Psalms 34:14

34:14 Turn away from evil and do what is right!

Strive for peace and promote it!

Psalms 36:4

36:4 He plans ways to sin while he lies in bed;

he is committed to a sinful lifestyle;

he does not reject what is evil.

Psalms 37:27

37:27 Turn away from evil! Do what is right!

Then you will enjoy lasting security.

Psalms 101:3

101:3 I will not even consider doing what is dishonest.

I hate doing evil;

I will have no part of it.

Psalms 119:104

119:104 Your precepts give me discernment.

Therefore I hate all deceitful actions. 10 

Psalms 119:163

119:163 I hate and despise deceit;

I love your law.

Proverbs 3:7

3:7 Do not be wise in your own estimation; 11 

fear the Lord and turn away from evil. 12 

Proverbs 8:13

8:13 The fear of the Lord is to hate 13  evil;

I hate arrogant pride 14  and the evil way

and perverse utterances. 15 

Amos 5:15

5:15 Hate what is wrong, love what is right!

Promote 16  justice at the city gate! 17 

Maybe the Lord, the God who commands armies, will have mercy on 18  those who are left from 19  Joseph. 20 

Romans 7:15

7:15 For I don’t understand what I am doing. For I do not do what I want – instead, I do what I hate. 21 

Romans 7:24

7:24 Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?

Romans 12:9

Conduct in Love

12:9 Love must be 22  without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil, cling to what is good.


tn Or “do good.”

tn Heb “seek peace and pursue it.”

tn Heb “he takes a stand in a way [that is] not good.” The word “way” here refers metaphorically to behavior or life style.

tn The three imperfect verbal forms in v. 4 highlight the characteristic behavior of the typical evildoer.

tn Or “Do good!” The imperatives are singular (see v. 1).

tn Heb “and dwell permanently.” The imperative with vav (ו) is best taken here as a result clause after the preceding imperatives.

tn Heb “I will not set before my eyes a thing of worthlessness.”

tn Heb “the doing of swerving [deeds] I hate.” The Hebrew term סֵטִים (setim) is probably an alternate spelling of שֵׂטִים (setim), which appears in many medieval Hebrew mss. The form appears to be derived from a verbal root שׂוּט (sut, “to fall away; to swerve”; see Ps 40:4).

tn Heb “it [i.e., the doing of evil deeds] does not cling to me.”

10 tn Heb “every false path.”

11 tn Heb “in your own eyes” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV); NLT “Don’t be impressed with your own wisdom.”

12 sn The second colon clarifies the first. If one fears the Lord and turns away from evil, then he is depending on the Lord and not wise in his own eyes. There is a higher source of wisdom than human insight.

13 tn The verb שָׂנֵא (sane’) means “to hate.” In this sentence it functions nominally as the predicate. Fearing the Lord is hating evil.

14 tn Since both גֵּאָה (geah, “pride”) and גָּאוֹן (gaon, “arrogance; pride”) are both from the same verbal root גָּאָה (gaah, “to rise up”), they should here be interpreted as one idea, forming a nominal hendiadys: “arrogant pride.”

15 tn Heb “and a mouth of perverse things.” The word “mouth” is a metonymy of cause for what is said; and the noun תַהְפֻּכוֹת (tahpukhot, “perverse things”) means destructive things (the related verb is used for the overthrowing of Sodom).

16 tn Heb “set up, establish.” In the ancient Near East it was the responsibility especially of the king to establish justice. Here the prophet extends that demand to local leaders and to the nation as a whole (cf. 5:24).

17 sn Legal disputes were resolved in the city gate (see the note in v. 12). This repetition of this phrase serves to highlight a deliberate contrast to the injustices cited in vv. 11-13.

18 tn Or “will show favor to.”

19 tn Or “the remnant of” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV); CEV “what’s left of your people.”

20 sn Joseph (= Ephraim and Manasseh), as the most prominent of the Israelite tribes, represents the entire northern kingdom.

21 tn Grk “but what I hate, this I do.”

22 tn The verb “must be” is understood in the Greek text.