Psalms 1:6

1:6 Certainly ¹  the Lord guards the way of the godly, ² 

but the way of the wicked ends in destruction. ³ 

Matthew 7:23

7:23 Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you. Go away from me, you lawbreakers!’ ⁴ 

John 10:27

10:27 My sheep listen to my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

Galatians 4:9

4:9 But now that you have come to know God (or rather to be known by God), how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless ⁵  basic forces? ⁶  Do you want to be enslaved to them all over again? ⁷ 

Galatians 4:2

4:2 But he is under guardians ⁸  and managers until the date set by his ⁹  father.

Galatians 2:19

2:19 For through the law I died to the law so that I may live to God.

¹ tn The translation understands כי as asseverative. Another option is to translate “for,” understanding v. 6 as a theological explanation for vv. 3-5, which contrasts the respective destinies of the godly and the wicked.

² tn Heb “the Lord knows the way of the righteous.” To “know a way” means, in its most basic sense, “to recognize/acknowledge a pathway, route, or prescribed way of life” (see Josh 3:4; Job 21:14; Ps 67:2; Isa 42:16; Jer 5:4-5). Here it could refer to the Lord recognizing the behavior of the godly and, by metonymy, rewarding their godliness with security and prosperity (resulting in the translation, “the Lord rewards the behavior of the godly”). The present translation takes the verb in the sense of “mark out” (cf. Job 23:10), which metonymically could mean “watch over, protect, guard.” In this case the “way of the godly” is not their behavior, but their course of life or destiny; a translation reflecting this would be “the Lord protects the lives of the godly” or “the Lord watches over the destiny of the godly” (cf. NEB, NIV, NRSV). The Hebrew active participle יוֹדֵעַ (yodea’, “knows”) has here a characteristic durative force.

³ tn Heb “but the way of the wicked perishes.” The “way of the wicked” may refer to their course of life (Ps 146:9; Prov 4:19; Jer 12:1) or their sinful behavior (Prov 12:26; 15:9). The Hebrew imperfect verbal form probably describes here what typically happens, though one could take the form as indicating what will happen (“will perish”).

⁴ tn Grk “workers of lawlessness.”

⁵ tn Or “useless.” See L&N 65.16.

⁶ tn See the note on the phrase “basic forces” in 4:3.

⁷ tn Grk “basic forces, to which you want to be enslaved…” Verse 9 is a single sentence in the Greek text, but has been divided into two in the translation because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence.

⁸ tn The Greek term translated “guardians” here is ἐπίτροπος (epitropo"), whose semantic domain overlaps with that of παιδαγωγός (paidagwgo") according to L&N 36.5.

⁹ tn Grk “the,” but the Greek article is used here as a possessive pronoun (ExSyn 215).