Psalms 13:3

13:3 Look at me! ¹  Answer me, O Lord my God!

Revive me, ²  or else I will die! ³ 

Psalms 119:98-100

119:98 Your commandments ⁴  make me wiser than my enemies,

for I am always aware of them.

119:99 I have more insight than all my teachers,

for I meditate on your rules.

119:100 I am more discerning than those older than I,

for I observe your precepts.

Psalms 119:105

נ (Nun)

119:105 Your word ⁵  is a lamp to walk by,

and a light to illumine my path. ⁶ 

Psalms 119:130

119:130 Your instructions are a doorway through which light shines. ⁷ 

They give ⁸  insight to the untrained. ⁹ 

Proverbs 2:6

2:6 For ¹⁰  the Lord gives ¹¹  wisdom,

and from his mouth ¹²  comes ¹³  knowledge and understanding.

Proverbs 6:23

6:23 For the commandments ¹⁴  are like ¹⁵  a lamp, ¹⁶ 

instruction is like a light,

and rebukes of discipline are like ¹⁷  the road leading to life, ¹⁸ 

Romans 2:17-20

The Condemnation of the Jew

2:17 But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law ¹⁹  and boast of your relationship to God ²⁰  2:18 and know his will ²¹  and approve the superior things because you receive instruction from the law, ²²  2:19 and if you are convinced ²³  that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, 2:20 an educator of the senseless, a teacher of little children, because you have in the law the essential features of knowledge and of the truth –

Romans 3:20

3:20 For no one is declared righteous before him ²⁴  by the works of the law, ²⁵  for through the law comes ²⁶  the knowledge of sin.

Romans 7:7

7:7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! Certainly, I ²⁷  would not have known sin except through the law. For indeed I would not have known what it means to desire something belonging to someone else ²⁸  if the law had not said, “Do not covet.” ²⁹ 

Galatians 2:19

2:19 For through the law I died to the law so that I may live to God.

Galatians 3:10-13

3:10 For all who ³⁰  rely on doing the works of the law are under a curse, because it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not keep on doing everything written in the book of the law.” ³¹  3:11 Now it is clear no one is justified before God by the law, because the righteous one will live by faith. ³²  3:12 But the law is not based on faith, ³³  but the one who does the works of the law ³⁴  will live by them. ³⁵  3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming ³⁶  a curse for us (because it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”) ³⁷ 

Galatians 3:21

3:21 Is the law therefore opposed to the promises of God? ³⁸  Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that was able to give life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. ³⁹ 

[13:3]  ¹ tn Heb “see.”

[13:3]  ² tn Heb “Give light [to] my eyes.” The Hiphil of אוּר (’ur), when used elsewhere with “eyes” as object, refers to the law of God giving moral enlightenment (Ps 19:8), to God the creator giving literal eyesight to all people (Prov 29:13), and to God giving encouragement to his people (Ezra 9:8). Here the psalmist pictures himself as being on the verge of death. His eyes are falling shut and, if God does not intervene soon, he will “fall asleep” for good.

[13:3]  ³ tn Heb “or else I will sleep [in?] the death.” Perhaps the statement is elliptical, “I will sleep [the sleep] of death,” or “I will sleep [with the sleepers in] death.”

[119:98]  ⁴ tn The plural form needs to be revocalized as a singular in order to agree with the preceding singular verb and the singular pronoun in the next line. The Lord’s “command” refers here to the law (see Ps 19:8).

[119:105]  ⁵ tn Many medieval Hebrew mss read the plural (“words”).

[119:105]  ⁶ tn Heb “[is] a lamp for my foot and a light for my path.”

[119:130]  ⁷ tn Heb “the doorway of your words gives light.” God’s “words” refer here to the instructions in his law (see vv. 9, 57).

[119:130]  ⁸ tn Heb “it [i.e., the doorway] gives.”

[119:130]  ⁹ tn Or “the [morally] naive,” that is, the one who is young and still in the process of learning right from wrong and distinguishing wisdom from folly. See Pss 19:7; 116:6.

[2:6]  ¹⁰ tn This is a causal clause. The reason one must fear and know the Lord is that he is the source of true, effectual wisdom.

[2:6]  ¹¹ tn The verb is an imperfect tense which probably functions as a habitual imperfect describing a universal truth in the past, present and future.

[2:6]  ¹² sn This expression is an anthropomorphism; it indicates that the Lord is the immediate source or author of the wisdom. It is worth noting that in the incarnation many of these “anthropomorphisms” become literal in the person of the Logos, the Word, Jesus, who reveals the Father.

[2:6]  ¹³ tn The verb “comes” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity and smoothness.

[6:23]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the commandment” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV).

[6:23]  ¹⁵ tn The comparative “like” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is implied by the metaphor; it is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity.

[6:23]  ¹⁶ sn The terms “lamp,” “light,” and “way” are all metaphors. The positive teachings and commandments will illumine or reveal to the disciple the way to life; the disciplinary correctives will provide guidance into fullness of life.

[6:23]  ¹⁷ tn The comparative “like” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is implied by the metaphor; it is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity.

[6:23]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “the way of life” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV); NIV, NLT “the way to life.” The noun “life” is a genitive following the construct “way.” It could be an attributive genitive modifying the kind of way/course of life that instruction provides, but it could also be objective in that the course of life followed would produce and lead to life.

