Deuteronomy 23:9

Purity in Personal Hygiene

23:9 When you go out as an army against your enemies, guard yourselves against anything impure. ¹ 

Deuteronomy 23:2

23:2 A person of illegitimate birth ²  may not enter the assembly of the Lord; to the tenth generation no one related to him may do so. ³ 

Deuteronomy 28:10

28:10 Then all the peoples of the earth will see that you belong to the Lord, ⁴  and they will respect you.

Psalms 33:16

33:16 No king is delivered by his vast army;

a warrior is not saved by his great might.

Psalms 73:18-19

73:18 Surely ⁵  you put them in slippery places;

you bring them down ⁶  to ruin.

73:19 How desolate they become in a mere moment!

Terrifying judgments make their demise complete! ⁷ 

Psalms 77:19

77:19 You walked through the sea; ⁸ 

you passed through the surging waters, ⁹ 

but left no footprints. ¹⁰ 

Ecclesiastes 9:1-3

Everyone Will Die

9:1 So I reflected on all this, ¹¹  attempting to clear ¹²  it all up.

I concluded that ¹³  the righteous and the wise, as well as their works, are in the hand of God;

whether a person will be loved or hated ¹⁴  –

no one knows what lies ahead. ¹⁵ 

9:2 Everyone shares the same fate ¹⁶  –

the righteous and the wicked,

the good and the bad, ¹⁷ 

the ceremonially clean and unclean,

those who offer sacrifices and those who do not.

What happens to the good person, also happens to the sinner; ¹⁸ 

what happens to those who make vows, also happens to those who are afraid to make vows.

9:3 This is the unfortunate fact ¹⁹  about everything that happens on earth: ²⁰ 

the same fate awaits ²¹  everyone.

In addition to this, the hearts of all people ²²  are full of evil,

and there is folly in their hearts during their lives – then they die. ²³ 

Jeremiah 12:1

12:1 Lord, you have always been fair

whenever I have complained to you. ²⁴ 

However, I would like to speak with you about the disposition of justice. ²⁵ 

Why are wicked people successful? ²⁶ 

Why do all dishonest people have such easy lives?

[23:9]  ¹ tn Heb “evil.” The context makes clear that this is a matter of ritual impurity, not moral impurity, so it is “evil” in the sense that it disbars one from certain religious activity.

[23:2]  ² tn Or “a person born of an illegitimate marriage.”

[23:2]  ³ tn Heb “enter the assembly of the Lord.” The phrase “do so” has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[28:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “the name of the Lord is called over you.” The Hebrew idiom indicates ownership; see 2 Sam 12:28; Isa 4:1, as well as BDB 896 s.v. קָרָא Niph. 2.d.(4).

[73:18]  ⁵ tn The use of the Hebrew term אַךְ (’akh, “surely”) here literarily counteracts its use in v. 13. The repetition draws attention to the contrast between the two statements, the first of which expresses the psalmist’s earlier despair and the second his newly discovered confidence.

[73:18]  ⁶ tn Heb “cause them to fall.”

[73:19]  ⁷ tn Heb “they come to an end, they are finished, from terrors.”

[77:19]  ⁸ tn Heb “in the sea [was] your way.”

[77:19]  ⁹ tn Heb “and your paths [were] in the mighty waters.”

[77:19]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and your footprints were not known.”

[9:1]  ¹¹ tn Heb “I laid all this to my heart.”

[9:1]  ¹² tn The term וְלָבוּר (velavur, conjunction + Qal infinitive construct from בּוּר, bur, “to make clear”) denotes “to examine; to make clear; to clear up; to explain” (HALOT 116 s.v. בור; BDB 101 s.v. בּוּר). The term is related to Arabic baraw “to examine” (G. R. Driver, “Supposed Arabisms in the Old Testament,” JBL 55 [1936]: 108). This verb is related to the Hebrew noun בֹּר (bor, “cleanness”) and adjective בַּר (bar, “clean”). The term is used in the OT only in Ecclesiastes (1:13; 2:3; 7:25; 9:1). This use of the infinitive has a connotative sense (“attempting to”), and functions in a complementary sense, relative to the main verb.

[9:1]  ¹³ tn The words “I concluded that” do not appear in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[9:1]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “whether love or hatred.”

[9:1]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “man does not know anything before them.”

[9:2]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “all things just as to everyone, one fate.”

