2 Chronicles 12:12

12:12 So when Rehoboam ¹  humbled himself, the Lord relented from his anger and did not annihilate him; ²  Judah experienced some good things. ³ 

2 Chronicles 19:3

19:3 Nevertheless you have done some good things; ⁴  you removed ⁵  the Asherah poles from the land and you were determined to follow the Lord.” ⁶ 

Job 19:28

19:28 If you say, ‘How we will pursue him,

since the root of the trouble is found in him!’ ⁷ 

Ezekiel 18:14-32

18:14 “But suppose he in turn has a son who notices all the sins his father commits, considers them, and does not follow his father’s example. ⁸  18:15 He does not eat pagan sacrifices on the mountains, does not pray to the idols of the house of Israel, does not defile his neighbor’s wife, 18:16 does not oppress anyone or keep what has been given in pledge, does not commit robbery, gives his food to the hungry, and clothes the naked, 18:17 refrains from wrongdoing, ⁹  does not engage in usury or charge interest, carries out my regulations and follows my statutes. He will not die for his father’s iniquity; ¹⁰  he will surely live. 18:18 As for his father, because he practices extortion, robs his brother, and does what is not good among his people, he will die for his iniquity.

18:19 “Yet you say, ‘Why should the son not suffer ¹¹  for his father’s iniquity?’ When the son does what is just and right, and observes all my statutes and carries them out, he will surely live. 18:20 The person who sins is the one who will die. A son will not suffer ¹²  for his father’s iniquity, and a father will not suffer ¹³  for his son’s iniquity; the righteous person will be judged according to his righteousness, and the wicked person according to his wickedness. ¹⁴ 

18:21 “But if the wicked person turns from all the sin he has committed and observes all my statutes and does what is just and right, he will surely live; he will not die. 18:22 None of the sins he has committed will be held ¹⁵  against him; because of the righteousness he has done, he will live. 18:23 Do I actually delight in the death of the wicked, declares the sovereign Lord? Do I not prefer that he turn from his wicked conduct and live?

18:24 “But if a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and practices wrongdoing according to all the abominable practices the wicked carry out, will he live? All his righteous acts will not be remembered; because of the unfaithful acts he has done and the sin he has committed, he will die. ¹⁶ 

18:25 “Yet you say, ‘The Lord’s conduct ¹⁷  is unjust!’ Hear, O house of Israel: Is my conduct unjust? Is it not your conduct that is unjust? 18:26 When a righteous person turns back from his righteousness and practices wrongdoing, he will die for it; ¹⁸  because of the wrongdoing he has done, he will die. 18:27 When a wicked person turns from the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he will preserve his life. 18:28 Because he considered ¹⁹  and turned from all the sins he had done, he will surely live; he will not die. 18:29 Yet the house of Israel says, ‘The Lord’s conduct is unjust!’ Is my conduct unjust, O house of Israel? Is it not your conduct that is unjust?

18:30 “Therefore I will judge each person according to his conduct, ²⁰  O house of Israel, declares the sovereign Lord. Repent ²¹  and turn from all your wickedness; then it will not be an obstacle leading to iniquity. ²²  18:31 Throw away all your sins you have committed and fashion yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! ²³  Why should you die, O house of Israel? 18:32 For I take no delight in the death of anyone, ²⁴  declares the sovereign Lord. Repent and live!

Philemon 1:6

1:6 I pray ²⁵  that the faith you share with us may deepen your understanding of every blessing ²⁶  that belongs to you ²⁷  in Christ. ²⁸ 

Philemon 1:2

1:2 to Apphia ²⁹  our sister, ³⁰  to Archippus our ³¹  fellow soldier, and to the church that meets in your house.

Philemon 1:8-9

Paul’s Request for Onesimus

1:8 So, although I have quite a lot of confidence in Christ and could command you to do what is proper, 1:9 I would rather appeal ³²  to you on the basis of love – I, Paul, an old man ³³  and even now a prisoner for the sake of Christ Jesus ³⁴  –

[12:12]  ¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Rehoboam) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[12:12]  ² tn Heb “the anger of the Lord turned from him and did not destroy completely.”

[12:12]  ³ tn Heb “and also in Judah there were good things.”

[19:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “nevertheless good things are found with you.”

[19:3]  ⁵ tn Here בָּעַר (ba’ar) is not the well attested verb “burn,” but the less common homonym meaning “devastate, sweep away, remove.” See HALOT 146 s.v. II בער.

[19:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “and you set your heart to seek the Lord.”

[19:28]  ⁷ tc The MT reads “in me.” If that is retained, then the question would be in the first colon, and the reasoning of the second colon would be Job’s. But over 100 mss have “in him,” and so this reading is accepted by most editors. The verse is a little difficult, but it seems to form a warning by Job that God’s appearance which will vindicate Job will bring judgment on those who persecute him and charge him falsely.

[18:14]  ⁸ tn Heb “and he sees and does not do likewise.”

[18:17]  ⁹ tc This translation follows the LXX. The MT reads “restrains his hand from the poor,” which makes no sense here.

[18:17]  ¹⁰ tn Or “in his father’s punishment.” The phrase “in/for [a person’s] iniquity/punishment” occurs fourteen times in Ezekiel: here and in vv. 18, 19, 20; 3:18, 19; 4:17; 7:13, 16; 24:23; 33:6, 8, 9; 39:23. The Hebrew word for “iniquity” may also mean the “punishment for iniquity.”

[18:19]  ¹¹ tn Heb “lift up, bear.”

