Genesis 4:9

4:9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” ¹  And he replied, “I don’t know! Am I my brother’s guardian?” ² 

Genesis 11:5

11:5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the people ³  had started ⁴  building.

Genesis 16:8

16:8 He said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?” She replied, “I’m running away from ⁵  my mistress, Sarai.”

Genesis 18:20-21

18:20 So the Lord said, “The outcry against ⁶  Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so blatant ⁷  18:21 that I must go down ⁸  and see if they are as wicked as the outcry suggests. ⁹  If not, ¹⁰  I want to know.”

Joshua 7:17-19

7:17 He then made the clans of Judah approach and the clan of the Zerahites was selected. He made the clan of the Zerahites approach and Zabdi ¹¹  was selected. ¹²  7:18 He then made Zabdi’s ¹³  family approach man by man ¹⁴  and Achan son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, from the tribe of Judah, was selected. 7:19 So Joshua said to Achan, “My son, honor ¹⁵  the Lord God of Israel and give him praise! Tell me what you did; don’t hide anything from me!”

Revelation 20:12-13

20:12 And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne. Then ¹⁶  books were opened, and another book was opened – the book of life. ¹⁷  So ¹⁸  the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to their deeds. ¹⁹  20:13 The ²⁰  sea gave up the dead that were in it, and Death ²¹  and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each one was judged according to his deeds.

¹ sn Where is Abel your brother? Again the Lord confronts a guilty sinner with a rhetorical question (see Gen 3:9-13), asking for an explanation of what has happened.

² tn Heb “The one guarding my brother [am] I?”

³ tn Heb “the sons of man.” The phrase is intended in this polemic to portray the builders as mere mortals, not the lesser deities that the Babylonians claimed built the city.

⁴ tn The Hebrew text simply has בָּנוּ (banu), but since v. 8 says they left off building the city, an ingressive idea (“had started building”) should be understood here.

⁵ tn Heb “from the presence of.”

⁶ tn Heb “the outcry of Sodom,” which apparently refers to the outcry for divine justice from those (unidentified persons) who observe its sinful ways.

⁷ tn Heb “heavy.”

⁸ tn The cohortative indicates the Lord’s resolve.

⁹ 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.

¹⁰ sn The short phrase if not provides a ray of hope and inspires Abraham’s intercession.

¹¹ tn See the note on “Zabdi” in 1 Chr 7:1.

¹² tn Heb “and he selected Zabdi.” The Lord is the apparent subject. The LXX supports reading a passive (Niphal) form here, as does the immediate context.

¹³ tn Heb “his”; the referent (Zabdi) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁴ tn Heb “by men.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “give glory to.”

¹⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.

¹⁷ tn Grk “another book was opened, which is of life.”

¹⁸ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of the books being opened.

¹⁹ tn Grk “from the things written in the books according to their works.”

²⁰ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

²¹ sn Here Death is personified (cf. 1 Cor 15:55).