Discovery Box1 Chronicles 12:1-15
Context12:1 These were the men who joined David in Ziklag, when he was banished 1 from the presence of Saul son of Kish. (They were among the warriors who assisted him in battle. 12:2 They were armed with bows and could shoot arrows or sling stones right or left-handed. They were fellow tribesmen of Saul from Benjamin. 2 ) These were: 3
12:3 Ahiezer, the leader, and Joash, the sons of Shemaah the Gibeathite; Jeziel and Pelet, the sons of Azmaveth;
Berachah,
Jehu the Anathothite,
12:4 Ishmaiah the Gibeonite, one of the thirty warriors and their leader,
(12:5)4 Jeremiah,
Jahaziel,
Johanan,
Jozabad the Gederathite,
12:5 (12:6) Eluzai,
Jerimoth,
Bealiah,
Shemariah,
Shephatiah the Haruphite,
12:6 Elkanah, Isshiah, Azarel, Joezer, and Jashobeam, who were Korahites,
12:7 and Joelah and Zebadiah, the sons of Jeroham from Gedor.
12:8 Some of the Gadites joined David at the stronghold in the desert. They were warriors who were trained for battle; they carried shields and spears. They were as fierce as lions and could run as quickly as gazelles across the hills. 5 12:9 Ezer was the leader, Obadiah the second in command, Eliab the third, 12:10 Mishmannah the fourth, Jeremiah the fifth, 12:11 Attai the sixth, Eliel the seventh, 12:12 Johanan the eighth, Elzabad the ninth, 12:13 Jeremiah the tenth, and Machbannai the eleventh. 12:14 These Gadites were military leaders; the least led a hundred men, the greatest a thousand. 6 12:15 They crossed the Jordan River 7 in the first month, 8 when it was overflowing its banks, and routed those living in all the valleys to the east and west. 9
Psalms 35:27
Context35:27 May those who desire my vindication shout for joy and rejoice!
May they continually say, 10 “May the Lord be praised, 11 for he wants his servant to be secure.” 12
Psalms 68:18
Contextyou have taken many captives. 14
You receive tribute 15 from 16 men,
including even sinful rebels.
Indeed the Lord God lives there! 17
Proverbs 18:16-24
Context18:16 A person’s gift 18 makes room for him,
and leads him 19 before important people.
18:17 The first to state his case 20 seems 21 right,
until his opponent 22 begins to 23 cross-examine him. 24
18:18 A toss of a coin 25 ends 26 disputes,
and settles the issue 27 between strong opponents. 28
18:19 A relative 29 offended 30 is harder to reach than 31 a strong city,
and disputes are like the barred gates 32 of a fortified citadel. 33
18:20 From the fruit of a person’s mouth 34 his stomach is satisfied, 35
with the product of his lips is he satisfied.
18:21 Death and life are in the power 36 of the tongue, 37
and those who love its use 38 will eat its fruit.
18:22 The one who finds 39 a wife finds what is enjoyable, 40
and receives a pleasurable gift 41 from the Lord. 42
18:23 A poor person makes supplications, 43
but a rich man answers harshly. 44
18:24 A person who has friends 45 may be harmed by them, 46
but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.
Isaiah 32:8
Context32:8 An honorable man makes honorable plans;
his honorable character gives him security. 47
[12:2] 2 tn Heb “ones armed with bow[s], using the right hand and the left hand with stones and with arrows with the bow, from the brothers of Saul from Benjamin.”
[12:2] 3 tn The words “These were” have been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons, because of the length of the intervening material since the beginning of the verse.
[12:4] 4 sn In the Hebrew text (BHS) a verse division occurs at this point, and for the remainder of the chapter the verse numbers of the Hebrew Bible differ by one from the English Bible. Thus 1 Chr 12:4b ET = 12:5 HT, and 12:5-40 ET = 12:6-41 HT. Beginning with 13:1 the verse numbers in the ET and HT are again the same.
