Genesis 38:7-10

38:7 But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was evil in the Lord’s sight, so the Lord killed him.

38:8 Then Judah said to Onan, “Have sexual relations with ¹  your brother’s wife and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to her so that you may raise ²  up a descendant for your brother.” ³  38:9 But Onan knew that the child ⁴  would not be considered his. ⁵  So whenever ⁶  he had sexual relations with ⁷  his brother’s wife, he withdrew prematurely ⁸  so as not to give his brother a descendant. 38:10 What he did was evil in the Lord’s sight, so the Lord ⁹  killed him too.

Genesis 38:1

Judah and Tamar

38:1 At that time Judah left ¹⁰  his brothers and stayed ¹¹  with an Adullamite man ¹²  named Hirah.

Genesis 25:1

The Death of Abraham

25:1 Abraham had taken ¹³  another ¹⁴  wife, named Keturah.

Job 15:32-33

15:32 Before his time ¹⁵  he will be paid in full, ¹⁶ 

and his branches will not flourish. ¹⁷ 

15:33 Like a vine he will let his sour grapes fall, ¹⁸ 

and like an olive tree

he will shed his blossoms. ¹⁹ 

Psalms 55:23

55:23 But you, O God, will bring them ²⁰  down to the deep Pit. ²¹ 

Violent and deceitful people ²²  will not live even half a normal lifespan. ²³ 

But as for me, I trust in you.

Proverbs 10:27

10:27 Fearing the Lord ²⁴  prolongs life, ²⁵ 

but the life span ²⁶  of the wicked will be shortened. ²⁷ 

Acts 5:5

5:5 When Ananias heard these words he collapsed and died, and great fear gripped ²⁸  all who heard about it.

Acts 5:10

5:10 At once ²⁹  she collapsed at his feet and died. So when the young men came in, they found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband.

Acts 12:23

12:23 Immediately an angel of the Lord ³⁰  struck ³¹  Herod ³²  down because he did not give the glory to God, and he was eaten by worms and died. ³³ 

[38:8]  ¹ tn Heb “go to.” The expression is a euphemism for sexual intercourse.

[38:8]  ² tn The imperative with the prefixed conjunction here indicates purpose.

[38:8]  ³ sn Raise up a descendant for your brother. The purpose of this custom, called the levirate system, was to ensure that no line of the family would become extinct. The name of the deceased was to be maintained through this custom of having a child by the nearest relative. See M. Burrows, “Levirate Marriage in Israel,” JBL 59 (1940): 23-33.

[38:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “offspring.”

[38:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “would not be his,” that is, legally speaking. Under the levirate system the child would be legally considered the child of his deceased brother.

[38:9]  ⁶ tn The construction shows that this was a repeated practice and not merely one action.

[38:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “he went to.” This expression is a euphemism for sexual intercourse.

[38:9]  ⁸ tn Heb “he spoiled [his semen] to the ground.” Onan withdrew prematurely and ejaculated on the ground to prevent his brother’s widow from becoming pregnant.

[38:10]  ⁹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[38:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “went down from.”

[38:1]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and he turned aside unto.”

[38:1]  ¹² tn Heb “a man, an Adullamite.”

[25:1]  ¹³ tn Or “took.”

[25:1]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “And Abraham added and took.”

[15:32]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “before his day.”

[15:32]  ¹⁶ tn Those who put the last colon of v. 31 with v. 32 also have to change the verb תִּמָּלֵא (timmale’, “will be fulfilled”). E. Dhorme (Job, 225) says, “a mere glance at the use of yimmal…abundantly proves that the original text had timmal (G, Syr., Vulg), which became timmale’ through the accidental transposition of the ‘alep of bÿsi’o…in verse 31….” This, of course, is possible, if all the other changes up to now are granted. But the meaning of a word elsewhere in no way assures it should be the word here. The LXX has “his harvest shall perish before the time,” which could translate any number of words that might have been in the underlying Hebrew text. A commercial metaphor is not out of place here, since parallelism does not demand that the same metaphor appear in both lines.

[15:32]  ¹⁷ tn Now, in the second half of the verse, the metaphor of a tree with branches begins.

[15:33]  ¹⁸ tn The verb means “to treat violently” or “to wrong.” It indicates that the vine did not nourish the grapes well enough for them to grow, and so they dry up and drop off.

[15:33]  ¹⁹ sn The point is that like the tree the wicked man shows signs of life but produces nothing valuable. The olive tree will have blossoms in the years that it produces no olives, and so eventually drops the blossoms.

[55:23]  ²⁰ tn The pronominal suffix refers to the psalmist’s enemies (see v. 19).

[55:23]  ²¹ tn Heb “well of the pit.” The Hebrew term שַׁחַת (shakhat, “pit”) is often used as a title for Sheol (see Pss 16:10; 30:9; 49:9; 103:4).

[55:23]  ²² tn Heb “men of bloodshed and deceit.”

[55:23]  ²³ tn Heb “will not divide in half their days.”

[10:27]  ²⁴ tn Heb “the fear of the Lord.” The term יְהוָה (yÿhvah, “the Lord”) functions as an objective genitive.

[10:27]  ²⁵ tn Heb “days” (so KJV, ASV).

[10:27]  ²⁶ tn Heb “years.” The term “years” functions as a synecdoche of part (= years) for the whole (= lifespan).

[10:27]  ²⁷ sn This general saying has to be qualified with the problem of the righteous suffering and dying young, a problem that perplexed the sages of the entire ancient world. But this is the general principle: The righteous live longer because their life is the natural one and because God blesses them.

[5:5]  ²⁸ tn Or “fear came on,” “fear seized”; Grk “fear happened to.”

[5:10]  ²⁹ tn Grk “And at once.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

[12:23]  ³⁰ tn Or “the angel of the Lord.” See the note on the word “Lord” in 5:19.

[12:23]  ³¹ sn On being struck…down by an angel, see Acts 23:3; 1 Sam 25:28; 2 Sam 12:15; 2 Kgs 19:35; 2 Chr 13:20; 2 Macc 9:5.

[12:23]  ³² tn Grk “him”; the referent (Herod) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[12:23]  ³³ sn He was eaten by worms and died. Josephus, Ant. 19.8.2 (19.343-352), states that Herod Agrippa I died at Caesarea in a.d. 44. The account by Josephus, while not identical to Luke’s account, is similar in many respects: On the second day of a festival, Herod Agrippa appeared in the theater with a robe made of silver. When it sparkled in the sun, the people cried out flatteries and declared him to be a god. The king, carried away by the flattery, saw an owl (an omen of death) sitting on a nearby rope, and immediately was struck with severe stomach pains. He was carried off to his house and died five days later. The two accounts can be reconciled without difficulty, since while Luke states that Herod was immediately struck down by an angel, his death could have come several days later. The mention of worms with death adds a humiliating note to the scene. The formerly powerful ruler had been thoroughly reduced to nothing (cf. Jdt 16:17; 2 Macc 9:9; cf. also Josephus, Ant. 17.6.5 [17.168-170], which details the sickness which led to Herod the Great’s death).