Job 36:11

36:11 If they obey and serve him,

they live out their days in prosperity

and their years in pleasantness. ¹ 

Psalms 73:4

73:4 For they suffer no pain; ² 

their bodies ³  are strong and well-fed. ⁴ 

Matthew 24:38-39

24:38 For in those days before the flood, people ⁵  were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark. 24:39 And they knew nothing until the flood came and took them all away. ⁶  It will be the same at the coming of the Son of Man. ⁷ 

Luke 12:19-20

12:19 And I will say to myself, ⁸  “You have plenty of goods stored up for many years; relax, eat, drink, celebrate!”’ 12:20 But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life ⁹  will be demanded back from ¹⁰  you, but who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ ¹¹ 

Luke 17:28-29

17:28 Likewise, just as it was ¹²  in the days of Lot, people ¹³  were eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building; 17:29 but on the day Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. ¹⁴ 

¹ tc Some commentators delete this last line for metrical considerations. But there is no textual evidence for the deletion; it is simply the attempt by some to make the meter rigid.

² tn In Isa 58:6, the only other occurrence of this word in the OT, the term refers to “bonds” or “ropes.” In Ps 73:4 it is used metaphorically of pain and suffering that restricts one’s enjoyment of life.

³ tn Or “bellies.”

⁴ tc Or “fat.” The MT of v. 4 reads as follows: “for there are no pains at their death, and fat [is] their body.” Since a reference to the death of the wicked seems incongruous in the immediate context (note v. 5) and premature in the argument of the psalm (see vv. 18-20, 27), some prefer to emend the text by redividing it. The term לְמוֹתָם (lÿmotam,“at their death”) is changed to לָמוֹ תָּם (lamo tam, “[there are no pains] to them, strong [and fat are their bodies]”). The term תָּם (tam, “complete; sound”) is used of physical beauty in Song 5:2; 6:9. This emendation is the basis for the present translation. However, in defense of the MT (the traditional Hebrew text), one may point to an Aramaic inscription from Nerab which views a painful death as a curse and a nonpainful death in one’s old age as a sign of divine favor. See ANET 661.

⁵ tn Grk “they,” but in an indefinite sense, “people.”

⁶ sn Like the flood that came and took them all away, the coming judgment associated with the Son of Man will condemn many.

⁷ tn Grk “So also will be the coming of the Son of Man.”

⁸ tn Grk “to my soul,” which is repeated as a vocative in the following statement, but is left untranslated as redundant.

⁹ tn Grk “your soul,” but ψυχή (yuch) is frequently used of one’s physical life. It clearly has that meaning in this context.

¹⁰ tn Or “required back.” This term, ἀπαιτέω (apaitew), has an economic feel to it and is often used of a debt being called in for repayment (BDAG 96 s.v. 1).

¹¹ tn Grk “the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” The words “for yourself” are not in the Greek text, but are implied.

¹² tn Or “as it happened.”

¹³ tn Grk “they.” The plural in Greek is indefinite, referring to people in general.

¹⁴ sn And destroyed them all. The coming of the Son of Man will be like the judgment on Sodom, one of the most immoral places of the OT (Gen 19:16-17; Deut 32:32-33; Isa 1:10).