Deuteronomy 19:16-21

19:16 If a false ¹  witness testifies against another person and accuses him of a crime, ²  19:17 then both parties to the controversy must stand before the Lord, that is, before the priests and judges ³  who will be in office in those days. 19:18 The judges will thoroughly investigate the matter, and if the witness should prove to be false and to have given false testimony against the accused, ⁴  19:19 you must do to him what he had intended to do to the accused. In this way you will purge ⁵  evil from among you. 19:20 The rest of the people will hear and become afraid to keep doing such evil among you. 19:21 You must not show pity; the principle will be a life for a life, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, and a foot for a foot. ⁶ 

Jude 1:7

1:7 So also ⁷  Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighboring towns, ⁸  since they indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire ⁹  in a way similar to ¹⁰  these angels, ¹¹  are now displayed as an example by suffering the punishment of eternal fire.

Esther 7:10

7:10 So they hanged Haman on the very gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. The king’s rage then abated.

Esther 9:25

9:25 But when the matter came to the king’s attention, the king ¹²  gave written orders that Haman’s ¹³  evil intentions that he had devised against the Jews should fall on his own head. He and his sons were hanged on the gallows.

Psalms 18:25-26

18:25 You prove to be loyal ¹⁴  to one who is faithful; ¹⁵ 

you prove to be trustworthy ¹⁶  to one who is innocent. ¹⁷ 

18:26 You prove to be reliable ¹⁸  to one who is blameless,

but you prove to be deceptive ¹⁹  to one who is perverse. ²⁰ 

Psalms 41:1-2

Psalm 41 ²¹ 

For the music director; a psalm of David.

41:1 How blessed ²²  is the one who treats the poor properly! ²³ 

When trouble comes, ²⁴  the Lord delivers him. ²⁵ 

41:2 May the Lord protect him and save his life! ²⁶ 

May he be blessed ²⁷  in the land!

Do not turn him over ²⁸  to his enemies! ²⁹ 

Matthew 7:2

7:2 For by the standard you judge you will be judged, and the measure you use will be the measure you receive. ³⁰ 

Mark 4:24

4:24 And he said to them, “Take care about what you hear. The measure you use will be the measure you receive, ³¹  and more will be added to you.

James 2:13

2:13 For judgment is merciless for the one who has shown no mercy. But mercy triumphs over ³²  judgment.

Revelation 16:5-6

16:5 Now ³³  I heard the angel of the waters saying:

“You are just ³⁴  – the one who is and who was,

the Holy One – because you have passed these judgments, ³⁵ 

16:6 because they poured out the blood of your saints and prophets,

so ³⁶  you have given them blood to drink. They got what they deserved!” ³⁷ 

[19:16]  ¹ tn Heb “violent” (חָמָס, khamas). This is a witness whose motivation from the beginning is to do harm to the accused and who, therefore, resorts to calumny and deceit. See I. Swart and C. VanDam, NIDOTTE 2:177-80.

[19:16]  ² tn Or “rebellion.” Rebellion against God’s law is in view (cf. NAB “of a defection from the law”).

[19:17]  ³ tn The appositional construction (“before the Lord, that is, before the priests and judges”) indicates that these human agents represented the Lord himself, that is, they stood in his place (cf. Deut 16:18-20; 17:8-9).

[19:18]  ⁴ tn Heb “his brother” (also in the following verse).

[19:19]  ⁵ tn Heb “you will burn out” (בִּעַרְתָּ, bi’arta). Like a cancer, unavenged sin would infect the whole community. It must, therefore, be excised by the purging out of its perpetrators who, presumably, remained unrepentant (cf. Deut 13:6; 17:7, 12; 21:21; 22:21-22, 24; 24:7).

[19:21]  ⁶ sn This kind of justice is commonly called lex talionis or “measure for measure” (cf. Exod 21:23-25; Lev 24:19-20). It is likely that it is the principle that is important and not always a strict application. That is, the punishment should fit the crime and it may do so by the payment of fines or other suitable and equitable compensation (cf. Exod 22:21; Num 35:31). See T. S. Frymer-Kensky, “Tit for Tat: The Principle of Equal Retribution in Near Eastern and Biblical Law,” BA 43 (1980): 230-34.

