15:6 Your own mouth condemns 4 you, not I;
your own lips testify against 5 you.
6:2 if 6 you have been ensnared 7 by the words you have uttered, 8
and have been caught by the words you have spoken,
3:19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under 13 the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world may be held accountable to God.
1 tn Heb “after his falling”; NAB “could not survive his wound”; CEV “was too badly wounded to live much longer.”
2 tc The MT lacks the definite article, but this is likely due to textual corruption. It is preferable to read the alef (א) of אֶצְעָדָה (’ets’adah) as a ה (he) giving הַצְּעָדָה (hatsÿ’adah). There is no reason to think that the soldier confiscated from Saul’s dead body only one of two or more bracelets that he was wearing (cf. NLT “one of his bracelets”).
3 sn The claims that the soldier is making here seem to contradict the story of Saul’s death as presented in 1 Sam 31:3-5. In that passage it appears that Saul took his own life, not that he was slain by a passerby who happened on the scene. Some scholars account for the discrepancy by supposing that conflicting accounts have been brought together in the MT. However, it is likely that the young man is here fabricating the account in a self-serving way so as to gain favor with David, or so he supposes. He probably had come across Saul’s corpse, stolen the crown and bracelet from the body, and now hopes to curry favor with David by handing over to him these emblems of Saul’s royalty. But in so doing the Amalekite greatly miscalculated David’s response to this alleged participation in Saul’s death. The consequence of his lies will instead be his own death.
4 tn The Hiphil of this root means “declare wicked, guilty” (a declarative Hiphil), and so “condemns.”
5 tn The verb עָנָה (’anah) with the ל (lamed) preposition following it means “to testify against.” For Eliphaz, it is enough to listen to Job to condemn him.
6 tn The term “if” does not appear in this line but is implied by the parallelism. It is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity.
7 tn The verb יָקַשׁ (yaqash) means “to lay a bait; to lure; to lay snares.” In the Niphal it means “to be caught by bait; to be ensnared” – here in a business entanglement.
8 tn Heb “by the words of your mouth.” The same expression occurs at the end of the following line (cf. KJV, ASV, NASB). Many English versions vary the wording slightly, presumably for stylistic reasons, to avoid redundancy (e.g., NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).
9 tn Grk “He”; the referent (the nobleman of v. 12, now a king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
10 tn Grk “out of your own mouth” (an idiom).
11 tn Note the contrast between this slave, described as “wicked,” and the slave in v. 17, described as “good.”
12 tn Or “exacting,” “harsh,” “hard.”
13 tn Grk “in,” “in connection with.”