Deuteronomy 4:27-28

4:27 Then the Lord will scatter you among the peoples and there will be very few of you ¹  among the nations where the Lord will drive you. 4:28 There you will worship gods made by human hands – wood and stone that can neither see, hear, eat, nor smell.

Joshua 22:25-27

22:25 The Lord made the Jordan a boundary between us and you Reubenites and Gadites. You have no right to worship the Lord.’ ²  In this way your descendants might cause our descendants to stop obeying ³  the Lord. 22:26 So we decided to build this altar, not for burnt offerings and sacrifices, 22:27 but as a reminder to us and you, ⁴  and to our descendants who follow us, that we will honor the Lord in his very presence ⁵  with burnt offerings, sacrifices, and tokens of peace. ⁶  Then in the future your descendants will not be able to say to our descendants, ‘You have no right to worship the Lord.’ ⁷ 

Psalms 42:1-2

Book 2
(Psalms 42-72)

Psalm 42 ⁸ 

For the music director; a well-written song ⁹  by the Korahites.

42:1 As a deer ¹⁰  longs ¹¹  for streams of water,

so I long ¹²  for you, O God!

42:2 I thirst ¹³  for God,

for the living God.

I say, ¹⁴  “When will I be able to go and appear in God’s presence?” ¹⁵ 

Psalms 120:5

120:5 How miserable I am! ¹⁶ 

For I have lived temporarily ¹⁷  in Meshech;

I have resided among the tents of Kedar. ¹⁸ 

Isaiah 60:5

60:5 Then you will look and smile, ¹⁹ 

you will be excited and your heart will swell with pride. ²⁰ 

For the riches of distant lands ²¹  will belong to you

and the wealth of nations will come to you.

Romans 14:15

14:15 For if your brother or sister ²²  is distressed because of what you eat, ²³  you are no longer walking in love. ²⁴  Do not destroy by your food someone for whom Christ died.

[4:27]  ¹ tn Heb “you will be left men (i.e., few) of number.”

[22:25]  ² tn Heb “You have no portion in the Lord.”

[22:25]  ³ tn Heb “fearing.”

[22:27]  ⁴ tn Heb “but it is a witness between us and you.”

[22:27]  ⁵ tn Heb “to do the service of the Lord before him.”

[22:27]  ⁶ tn Or “peace offerings.”

[22:27]  ⁷ tn Heb “You have no portion in the Lord.”

[42:1]  ⁸ sn Psalm 42. The psalmist recalls how he once worshiped in the Lord’s temple, but laments that he is now oppressed by enemies in a foreign land. Some medieval Hebrew mss combine Psalms 42 and 43 into a single psalm.

[42:1]  ⁹ tn The meaning of the Hebrew term מַשְׂכִּיל (maskil) is uncertain. The word is derived from a verb meaning “to be prudent; to be wise.” Various options are: “a contemplative song,” “a song imparting moral wisdom,” or “a skillful [i.e., well-written] song.” The term occurs in the superscriptions of Pss 32, 42, 44, 45, 52-55, 74, 78, 88, 89, and 142, as well as in Ps 47:7.

[42:1]  ¹⁰ tn Since the accompanying verb is feminine in form, the noun אָיִּל (’ayyil, “male deer”) should be emended to אַיֶּלֶת (’ayyelet, “female deer”). Haplography of the letter tav has occurred; note that the following verb begins with tav.

[42:1]  ¹¹ tn Or “pants [with thirst].”

[42:1]  ¹² tn Or “my soul pants [with thirst].” The Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) with a pronominal suffix is often equivalent to a pronoun, especially in poetry (see BDB 660 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ 4.a).

[42:2]  ¹³ tn Or “my soul thirsts.”

[42:2]  ¹⁴ tn The words “I say” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons and for clarification.

[42:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “When will I go and appear [to] the face of God?” Some emend the Niphal verbal form אֵרָאֶה (’era’eh, “I will appear”) to a Qal אֶרְאֶה (’er’eh, “I will see”; see Gen 33:10), but the Niphal can be retained if one understands ellipsis of אֶת (’et) before “face” (see Exod 34:24; Deut 31:11).

[120:5]  ¹⁶ tn Or “woe to me.” The Hebrew term אוֹיָה (’oyah, “woe”) which occurs only here, is an alternate form of אוֹי (’oy).

[120:5]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “I live as a resident alien.”

[120:5]  ¹⁸ sn Meshech was located in central Anatolia (modern Turkey). Kedar was located in the desert to east-southeast of Israel. Because of the reference to Kedar, it is possible that Ps 120:5 refers to a different Meshech, perhaps one associated with the individual mentioned as a descendant of Aram in 1 Chr 1:17. (However, the LXX in 1 Chr 1:17 follows the parallel text in Gen 10:23, which reads “Mash,” not Meshech.) It is, of course, impossible that the psalmist could have been living in both the far north and the east at the same time. For this reason one must assume that he is recalling his experience as a wanderer among the nations or that he is using the geographical terms metaphorically and sarcastically to suggest that the enemies who surround him are like the barbarians who live in these distant regions. For a discussion of the problem, see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 146.

[60:5]  ¹⁹ tn Or “shine,” or “be radiant” (NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[60:5]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and it will tremble and be wide, your heart.”

[60:5]  ²¹ tn Heb “the wealth of the sea,” i.e., wealth that is transported from distant lands via the sea.

[14:15]  ²² tn Grk “brother.”

[14:15]  ²³ tn Grk “on account of food.”

[14:15]  ²⁴ tn Grk “according to love.”