Deuteronomy 32:35

32:35 I will get revenge and pay them back

at the time their foot slips;

for the day of their disaster is near,

and the impending judgment ¹  is rushing upon them!”

Job 31:13-14

31:13 “If I have disregarded the right of my male servants

or my female servants

when they disputed ²  with me,

31:14 then what will I do when God confronts me in judgment; ³ 

when he intervenes, ⁴ 

how will I respond to him?

Psalms 94:1

Psalm 94 ⁵ 

94:1 O Lord, the God who avenges!

O God who avenges, reveal your splendor! ⁶ 

Psalms 140:12

140:12 I know ⁷  that the Lord defends the cause of the oppressed

and vindicates the poor. ⁸ 

Proverbs 22:22-23

22:22 Do not exploit ⁹  a poor person because he is poor

and do not crush the needy in court, ¹⁰ 

22:23 for the Lord will plead their case ¹¹ 

and will rob those who are robbing ¹²  them.

Ecclesiastes 5:8

Government Corruption

5:8 If you see the extortion ¹³  of the poor,

or the perversion ¹⁴  of justice and fairness in the government, ¹⁵ 

do not be astonished by the matter.

For the high official is watched by a higher official, ¹⁶ 

and there are higher ones over them! ¹⁷ 

Isaiah 1:23-24

1:23 Your officials are rebels, ¹⁸ 

they associate with ¹⁹  thieves.

All of them love bribery,

and look for ²⁰  payoffs. ²¹ 

They do not take up the cause of the orphan, ²² 

or defend the rights of the widow. ²³ 

1:24 Therefore, the sovereign Lord who commands armies, ²⁴ 

the powerful ruler of Israel, ²⁵  says this:

“Ah, I will seek vengeance ²⁶  against my adversaries,

I will take revenge against my enemies. ²⁷ 

Romans 1:18

The Condemnation of the Unrighteous

1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of people ²⁸  who suppress the truth by their ²⁹  unrighteousness, ³⁰ 

Romans 12:19

12:19 Do not avenge yourselves, dear friends, but give place to God’s wrath, ³¹  for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay,” ³²  says the Lord.

Ephesians 5:6

Live in the Light

5:6 Let nobody deceive you with empty words, for because of these things God’s wrath comes on the sons of disobedience. ³³ 

Ephesians 5:2

5:2 and live ³⁴  in love, just as Christ also loved us ³⁵  and gave himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering ³⁶  to God.

Ephesians 1:8

1:8 that he lavished on us in all wisdom and insight.

[32:35]  ¹ tn Heb “prepared things,” “impending things.” See BDB 800 s.v. עָתִיד.

[31:13]  ² tn This construction is an adverbial clause using the temporal preposition, the infinitive from רִיב (riv, “contend”), and the suffix which is the subjective genitive.

[31:14]  ³ tn Heb “arises.” The LXX reads “takes vengeance,” an interpretation that is somewhat correct but unnecessary. The verb “to rise” would mean “to confront in judgment.”

[31:14]  ⁴ tn The verb פָקַד (paqad) means “to visit,” but with God as the subject it means any divine intervention for blessing or cursing, anything God does that changes a person’s life. Here it is “visit to judge.”

[94:1]  ⁵ sn Psalm 94. The psalmist asks God to judge the wicked and affirms his confidence in God’s justice.

[94:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “shine forth” (see Pss 50:2; 80:1).

[140:12]  ⁷ tc The translation follows the Qere and many medieval Hebrew mss in reading a first person verb form here. The Kethib reads the second person.

[140:12]  ⁸ tn Heb “and the just cause of the poor.”

[22:22]  ⁹ tn Two negated jussives form the instruction here: אַל־תִּגְזָל (’al-tigzal, “do not exploit”) and וְאַל־תְּדַכֵּא (ve’al-tÿdakke’, “do not crush”).

[22:22]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “in the gate” (so KJV); NAB, NASB, NRSV “at the gate.” The “gate” of the city was the center of activity, the place of business as well as the place for settling legal disputes. The language of the next verse suggests a legal setting, so “court” is an appropriate translation here.

[22:23]  ¹¹ tn The construction uses the verb יָרִיב (yariv) with its cognate accusative. It can mean “to strive,” but here it probably means “to argue a case, plead a case” (cf. KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV). How the Lord will do this is not specified – either through righteous people or by direct intervention.

[22:23]  ¹² tn The verb קָבַע (qava’, “to rob; to spoil; to plunder”) is used here in both places to reflect the principle of talionic justice. What the oppressors did to the poor will be turned back on them by the Lord.

[5:8]  ¹³ tn Alternately, “oppression.” The term עֹשֶׁק (’osheq) has a basic two-fold range of meaning: (1) “oppression; brutality” (e.g., Isa 54:14); and (2) “extortion” (e.g., Ps 62:11); see HALOT 897 s.v. עֹשֶׁק; BDB 799 s.v. עֹשֶׁק. The LXX understands the term as “oppression,” as the translation συκοφαντίαν (sukofantian, “oppression”) indicates. Likewise, HALOT 897 s.v. עֹשֶׁק 1 classifies this usage as “oppression” against the poor. However, the context of 5:8-9 [7-8 HT] focuses on corrupt government officials robbing people of the fruit of their labor through extortion and the perversion of justice.

