Job 42:8-9

42:8 So now take ¹  seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer a burnt offering for yourselves. And my servant Job will intercede ²  for you, and I will respect him, ³  so that I do not deal with you ⁴  according to your folly, ⁵  because you have not spoken about me what is right, as my servant Job has.” ⁶ 

42:9 So they went, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite, and did just as the Lord had told them; and the Lord had respect for Job. ⁷ 

Psalms 20:3-4

20:3 May he take notice ⁸  of your offerings;

may he accept ⁹  your burnt sacrifice! (Selah)

20:4 May he grant your heart’s desire; ¹⁰ 

may he bring all your plans to pass! ¹¹ 

Isaiah 60:7

60:7 All the sheep of Kedar will be gathered to you;

the rams of Nebaioth will be available to you as sacrifices. ¹² 

They will go up on my altar acceptably, ¹³ 

and I will bestow honor on my majestic temple.

Ezekiel 20:40-41

20:40 For there on my holy mountain, the high mountain of Israel, declares the sovereign Lord, all the house of Israel will serve me, all of them ¹⁴  in the land. I will accept them there, and there I will seek your contributions and your choice gifts, with all your holy things. 20:41 When I bring you out from the nations and gather you from the lands where you are scattered, I will accept you along with your soothing aroma. I will display my holiness among you in the sight of the nations.

Hosea 8:13

8:13 They offer up sacrificial gifts to me,

and eat the meat,

but the Lord does not accept their sacrifices. ¹⁵ 

Soon he will remember their wrongdoing,

he will punish their sins,

and they will return to Egypt.

Romans 15:30-31

15:30 Now I urge you, brothers and sisters, ¹⁶  through our Lord Jesus Christ and through the love of the Spirit, to join fervently with me in prayer to God on my behalf. 15:31 Pray ¹⁷  that I may be rescued from those who are disobedient in Judea and that my ministry in Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints,

Romans 15:1

Exhortation for the Strong to Help the Weak

15:1 But we who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak, and not just please ourselves. ¹⁸ 

Romans 2:1-2

The Condemnation of the Moralist

2:1 ¹⁹ Therefore ²⁰  you are without excuse, ²¹  whoever you are, ²²  when you judge someone else. ²³  For on whatever grounds ²⁴  you judge another, you condemn yourself, because you who judge practice the same things. 2:2 Now we know that God’s judgment is in accordance with truth ²⁵  against those who practice such things.

Romans 2:1

The Condemnation of the Moralist

2:1 ²⁶ Therefore ²⁷  you are without excuse, ²⁸  whoever you are, ²⁹  when you judge someone else. ³⁰  For on whatever grounds ³¹  you judge another, you condemn yourself, because you who judge practice the same things.

Romans 2:5

2:5 But because of your stubbornness ³²  and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourselves in the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment is revealed! ³³ 

[42:8]  ¹ tn The imperatives in this verse are plural, so all three had to do this together.

[42:8]  ² tn The verb “pray” is the Hitpael from the root פָּלַל (palal). That root has the main idea of arbitration; so in this stem it means “to seek arbitration [for oneself],” or “to pray,” or “to intercede.”

[42:8]  ³ tn Heb “I will lift up his face,” meaning, “I will regard him.”

[42:8]  ⁴ tn This clause is a result clause, using the negated infinitive construct.

[42:8]  ⁵ tn The word “folly” can also be taken in the sense of “disgrace.” If the latter is chosen, the word serves as the direct object. If the former, then it is an adverbial accusative.

[42:8]  ⁶ sn The difference between what they said and what Job said, therefore, has to do with truth. Job was honest, spoke the truth, poured out his complaints, but never blasphemed God. For his words God said he told the truth. He did so with incomplete understanding, and with all the impatience and frustration one might expect. Now the friends, however, did not tell what was right about God. They were not honest; rather, they were self-righteous and condescending. They were saying what they thought should be said, but it was wrong.

[42:9]  ⁷ tn The expression “had respect for Job” means God answered his prayer.

[20:3]  ⁸ tn Or “remember.” For other examples of the verb זָכַר (zakhar) carrying the nuance “take notice of,” see Pss 8:4 and 9:12.

[20:3]  ⁹ tc Heb “consider as fat.” The verbal form should probably be emended to יְדַשְּׁנֶהָ (yÿdashÿneha), the final he (ה) being understood as a third feminine singular pronominal suffix referring back to the feminine noun “burnt sacrifice.”

[20:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “may he give to you according to your heart.” This probably refers to the king’s prayer for protection and victory in battle. See vv. 5-6.

[20:4]  ¹¹ sn May he bring all your plans to pass. This probably refers to the king’s strategy for battle.

[60:7]  ¹² tn Heb “will serve you,” i.e., be available as sacrifices (see the next line). Another option is to understood these “rams” as symbolic of leaders who will be subject to the people of Zion. See v. 10.

