1 Kings 8:35-36

8:35 “The time will come when ¹  the skies are shut up tightly and no rain falls because your people ²  sinned against you. When they direct their prayers toward this place, renew their allegiance to you, ³  and turn away from their sin because you punish ⁴  them, 8:36 then listen from heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel. Certainly ⁵  you will then teach them the right way to live ⁶  and send rain on your land that you have given your people to possess. ⁷ 

Psalms 25:4-5

25:4 Make me understand your ways, O Lord!

Teach me your paths! ⁸ 

25:5 Guide me into your truth ⁹  and teach me.

For you are the God who delivers me;

on you I rely all day long.

Psalms 25:8

25:8 The Lord is both kind and fair; ¹⁰ 

that is why he teaches sinners the right way to live. ¹¹ 

Psalms 25:12

25:12 The Lord shows his faithful followers

the way they should live. ¹² 

Psalms 94:12

94:12 How blessed is the one ¹³  whom you instruct, O Lord,

the one whom you teach from your law,

Psalms 119:33

ה (He)

119:33 Teach me, O Lord, the lifestyle prescribed by your statutes, ¹⁴ 

so that I might observe it continually. ¹⁵ 

Micah 4:2

4:2 Many nations will come, saying,

“Come on! Let’s go up to the Lord’s mountain,

to the temple ¹⁶  of Jacob’s God,

so he can teach us his commands ¹⁷ 

and we can live by his laws.” ¹⁸ 

For Zion will be the source of instruction;

the Lord’s teachings will proceed from Jerusalem. ¹⁹ 

John 6:45

6:45 It is written in the prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ ²⁰  Everyone who hears and learns from the Father ²¹  comes to me.

[8:35]  ¹ tn Heb “when.” In the Hebrew text vv. 35-36a actually contain one lengthy conditional sentence, which the translation has divided into two sentences for stylistic reasons.

[8:35]  ² tn Heb “they”; the referent (your people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[8:35]  ³ tn Heb “confess [or perhaps, “praise”] your name.”

[8:35]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew text has “because you answer them,” as if the verb is from עָנָה (’anah, “to answer”). However, this reference to a divine answer is premature, since the next verse asks for God to intervene in mercy. It is better to revocalize the consonantal text as תְעַנֵּם (tÿ’annem, “you afflict them”), a Piel verb form from the homonym עָנָה (“to afflict”).

[8:36]  ⁵ tn The translation understands כִּי (ki) in an emphatic or asseverative sense.

[8:36]  ⁶ tn Heb “the good way in which they should walk.”

[8:36]  ⁷ tn Or “for an inheritance.”

[25:4]  ⁸ sn Teach me your paths. In this context the Lord’s “ways” and “paths” refer to the moral principles which the Lord prescribes for his followers. See vv. 8-10.

[25:5]  ⁹ sn The Lord’s commandments are referred to as truth here because they are a trustworthy and accurate expression of the divine will.

[25:8]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “good and just.”

[25:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “teaches sinners in the way.”

[25:12]  ¹² tn Heb “Who is this man, the one who fears the Lord? He will instruct him in the way he should choose.” The singular (note “man”) is representative here (see v. 14, where the plural is used), and has thus been translated as a plural (“followers…they”).

[94:12]  ¹³ tn Heb “[Oh] the happiness [of] the man.” Hebrew wisdom literature often assumes and reflects the male-oriented perspective of ancient Israelite society. The principle of the psalm is certainly applicable to all people, regardless of their gender or age. To facilitate modern application, we translate the gender and age specific “man” with the more neutral “one.” The generic masculine pronoun is used in v. 2.

[119:33]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the way of your statutes.”

[119:33]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and I will keep it to the end.” The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose/result after the preceding imperative. The Hebrew term עֵקֶב (’eqev) is understood to mean “end” here. Another option is to take עֵקֶב (’eqev) as meaning “reward” here (see Ps 19:11) and to translate, “so that I might observe it and be rewarded.”

[4:2]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “house.”

[4:2]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “ways.”

[4:2]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and we can walk in his paths.”

[4:2]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “instruction [or, “law”] will go out from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”

[6:45]  ²⁰ sn A quotation from Isa 54:13.

[6:45]  ²¹ tn Or “listens to the Father and learns.”