2 Kings 7:4

7:4 If we go into the city, we’ll die of starvation, ¹  and if we stay here we’ll die! So come on, let’s defect ²  to the Syrian camp! If they spare us, ³  we’ll live; if they kill us – well, we were going to die anyway.” ⁴ 

Esther 4:16

4:16 “Go, assemble all the Jews who are found in Susa and fast in my behalf. Don’t eat and don’t drink for three days, night or day. My female attendants and I ⁵  will also fast in the same way. Afterward I will go to the king, even though it violates the law. ⁶  If I perish, I perish!”

Job 2:4

2:4 But ⁷  Satan answered the Lord, “Skin for ⁸  skin! ⁹  Indeed, a man will give up ¹⁰  all that he has to save his life! ¹¹ 

Matthew 10:28

10:28 Do ¹²  not be afraid of those who kill the body ¹³  but cannot kill the soul. Instead, fear the one who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. ¹⁴ 

[7:4]  ¹ tn Heb “If we say, ‘We will enter the city,’ the famine is in the city and we will die there.”

[7:4]  ² tn Heb “fall.”

[7:4]  ³ tn Heb “keep us alive.”

[7:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “we will die.” The paraphrastic translation attempts to bring out the logical force of their reasoning.

[4:16]  ⁵ tn Heb “I and my female attendants.” The translation reverses the order for stylistic reasons.

[4:16]  ⁶ tn Heb “which is not according to the law” (so KJV, NASB); NAB “contrary to the law.”

[2:4]  ⁷ tn The form is the simply preterite with the vav (ו) consecutive. However, the speech of Satan is in contrast to what God said, even though in narrative sequence.

[2:4]  ⁸ tn The preposition בְּעַד (bÿ’ad) designates interest or advantage arising from the idea of protection for (“for the benefit of”); see IBHS 201-2 §11.2.7a.

[2:4]  ⁹ sn The meaning of the expression is obscure. It may come from the idea of sacrificing an animal or another person in order to go free, suggesting the expression that one type of skin that was worth less was surrendered to save the more important life. Satan would then be saying that Job was willing for others to die for him to go free, but not himself. “Skin” would be a synecdoche of the part for the whole (like the idiomatic use of skin today for a person in a narrow escape). The second clause indicates that God has not even scratched the surface because Job has been protected. His “skin” might have been scratched, but not his flesh and bone! But if his life had been put in danger, he would have responded differently.

[2:4]  ¹⁰ tc The LXX has “make full payment, pay a full price” (LSJ 522 s.v. ἐκτίνω).

[2:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Indeed, all that a man has he will give for his life.”

[10:28]  ¹² tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

[10:28]  ¹³ sn Judaism had a similar exhortation in 4 Macc 13:14-15.

[10:28]  ¹⁴ sn See the note on the word hell in 5:22.