1 Kings 21:2

21:2 Ahab said to Naboth, “Give me your vineyard so I can make a vegetable garden out of it, for it is adjacent to my palace. I will give you an even better vineyard in its place, or if you prefer, ¹  I will pay you silver for it.” ² 

Esther 5:9-14

Haman Expresses His Hatred of Mordecai

5:9 Now Haman went forth that day pleased and very much encouraged. ³  But when Haman saw Mordecai at the king’s gate, and he did not rise nor tremble in his presence, ⁴  Haman was filled with rage toward Mordecai. 5:10 But Haman restrained himself and went on to his home.

He then sent for his friends to join him, ⁵  along with his wife Zeresh. 5:11 Haman then recounted to them his fabulous wealth, ⁶  his many sons, ⁷  and how the king had magnified him and exalted him over the king’s other officials and servants. 5:12 Haman said, “Furthermore, Queen Esther invited ⁸  only me to accompany the king to the banquet that she prepared! And also tomorrow I am invited ⁹  along with the king. 5:13 Yet all of this fails to satisfy me so long as I have to see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate.”

5:14 Haman’s ¹⁰  wife Zeresh and all his friends said to him, “Have a gallows seventy-five feet ¹¹  high built, and in the morning tell the king that Mordecai should be hanged on it. Then go with the king to the banquet contented.” ¹² 

It seemed like a good idea to Haman, so he had the gallows built.

Esther 6:12

6:12 Then Mordecai again sat at the king’s gate, while Haman hurried away to his home, mournful and with a veil over his head.

Proverbs 14:30

14:30 A tranquil spirit ¹³  revives the body, ¹⁴ 

but envy ¹⁵  is rottenness to the bones. ¹⁶ 

Proverbs 14:1

14:1 Every wise woman ¹⁷  builds ¹⁸  her household, ¹⁹ 

but a foolish woman tears it down with her own hands.

Proverbs 6:9-10

6:9 How long, you sluggard, will you lie there?

When will you rise from your sleep? ²⁰ 

6:10 A little sleep, a little slumber,

a little folding of the hands to relax, ²¹ 

James 4:2-7

4:2 You desire and you do not have; you murder and envy and you cannot obtain; you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask; 4:3 you ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly, so you can spend it on your passions.

4:4 Adulterers, do you not know that friendship with the world means hostility toward God? ²²  So whoever decides to be the world’s friend makes himself God’s enemy. 4:5 Or do you think the scripture means nothing when it says, ²³  “The spirit that God ²⁴  caused ²⁵  to live within us has an envious yearning”? ²⁶  4:6 But he gives greater grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.” ²⁷  4:7 So submit to God. But resist the devil and he will flee from you.

[21:2]  ¹ tn Heb “if it is good in your eyes.”

[21:2]  ² tc The Old Greek translation includes the following words: “And it will be mine as a garden of herbs.”

[5:9]  ³ tn Heb “happy and good of heart”; NASB “glad and pleased of heart”; NIV “happy and in high spirits.”

[5:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “tremble from before him”; NIV “nor showed fear in his presence”; TEV “or show any sign of respect as he passed.”

[5:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “sent and brought.” The expression is probably a hendiadys (a figure of speech in which a single idea is expressed through two words or phrases), in which case the two verbs could be translated simply as “summoned” (so NAB) or “sent for” (NASB).

[5:11]  ⁶ tn Heb “the glory of his riches” (so KJV, NASB); NRSV “the splendor of his riches.”

[5:11]  ⁷ sn According to Esth 9:10 Haman had ten sons.

[5:12]  ⁸ tn Heb “caused to come”; KJV “did let no man come in…but myself.”

[5:12]  ⁹ tn Heb “called to her”; KJV “invited unto her”; NAB “I am to be her guest.”

[5:14]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “his”; the referent (Haman) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[5:14]  ¹¹ tn Heb “fifty cubits.” Assuming a standard length for the cubit of about 18 inches (45 cm), this would be about seventy-five feet (22.5 meters), which is a surprisingly tall height for the gallows. Perhaps the number assumes the gallows was built on a large supporting platform or a natural hill for visual effect, in which case the structure itself may have been considerably smaller. Cf. NCV “a seventy-five foot platform”; CEV “a tower built about seventy-five feet high.”

[5:14]  ¹² tn Or “joyful”; NRSV “in good spirits”; TEV “happy.”

[14:30]  ¹³ tn Heb “heart of healing.” The genitive מַרְפֵּא (marpe’, “healing”) functions as an attributive adjective: “a healing heart.” The term לֵב (lev, “heart”) is a metonymy for the emotional state of a person (BDB 660 s.v. 6). A healthy spirit is tranquil, bringing peace to the body (J. H. Greenstone, Proverbs, 158).

[14:30]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “life of the flesh” (so KJV, ASV); NAB, NIV “gives life to the body.”

[14:30]  ¹⁵ tn The term קִנְאָה (qin’ah, “envy”) refers to passionate zeal or “jealousy” (so NAB, NCV, TEV, NLT), depending on whether the object is out of bounds or within one’s rights. In the good sense one might be consumed with zeal to defend the institutions of the sanctuary. But as envy or jealousy the word describes an intense and sometimes violent excitement and desire that is never satisfied.

[14:30]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “rottenness of bones.” The term “bones” may be a synecdoche representing the entire body; it is in contrast with “flesh” of the first colon. One who is consumed with envy finds no tranquility or general sense of health in body or spirit.

[14:1]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “wise ones of women.” The construct phrase חַכְמוֹת נָשִׁים (khakhmot nashim) features a wholistic genitive: “wise women.” The plural functions in a distributive sense: “every wise woman.” The contrast is between wise and foolish women (e.g., Prov 7:10-23; 31:10-31).

[14:1]  ¹⁸ tn The perfect tense verb in the first colon functions in a gnomic sense, while the imperfect tense in the second colon is a habitual imperfect.

[14:1]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “house.” This term functions as a synecdoche of container (= house) for contents (= household, family).

[6:9]  ²⁰ sn The use of the two rhetorical questions is designed to rebuke the lazy person in a forceful manner. The sluggard is spending too much time sleeping.

[6:10]  ²¹ sn The writer might in this verse be imitating the words of the sluggard who just wants to take “a little nap.” The use is ironic, for by indulging in this little rest the lazy one comes to ruin.

[4:4]  ²² tn Grk “is hostility toward God.”

[4:5]  ²³ tn Grk “vainly says.”

[4:5]  ²⁴ tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[4:5]  ²⁵ 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.

[4:5]  ²⁶ 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.

[4:6]  ²⁷ sn A quotation from Prov 3:34.