[18:20]  ¹² tn Heb “lift up, bear.”

[18:20]  ¹³ tn Heb “lift up, bear.”

[18:20]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the righteousness of the righteous one will be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked one will be upon him.”

[18:22]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “remembered.”

[18:24]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “because of them he will die.”

[18:25]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “way.”

[18:26]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “for them” or “because of them.”

[18:28]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “he saw.”

[18:30]  ²⁰ tn Heb “ways.”

[18:30]  ²¹ tn The verbs and persons in this verse are plural whereas the individual has been the subject of the chapter.

[18:30]  ²² tn Or “leading to punishment.”

[18:31]  ²³ sn In Ezek 11:19, 36:26 the new heart and new spirit are promised as future blessings.

[18:32]  ²⁴ tn Heb “the death of the one dying.”

[1:6]  ²⁵ tn The term ὅπως ({opw") refers back to the idea of prayer (μνείαν σου ποιούμενος ἐπὶ τῶν προσευχῶν μου, mneian sou poioumeno" epi twn proseucwn mou) in 1:4. See BDAG 718 s.v. 2.b; P. T. O’Brien, Colossians, Philemon (WBC), 279. The indicative “I pray that” was supplied in the English in order to make this connection clear.

[1:6]  ²⁶ tn Grk “everything good.”

[1:6]  ²⁷ tc ‡ ὑμῖν (Jumin, “you”) is found in many valuable witnesses (Ì⁶¹ א F G P 0278 33 1739 1881 al sy co). The witnesses for ἡμῖν (Jhmin, “us”) are not as strong (A C D Ψ 048^vid Ï), but nevertheless represent a broad base. Internally, ἡμῖν could be favored because of second person pronouns surrounding it, making it the harder reading. On the other hand, the last second person plural pronoun was in v. 3, and the next one will not show up until v. 22, a fact which tends to counter the internal argument on behalf of ἡμῖν. Although a decision is difficult, with the internal evidence being capable of favoring either reading, our preference is based on the external evidence; ὑμῖν is thus slightly preferred.

[1:6]  ²⁸ tn Grk “that the fellowship of your faith might become effective in the knowledge of everything good that is in us in Christ.” There are numerous difficulties with the translation and interpretation of this verse: (1) What is the meaning of ἡ κοινωνία τῆς πίστεως σου (Jh koinwnia th" pistew" sou, “the fellowship of your faith”)? Several suggestions are noted: (a) taking κοινωνία as a reference to “monetary support” and τῆς πίστεως as a genitive of source, the phrase could refer to Philemon’s financial giving which he has done according to his faith; (b) taking κοινωνία as a reference to “sharing” or “communicating” and the genitive τῆς πίστεως as an objective genitive, then the meaning would be “sharing the faith” as a reference to evangelistic activity; (c) taking κοινωνία in a distributive sense referring to fellowship with other believers, and τῆς πίστεως as a reference to the common trust all Christians have in Jesus, then the meaning is Christian fellowship centered on faith in Jesus; (d) taking κοινωνία as a reference to “participation” and the genitive τῆς πίστεως as a reference to the thing participated in, the meaning would then be Philemon’s “participation in the faith”; (2) what is the meaning of ἐνεργής (energh"; Does it mean “active” or “effective”?) and ἐπιγνώσει (epignwsei; Does it refer to simply understanding? Or “experiencing” as well?); (3) what is the meaning of the phrase παντὸς ἀγαθοῦ (panto" agaqou)? and (4) what is the force of εἰς Χριστόν (ei" Criston)? It is difficult to arrive at an interpretation that deals adequately with all these questions, but given the fact that Paul stresses what Philemon has done for the brothers (cf. the γάρ [gar] in v. 7), it seems that his concern in v. 6 is on Philemon’s fellowship with other believers and how he has worked hard to refresh them. In this interpretation: (1) the phrase ἡ κοινωνία τῆς πίστεως σου is taken to refer to fellowship with other believers; (2) ἐνεργής is taken to mean “effective” (i.e., more effective) and ἐπιγνώσει involves both understanding and experience; (3) the phrase παντὸς ἀγαθοῦ refers to every spiritual blessing and (4) εἰς Χριστόν carries a locative idea meaning “in Christ.” The result is that Paul prays for Philemon that he will be equipped to encourage and love the saints more as he himself is brought to a place of deeper understanding of every spiritual blessing he has in Christ; out of the overflow of his own life, he will minister to others.

[1:2]  ²⁹ sn Apphia is thought to be the wife of Philemon.

[1:2]  ³⁰ tc Most witnesses (D² Ψ Ï) here read τῇ ἀγαπητῇ (th agaphth, “beloved, dear”), a reading that appears to have been motivated by the masculine form of the same adjective in v. 1. Further, the earliest and best witnesses, along with a few others (א A D* F G I P 048 0278 33 81 104 1739 1881 pc), have ἀδελφῇ (adelfh, “sister”). Thus on internal and external grounds, ἀδελφῇ is the strongly preferred reading.

[1:2]  ³¹ tn Though the term “our” does not appear in the Greek text it is inserted to bring out the sense of the passage.

[1:9]  ³² tn Or “encourage.”

[1:9]  ³³ tn Or perhaps “an ambassador” (so RSV, TEV), reading πρεσβευτής for πρεσβύτης (a conjecture proposed by Bentley, cf. BDAG 863 s.v. πρεσβύτης). NRSV reads “old man” and places “ambassador” in a note.

[1:9]  ³⁴ tn Grk “a prisoner of Christ Jesus.”