20:6 Then in the dream God replied to him, “Yes, I know that you have done this with a clear conscience. 1 That is why I have kept you 2 from sinning against me and why 3 I did not allow you to touch her.
19:21 Have pity on me, my friends, have pity on me,
for the hand of God has struck me.
105:15 saying, 4 “Don’t touch my chosen 5 ones!
Don’t harm my prophets!”
6:29 So it is with 6 the one who has sex with 7 his neighbor’s wife;
no one 8 who touches 9 her will escape 10 punishment. 11
6:1 My child, 13 if you have made a pledge 14 for your neighbor,
and 15 have become a guarantor 16 for a stranger, 17
1:1 From Paul, 18 an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
1:1 From Paul, 19 an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
1:18 He is the head of the body, the church, as well as the beginning, the firstborn 20 from among the dead, so that he himself may become first in all things. 21
1 tn Heb “with the integrity of your heart.”
2 tn Heb “and I, even I, kept you.”
3 tn Heb “therefore.”
4 tn The word “saying” is supplied in the translation for clarification and for stylistic reasons.
5 tn Heb “anointed.”
6 tn Heb “thus is the one.”
7 tn Heb “who goes in to” (so NAB, NASB). The Hebrew verb בּוֹא (bo’, “to go in; to enter”) is used throughout scripture as a euphemism for the act of sexual intercourse. Cf. NIV, NRSV, NLT “who sleeps with”; NCV “have sexual relations with.”
8 tn Heb “anyone who touches her will not.”
9 sn The verb “touches” is intended here to be a euphemism for illegal sexual contact (e.g., Gen 20:6).
10 tn Heb “will be exempt from”; NASB, NLT “will not go unpunished.”
11 tn The verb is יִנָּקֶה (yinnaqeh), the Niphal imperfect from נָקָה (naqah, “to be empty; to be clean”). From it we get the adjectives “clean,” “free from guilt,” “innocent.” The Niphal has the meanings (1) “to be cleaned out” (of a plundered city; e.g., Isa 3:26), (2) “to be clean; to be free from guilt; to be innocent” (Ps 19:14), (3) “to be free; to be exempt from punishment” [here], and (4) “to be free; to be exempt from obligation” (Gen 24:8).
12 sn The chapter advises release from foolish indebtedness (1-5), admonishes avoiding laziness (6-11), warns of the danger of poverty (9-11) and deviousness (12-15), lists conduct that the
13 tn Heb “my son” (likewise in vv. 3, 20).
14 sn It was fairly common for people to put up some kind of financial security for someone else, that is, to underwrite another’s debts. But the pledge in view here was foolish because the debtor was a neighbor who was not well known (זָר, zar), perhaps a misfit in the community. The one who pledged security for this one was simply gullible.
15 tn The conjunction “and” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for the sake of smoothness.
16 tn Heb “struck your hands”; NIV “have struck hands in pledge”; NASB “have given a pledge.” The guarantee of a pledge was signaled by a handshake (e.g., 11:15; 17:18; 22:26).
17 tn Heb “stranger.” The term זוּר (zur, “stranger”) probably refers to a neighbor who was not well-known. Alternatively, it could describe a person who is living outside the norms of convention, a moral misfit in the community. In any case, this “stranger” is a high risk in any financial arrangement.
18 tn Grk “Paul.” The word “from” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.
19 tn Grk “Paul.” The word “from” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.
20 tn See the note on the term “firstborn” in 1:15. Here the reference to Jesus as the “firstborn from among the dead” seems to be arguing for a chronological priority, i.e., Jesus was the first to rise from the dead.
21 tn Grk “in order that he may become in all things, himself, first.”