Job 40:2

40:2 “Will the one who contends ¹  with the Almighty correct him? ² 

Let the person who accuses God give him an answer!”

Deuteronomy 29:29

29:29 Secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those that are revealed belong to us and our descendants ³  forever, so that we might obey all the words of this law.

Psalms 62:11

62:11 God has declared one principle;

two principles I have heard: ⁴ 

God is strong, ⁵ 

Isaiah 46:10

46:10 who announces the end from the beginning

and reveals beforehand ⁶  what has not yet occurred,

who says, ‘My plan will be realized,

I will accomplish what I desire,’

Daniel 4:35

4:35 All the inhabitants of the earth are regarded as nothing. ⁷ 

He does as he wishes with the army of heaven

and with those who inhabit the earth.

No one slaps ⁸  his hand

and says to him, ‘What have you done?’

Matthew 20:15

20:15 Am I not ⁹  permitted to do what I want with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ ¹⁰ 

Acts 1:7

1:7 He told them, “You are not permitted to know ¹¹  the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.

Romans 11:34

11:34 For who has known the mind of the Lord,

or who has been his counselor? ¹² 

¹ tn The form רֹב (rov) is the infinitive absolute from the verb רִיב (riv, “contend”). Dhorme wishes to repoint it to make it the active participle, the “one who argues with the Almighty.”

² tn The verb יִסּוֹר (yissor) is found only here, but comes from a common root meaning “to correct; to reprove.” Several suggestions have been made to improve on the MT. Dhorme read it יָסוּר (yasur) in the sense of “to turn aside; to yield.” Ehrlich read this emendation as “to come to an end.” But the MT could be read as “to correct; to instruct.”

³ tn Heb “sons” (so NASB); KJV, ASV, NIV, NRSV “children.”

⁴ tn Heb “one God spoke, two which I heard.” This is a numerical saying utilizing the “x” followed by “x + 1” pattern to facilitate poetic parallelism. (See W. M. W. Roth, Numerical Sayings in the Old Testament [VTSup], 55-56.) As is typical in such sayings, a list corresponding to the second number (in this case “two”) follows. Another option is to translate, “God has spoken once, twice [he has spoken] that which I have heard.” The terms אַחַת (’akhat, “one; once”) and שְׁתַּיִם (shÿtayim, “two; twice”) are also juxtaposed in 2 Kgs 6:10 (where they refer to an action that was done more than “once or twice”) and in Job 33:14 (where they refer to God speaking “one way” and then in “another manner”).

⁵ tn Heb “that strength [belongs] to God.”

⁶ tn Or “from long ago”; KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV “from ancient times.”

⁷ tc The present translation reads כְּלָא (kÿla’), with many medieval Hebrew MSS, rather than כְּלָה (kÿlah) of BHS.

⁸ tn Aram “strikes against.”

⁹ tc ‡ Before οὐκ (ouk, “[am I] not”) a number of significant witnesses read ἤ (h, “or”; e.g., א C W 085 Ë^1,13 33 and most others). Although in later Greek the οι in σοι (oi in soi) – the last word of v. 14 – would have been pronounced like ἤ, since ἤ is lacking in early mss (B D; among later witnesses, note L Z Θ 700) and since mss were probably copied predominantly by sight rather than by sound, even into the later centuries, the omission of ἤ cannot be accounted for as easily. Thus the shorter reading is most likely original. NA²⁷ includes the word in brackets, indicating doubts as to its authenticity.

¹⁰ tn Grk “Is your eye evil because I am good?”

¹¹ tn Grk “It is not for you to know.”

¹² sn A quotation from Isa 40:13.