[1:7]  ⁷ tn Grk “as.”

[1:7]  ⁸ tn Grk “the towns [or cities] surrounding them.”

[1:7]  ⁹ tn Grk “strange flesh.” This phrase has been variously interpreted. It could refer to flesh of another species (such as angels lusting after human flesh). This would aptly describe the sin of the angels, but not easily explain the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah. It could refer to the homosexual practices of the Sodomites, but a difficulty arises from the use of ἕτερος ({etero"; “strange,” “other”). When this is to be distinguished from ἄλλος (allos, “another”) it suggests “another of a different kind.” If so, would that properly describe homosexual behavior? In response, the language could easily be compact: “pursued flesh other than what was normally pursued.” However, would this find an analogy in the lust of angels (such would imply that angels normally had sexual relations of some sort, but cf. Matt 22:30)? Another alternative is that the focus of the parallel is on the activity of the surrounding cities and the activity of the angels. This is especially plausible since the participles ἐκπορνεύσασαι (ekporneusasai, “having indulged in sexual immorality”) and ἀπελθοῦσαι (apelqousai, “having pursued”) have concord with “cities” (πόλεις, poleis), a feminine plural noun, rather than with Sodom and Gomorrah (both masculine nouns). If so, then their sin would not necessarily have to be homosexuality. However, most likely the feminine participles are used because of constructio ad sensum (construction according to sense). That is, since both Sodom and Gomorrah are cities, the feminine is used to imply that all the cities are involved. The connection with angels thus seems to be somewhat loose: Both angels and Sodom and Gomorrah indulged in heinous sexual immorality. Thus, whether the false teachers indulge in homosexual activity is not the point; mere sexual immorality is enough to condemn them.

[1:7]  ¹⁰ tn Or “in the same way as.”

[1:7]  ¹¹ tn “Angels” is not in the Greek text; but the masculine demonstrative pronoun most likely refers back to the angels of v. 6.

[9:25]  ¹² tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[9:25]  ¹³ tn Heb “his”; the referent (Haman) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[18:25]  ¹⁴ tn The imperfect verbal forms in vv. 25-29 draw attention to God’s characteristic actions. Based on his experience, the psalmist generalizes about God’s just dealings with people (vv. 25-27) and about the way in which God typically empowers him on the battlefield (vv. 28-29). The Hitpael stem is used in vv. 26-27 in a reflexive resultative (or causative) sense. God makes himself loyal, etc. in the sense that he conducts or reveals himself as such. On this use of the Hitpael stem, see GKC 149-50 §54.e.

[18:25]  ¹⁵ tn Or “to a faithful follower.” A “faithful follower” (חָסִיד, khasid) is one who does what is right in God’s eyes and remains faithful to God (see Pss 4:3; 12:1; 16:10; 31:23; 37:28; 86:2; 97:10).

[18:25]  ¹⁶ tn Or “innocent.”

[18:25]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “a man of innocence.”

[18:26]  ¹⁸ tn Or “blameless.”

[18:26]  ¹⁹ tn The Hebrew verb פָתַל (patal) is used in only three other texts. In Gen 30:8 it means literally “to wrestle,” or “to twist.” In Job 5:13 it refers to devious individuals, and in Prov 8:8 to deceptive words.

[18:26]  ²⁰ tn The adjective עִקֵּשׁ (’iqqesh) has the basic nuance “twisted, crooked,” and by extension refers to someone or something that is morally perverse. It appears frequently in Proverbs, where it is used of evil people (22:5), speech (8:8; 19:1), thoughts (11:20; 17:20), and life styles (2:15; 28:6). A righteous king opposes such people (Ps 101:4).

