2 Chronicles 16:9

16:9 Certainly ¹  the Lord watches the whole earth carefully ²  and is ready to strengthen those who are devoted to him. ³  You have acted foolishly in this matter; from now on you will have war.

Proverbs 15:3

15:3 The eyes of the Lord ⁴  are in every place,

keeping watch ⁵  on those who are evil and those who are good.

Zechariah 4:10

4:10 For who dares make light of small beginnings? These seven eyes ⁶  will joyfully look on the tin tablet ⁷  in Zerubbabel’s hand. (These are the eyes of the Lord, which constantly range across the whole earth.)

Revelation 5:6

5:6 Then ⁸  I saw standing in the middle of the throne ⁹  and of the four living creatures, and in the middle of the elders, a Lamb that appeared to have been killed. ¹⁰  He had ¹¹  seven horns and seven eyes, which ¹²  are the seven ¹³  spirits of God ¹⁴  sent out into all the earth.

[16:9]  ¹ tn Or “for.”

[16:9]  ² tn Heb “the eyes of the Lord move quickly through all the earth.”

[16:9]  ³ tn Heb “to strengthen himself with their heart, [the one] complete toward him.”

[15:3]  ⁴ sn The proverb uses anthropomorphic language to describe God’s exacting and evaluating knowledge of all people.

[15:3]  ⁵ tn The form צֹפוֹת (tsofot, “watching”) is a feminine plural participle agreeing with “eyes.” God’s watching eyes comfort good people but convict evil.

[4:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “these seven.” Eyes are clearly intended in the ellipsis as v. 10b shows. As in 3:9 the idea is God’s omniscience. He who knows the end from the beginning rejoices at the completion of his purposes.

[4:10]  ⁷ tn This term is traditionally translated “plumb line” (so NASB, NIV, NLT; cf. KJV, NRSV “plummet”), but it is more likely that the Hebrew בְּדִיל (bÿdil) is to be derived not from בָּדַל (badal), “to divide,” but from a root meaning “tin.” This finds support in the ancient Near Eastern custom of placing inscriptions on tin plates in dedicatory foundation deposits.

[5:6]  ⁸ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.

[5:6]  ⁹ tn Perhaps, “in the middle of the throne area” (see L&N 83.10).

[5:6]  ¹⁰ tn Or “slaughtered”; traditionally, “slain.” The phrase behind this translation is ὡς ἐσφαγμένον (Jw" ejsfagmenon). The particle ὡς is used in Greek generally for comparison, and in Revelation it is used often to describe the appearance of what the author saw. This phrase does not imply that the Lamb “appeared to have been killed” but in reality was not, because the wider context of the NT shows that in fact the Lamb, i.e., Jesus, was killed. See 13:3 for the only other occurrence of this phrase in the NT.

[5:6]  ¹¹ tn Grk “killed, having.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation by supplying the pronoun “he.”

[5:6]  ¹² sn The relative pronoun which is masculine, referring back to the eyes rather than to the horns.

[5:6]  ¹³ tc There is good ms evidence for the inclusion of “seven” (ἑπτά, Jepta; ̲⁴ א 2053 2351 Ï^K). There is equally good ms support for the omission of the term (A 1006 1611 Ï^A pc). It may have been accidentally added due to its repeated presence in the immediately preceding phrases, or it may have been intentionally added to maintain the symmetry of the phrases or more likely to harmonize the phrase with 1:4; 3:1; 4:5. Or it may have been accidentally deleted by way of homoioteleuton (τὰ ἑπτά, ta Jepta). A decision is difficult in this instance. NA²⁷ also does not find the problem easy to solve, placing the word in brackets to indicate doubts as to its authenticity.

[5:6]  ¹⁴ sn See the note on the phrase the seven spirits of God in Rev 4:5.