Genesis 18:21

18:21 that I must go down ¹  and see if they are as wicked as the outcry suggests. ²  If not, ³  I want to know.”

Genesis 22:12

22:12 “Do not harm the boy!” ⁴  the angel said. ⁵  “Do not do anything to him, for now I know ⁶  that you fear ⁷  God because you did not withhold your son, your only son, from me.”

Deuteronomy 8:2

8:2 Remember the whole way by which he ⁸  has brought you these forty years through the desert ⁹  so that he might, by humbling you, test you to see if you have it within you to keep his commandments or not.

Psalms 139:23

139:23 Examine me, and probe my thoughts! ¹⁰ 

Test me, and know my concerns! ¹¹ 

¹ tn The cohortative indicates the Lord’s resolve.

² tn Heb “[if] according to the outcry that has come to me they have done completely.” Even the Lord, who is well aware of the human capacity to sin, finds it hard to believe that anyone could be as bad as the “outcry” against Sodom and Gomorrah suggests.

³ sn The short phrase if not provides a ray of hope and inspires Abraham’s intercession.

⁴ tn Heb “Do not extend your hand toward the boy.”

⁵ tn Heb “and he said, ‘Do not extend…’”; the referent (the angel) has been specified in the context for clarity. The order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.

⁶ sn For now I know. The test was designed to see if Abraham would be obedient (see v. 1).

⁷ sn In this context fear refers by metonymy to obedience that grows from faith.

⁸ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.

⁹ tn Or “wilderness” (so KJV, NRSV, NLT); likewise in v. 15.

¹⁰ tn Heb “and know my heart.”

¹¹ tn The Hebrew noun שַׂרְעַפַּי (sar’apay, “concerns”) is used of “worries” in Ps 94:19.