Deuteronomy 17:17

17:17 Furthermore, he must not marry many ¹  wives lest his affections turn aside, and he must not accumulate much silver and gold.

Deuteronomy 17:1

17:1 You must not sacrifice to him ²  a bull or sheep that has a blemish or any other defect, because that is considered offensive ³  to the Lord your God.

Deuteronomy 11:2

11:2 Bear in mind today that I am not speaking ⁴  to your children who have not personally experienced the judgments ⁵  of the Lord your God, which revealed ⁶  his greatness, strength, and power. ⁷ 

Proverbs 1:32

1:32 For the waywardness ⁸  of the

simpletons will kill ⁹  them,

and the careless ease ¹⁰  of fools will destroy them.

Proverbs 14:14

14:14 The backslider ¹¹  will be paid back ¹²  from his own ways,

but a good person will be rewarded ¹³  for his.

Proverbs 14:2

14:2 The one who walks in his uprightness fears the Lord, ¹⁴ 

but the one who is perverted in his ways ¹⁵  despises him.

Proverbs 4:4

4:4 he taught me, and he said to me:

“Let your heart lay hold of my words;

keep my commands so that ¹⁶  you will live.

Hebrews 3:12

3:12 See to it, ¹⁷  brothers and sisters, ¹⁸  that none of you has ¹⁹  an evil, unbelieving heart that forsakes ²⁰  the living God. ²¹ 

Hebrews 12:25

12:25 Take care not to refuse the one who is speaking! For if they did not escape when they refused the one who warned them on earth, how much less shall we, if we reject the one who warns from heaven?

[17:17]  ¹ tn Heb “must not multiply” (cf. KJV, NASB); NLT “must not take many.”

[17:1]  ² tn Heb “to the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in 16:1.

[17:1]  ³ tn The Hebrew word תּוֹעֵבָה (to’evah, “an abomination”; cf. NAB) describes persons, things, or practices offensive to ritual or moral order. See M. Grisanti, NIDOTTE 4:314-18; see also the note on the word “abhorrent” in Deut 7:25.

[11:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “that not.” The words “I am speaking” have been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[11:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “who have not known and who have not seen the discipline of the Lord.” The collocation of the verbs “know” and “see” indicates that personal experience (knowing by seeing) is in view. The term translated “discipline” (KJV, ASV “chastisement”) may also be rendered “instruction,” but vv. 2b-6 indicate that the referent of the term is the various acts of divine judgment the Israelites had witnessed.

[11:2]  ⁶ tn The words “which revealed” have been supplied in the translation to show the logical relationship between the terms that follow and the divine judgments. In the Hebrew text the former are in apposition to the latter.

[11:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “his strong hand and his stretched-out arm.”

[1:32]  ⁸ tn Heb “turning away” (so KJV). The term מְשׁוּבַת (mÿshuvat, “turning away”) refers to moral defection and apostasy (BDB 1000 s.v.; cf. ASV “backsliding”). The noun מְשׁוּבַת (“turning away”) which appears at the end of Wisdom’s speech in 1:32 is from the same root as the verb תָּשׁוּבוּ (tashuvu, “turn!”) which appears at the beginning of this speech in 1:23. This repetition of the root שׁוּב (shuv, “to turn”) creates a wordplay: Because fools refuse to “turn to” wisdom (1:23), they will be destroyed by their “turning away” from wisdom (1:32). The wordplay highlights the poetic justice of their judgment. But here they have never embraced the teaching in the first place; so it means turning from the advice as opposed to turning to it.

[1:32]  ⁹ sn The Hebrew verb “to kill” (הָרַג, harag) is the end of the naive who refuse to change. The word is broad enough to include murder, massacre, killing in battle, and execution. Here it is judicial execution by God, using their own foolish choices as the means to ruin.

[1:32]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “complacency” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); NAB “smugness.” The noun שַׁלְוַה (shalvah) means (1) positively: “quietness; peace; ease” and (2) negatively: “self-sufficiency; complacency; careless security” (BDB 1017 s.v.), which is the sense here. It is “repose gained by ignoring or neglecting the serious responsibilities of life” (C. H. Toy, Proverbs [ICC], 29).

[14:14]  ¹¹ tn Heb “a turning away of heart.” The genitive לֵב (lev, “heart”) functions as an attributive adjective: “a backslidden heart.” The term סוּג (sug) means “to move away; to move backwards; to depart; to backslide” (BDB 690 s.v. I סוּג). This individual is the one who backslides, that is, who departs from the path of righteousness.

[14:14]  ¹² tn Heb “will be filled”; cf. KJV, ASV. The verb (“to be filled, to be satisfied”) here means “to be repaid,” that is, to partake in his own evil ways. His faithlessness will come back to haunt him.

[14:14]  ¹³ tn The phrase “will be rewarded” does not appear in the Hebrew but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity and smoothness.

[14:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “fear of the Lord.” The term יְהוָה (yÿhvah, “the Lord”) functions as an objective genitive.

[14:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “crooked of ways”; NRSV “devious in conduct.” This construct phrase features a genitive of specification: “crooked in reference to his ways.” The term “ways” is an idiom for moral conduct. The evidence that people fear the Lord is uprightness; the evidence of those who despise him is the devious ways.

[4:4]  ¹⁶ tn The imperative with the vav expresses volitional sequence after the preceding imperative: “keep and then you will live,” meaning “keep so that you may live.”

[3:12]  ¹⁷ tn Or “take care.”

[3:12]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 2:11.

[3:12]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “that there not be in any of you.”

[3:12]  ²⁰ tn Or “deserts,” “rebels against.”

[3:12]  ²¹ tn Grk “in forsaking the living God.”