Psalms 34:12-13

34:12 Do you want to really live? ¹ 

Would you love to live a long, happy life? ² 

34:13 Then make sure you don’t speak evil words ³ 

or use deceptive speech! ⁴ 

Isaiah 63:8

63:8 He said, “Certainly they will be my people,

children who are not disloyal.” ⁵ 

He became their deliverer.

Zechariah 8:16-17

8:16 These are the things you must do: Speak the truth, each of you, to one another. Practice true and righteous judgment in your courts. ⁶  8:17 Do not plan evil in your hearts against one another. Do not favor a false oath – these are all things that I hate,’ says the Lord.”

Ephesians 4:25

4:25 Therefore, having laid aside falsehood, each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, ⁷  for we are members of one another.

Colossians 3:9

3:9 Do not lie to one another since you have put off the old man with its practices

Revelation 21:8

21:8 But to the cowards, unbelievers, detestable persons, murderers, the sexually immoral, and those who practice magic spells, ⁸  idol worshipers, ⁹  and all those who lie, their place ¹⁰  will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. ¹¹  That ¹²  is the second death.”

¹ tn Heb “Who is the man who desires life?” The rhetorical question is used to grab the audience’s attention. “Life” probably refers here to quality of life, not just physical existence or even duration of life. See the following line.

² tn Heb “[Who] loves days to see good?”

³ tn Heb “guard your tongue from evil.”

⁴ tn Heb “and your lips from speaking deception.”

⁵ tn Heb “children [who] do not act deceitfully.” Here the verb refers to covenantal loyalty.

⁶ sn For a similar reference to true and righteous judgment see Mic 6:8.

⁷ sn A quotation from Zech 8:16.

⁸ tn On the term φαρμακεία (farmakeia, “magic spells”) see L&N 53.100: “the use of magic, often involving drugs and the casting of spells upon people – ‘to practice magic, to cast spells upon, to engage in sorcery, magic, sorcery.’ φαρμακεία: ἐν τῇ φαρμακείᾳ σου ἐπλανήθησαν πάντα τὰ ἔθνη ‘with your magic spells you deceived all the peoples (of the world)’ Re 18:23.”

⁹ tn Grk “idolaters.”

¹⁰ tn Grk “their share.”

¹¹ tn Traditionally, “brimstone.”

¹² tn Grk “sulfur, which is.” The relative pronoun has been translated as “that” to indicate its connection to the previous clause. The nearest logical antecedent is “the lake [that burns with fire and sulfur],” although “lake” (λίμνη, limnh) is feminine gender, while the pronoun “which” (ὅ, Jo) is neuter gender. This means that (1) the proper antecedent could be “their place” (Grk “their share,”) agreeing with the relative pronoun in number and gender, or (2) the neuter pronoun still has as its antecedent the feminine noun “lake,” since agreement in gender between pronoun and antecedent was not always maintained, with an explanatory phrase occurring with a neuter pronoun regardless of the case of the antecedent. In favor of the latter explanation is Rev 20:14, where the phrase “the lake of fire” is in apposition to the phrase “the second death.”