22:22 Accept instruction 1 from his mouth
and store up his words 2 in your heart.
19:9 The commands to fear the Lord are right 3
and endure forever. 4
The judgments given by the Lord are trustworthy
and absolutely just. 5
19:10 They are of greater value 6 than gold,
than even a great amount of pure gold;
they bring greater delight 7 than honey,
than even the sweetest honey from a honeycomb.
119:11 In my heart I store up 8 your words, 9
so I might not sin against you.
119:103 Your words are sweeter
in my mouth than honey! 10
119:127 For this reason 11 I love your commands
more than gold, even purest gold.
15:16 As your words came to me I drank them in, 12
and they filled my heart with joy and happiness
because I belong to you. 13
4:1 Now when Jesus 17 knew that the Pharisees 18 had heard that he 19 was winning 20 and baptizing more disciples than John
1 tn The Hebrew word here is תּוֹרָה (torah), its only occurrence in the book of Job.
2 tc M. Dahood has “write his words” (“Metaphor in Job 22:22,” Bib 47 [1966]: 108-9).
3 tn Heb “the fear of the
4 tn Heb “[it] stands permanently.”
5 sn Trustworthy and absolutely just. The Lord’s commands accurately reflect God’s moral will for his people and are an expression of his just character.
6 tn Heb “more desirable.”
7 tn Heb “are sweeter.” God’s law is “sweet’ in the sense that, when obeyed, it brings a great reward (see v. 11b).
8 tn Or “hide.”
9 tn Heb “your word.” Some medieval Hebrew
10 tn Heb “How smooth they are to my palate, your word, more than honey to my mouth.” A few medieval Hebrew
11 tn “For this reason” connects logically with the statement made in v. 126. Because the judgment the psalmist fears (see vv. 119-120) is imminent, he remains loyal to God’s law.
12 sn Heb “Your words were found and I ate them.” This along with Ezek 2:8–3:3 is a poetic picture of inspiration. The prophet accepted them, assimilated them, and made them such a part of himself that he spoke with complete assurance what he knew were God’s words.
13 tn Heb “Your name is called upon me.”
14 sn The one who sent me refers to the Father.
15 tn Or “to accomplish.”
16 tn The substantival ἵνα (Jina) clause has been translated as an English infinitive clause.
17 tc Several early and important witnesses, along with the majority of later ones (Ì66c,75 A B C L Ws Ψ 083 Ë13 33 Ï sa), have κύριος (kurio", “Lord”) here instead of ᾿Ιησοῦς (Ihsou", “Jesus”). As significant as this external support is, the internal evidence seems to be on the side of ᾿Ιησοῦς. “Jesus” is mentioned two more times in the first two verses of chapter four in a way that is stylistically awkward (so much so that the translation has substituted the pronoun for the first one; see tn note below). This seems to be sufficient reason to motivate scribes to change the wording to κύριος. Further, the reading ᾿Ιησοῦς is not without decent support, though admittedly not as strong as that for κύριος (Ì66* א D Θ 086 Ë1 565 1241 al lat bo). On the other hand, this Gospel speaks of Jesus as Lord in the evangelist’s narrative descriptions elsewhere only in 11:2; 20:18, 20; 21:12; and probably 6:23, preferring ᾿Ιησοῦς most of the time. This fact could be used to argue that scribes, acquainted with John’s style, changed κύριος to ᾿Ιησοῦς. But the immediate context generally is weighed more heavily than an author’s style. It is possible that neither word was in the original text and scribes supplied what they thought most appropriate (see TCGNT 176). But without ms evidence to this effect coupled with the harder reading ᾿Ιησοῦς, this conjecture must remain doubtful. All in all, it is best to regard ᾿Ιησοῦς as the original reading here.
18 sn See the note on Pharisees in 1:24.
19 tn Grk “Jesus”; the repetition of the proper name is somewhat redundant in English (see the beginning of the verse) and so the pronoun (“he”) has been substituted here.
20 tn Grk “was making.”
21 sn There is no clue to the identity of the bride and groom, but in all probability either relatives or friends of Jesus’ family were involved, since Jesus’ mother and both Jesus and his disciples were invited to the celebration. The attitude of Mary in approaching Jesus and asking him to do something when the wine ran out also suggests that familial obligations were involved.