23:19 God is not a man, that he should lie,
nor a human being, 1 that he should change his mind.
Has he said, and will he not do it?
Or has he spoken, and will he not make it happen? 2
23:14 “Look, today I am about to die. 3 You know with all your heart and being 4 that not even one of all the faithful promises the Lord your God made to you is left unfulfilled; every one was realized – not one promise is unfulfilled! 5 23:15 But in the same way every faithful promise the Lord your God made to you has been realized, 6 it is just as certain, if you disobey, that the Lord will bring on you every judgment 7 until he destroys you from this good land which the Lord your God gave you.
19:7 The law of the Lord is perfect
and preserves one’s life. 8
The rules set down by the Lord 9 are reliable 10
and impart wisdom to the inexperienced. 11
40:8 The grass dries up,
the flowers wither,
but the decree of our God is forever reliable.” 12
1 tn Heb “son of man.”
2 tn The verb is the Hiphil of קוּם (qum, “to cause to rise; to make stand”). The meaning here is more of the sense of fulfilling the promises made.
3 tn Heb “go the way of all the earth.”
4 tn Or “soul.”
5 tn Heb “one word from all these words which the
6 tn Heb “and it will be as every good word which the
7 tn Heb “so the
8 tn Heb “[it] restores life.” Elsewhere the Hiphil of שׁוּב (shuv, “return”) when used with נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “life”) as object, means to “rescue or preserve one’s life” (Job 33:30; Ps 35:17) or to “revive one’s strength” (emotionally or physically; cf. Ruth 4:15; Lam 1:11, 16, 19). Here the point seems to be that the law preserves the life of the one who studies it by making known God’s will. Those who know God’s will know how to please him and can avoid offending him. See v. 11a.
9 tn Traditionally, “the testimony of the
10 tn God’s covenant contains a clear, reliable witness to his moral character and demands.
11 tn Or “the [morally] naive,” that is, the one who is young and still in the process of learning right from wrong and distinguishing wisdom from folly.
12 tn Heb “but the word of our God stands forever.” In this context the divine “word” specifically refers to his decreed promise assuring Jerusalem that her suffering is over and his glorious return imminent (vv. 1-5).
13 tc BHS suggests אֶתְכֶם (’etkhem, “you”) for the MT אֲבֹתֵיכֶם (’avotekhem, “your fathers”) to harmonize with v. 4. In v. 4 the ancestors would not turn but in v. 6 they appear to have done so. The subject in v. 6, however, is to be construed as Zechariah’s own listeners.
14 tn Heb “they turned” (so ASV). Many English versions have “they repented” here; cf. CEV “they turned back to me.”
15 sn The words that Jesus predicts here will never pass away. They are more stable and lasting than creation itself. For this kind of image, see Isa 40:8; 55:10-11.
16 sn These two small copper coins were lepta (sing. “lepton”), the smallest and least valuable coins in circulation in Palestine, worth one-half of a quadrans or 1/128 of a denarius, or about six minutes of an average daily wage. This was next to nothing in value.
17 tn Grk “And suddenly.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.
18 tn Grk “a multitude of the armies of heaven.”
19 tn Grk “before eternal ages.”