Deuteronomy 28:6

28:6 You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out. ¹ 

Deuteronomy 28:19

28:19 You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out. ² 

Deuteronomy 28:2

28:2 All these blessings will come to you in abundance ³  if you obey the Lord your God:

Deuteronomy 5:2

5:2 The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Horeb.

Ezra 8:21

8:21 I called for a fast there by the Ahava Canal, so that we might humble ourselves before our God and seek from him a safe journey ⁴  for us, our children, and all our property.

Ezra 8:31

8:31 On the twelfth day of the first month we began traveling from the Ahava Canal to go to Jerusalem. The hand of our God was on us, and he delivered us from our enemy and from bandits ⁵  along the way.

Proverbs 2:8

2:8 to guard ⁶  the paths of the righteous ⁷ 

and to protect ⁸  the way of his pious ones. ⁹ 

Proverbs 3:6

3:6 Acknowledge ¹⁰  him in all your ways, ¹¹ 

and he will make your paths straight. ¹² 

James 4:13-16

4:13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into this or that town ¹³  and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.” 4:14 You ¹⁴  do not know about tomorrow. What is your life like? ¹⁵  For you are a puff of smoke ¹⁶  that appears for a short time and then vanishes. 4:15 You ought to say instead, ¹⁷  “If the Lord is willing, then we will live and do this or that.” 4:16 But as it is, ¹⁸  you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.

[28:6]  ¹ sn Come in…go out. To “come in” and “go out” is a figure of speech (merism) indicating all of life and its activities.

[28:19]  ² sn See note on the similar expression in v. 6.

[28:2]  ³ tn Heb “come upon you and overtake you” (so NASB, NRSV); NIV “come upon you and accompany you.”

[8:21]  ⁴ tn Heb “a straight way.”

[8:31]  ⁵ tn Heb “from the hand of the enemy and the one who lies in wait.” Some modern English versions render the latter phrase as “ambushes” (cf. NASB, NRSV).

[2:8]  ⁶ tn The infinitive construct לִנְצֹר (lintsor, “to guard”) designates the purpose of the Lord giving “effective counsel” and being a “shield” to the upright. The verb נָצַר (natsar, “to guard”) has a broad range of meanings: (1) to watch over, guard or protect a vineyard from theft (Prov 27:18); (2) to guard one’s lips or heart from evil (Prov 4:23; 13:3); (3) to protect a person from moral or physical danger (Prov 2:8, 11; 4:6; 13:6; 20:28; 22:12; 24:12) and (4) to guard with fidelity = to observe commands, law or covenant (Prov 3:1, 21; 4:13; 5:2; 6:20; 28:7; see BDB 665-66 s.v.). Here God guards the way of the just, that is, the course and conduct of life from the influence of evil.

[2:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “paths of righteousness.” The word “righteousness” is a possessive genitive, signifying the ways that the righteous take.

[2:8]  ⁸ tn The imperfect tense verb יִשְׁמֹר (yishmor, “to protect”) continues the syntactical nuance of the preceding infinitive construct of purpose.

[2:8]  ⁹ tc The Kethib is the singular noun + 3rd person masculine singular suffix חֲסִידוֹ (khasido) “his pious one.” The Qere reads the plural noun + 3rd person masculine singular suffix חֲסִידָיו (khasidav) “his pious ones.” The LXX εὐλαβουμένων αὐτόν (eujlaboumenwn aujton) supports the Qere reading.

[3:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “know him.” The verb יָדַע (yadah, “to know”) includes mental awareness of who God is and the consequential submission to his lordship. To know him is to obey him. The sage is calling for a life of trust and obedience in which the disciple sees the Lord in every event and relies on him. To acknowledge the Lord in every event means trusting and obeying him for guidance in right conduct.

[3:6]  ¹¹ tn The term דֶרֶךְ (derekh, “way”) is figurative (hypocatastasis: implied comparison) referring to a person’s course of life, actions and undertakings (Prov 2:8; 3:6, 23; 11:5; 20:24; 29:27; 31:3; BDB 203 s.v. 5; cf. TEV “in everything you do”; NCV, NLT “in all you do”). This is a call for total commitment in trust for obedience in all things.

[3:6]  ¹² tn The verb יָשָׁר (yashar) means “to make smooth; to make straight” (BDB 444 s.v.). This phrase means “to make the way free from obstacles,” that is, to make it successful (e.g., Isa 40:3). The straight, even road is the right road; God will make the way smooth for the believer.

[4:13]  ¹³ tn Or “city.”

[4:14]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “who” (continuing the description of the people of v. 13). Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[4:14]  ¹⁵ tn Or “you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow.”

[4:14]  ¹⁶ tn Or “a vapor.” The Greek word ἀτμίς (atmis) denotes a swirl of smoke arising from a fire (cf. Gen 19:28; Lev 16:13; Joel 2:30 [Acts 2:19]; Ezek 8:11).

[4:15]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “instead of your saying.”

[4:16]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “but now.”