[12:8] 5 tn Heb “warriors, men of battle for war, prepared with shield and spear, and [like] the face of a lion were their faces, and like gazelles on the hills to hurry.”
[12:14] 6 tn Heb “one for a hundred the small, and the great for a thousand.” Another option is to translate the preposition -לְ (lamed) as “against” and to understand this as a hyperbolic reference to their prowess: “the least could stand against a hundred, the greatest against a thousand.”
[12:15] 7 tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied for clarity.
[12:15] 8 sn That is, March-April.
[12:15] 9 tn Heb “and they chased all the valleys to the east and to the west.”
[35:27] 10 tn The prefixed verbal forms in v. 27a are understood as jussives (see vv. 24b-26).
[35:27] 11 tn The prefixed verbal form is taken as a jussive, “may the
[35:27] 12 tn Heb “the one who desires the peace of his servant.”
[68:18] 13 tn Heb “to the elevated place”; or “on high.” This probably refers to the Lord’s throne on Mount Zion.
[68:18] 14 tn Heb “you have taken captives captive.”
[68:18] 17 tn Heb “so that the
[18:16] 18 sn The Hebrew term translated “gift” is a more general term than “bribe” (שֹׁחַד, shokhad), used in 17:8, 23. But it also has danger (e.g., 15:27; 21:14), for by giving gifts one might learn how influential they are and use them for bribes. The proverb simply states that a gift can expedite matters.
[18:16] 19 sn The two verbs here show a progression, helping to form the synthetic parallelism. The gift first “makes room” (יַרְחִיב, yarkhiv) for the person, that is, extending a place for him, and then “ushers him in” (יַנְחֵנּוּ, yakhenu) among the greats.
[18:17] 20 tn Heb “in his legal case”; NAB “who pleads his case first.”
[18:17] 21 tn The term “seems” does not appear in the Hebrew but is supplied in the translation for the sake of smoothness (cf. KJV “seemeth”).
[18:17] 22 tn Heb “his neighbor”; NRSV “the other.”
[18:17] 23 tn Heb “comes and.” The Kethib is the imperfect יָבֹא (yavo’), and the Qere is the conjunction with the participle/perfect tense form וּבָא (uva’). The latter is reflected in most of the ancient versions. There is not an appreciable difference in the translations, except for the use of the conjunction.
[18:17] 24 sn The proverb is a continuous sentence teaching that there must be cross-examination to settle legal disputes. There are two sides in any disputes, and so even though the first to present his case sounds right, it must be challenged. The verb הָקַר (haqar, translated “cross-examines”) is used for careful, diligent searching and investigating to know something (e.g., Ps 139:1).
[18:18] 25 tn Heb “casting the lot.” Because modern readers are not familiar with the ancient practice of casting lots, the image of the coin toss to decide an issue has been employed in the translation (cf. CEV “drawing straws”). Although the casting of lots is often compared to throwing dice, the translation “throwing dice ends disputes” in this context could be misunderstood to mean “participating in a game of dice ends disputes.”
[18:18] 26 tn The verb יַשְׁבִּית (yashbit) is the Hiphil imperfect from שָׁבַת (shavat), meaning “to cause to cease; to bring to an end; to end”; cf. NIV “settles disputes.” The assumption behind this practice and this saying is that providence played the determining role in the casting of lots. If both parties accepted this, then the issue could be resolved.
[18:18] 27 tn Heb “makes a separation” or “decides.” In the book of Proverbs this verb often has a negative connotation, such as separating close friends (e.g., 16:9). But here it has a positive nuance: Opponents are “separated” by settling the issue.
[18:18] 28 tn The word is the adjective, “mighty” (so KJV, NAB, NASB) used here substantivally as the object of the preposition.
[18:19] 29 tn Heb “brother,” but this is not limited to actual siblings (cf. NRSV “an ally”; CEV, NLT “friend”).
[18:19] 30 tn The Niphal participle from פָּשַׁע (pasha’) modifies “brother”: a brother transgressed, offended, sinned against.
