Psalms 119:104

119:104 Your precepts give me discernment.

Therefore I hate all deceitful actions. ¹ 

Deuteronomy 4:6

4:6 So be sure to do them, because this will testify of your wise understanding ²  to the people who will learn of all these statutes and say, “Indeed, this great nation is a very wise ³  people.”

Deuteronomy 4:8

4:8 And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just ⁴  as this whole law ⁵  that I am about to share with ⁶  you today?

Deuteronomy 4:1

The Privileges of the Covenant

4:1 Now, Israel, pay attention to the statutes and ordinances ⁷  I am about to teach you, so that you might live and go on to enter and take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, ⁸  is giving you.

Deuteronomy 18:5

18:5 For the Lord your God has chosen them and their sons from all your tribes to stand ⁹  and serve in his name ¹⁰  permanently.

Deuteronomy 18:14

18:14 Those nations that you are about to dispossess listen to omen readers and diviners, but the Lord your God has not given you permission to do such things.

Deuteronomy 18:1

Provision for Priests and Levites

18:1 The Levitical priests ¹¹  – indeed, the entire tribe of Levi – will have no allotment or inheritance with Israel; they may eat the burnt offerings of the Lord and of his inheritance. ¹² 

Proverbs 2:6

2:6 For ¹³  the Lord gives ¹⁴  wisdom,

and from his mouth ¹⁵  comes ¹⁶  knowledge and understanding.

Colossians 3:16

3:16 Let the word of Christ ¹⁷  dwell in you richly, teaching and exhorting one another with all wisdom, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, all with grace ¹⁸  in your hearts to God.

¹ tn Heb “every false path.”

² tn Heb “it is wisdom and understanding.”

³ tn Heb “wise and understanding.”

⁴ tn Or “pure”; or “fair”; Heb “righteous.”

⁵ tn The Hebrew phrase הַתּוֹרָה הַזֹּאת (hattorah hazzo’t), in this context, refers specifically to the Book of Deuteronomy. That is, it is the collection of all the חֻקִּים (khuqqim, “statutes,” 4:1) and מִשְׁפָּטִים (mishpatim, “ordinances,” 4:1) to be included in the covenant text. In a full canonical sense, of course, it pertains to the entire Pentateuch or Torah.

⁶ tn Heb “place before.”

⁷ tn These technical Hebrew terms (חֻקִּים [khuqqim] and מִשְׁפָּטִים [mishpatim]) occur repeatedly throughout the Book of Deuteronomy to describe the covenant stipulations to which Israel had been called to subscribe (see, in this chapter alone, vv. 1, 5, 6, 8). The word חֻקִּים derives from the verb חֹק (khoq, “to inscribe; to carve”) and מִשְׁפָּטִים (mishpatim) from שָׁפַט (shafat, “to judge”). They are virtually synonymous and are used interchangeably in Deuteronomy.

⁸ tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 31, 37).

⁹ tc Smr and some Greek texts add “before the Lord your God” to bring the language into line with a formula found elsewhere (Deut 10:8; 2 Chr 29:11). This reading is not likely to be original, however.

¹⁰ tn Heb “the name of the Lord.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

¹¹ tn The MT places the terms “priests” and “Levites” in apposition, thus creating an epexegetical construction in which the second term qualifies the first, i.e., “Levitical priests.” This is a way of asserting their legitimacy as true priests. The Syriac renders “to the priest and to the Levite,” making a distinction between the two, but one that is out of place here.

¹² sn Of his inheritance. This is a figurative way of speaking of the produce of the land the Lord will give to his people. It is the Lord’s inheritance, but the Levites are allowed to eat it since they themselves have no inheritance among the other tribes of Israel.

¹³ tn This is a causal clause. The reason one must fear and know the Lord is that he is the source of true, effectual wisdom.

¹⁴ tn The verb is an imperfect tense which probably functions as a habitual imperfect describing a universal truth in the past, present and future.

¹⁵ sn This expression is an anthropomorphism; it indicates that the Lord is the immediate source or author of the wisdom. It is worth noting that in the incarnation many of these “anthropomorphisms” become literal in the person of the Logos, the Word, Jesus, who reveals the Father.

¹⁶ tn The verb “comes” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity and smoothness.

¹⁷ tc Since “the word of Christ” occurs nowhere else in the NT, two predictable variants arose: “word of God” and “word of the Lord.” Even though some of the witnesses for these variants are impressive (κυρίου [kuriou, “of the Lord”] in א* I 1175 pc bo; θεοῦ [qeou, “of God”] in A C* 33 104 323 945 al), the reading Χριστοῦ (Cristou, “of Christ”) is read by an excellent cross-section of witnesses (Ì⁴⁶ א² B C² D F G Ψ 075 1739 1881 Ï lat sa). On both internal and external grounds, Χριστοῦ is strongly preferred.

¹⁸ tn Grk “with grace”; “all” is supplied as it is implicitly related to all the previous instructions in the verse.