[2:17]  ¹⁹ sn The law refers to the Mosaic law, described mainly in the OT books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

[2:17]  ²⁰ tn Grk “boast in God.” This may be an allusion to Jer 9:24.

[2:18]  ²¹ tn Grk “the will.”

[2:18]  ²² tn Grk “because of being instructed out of the law.”

[2:19]  ²³ tn This verb is parallel to the verbs in vv. 17-18a, so it shares the conditional meaning even though the word “if” is not repeated.

[3:20]  ²⁴ sn An allusion to Ps 143:2.

[3:20]  ²⁵ tn Grk “because by the works of the law no flesh is justified before him.” Some recent scholars have understood the phrase ἒργα νόμου (erga nomou, “works of the law”) to refer not to obedience to the Mosaic law generally, but specifically to portions of the law that pertain to things like circumcision and dietary laws which set the Jewish people apart from the other nations (e.g., J. D. G. Dunn, Romans [WBC], 1:155). Other interpreters, like C. E. B. Cranfield (“‘The Works of the Law’ in the Epistle to the Romans,” JSNT 43 [1991]: 89-101) reject this narrow interpretation for a number of reasons, among which the most important are: (1) The second half of v. 20, “for through the law comes the knowledge of sin,” is hard to explain if the phrase “works of the law” is understood in a restricted sense; (2) the plural phrase “works of the law” would have to be understood in a different sense from the singular phrase “the work of the law” in 2:15; (3) similar phrases involving the law in Romans (2:13, 14; 2:25, 26, 27; 7:25; 8:4; and 13:8) which are naturally related to the phrase “works of the law” cannot be taken to refer to circumcision (in fact, in 2:25 circumcision is explicitly contrasted with keeping the law). Those interpreters who reject the “narrow” interpretation of “works of the law” understand the phrase to refer to obedience to the Mosaic law in general.

[3:20]  ²⁶ tn Grk “is.”

[7:7]  ²⁷ sn Romans 7:7-25. There has been an enormous debate over the significance of the first person singular pronouns (“I”) in this passage and how to understand their referent. Did Paul intend (1) a reference to himself and other Christians too; (2) a reference to his own pre-Christian experience as a Jew, struggling with the law and sin (and thus addressing his fellow countrymen as Jews); or (3) a reference to himself as a child of Adam, reflecting the experience of Adam that is shared by both Jews and Gentiles alike (i.e., all people everywhere)? Good arguments can be assembled for each of these views, and each has problems dealing with specific statements in the passage. The classic argument against an autobiographical interpretation was made by W. G. Kümmel, Römer 7 und die Bekehrung des Paulus. A good case for seeing at least an autobiographical element in the chapter has been made by G. Theissen, Psychologische Aspekte paulinischer Theologie [FRLANT], 181-268. One major point that seems to favor some sort of an autobiographical reading of these verses is the lack of any mention of the Holy Spirit for empowerment in the struggle described in Rom 7:7-25. The Spirit is mentioned beginning in 8:1 as the solution to the problem of the struggle with sin (8:4-6, 9).

[7:7]  ²⁸ tn Grk “I would not have known covetousness.”

[7:7]  ²⁹ sn A quotation from Exod 20:17 and Deut 5:21.

[3:10]  ³⁰ tn Grk “For as many as.”

[3:10]  ³¹ tn Grk “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all the things written in the book of the law, to do them.”

[3:11]  ³² tn Or “The one who is righteous by faith will live” (a quotation from Hab 2:4).

[3:12]  ³³ tn Grk “is not from faith.”

[3:12]  ³⁴ tn Grk “who does these things”; the referent (the works of the law, see 3:5) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:12]  ³⁵ sn A quotation from Lev 18:5. The phrase the works of the law is an editorial expansion on the Greek text (see previous note); it has been left as normal typeface to indicate it is not part of the OT text.

[3:13]  ³⁶ tn Grk “having become”; the participle γενόμενος (genomenos) has been taken instrumentally.

[3:13]  ³⁷ sn A quotation from Deut 21:23. By figurative extension the Greek word translated tree (ζύλον, zulon) can also be used to refer to a cross (L&N 6.28), the Roman instrument of execution.

[3:21]  ³⁸ tc The reading τοῦ θεοῦ (tou qeou, “of God”) is well attested in א A C D (F G read θεοῦ without the article) Ψ 0278 33 1739 1881 Ï lat sy co. However, Ì⁴⁶ B d Ambst lack the words. Ì⁴⁶ and B perhaps should not to be given as much weight as they normally are, since the combination of these two witnesses often produces a secondary shorter reading against all others. In addition, one might expect that if the shorter reading were original other variants would have crept into the textual tradition early on. But 104 (a.d. 1087) virtually stands alone with the variant τοῦ Χριστοῦ (tou Cristou, “of Christ”). Nevertheless, if τοῦ θεοῦ were not part of the original text, it is the kind of variant that would be expected to show up early and often, especially in light of Paul’s usage elsewhere (Rom 4:20; 2 Cor 1:20). A slight preference should be given to the τοῦ θεοῦ over the omission. NA²⁷ rightly places the words in brackets, indicating doubts as to their authenticity.

[3:21]  ³⁹ tn Or “have been based on the law.”