[18:19] 31 tc The LXX has a clear antithetical proverb here: “A brother helped is like a stronghold, but disputes are like bars of a citadel.” Accordingly, the editors of BHS propose מוֹשִׁיעַ (moshia’) instead of נִפְשָׁע (nifsha’, so also the other versions and the RSV). But since both lines use the comparison with a citadel (fortified/barred), the antithesis is problematic.
[18:19] 32 tn Heb “bars,” but this could be understood to mean “taverns,” so “barred gates” is employed in the translation.
[18:19] 33 sn The proverb is talking about changing a friend or a relative into an enemy by abuse or strife – the bars go up, as it were. And the “walls” that are erected are not easily torn down.
[18:20] 34 sn Two images are used in this proverb: the fruit of the mouth and the harvest of the lips. They are synonymous; the first is applied to the orchard and the second to the field. The “mouth” and the “lips” are metonymies of cause, and so both lines are speaking about speech that is productive.
[18:20] 35 tn Heb “his midst.” This is rendered “his stomach” because of the use of שָׂבַע (sava’, “to be satisfied; to be sated; to be filled”), which is usually used with food (cf. KJV, ASV “belly”).
[18:21] 36 tn Heb “in the hand of.”
[18:21] 37 sn What people say can lead to life or death. The Midrash on Psalms shows one way the tongue [what is said] can cause death: “The evil tongue slays three, the slanderer, the slandered, and the listener” (Midrash Tehillim 52:2). See J. G. Williams, “The Power of Form: A Study of Biblical Proverbs,” Semeia 17 (1980): 35-38.
[18:21] 38 tn The referent of “it” must be the tongue, i.e., what the tongue says (= “its use”). So those who enjoy talking, indulging in it, must “eat” its fruit, whether good or bad. The expression “eating the fruit” is an implied comparison; it means accept the consequences of loving to talk (cf. TEV).
[18:22] 39 tn The verb מָצָא (matsa’, translated “finds”) is used twice in the first colon. It is paralleled by the verb פּוּק (puq, translated “receives”) in the second colon, which carries the same nuance as the preceding verbs. The first perfect tense verb might function in a hypothetical or conditional sense: “If a man finds…then he finds.” But taken as a principle the nuances of the verbs would be gnomic or characteristic.
[18:22] 40 tn Heb “good.” The term טוֹב (tov, “good; enjoyable; fortune”) might be an allusion to Gen 2:18, which affirms that it is not good for man to be alone. The word describes that which is pleasing to God, beneficial for life, and abundantly enjoyable.
[18:22] 41 tn Heb “what is pleasant.” The noun רָצוֹן (ratson, “what is pleasing”) is often interpreted in a religious-theological sense here: “receives favor from the
[18:22] 42 tc The LXX adds this embellishment to complete the thought: “Whoever puts away a good wife puts away good, and whoever keeps an adulteress is foolish and ungodly.”
[18:23] 43 tn Heb “speaks supplications”; NIV “pleads for mercy.” The poor man has to ask for help because he has no choice (cf. CEV). The Hebrew term תַּחֲנוּן (takhanun) is a “supplication for favor” (related to the verb חָנַן [khanan], “to be gracious; to show favor”). So the poor man speaks, but what he speaks is a request for favor.
[18:23] 44 sn The rich person responds harshly to the request. He has hardened himself against such appeals because of relentless demands. The proverb is an observation saying; it simply describes the way the world generally works, rather than setting this out as the ideal.
[18:24] 45 tc The construction is “a man of friends” (cf. NASB) meaning a man who has friends (a genitive of the thing possessed). C. H. Toy, however, suggests reading יֵשׁ (yesh) instead of אִישׁ (’ish), along with some of the Greek
[18:24] 46 tn The text simply has לְהִתְרֹעֵעַ (lÿhitro’ea’), which means “for being crushed” or “to be shattered” (but not “to show oneself friendly” as in the KJV). What can be made of the sentence is that “a man who has [many] friends [may have them] for being crushed” – the infinitive giving the result (i.e., “with the result that he may be crushed by them”).