[9:2]  ¹⁷ tc The MT reads simply “the good,” but the Greek versions read “the good and the bad.” In contrast to the other four pairs in v. 2 (“the righteous and the wicked,” “those who sacrifice, and those who do not sacrifice,” “the good man…the sinner,” and “those who make vows…those who are afraid to make vows”), the MT has a triad in the second line: לַטּוֹב וְלַטָּהוֹר וְלַטָּמֵא (lattov vÿlattahor vÿlattame’, “the good, and the clean, and the unclean”). This reading in the Leningrad Codex (ca. a.d. 1008) – the basis of the BHS and BHK publications of the MT – is also supported by the Ben Asher text of the First Rabbinic Bible (“the Soncino Bible”) published in a.d. 1488-94. On the other hand, the Greek version in B (Aquila) has two pairs: τῷ ἀγαθῷ καὶ τῷ κακῷ, καὶ τῷ καθαρῷ καὶ τῷ ἀκαθάρτῳ (“the good and the bad, and the clean and the unclean”). Either Aquila inserted καὶ τῷ κακῷ (kai tw kakw, “and the bad”) to fill out a pair and to create six parallel pairs in v. 2, or Aquila reflects an early Hebrew textual tradition tradition of לַטּוֹב וְלַרָע (lattov vÿlara’, “the good and the bad”). Since Aquila is well known for his commitment to a literal – at times even a mechanically wooden – translation of the Hebrew, with no room for improvisation, it is more than likely that Aquila is reflecting an authentic Hebrew textual tradition. Aquila dates to a.d. 130, while the Leningrad Codex dates to a.d. 1008; therefore, the Vorlage of Aquila might have been the original Hebrew textual tradition, being much earlier than the MT of the Leningrad Codex. The alternate textual tradition of Aquila is also seen in the Syriac and Latin versions (but these are dependent upon the Greek = Aquila). On the other hand, the editors of BHK and BHS suggest that the presence of the anomalous לַטּוֹב was an addition to the Hebrew text, and should be deleted. They also suggest that the Greek pair τῷ ἀγαθῷ καὶ τῷ κακῷ (tw agaqw kai tw kakw, “the good and the bad”) does not reflect an alternate textual tradition, but that their Vorlage contained only לַטּוֹב: the Greek version intentionally added καὶ τῷ κακῷ (kai tw kakw, “and the bad”) to create a pair. The English versions are divided. Several follow the Greek: “the good and the bad, the clean and the unclean” (NEB, NAB, RSV, NRSV, NIV, Moffatt, NLT). Others follow the Hebrew: “the good and the clean and the unclean” (KJV, ASV, MLB, NJPS). None, however, delete “the good” (לַטּוֹב) as suggested by the BHK and BHS editors. If the shorter text were original, the addition of καὶ τῷ κακῷ would be intentional. If the longer text were original, the omission of וְלַרָע (“and the bad”) could have caused by unintentional homoioarcton (“similar beginning”) in the three-fold repetition of לט in וְלַרָע וְלַטָּהוֹר וְלַטָּמֵא לַטּוֹב (lattov vÿlara’ vÿlattahor vÿlattame’, “the good and the bad, the clean and the unclean”). The term וְלַרָע (“and the bad”) was accidentally omitted when a scribe skipped from the first occurrence of לט in לַטּוֹב to its second occurrence in the word וְלַטָּהוֹר (“the clean”).

[9:2]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “As is the good (man), so is the sinner.”

[9:3]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “evil.”

[9:3]  ²⁰ tn Heb “under the sun.”

[9:3]  ²¹ tn The term “awaits” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for smoothness and stylistic reasons.

[9:3]  ²² tn Heb “also the heart of the sons of man.” Here “heart” is a collective singular.

[9:3]  ²³ tn Heb “and after that [they go] to [the place of] the dead.”

[12:1]  ²⁴ tn Or “Lord, you are fair when I present my case before you.”

[12:1]  ²⁵ tn Heb “judgments” or “matters of justice.” For the nuance of “complain to,” “fair,” “disposition of justice” assumed here, see BDB 936 s.v. רִיב Qal.4 (cf. Judg 21:22); BDB 843 s.v. צַדִּיק 1.d (cf. Ps 7:12; 11:7); BDB 1049 s.v. מִשְׁפָּט 1.f (cf. Isa 26:8; Ps 10:5; Ezek 7:27).

[12:1]  ²⁶ tn Heb “Why does the way [= course of life] of the wicked prosper?”