1 Samuel 18:8-9

18:8 This made Saul very angry. The statement displeased him and he thought, ¹  “They have attributed to David tens of thousands, but to me they have attributed only thousands. What does he lack, except the kingdom?” 18:9 So Saul was keeping an eye on David from that day onward.

Psalms 37:1

Psalm 37 ² 

By David.

37:1 Do not fret ³  when wicked men seem to succeed! ⁴ 

Do not envy evildoers!

Psalms 73:3

73:3 For I envied those who are proud,

as I observed ⁵  the prosperity ⁶  of the wicked.

Proverbs 3:31

3:31 Do not envy a violent man, ⁷ 

and do not choose to imitate ⁸  any of his ways;

Proverbs 14:30

14:30 A tranquil spirit ⁹  revives the body, ¹⁰ 

but envy ¹¹  is rottenness to the bones. ¹² 

Proverbs 24:1

24:1 Do not envy evil people, ¹³ 

do not desire ¹⁴  to be with them;

Proverbs 24:19

24:19 Do not fret because of evil people

or be envious of wicked people,

Romans 1:29

1:29 They are filled ¹⁵  with every kind of unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, malice. They are rife with ¹⁶  envy, murder, strife, deceit, hostility. They are gossips,

Romans 13:13

13:13 Let us live decently as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in discord and jealousy.

Romans 13:1

Submission to Civil Government

13:1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except by God’s appointment, ¹⁷  and the authorities that exist have been instituted by God.

Colossians 3:2-3

3:2 Keep thinking about things above, not things on the earth, 3:3 for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

Colossians 3:2

3:2 Keep thinking about things above, not things on the earth,

Colossians 1:20

1:20 and through him to reconcile all things to himself by making peace through the blood of his cross – through him, ¹⁸  whether things on earth or things in heaven.

Galatians 5:21-26

5:21 envying, ¹⁹  murder, ²⁰  drunkenness, carousing, ²¹  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!

5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit ²²  is love, ²³  joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²⁴  5:23 gentleness, and ²⁵  self-control. Against such things there is no law. 5:24 Now those who belong to Christ ²⁶  have crucified the flesh ²⁷  with its passions ²⁸  and desires. 5:25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also behave in accordance with ²⁹  the Spirit. 5:26 Let us not become conceited, ³⁰  provoking ³¹  one another, being jealous ³²  of one another.

James 3:14

3:14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfishness in your hearts, do not boast and tell lies against the truth.

James 3:16

3:16 For where there is jealousy and selfishness, there is disorder and every evil practice.

James 4:5

4:5 Or do you think the scripture means nothing when it says, ³³  “The spirit that God ³⁴  caused ³⁵  to live within us has an envious yearning”? ³⁶ 

[18:8]  ¹ tn Heb “said.” So also in vv. 11, 17.

[37:1]  ² sn Psalm 37. The psalmist urges his audience not to envy the wicked, but to trust in and obey the Lord, for he will destroy sinners and preserve the godly. When the smoke of judgment clears, the wicked will be gone, but the godly will remain and inherit God’s promised blessings. The psalm is an acrostic; every other verse begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

[37:1]  ³ tn The verb form is singular (see vv. 3-10 as well, where the second person verbs and pronouns are also singular). The psalmist’s exhortation has a wisdom flavor to it; it is personalized for each member of his audience.

[37:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “over sinners.” The context indicates that the psalmist has in mind the apparent power and success of sinners. See v. 7b.

[73:3]  ⁵ tn The imperfect verbal form here depicts the action as continuing in a past time frame.

[73:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “peace” (שָׁלוֹם, shalom).

[3:31]  ⁷ 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.).

[3:31]  ⁸ tn Heb “do not choose.”

[14:30]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “life of the flesh” (so KJV, ASV); NAB, NIV “gives life to the body.”

[14:30]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² 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.

[24:1]  ¹³ tn Heb “evil men,” although the context indicates a generic sense.

