Genesis 3:8

The Judgment Oracles of God at the Fall

3:8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God moving about ¹  in the orchard at the breezy time ²  of the day, and they hid ³  from the Lord God among the trees of the orchard.

Genesis 4:16

4:16 So Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and lived in the land of Nod, ⁴  east of Eden.

Job 21:14

21:14 So they say to God, ‘Turn away from us!

We do not want to ⁵  know your ways. ⁶ 

Job 22:17

22:17 They were saying to God, ‘Turn away from us,’

and ‘What can the Almighty do to us?’ ⁷ 

Psalms 16:11

16:11 You lead me in ⁸  the path of life; ⁹ 

I experience absolute joy in your presence; ¹⁰ 

you always give me sheer delight. ¹¹ 

Psalms 51:11

51:11 Do not reject me! ¹² 

Do not take your Holy Spirit ¹³  away from me! ¹⁴ 

Matthew 7:23

7:23 Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you. Go away from me, you lawbreakers!’ ¹⁵ 

Matthew 22:13

22:13 Then the king said to his attendants, ‘Tie him up hand and foot and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth!’

Matthew 25:41

25:41 “Then he will say ¹⁶  to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire that has been prepared for the devil and his angels!

Luke 13:27

13:27 But ¹⁷  he will reply, ¹⁸  ‘I don’t know where you come from! ¹⁹  Go away from me, all you evildoers!’ ²⁰ 

¹ tn The Hitpael participle of הָלָךְ (halakh, “to walk, to go”) here has an iterative sense, “moving” or “going about.” While a translation of “walking about” is possible, it assumes a theophany, the presence of the Lord God in a human form. This is more than the text asserts.

² tn The expression is traditionally rendered “cool of the day,” because the Hebrew word רוּחַ (ruakh) can mean “wind.” U. Cassuto (Genesis: From Adam to Noah, 152-54) concludes after lengthy discussion that the expression refers to afternoon when it became hot and the sun was beginning to decline. J. J. Niehaus (God at Sinai [SOTBT], 155-57) offers a different interpretation of the phrase, relating יוֹם (yom, usually understood as “day”) to an Akkadian cognate umu (“storm”) and translates the phrase “in the wind of the storm.” If Niehaus is correct, then God is not pictured as taking an afternoon stroll through the orchard, but as coming in a powerful windstorm to confront the man and woman with their rebellion. In this case קוֹל יְהוָה (qol yÿhvah, “sound of the Lord”) may refer to God’s thunderous roar, which typically accompanies his appearance in the storm to do battle or render judgment (e.g., see Ps 29).

³ tn The verb used here is the Hitpael, giving the reflexive idea (“they hid themselves”). In v. 10, when Adam answers the Lord, the Niphal form is used with the same sense: “I hid.”

⁴ sn The name Nod means “wandering” in Hebrew (see vv. 12, 14).

⁵ tn The absence of the preposition before the complement adds greater vividness to the statement: “and knowing your ways – we do not desire.”

⁶ sn Contrast Ps 25:4, which affirms that walking in God’s ways means to obey God’s will – the Torah.

⁷ tn The form in the text is “to them.” The LXX and the Syriac versions have “to us.”

⁸ tn Heb “cause me to know”; or “cause me to experience.”

⁹ tn This is a metaphorical way of saying, “you preserve my life.” The phrase “path of life” stands in contrast to death/Sheol in Prov 2:18-19; 5:5-6; 15:24.

¹⁰ tn Heb “abundance of joy [is] with your face.” The plural form of the noun שִׂמְחָה (simkhah, “joy”) occurs only here and in Ps 45:15. It may emphasize the degree of joy experienced.

¹¹ tn Heb “delight [is] in your right hand forever.” The plural form of the adjective נָעִים (na’im, “pleasant, delightful”) may here emphasize the degree of delight experienced (see Job 36:11).

¹² tn Heb “do not cast me away from before you.”

¹³ sn Your Holy Spirit. The personal Spirit of God is mentioned frequently in the OT, but only here and in Isa 63:10-11 is he called “your/his Holy Spirit.”

¹⁴ sn Do not take…away. The psalmist expresses his fear that, due to his sin, God will take away the Holy Spirit from him. NT believers enjoy the permanent gift of the Holy Spirit and need not make such a request nor fear such a consequence. However, in the OT God’s Spirit empowered certain individuals for special tasks and only temporarily resided in them. For example, when God rejected Saul as king and chose David to replace him, the divine Spirit left Saul and came upon David (1 Sam 16:13-14).

¹⁵ tn Grk “workers of lawlessness.”

¹⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

¹⁷ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.

¹⁸ tc Most mss (Ì^75* A D L W Θ Ψ 070 Ë^1,13 Ï) have ἐρεῖ λέγω ὑμῖν (erei legw Jumin; “he will say, ‘I say to you’”) here, while some have only ἐρεῖ ὑμῖν (“he will say to you” in א 579 pc lat sa) or simply ἐρεῖ (“he will say” in 1195 pc). The variety of readings seems to have arisen from the somewhat unusual wording of the original, ἐρεῖ λέγων ὑμῖν (erei legwn Jumin; “he will say, saying to you” found in Ì^75c B 892 pc). Given the indicative λέγω, it is difficult to explain how the other readings would have arisen. But if the participle λέγων were original, the other readings can more easily be explained as arising from it. Although the external evidence is significantly stronger in support of the indicative reading, the internal evidence is on the side of the participle.

¹⁹ sn The issue is not familiarity (with Jesus’ teaching) or even shared activity (eating and drinking with him), but knowing Jesus. Those who do not know him, he will not know where they come from (i.e., will not acknowledge) at the judgment.

²⁰ tn Grk “all you workers of iniquity.” The phrase resembles Ps 6:8.