[41:1]  ²¹ sn Psalm 41. The psalmist is confident (vv. 11-12) that the Lord has heard his request to be healed (vv. 4-10), and he anticipates the joy he will experience when the Lord intervenes (vv. 1-3). One must assume that the psalmist is responding to a divine oracle of assurance (see P. C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 [WBC], 319-20). The final verse is a fitting conclusion to this psalm, but it is also serves as a fitting conclusion to the first “book” (or major editorial division) of the Psalter. Similar statements appear at or near the end of each of the second, third, and fourth “books” of the Psalter (see Pss 72:19, 89:52, and 106:48 respectively).

[41:1]  ²² tn The Hebrew noun is an abstract plural. The word often refers metonymically to the happiness that God-given security and prosperity produce (see Pss 1:1, 3; 2:12; 34:9; 65:4; 84:12; 89:15; 106:3; 112:1; 127:5; 128:1; 144:15).

[41:1]  ²³ sn One who treats the poor properly. The psalmist is characterizing himself as such an individual and supplying a reason why God has responded favorably to his prayer. The Lord’s attitude toward the merciful mirrors their treatment of the poor.

[41:1]  ²⁴ tn Heb “in the day of trouble” (see Ps 27:5).

[41:1]  ²⁵ tn That is, the one who has been kind to the poor. The prefixed verbal form could be taken as jussive of prayer (“may the Lord deliver,” see v. 2), but the preceding parallel line is a declaration of fact, not a prayer per se. The imperfect can be taken here as future (“will deliver,” cf. NEB, NASB) or as generalizing (“delivers,” cf. NIV, NRSV). The parallel line, which has a generalizing tone, favors the latter. At the same time, though the psalmist uses a generalizing style here, he clearly has himself primarily in view.

[41:2]  ²⁶ tn The prefixed verbal forms are taken as jussives in the translation because the jussive is clearly used in the final line of the verse, suggesting that this is a prayer. The psalmist stops to pronounce a prayer of blessing on the godly individual envisioned in v. 1. Of course, he actually has himself primarily in view. He mixes confidence (vv. 1, 3) with petition (v. 2) because he stands in the interval between the word of assurance and the actual intervention by God.

[41:2]  ²⁷ tc The translation follows the consonantal Hebrew text (Kethib), which has a Pual (passive) prefixed form, regarded here as a jussive. The Pual of the verb אָשַׁר (’ashar) also appears in Prov 3:18. The marginal reading (Qere) assumes a vav (ו) consecutive and Pual perfect. Some, with the support of the LXX, change the verb to a Piel (active) form with an objective pronominal suffix, “and may he bless him,” or “and he will bless him” (cf. NIV).

[41:2]  ²⁸ tn The negative particle אַל (’al) before the prefixed verbal form indicates the verb is a jussive and the statement a prayer. Those who want to take v. 2 as a statement of confidence suggest emending the negative particle to לֹא (lo’), which is used with the imperfect. See the earlier note on the verbal forms in line one of this verse. According to GKC 322 §109.e, this is a case where the jussive is used rhetorically to “express that something cannot or should not happen.” In this case one might translate, “you will not turn him over to his enemies,” and take the preceding verbal forms as indicative in mood.

[41:2]  ²⁹ tn Heb “do not give him over to the desire of his enemies” (see Ps 27:12).

[7:2]  ³⁰ tn Grk “by [the measure] with which you measure it will be measured to you.”

[4:24]  ³¹ tn Grk “by [the measure] with which you measure it will be measured to you.”

[2:13]  ³² tn Grk “boasts against, exults over,” in victory.

[16:5]  ³³ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the somewhat parenthetical nature of the remarks that follow.

[16:5]  ³⁴ tn Or “righteous,” although the context favors justice as the theme.

[16:5]  ³⁵ tn Or “because you have judged these things.” The pronoun ταῦτα (tauta) is neuter gender.

[16:6]  ³⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate that this judgment is the result of what these wicked people did to the saints and prophets.

[16:6]  ³⁷ tn Grk “They are worthy”; i.e., of this kind of punishment. By extension, “they got what they deserve.”