[60:7]  ¹³ tc Heb “they will go up on acceptance [on] my altar.” Some have suggested that the preposition עַל (’al) is dittographic (note the preceding יַעֲלוּ [ya’alu]). Consequently, the form should be emended to לְרָצוֹן (lÿratson, “acceptably”; see BDB 953 s.v. רָצוֹן). However, the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has both לרצון followed by the preposition על, which would argue against deleted the preposition. As the above translation seeks to demonstrate, the preposition עַל (’al) indicates a norm (“in accordance with acceptance” or “acceptably”; IBHS 218 §11.2.13e, n. 111) and the “altar” functions as an objective accusative with a verb of motion (cf. Gen 49:4; Lev 2:2; Num 13:17; J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah [NICOT], 2:534, n. 14).

[20:40]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “all of it.”

[8:13]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “does not accept them”; the referent (their sacrifices) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[15:30]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:13.

[15:31]  ¹⁷ tn Verses 30-31 form one long sentence in the Greek but have been divided into two distinct sentences for clarity in English.

[15:1]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “and not please ourselves.” NT Greek negatives used in contrast like this are often not absolute, but relative: “not so much one as the other.”

[2:1]  ¹⁹ sn Rom 2:1-29 presents unusual difficulties for the interpreter. There have been several major approaches to the chapter and the group(s) it refers to: (1) Rom 2:14 refers to Gentile Christians, not Gentiles who obey the Jewish law. (2) Paul in Rom 2 is presenting a hypothetical viewpoint: If anyone could obey the law, that person would be justified, but no one can. (3) The reference to “the ones who do the law” in 2:13 are those who “do” the law in the right way, on the basis of faith, not according to Jewish legalism. (4) Rom 2:13 only speaks about Christians being judged in the future, along with such texts as Rom 14:10 and 2 Cor 5:10. (5) Paul’s material in Rom 2 is drawn heavily from Diaspora Judaism, so that the treatment of the law presented here cannot be harmonized with other things Paul says about the law elsewhere (E. P. Sanders, Paul, the Law, and the Jewish People, 123); another who sees Rom 2 as an example of Paul’s inconsistency in his treatment of the law is H. Räisänen, Paul and the Law [WUNT], 101-9. (6) The list of blessings and curses in Deut 27–30 provide the background for Rom 2; the Gentiles of 2:14 are Gentile Christians, but the condemnation of Jews in 2:17-24 addresses the failure of Jews as a nation to keep the law as a whole (A. Ito, “Romans 2: A Deuteronomistic Reading,” JSNT 59 [1995]: 21-37).

[2:1]  ²⁰ tn Some interpreters (e.g., C. K. Barrett, Romans [HNTC], 43) connect the inferential Διό (dio, “therefore”) with 1:32a, treating 1:32b as a parenthetical comment by Paul.

[2:1]  ²¹ tn That is, “you have nothing to say in your own defense” (so translated by TCNT).

[2:1]  ²² tn Grk “O man.”

[2:1]  ²³ tn Grk “Therefore, you are without excuse, O man, everyone [of you] who judges.”

[2:1]  ²⁴ tn Grk “in/by (that) which.”

[2:2]  ²⁵ tn Or “based on truth.”

[2:1]  ²⁶ sn Rom 2:1-29 presents unusual difficulties for the interpreter. There have been several major approaches to the chapter and the group(s) it refers to: (1) Rom 2:14 refers to Gentile Christians, not Gentiles who obey the Jewish law. (2) Paul in Rom 2 is presenting a hypothetical viewpoint: If anyone could obey the law, that person would be justified, but no one can. (3) The reference to “the ones who do the law” in 2:13 are those who “do” the law in the right way, on the basis of faith, not according to Jewish legalism. (4) Rom 2:13 only speaks about Christians being judged in the future, along with such texts as Rom 14:10 and 2 Cor 5:10. (5) Paul’s material in Rom 2 is drawn heavily from Diaspora Judaism, so that the treatment of the law presented here cannot be harmonized with other things Paul says about the law elsewhere (E. P. Sanders, Paul, the Law, and the Jewish People, 123); another who sees Rom 2 as an example of Paul’s inconsistency in his treatment of the law is H. Räisänen, Paul and the Law [WUNT], 101-9. (6) The list of blessings and curses in Deut 27–30 provide the background for Rom 2; the Gentiles of 2:14 are Gentile Christians, but the condemnation of Jews in 2:17-24 addresses the failure of Jews as a nation to keep the law as a whole (A. Ito, “Romans 2: A Deuteronomistic Reading,” JSNT 59 [1995]: 21-37).

[2:1]  ²⁷ tn Some interpreters (e.g., C. K. Barrett, Romans [HNTC], 43) connect the inferential Διό (dio, “therefore”) with 1:32a, treating 1:32b as a parenthetical comment by Paul.

[2:1]  ²⁸ tn That is, “you have nothing to say in your own defense” (so translated by TCNT).

[2:1]  ²⁹ tn Grk “O man.”

[2:1]  ³⁰ tn Grk “Therefore, you are without excuse, O man, everyone [of you] who judges.”

[2:1]  ³¹ tn Grk “in/by (that) which.”

[2:5]  ³² tn Grk “hardness.” Concerning this imagery, see Jer 4:4; Ezek 3:7; 1 En. 16:3.

[2:5]  ³³ tn Grk “in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.”