21:4 He asked you to sustain his life, 1
and you have granted him long life and an enduring dynasty. 2
5:26 You will come to your grave in a full age, 5
As stacks of grain are harvested in their season.
3:2 for they will provide 6 a long and full life, 7
and they will add well-being 8 to you.
3:16 Long life 9 is in her right hand;
in her left hand are riches and honor.
22:4 The reward 10 for humility 11 and fearing the Lord 12
is riches and honor and life.
65:20 Never again will one of her infants live just a few days 13
or an old man die before his time. 14
Indeed, no one will die before the age of a hundred, 15
anyone who fails to reach 16 the age of a hundred will be considered cursed.
65:21 They will build houses and live in them;
they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
65:22 No longer will they build a house only to have another live in it, 17
or plant a vineyard only to have another eat its fruit, 18
for my people will live as long as trees, 19
and my chosen ones will enjoy to the fullest what they have produced. 20
1 tn Heb “life he asked from you.” Another option is to translate the perfect verbal forms in v. 4 with the present tense, “he asks…you grant.”
2 tn Heb “you have granted him length of days forever and ever.” The phrase “length of days,” when used of human beings, usually refers to a lengthy period of time (such as one’s lifetime). See, for example, Deut 30:20; Job 12:12; Ps 91:16; Prov 3:2, 16; Lam 5:20. The additional phrase “forever and ever” is hyperbolic. While it seems to attribute eternal life to the king (see Pss 61:6-7; 72:5 as well), the underlying reality is the king’s enduring dynasty. He will live on, as it were, through his descendants, who will continue to rule over his kingdom long after he has passed off the scene.
3 tn Heb “old and full.”
4 tn Heb “And he was gathered to his people.” In the ancient Israelite view he joined his deceased ancestors in Sheol, the land of the dead.
5 tn The word translated “in a full age” has been given an array of meanings: “health; integrity”; “like a new blade of corn”; “in your strength [or vigor].” The numerical value of the letters in the word בְכֶלָח (bÿkhelakh, “in old age”) was 2, 20, 30, and 8, or 60. This led some of the commentators to say that at 60 one would enter the ripe old age (E. Dhorme, Job, 73).
6 tn The phrase “they will provide” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for the sake of smoothness.
7 tn Heb “length of days and years of life” (so NASB, NRSV). The idiom “length of days” refers to a prolonged life and “years of life” signifies a long time full of life, a life worth living (T. T. Perowne, Proverbs, 51). The term “life” refers to earthly felicity combined with spiritual blessedness (BDB 313 s.v. חַיִּים).
8 tn The noun שָׁלוֹם (shalom, “peace”) here means “welfare, health, prosperity” (BDB 1022 s.v. 3). It can be used of physical health and personal well-being. It is the experience of positive blessing and freedom from negative harm and catastrophe.
9 tn Heb “length of days” (so KJV, ASV).
10 tn The Hebrew term עֵקֶב (’eqev, “reward”) is related to the term meaning “heel”; it refers to the consequences or the reward that follows (akin to the English expression “on the heels of”).
11 tn “Humility” is used here in the religious sense of “piety”; it is appropriately joined with “the fear of the
12 tn Heb “the fear of the
13 tn Heb “and there will not be from there again a nursing infant of days,” i.e., one that lives just a few days.
14 tn Heb “or an old [man] who does not fill out his days.”
15 tn Heb “for the child as a son of one hundred years will die.” The point seems to be that those who die at the age of a hundred will be considered children, for the average life span will be much longer than that. The category “child” will be redefined in light of the expanded life spans that will characterize this new era.
16 tn Heb “the one who misses.” חָטָא (khata’) is used here in its basic sense of “miss the mark.” See HALOT 305 s.v. חטא. Another option is to translate, “and the sinner who reaches the age of a hundred will be cursed.”
17 tn Heb “they will not build, and another live [in it].”
18 tn Heb “they will not plant, and another eat.”
19 tn Heb “for like the days of the tree [will be] the days of my people.”
20 tn Heb “the work of their hands” (so KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); NLT “their hard-won gains.”