1 Samuel 2:18

2:18 Now Samuel was ministering before the Lord. The boy was dressed in a linen ephod.

1 Samuel 2:26

2:26 Now the boy Samuel was growing up and finding favor both with the Lord and with people.

1 Samuel 3:19-20

3:19 Samuel continued to grow, and the Lord was with him. None of his prophecies fell to the ground unfulfilled. ¹  3:20 All Israel from Dan to Beer Sheba realized that Samuel was confirmed as a prophet of the Lord.

1 Samuel 3:2

3:2 Eli’s eyes had begun to fail, so that he was unable to see well. At that time he was lying down in his place,

1 Samuel 1:3

1:3 Year after year ²  this man would go up from his city to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord of hosts at Shiloh. It was there that the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phineas, served as the Lord’s priests.

Psalms 71:17-18

71:17 O God, you have taught me since I was young,

and I am still declaring ³  your amazing deeds.

71:18 Even when I am old and gray, ⁴ 

O God, do not abandon me,

until I tell the next generation about your strength,

and those coming after me about your power. ⁵ 

Proverbs 8:13

8:13 The fear of the Lord is to hate ⁶  evil;

I hate arrogant pride ⁷  and the evil way

and perverse utterances. ⁸ 

Ecclesiastes 7:18

7:18 It is best to take hold of one warning ⁹  without letting go of the other warning; ¹⁰ 

for the one who fears God will follow ¹¹  both warnings. ¹² 

Isaiah 50:10

50:10 Who among you fears the Lord?

Who obeys ¹³  his servant?

Whoever walks in deep darkness, ¹⁴ 

without light,

should trust in the name of the Lord

and rely on his God.

Luke 1:15

1:15 for he will be great in the sight of ¹⁵  the Lord. He ¹⁶  must never drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even before his birth. ¹⁷ 

Luke 1:2

1:2 like the accounts ¹⁸  passed on ¹⁹  to us by those who were eyewitnesses and servants of the word ²⁰  from the beginning. ²¹ 

Luke 3:15

3:15 While the people were filled with anticipation ²²  and they all wondered ²³  whether perhaps John ²⁴  could be the Christ, ²⁵ 

[3:19]  ¹ tn Heb “and he did not cause to fall from all his words to the ground.”

[1:3]  ² tn Heb “from days to days.”

[71:17]  ³ tn Heb “and until now I am declaring.”

[71:18]  ⁴ tn Heb “and even unto old age and gray hair.”

[71:18]  ⁵ tn Heb “until I declare your arm to a generation, to everyone who comes your power.” God’s “arm” here is an anthropomorphism that symbolizes his great strength.

[8:13]  ⁶ tn The verb שָׂנֵא (sane’) means “to hate.” In this sentence it functions nominally as the predicate. Fearing the Lord is hating evil.

[8:13]  ⁷ tn Since both גֵּאָה (ge’ah, “pride”) and גָּאוֹן (ga’on, “arrogance; pride”) are both from the same verbal root גָּאָה (ga’ah, “to rise up”), they should here be interpreted as one idea, forming a nominal hendiadys: “arrogant pride.”

[8:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “and a mouth of perverse things.” The word “mouth” is a metonymy of cause for what is said; and the noun תַהְפֻּכוֹת (tahpukhot, “perverse things”) means destructive things (the related verb is used for the overthrowing of Sodom).

[7:18]  ⁹ tn The word “warning” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation two times in this line for clarity.

[7:18]  ¹⁰ sn The other warning. Qoheleth is referring to the two words of advice in 7:16-17. He is not, as some suggest, urging his readers to grasp righteousness without letting go of wickedness. His point is not that people should live their lives with a balance of modest righteousness and modest wickedness. Because he urges the fear of God in 7:18b, he cannot be inconsistent in suggesting that his readers offend the fear of God by indulging in some degree of sin in order to counterbalance an overly righteous life. Rather, the proper fear of God will prevent a person from trusting in righteousness and wisdom alone for his security, and it will also prevent indulgence in wickedness and folly.

[7:18]  ¹¹ tn Or “will escape both”; or “will go forth in both.” The Hebrew phrase יֵצֵא אֶת־כֻּלָּם (yetse’ ’et-kullam, “he will follow both of them”) has been interpreted in several ways: (1) To adopt a balanced lifestyle that is moderately righteous while allowing for self-indulgence in moderate wickedness (“to follow both of them,” that is, to follow both righteousness and wickedness). However, this seems to unnecessarily encourage an antinomian rationalization of sin and moral compromise. (2) To avoid the two extremes of being over-righteous and over-wicked. This takes יֵצֵא in the sense of “to escape,” e.g., Gen 39:12, 15; 1 Sam 14:14; Jer 11:11; 48:9; cf. HALOT 426 s.v. יצא 6.c; BDB 423 s.v. יָצָא 1.d. (3) To follow both of the warnings given in 7:16-17. This approach finds parallels in postbiblical rabbinic literature denoting the action of discharging one’s duty of obedience and complying with instruction. In postbiblical rabbinic literature the phrase יַדֵי יֵצֵא (yetse’ yade, “to go out of the hands”) is an idiom meaning “to comply with the requirements of the law” (Jastrow 587 s.v. יָצָא Hif.5.a). This fits nicely with the context of 7:16-17 in which Qoheleth issued two warnings. In 7:18a Qoheleth exhorted his readers to follow both of his warnings: “It is best to grasp the first warning without letting go of the second warning.” The person who fears God will heed both warnings. He will not depend upon his own righteousness and wisdom, but upon God’s sovereign bestowal of blessings. Likewise, he will not exploit the exceptions to the doctrine of retribution to indulge in sin, rationalizing sin away just because the wicked sometimes do not get what they deserve.

[7:18]  ¹² tn Heb “both.” The term “warnings” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity. Alternately, “both [extremes]” or “both [fates].” The point of this expression is either (1) “ he achieves both things,” (2) “he escapes all these misfortunes,” (3) “he does his duty by both,” or (4) “he avoids both extremes.” See D. Barthélemy, ed., Preliminary and Interim Report on the Hebrew Old Testament Text Project, 3:580–81.

[50:10]  ¹³ tn Heb “[who] listens to the voice of his servant?” The interrogative is understood by ellipsis (note the preceding line).

[50:10]  ¹⁴ tn The plural indicates degree. Darkness may refer to exile and/or moral evil.

[1:15]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “before.”

[1:15]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “and he”; because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, the conjunction καί (kai) has not been translated here. Instead a new English sentence is begun in the translation.

[1:15]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “even from his mother’s womb.” While this idiom may be understood to refer to the point of birth (“even from his birth”), Luke 1:41 suggests that here it should be understood to refer to a time before birth.

[1:2]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “even as”; this compares the recorded tradition of 1:1 with the original eyewitness tradition of 1:2.

[1:2]  ¹⁹ tn Or “delivered.”

[1:2]  ²⁰ sn The phrase eyewitnesses and servants of the word refers to a single group of people who faithfully passed on the accounts about Jesus. The language about delivery (passed on) points to accounts faithfully passed on to the early church.

[1:2]  ²¹ tn Grk “like the accounts those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word passed on to us.” The location of “in the beginning” in the Greek shows that the tradition is rooted in those who were with Jesus from the start.

[3:15]  ²² tn Or “with expectation.” The participle προσδοκῶντος (prosdokwnto") is taken temporally.

[3:15]  ²³ tn Grk “pondered in their hearts.”

[3:15]  ²⁴ tn Grk “in their hearts concerning John, (whether) perhaps he might be the Christ.” The translation simplifies the style here.

[3:15]  ²⁵ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”