[5:8]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “robbery.” The noun גֵזֶל (gezel, “robbery”) refers to the wrestling away of righteousness or the perversion of justice (HALOT 186 s.v. גֵּזֶל). The related forms of the root גזל mean “to rob; to loot” (HALOT 186 s.v. גֵּזֶל). The term “robbery” is used as a figure for the perversion of justice (hypocatastasis): just as a thief robs his victims through physical violence, so corrupt government officials “rob” the poor through the perversion of justice.

[5:8]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “in the province.”

[5:8]  ¹⁶ tn The word “official” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[5:8]  ¹⁷ sn And there are higher ones over them! This may describe a corrupt system of government in which each level of hierarchy exploits its subordinates, all the way down to the peasants: “Set in authority over the people is an official who enriches himself at their expense; he is watched by a more authoritative governor who also has his share of the spoils; and above them are other officers of the State who likewise have to be satisfied”; see A. Cohen, The Five Megilloth (SoBB), 141.

[1:23]  ¹⁸ tn Or “stubborn”; CEV “have rejected me.”

[1:23]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and companions of” (so KJV, NASB); CEV “friends of crooks.”

[1:23]  ²⁰ tn Heb “pursue”; NIV “chase after gifts.”

[1:23]  ²¹ sn Isaiah may have chosen the word for gifts (שַׁלְמוֹנִים, shalmonim; a hapax legomena here), as a sarcastic pun on what these rulers should have been doing. Instead of attending to peace and wholeness (שָׁלוֹם, shalom), they sought after payoffs (שַׁלְמוֹנִים).

[1:23]  ²² sn See the note at v. 17.

[1:23]  ²³ sn The rich oppressors referred to in Isaiah and the other eighth century prophets were not rich capitalists in the modern sense of the word. They were members of the royal military and judicial bureaucracies in Israel and Judah. As these bureaucracies grew, they acquired more and more land and gradually commandeered the economy and legal system. At various administrative levels bribery and graft become commonplace. The common people outside the urban administrative centers were vulnerable to exploitation in such a system, especially those, like widows and orphans, who had lost their family provider through death. Through confiscatory taxation, conscription, excessive interest rates, and other oppressive governmental measures and policies, they were gradually disenfranchised and lost their landed property, and with it, their rights as citizens. The socio-economic equilibrium envisioned in the law of Moses was radically disturbed.

[1:24]  ²⁴ tn Heb “the master, the Lord who commands armies [traditionally, the Lord of hosts].” On the title “the Lord who commands armies,” see the note at v. 9.

[1:24]  ²⁵ tn Heb “the powerful [one] of Israel.”

[1:24]  ²⁶ tn Heb “console myself” (i.e., by getting revenge); NRSV “pour out my wrath on.”

[1:24]  ²⁷ sn The Lord here identifies with the oppressed and comes as their defender and vindicator.

[1:18]  ²⁸ tn The genitive ἀνθρώπων could be taken as an attributed genitive, in which case the phase should be translated “against all ungodly and unrighteous people” (cf. “the truth of God” in v. 25 which is also probably an attributed genitive). C. E. B. Cranfield takes the section 1:18-32 to refer to all people (not just Gentiles), while 2:1-3:20 points out that the Jew is no exception (Romans [ICC], 1:104-6; 1:137-38).

[1:18]  ²⁹ tn “Their” is implied in the Greek, but is supplied because of English style.

[1:18]  ³⁰ tn Or “by means of unrighteousness.” Grk “in (by) unrighteousness.”

[12:19]  ³¹ tn Grk “the wrath,” referring to God’s wrath as the remainder of the verse shows.

[12:19]  ³² sn A quotation from Deut 32:35.

[5:6]  ³³ sn The expression sons of disobedience is a Semitic idiom that means “people characterized by disobedience.” In this context it refers to “all those who are disobedient.” Cf. Eph 2:2-3.

[5:2]  ³⁴ tn Grk “walk.” The NT writers often used the verb “walk” (περιπατέω, peripatew) to refer to ethical conduct (cf. Rom 8:4; Gal 5:16; Col 4:5).

[5:2]  ³⁵ tc A number of important witnesses have ὑμᾶς (Jumas, “you”; e.g., א* A B P 0159 81 1175 al it co as well as several fathers). Other, equally important witnesses read ἡμᾶς (Jhmas, “us”; Ì⁴⁶ א² D F G Ψ 0278 33 1739 1881 al lat sy). It is possible that ἡμᾶς was accidentally introduced via homoioarcton with the previous word (ἠγάπησεν, hgaphsen). On the other hand, ὑμᾶς may have been motivated by the preceding ὑμῖν (Jumin) in 4:32 and second person verbs in 5:1, 2. Further, the flow of argument seems to require the first person pronoun. A decision is difficult to make, but the first person pronoun has a slightly greater probability of being original.

[5:2]  ³⁶ tn Grk “an offering and sacrifice to God as a smell of fragrance.” The first expression, προσφορὰν καὶ θυσίαν (prosforan kai qusian), is probably a hendiadys and has been translated such that “sacrificial” modifies “offering.” The second expression, εἰς ὀσμὴν εὐωδίας (ei" osmhn euwdia", “as a smell of fragrance”) has been translated as “a fragrant offering”; see BDAG 728-29 s.v. ὀσμή 2. Putting these two together in a clear fashion in English yields the translation: “a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God.”