Psalms 21:4

21:4 He asked you to sustain his life, ¹ 

and you have granted him long life and an enduring dynasty. ² 

Proverbs 2:19

2:19 None who go in to her will return, ³ 

nor will they reach the paths of life. ⁴ 

Proverbs 4:18

4:18 But the path of the righteous is like the bright morning light, ⁵ 

growing brighter and brighter ⁶  until full day. ⁷ 

Proverbs 5:6

5:6 Lest ⁸  she should make level the path leading to life, ⁹ 

her paths are unstable ¹⁰  but she does not know it. ¹¹ 

Proverbs 12:28

12:28 In the path of righteousness there is life,

but another path leads to death. ¹² 

Isaiah 2:3

2:3 many peoples will come and say,

“Come, let us go up to the Lord’s mountain,

to the temple of the God of Jacob,

so ¹³  he can teach us his requirements, ¹⁴ 

and ¹⁵  we can follow his standards.” ¹⁶ 

For Zion will be the center for moral instruction; ¹⁷ 

the Lord will issue edicts from Jerusalem. ¹⁸ 

Matthew 7:14

7:14 But the gate is narrow and the way is difficult that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

Romans 8:11

8:11 Moreover if the Spirit of the one ¹⁹  who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, the one who raised Christ ²⁰  from the dead will also make your mortal bodies alive through his Spirit who lives in you. ²¹ 

Romans 8:1

The Believer’s Relationship to the Holy Spirit

8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. ²² 

Romans 1:21

1:21 For although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or give him thanks, but they became futile in their thoughts and their senseless hearts ²³  were darkened.

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 “all who go in to her will not return.”

⁴ sn The phrase “reach the paths of life” is a figurative expression for experiencing joy and fullness of blessing (BDB 673 s.v. נָשַׂג 2.a).

⁵ tn Heb “like light of brightness.” This construction is an attributive genitive: “bright light.” The word “light” (אוֹר, ’or) refers to the early morning light or the dawn (BDB 21 s.v.). The point of the simile is that the course of life that the righteous follow is like the clear, bright morning light. It is illumined, clear, easy to follow, and healthy and safe – the opposite of what darkness represents.

⁶ tn The construction uses the Qal active participle of הָלַךְ (halakh) in a metaphorical sense to add the idea of continuance or continually to the participle הוֹלֵךְ (holekh). Here the path was growing light, but the added participle signifies continually.

⁷ tn Heb “until the day is established.” This expression refers to the coming of the full day or the time of high noon.

⁸ tn The particle פֶּן (pen) means “lest” (probably from “for the aversion of”). It occurs this once, unusually, preceding the principal clause (BDB 814 s.v.). It means that some action has been taken to avert or avoid what follows. She avoids the path of life, albeit ignorantly.

⁹ tn Heb “the path of life.” The noun חַיִּים (khayyim, “of life”) functions as a genitive of direction (“leading to”).

¹⁰ sn The verb נוּעַ (nua’) means “to quiver; to wave; to waver; to tremble”; cf. KJV “her ways are moveable”; NAB “her paths will ramble”; NLT “She staggers down a crooked trail.” The ways of the adulterous woman are unstable (BDB 631 s.v.).

¹¹ sn The sadder part of the description is that this woman does not know how unstable her life is, or how uneven. However, Thomas suggests that it means, “she is not tranquil.” See D. W. Thomas, “A Note on לא תדע in Proverbs v 6,” JTS 37 (1936): 59.

¹² tc The consonants אל־מות (’l-mvt) are vocalized by the MT as אַל־מָוֶת (’al-mavet, “no death”), meaning: “the journey of her path is no-death” = immortality. However, many medieval Hebrew mss and all the versions vocalize it as אֶל־מָוֶת (’el-mavet, “to death”), meaning: “but another path leads to death” (cf. NAB, NCV). W. McKane adopts this reading, and suggests that MT is a scribal change toward eternal life (Proverbs [OTL], 451-52). Others adopt this reading because they do not find the term “life” used in Proverbs for eternal life, nor do they find references to immortality elsewhere in Proverbs.

¹³ tn The prefixed verb form with simple vav (ו) introduces a purpose/result clause after the preceding prefixed verb form (probably to be taken as a cohortative; see IBHS 650 §39.2.2a).

¹⁴ tn Heb “his ways.” In this context God’s “ways” are the standards of moral conduct he decrees that people should live by.

¹⁵ tn The cohortative with vav (ו) after the prefixed verb form indicates the ultimate purpose/goal of their action.

¹⁶ tn Heb “walk in his ways.”

¹⁷ tn Heb “for out of Zion will go instruction.”

¹⁸ tn Heb “the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”

¹⁹ sn The one who raised Jesus from the dead refers to God (also in the following clause).

²⁰ tc Several mss read ᾿Ιησοῦν (Ihsoun, “Jesus”) after Χριστόν (Criston, “Christ”; א* A D* 630 1506 1739 1881 pc bo); C 81 104 lat have ᾿Ιησοῦν Χριστόν. The shorter reading is more likely to be original, though, both because of external evidence (א² B D² F G Ψ 33 Ï sa) and internal evidence (scribes were much more likely to add the name “Jesus” if it were lacking than to remove it if it were already present in the text, especially to harmonize with the earlier mention of Jesus in the verse).

²¹ tc Most mss (B D F G Ψ 33 1739 1881 Ï lat) have διά (dia) followed by the accusative: “because of his Spirit who lives in you.” The genitive “through his Spirit” is supported by א A C⁽*⁾ 81 104 1505 1506 al, and is slightly preferred.

²² tc The earliest and best witnesses of the Alexandrian and Western texts, as well as a few others (א* B D* F G 6 1506 1739 1881 pc co), have no additional words for v. 1. Later scribes (A D¹ Ψ 81 365 629 pc vg) added the words μὴ κατὰ σάρκα περιπατοῦσιν (mh kata sarka peripatousin, “who do not walk according to the flesh”), while even later ones (א² D² 33^vid Ï) added ἀλλὰ κατὰ πνεῦμα (alla kata pneuma, “but [who do walk] according to the Spirit”). Both the external evidence and the internal evidence are compelling for the shortest reading. The scribes were evidently motivated to add such qualifications (interpolated from v. 4) to insulate Paul’s gospel from charges that it was characterized too much by grace. The KJV follows the longest reading found in Ï.

²³ tn Grk “heart.”