[24:1]  ¹⁴ tn The Hitpael jussive is from the verb that means “to crave; to desire.” This is more of a coveting, an intense desire.

[1:29]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “being filled” or “having been filled,” referring to those described in v. 28. Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[1:29]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “malice, full of,” continuing the description. Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[13:1]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “by God.”

[1:20]  ¹⁸ tc The presence or absence of the second occurrence of the phrase δι᾿ αὐτοῦ (di’ autou, “through him”) is a difficult textual problem to solve. External evidence is fairly evenly divided. Many ancient and excellent witnesses lack the phrase (B D* F G I 0278 81 1175 1739 1881 2464 al latt sa), but equally important witnesses have it (Ì⁴⁶ א A C D¹ Ψ 048^vid 33 Ï). Both readings have strong Alexandrian support, which makes the problem difficult to decide on external evidence alone. Internal evidence points to the inclusion of the phrase as original. The word immediately preceding the phrase is the masculine pronoun αὐτοῦ (autou); thus the possibility of omission through homoioteleuton in various witnesses is likely. Scribes might have deleted the phrase because of perceived redundancy or awkwardness in the sense: The shorter reading is smoother and more elegant, so scribes would be prone to correct the text in that direction. As far as style is concerned, repetition of key words and phrases for emphasis is not foreign to the corpus Paulinum (see, e.g., Rom 8:23, Eph 1:13, 2 Cor 12:7). In short, it is easier to account for the shorter reading arising from the longer reading than vice versa, so the longer reading is more likely original.

[5:21]  ¹⁹ tn This term is plural in Greek (as is “murder” and “carousing”), but for clarity these abstract nouns have been translated as singular.

[5:21]  ²⁰ 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).

[5:21]  ²¹ tn Or “revelings,” “orgies” (L&N 88.287).

[5:22]  ²² tn That is, the fruit the Spirit produces.

[5:22]  ²³ sn Another way to punctuate this is “love” followed by a colon (love: joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control). It is thus possible to read the eight characteristics following “love” as defining love.

[5:22]  ²⁴ tn Or “reliability”; see BDAG 818 s.v. πίστις 1.a.

[5:23]  ²⁵ tn “And” is supplied here as a matter of English style, which normally inserts “and” between the last two elements of a list or series.

[5:24]  ²⁶ tc ‡ Some mss (א A B C P Ψ 0122¹ 0278 33 1175 1739 pc co) read “Christ Jesus” here, while many significant ones (Ì⁴⁶ D F G 0122*^,2 latt sy), as well as the Byzantine text, lack “Jesus.” The Byzantine text is especially not prone to omit the name “Jesus”; that it does so here argues for the authenticity of the shorter reading (for similar instances of probably authentic Byzantine shorter readings, see Matt 24:36 and Phil 1:14; cf. also W.-H. J. Wu, “A Systematic Analysis of the Shorter Readings in the Byzantine Text of the Synoptic Gospels” [Ph.D. diss., Dallas Theological Seminary, 2002]). On the strength of the alignment of Ì⁴⁶ with the Western and Byzantine texttypes, the shorter reading is preferred. NA²⁷ includes the word in brackets, indicating doubts as to its authenticity.

[5:24]  ²⁷ tn See the note on the word “flesh” in Gal 5:13.

[5:24]  ²⁸ tn The Greek term παθήμασιν (paqhmasin, translated “passions”) refers to strong physical desires, especially of a sexual nature (L&N 25.30).

[5:25]  ²⁹ tn Or “let us also follow,” “let us also walk by.”

[5:26]  ³⁰ tn Or “falsely proud.”

[5:26]  ³¹ tn Or “irritating.” BDAG 871 s.v. προκαλέω has “provoke, challenge τινά someone.”

[5:26]  ³² tn Or “another, envying one another.”

[4:5]  ³³ tn Grk “vainly says.”

[4:5]  ³⁴ tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[4:5]  ³⁵ 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]  ³⁶ 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.