless one understands the subject of the Qal verb to be indefinite (“one cannot redeem a man”). (A Niphal imperfect can be collocated with a Qal infinitive absolute. See GKC 344-45 §113.w.) No matter how one decides the textual issues, the imperfect in this case is modal, indicating potential, and the infinitive absolute emphasizes the statement.

[49:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “he cannot pay to God his ransom price.” Num 35:31 may supply the legal background for the metaphorical language used here. The psalmist pictures God as having a claim on the soul of the individual. When God comes to claim the life that ultimately belongs to him, he demands a ransom price that is beyond the capability of anyone to pay. The psalmist’s point is that God has ultimate authority over life and death; all the money in the world cannot buy anyone a single day of life beyond what God has decreed.

[49:17]  ⁹ tn Heb “his glory will not go down after him.”

[52:7]  ¹⁰ tn The imperfect verbal form here draws attention to the ongoing nature of the action. The evildoer customarily rejected God and trusted in his own abilities. Another option is to take the imperfect as generalizing, “[here is the man who] does not make.”

[52:7]  ¹¹ tn Heb “he was strong in his destruction.” “Destruction” must refer back to the destructive plans mentioned in v. 2. The verb (derived from the root עָזַז, ’azaz, “be strong”) as it stands is either an imperfect (if so, probably used in a customary sense) or a preterite (without vav [ו] consecutive). However the form should probably be emended to וַיָּעָז (vayya’az), a Qal preterite (with vav [ו] consecutive) from עָזַז. Note the preterite form without vav (ו) consecutive in the preceding line (וַיִּבְטַח, vayyivtakh, “and he trusted”). The prefixed vav (ו) was likely omitted by haplography (note the suffixed vav [ו] on the preceding עָשְׁרוֹ, ’oshro, “his wealth”).

[62:10]  ¹² tn Heb “do not trust in oppression.” Here “oppression” stands by metonymy for the riches that can be gained by oppressive measures, as the final line of the verse indicates.

[62:10]  ¹³ tn Heb “and in robbery do not place vain hope.” Here “robbery” stands by metonymy for the riches that can be gained by theft, as the next line of the verse indicates.

[62:10]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “[as for] wealth, when it bears fruit, do not set [your] heart [on it].”

[10:15]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “is.” This expression, “a rich man’s wealth is his strong city,” is a metaphor. The comparative particle “like” is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity and smoothness.

[10:15]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “a city of his strength.” The genitive עֹז (’oz, “strength”) functions as an attributive genitive: “strong city” = “fortified city.” This phrase is a metaphor; wealth protects its possessions against adversity like a fortified city. Such wealth must be attained by diligence and righteous means (e.g., 13:8; 18:23; 22:7).

[10:15]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “the ruin of the poor.” The term דַּלִּים (dalim, “of the poor”) functions as an objective genitive. Poverty leads to the ruin of the poor. The term “ruin” includes the shambles in which the person lives. This provides no security but only the fear of ruin. This proverb is an observation on life.

[10:15]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “is their poverty.”

[11:28]  ¹⁹ sn The implication from the parallelism is that the righteous do not trust in their own riches, but in the Lord.

[11:28]  ²⁰ tn Heb “leafage” or “leaf” (cf. KJV “as a branch”); TEV “leaves of summer”; NLT “leaves in spring.” The simile of a leaf is a figure of prosperity and fertility throughout the ancient Near East.

[30:9]  ²¹ tn The verb כָּחַשׁ (kakhash) means “to be disappointing; to deceive; to fail; to grow lean.” In the Piel stem it means “to deceive; to act deceptively; to cringe; to disappoint.” The idea of acting deceptively is illustrated in Hos 9:2 where it has the connotation of “disowning” or “refusing to acknowledge” (a meaning very close to its meaning here).

[30:9]  ²² tn The Hebrew verb literally means “to take hold of; to seize”; this produces the idea of doing violence to the reputation of God.

[10:24]  ²³ tn Grk “But answering, Jesus again said to them.” The participle ἀποκριθείς (apokriqeis) is redundant and has not been translated.

[10:24]  ²⁴ tc Most mss (A C D Θ Ë^1,13 28 565 2427 Ï lat sy) have here “for those who trust in riches” (τοὺς πεποιθότας ἐπὶ [τοῖς] χρήμασιν, tou" pepoiqota" epi [toi"] crhmasin); W has πλούσιον (plousion) later in the verse, producing the same general modification on the dominical saying (“how hard it is for the rich to enter…”). But such qualifications on the Lord’s otherwise harsh and absolute statements are natural scribal expansions, intended to soften the dictum. Further, the earliest and best witnesses, along with a few others (א B Δ Ψ sa), lack any such qualifications. That W lacks the longer expansion and only has πλούσιον suggests that its archetype agreed with א B here; its voice should be heard with theirs. Thus, both on external and internal grounds, the shorter reading is preferred.

[12:15]  ²⁵ tn Here δέ (de) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[12:15]  ²⁶ tn See L&N 13.154 for this use of the middle voice of φυλάσσω (fulassw) in this verse.

[12:15]  ²⁷ tn Or “avarice,” “covetousness.” Note the warning covers more than money and gets at the root attitude – the strong desire to acquire more and more possessions and experiences.

[3:5]  ²⁸ tn Grk “the members which are on the earth.” See BDAG 628 s.v. μέλος 1, “put to death whatever in you is worldly.”

[3:5]  ²⁹ tn Or “lust.”

[1:10]  ³⁰ tn The infinitive περιπατῆσαι (peripathsai, “to walk, to live, to live one’s life”) is best taken as an infinitive of purpose related to “praying” (προσευχόμενοι, proseucomenoi) and “asking” (αἰτούμενοι, aitoumenoi) in v. 9 and is thus translated as “that you may live.”

[1:10]  ³¹ tn BDAG 129 s.v. ἀρεσκεία states that ἀρεσκείαν (areskeian) refers to a “desire to please εἰς πᾶσαν ἀ. to please (the Lord) in all respects Col 1:10.”

[1:17]  ³² tn BDAG 973 s.v. συνίστημι B.3 suggests “continue, endure, exist, hold together” here.