Psalms 73:3

73:3 For I envied those who are proud,

as I observed ¹  the prosperity ²  of the wicked.

Proverbs 3:31

3:31 Do not envy a violent man, ³ 

and do not choose to imitate ⁴  any of his ways;

Proverbs 23:17

23:17 Do not let your heart envy ⁵  sinners,

but rather be zealous in fearing the Lord ⁶  all the time.

Galatians 5:21

5:21 envying, ⁷  murder, ⁸  drunkenness, carousing, ⁹  and similar things. I am warning you, as I had warned you before: Those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God!

James 4:5-6

4:5 Or do you think the scripture means nothing when it says, ¹⁰  “The spirit that God ¹¹  caused ¹²  to live within us has an envious yearning”? ¹³  4:6 But he gives greater grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.” ¹⁴ 

¹ tn The imperfect verbal form here depicts the action as continuing in a past time frame.

² tn Heb “peace” (שָׁלוֹם, shalom).

³ tn Heb “a man of violence.” The noun חָמָס (khamas, “violence”) functions as an attributive genitive. The word itself means “violence, wrong” (HALOT 329 s.v.) and refers to physical violence, social injustice, harsh treatment, wild ruthlessness, injurious words, hatred, and general rudeness (BDB 329 s.v.).

⁴ tn Heb “do not choose.”

⁵ tn The verb in this line is אַל־יְקַנֵּא (’al-yÿqanne’), the Piel jussive negated. The verb means “to be jealous, to be zealous”; it describes passionate intensity for something. In English, if the object is illegitimate, it is called “envy”; if it is correct, it is called “zeal.” Here the warning is not to envy the sinners. The second colon could use the verb in the positive sense to mean “but rather let your passion burn for the fear of the Lord.”

⁶ tn Heb “the fear of the Lord.” This expression features an objective genitive: “fearing the Lord.”

⁷ tn This term is plural in Greek (as is “murder” and “carousing”), but for clarity these abstract nouns have been translated as singular.

⁸ tc ‡ φόνοι (fonoi, “murders”) is absent in such important mss as Ì⁴⁶ א B 33 81 323 945 pc sa, while the majority of mss (A C D F G Ψ 0122 0278 1739 1881 Ï lat) have the word. Although the pedigree of the mss which lack the term is of the highest degree, homoioteleuton may well explain the shorter reading. The preceding word has merely one letter difference, making it quite possible to overlook this term (φθόνοι φόνοι, fqonoi fonoi).

⁹ tn Or “revelings,” “orgies” (L&N 88.287).

¹⁰ tn Grk “vainly says.”

¹¹ tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹² tc The Byzantine text and a few other mss (P 33 Ï) have the intransitive κατῴκησεν (katwkhsen) here, which turns τὸ πνεῦμα (to pneuma) into the subject of the verb: “The spirit which lives within us.” But the more reliable and older witnesses (Ì⁷⁴ א B Ψ 049 1241 1739 al) have the causative verb, κατῴκισεν (katwkisen), which implies a different subject and τὸ πνεῦμα as the object: “The spirit that he causes to live within us.” Both because of the absence of an explicit subject and the relative scarcity of the causative κατοικίζω (katoikizw, “cause to dwell”) compared to the intransitive κατοικέω (katoikew, “live, dwell”) in biblical Greek (κατοικίζω does not occur in the NT at all, and occurs one twelfth as frequently as κατοικέω in the LXX), it is easy to see why scribes would replace κατῴκισεν with κατῴκησεν. Thus, on internal and external grounds, κατῴκισεν is the preferred reading.

¹³ tn Interpreters debate the referent of the word “spirit” in this verse: (1) The translation takes “spirit” to be the lustful capacity within people that produces a divided mind (1:8, 14) and inward conflicts regarding God (4:1-4). God has allowed it to be in man since the fall, and he provides his grace (v. 6) and the new birth through the gospel message (1:18-25) to counteract its evil effects. (2) On the other hand the word “spirit” may be taken positively as the Holy Spirit and the sense would be, “God yearns jealously for the Spirit he caused to live within us.” But the word for “envious” or “jealous” is generally negative in biblical usage and the context before and after seems to favor the negative interpretation.

¹⁴ sn A quotation from Prov 3:34.