Discovery BoxEcclesiastes 9:5-6
Context9:5 For the living know that they will die, but the dead do not know anything;
they have no further reward – and even the memory of them disappears. 1
9:6 What they loved, 2 as well as what they hated 3 and envied, 4 perished long ago,
and they no longer have a part in anything that happens on earth. 5
Ecclesiastes 11:3
Context11:3 If the clouds are full of rain, they will empty themselves on the earth,
and whether a tree falls to the south or to the north, the tree will lie wherever it falls.
Job 14:7-12
Context14:7 “But there is hope for 6 a tree: 7
If it is cut down, it will sprout again,
and its new shoots will not fail.
14:8 Although its roots may grow old 8 in the ground
and its stump begins to die 9 in the soil, 10
14:9 at the scent 11 of water it will flourish 12
and put forth 13 shoots like a new plant.
14:10 But man 14 dies and is powerless; 15
he expires – and where is he? 16
14:11 As 17 water disappears from the sea, 18
or a river drains away and dries up,
14:12 so man lies down and does not rise;
until the heavens are no more, 19
they 20 will not awake
nor arise from their sleep.
Psalms 6:5
Context6:5 For no one remembers you in the realm of death, 21
In Sheol who gives you thanks? 22
Psalms 88:10-12
Context88:10 Do you accomplish amazing things for the dead?
Do the departed spirits 23 rise up and give you thanks? (Selah)
88:11 Is your loyal love proclaimed in the grave,
or your faithfulness in the place of the dead? 24
88:12 Are your amazing deeds experienced 25 in the dark region, 26
or your deliverance in the land of oblivion? 27
Isaiah 38:18-19
Context38:18 Indeed 28 Sheol does not give you thanks;
death does not 29 praise you.
Those who descend into the pit do not anticipate your faithfulness.
38:19 The living person, the living person, he gives you thanks,
as I do today.
A father tells his sons about your faithfulness.
John 9:4
Context9:4 We must perform the deeds 30 of the one who sent me 31 as long as 32 it is daytime. Night is coming when no one can work.
Acts 20:25-31
Context20:25 “And now 33 I know that none 34 of you among whom I went around proclaiming the kingdom 35 will see me 36 again. 20:26 Therefore I declare 37 to you today that I am innocent 38 of the blood of you all. 39 20:27 For I did not hold back from 40 announcing 41 to you the whole purpose 42 of God. 20:28 Watch out for 43 yourselves and for all the flock of which 44 the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, 45 to shepherd the church of God 46 that he obtained 47 with the blood of his own Son. 48 20:29 I know that after I am gone 49 fierce wolves 50 will come in among you, not sparing the flock. 20:30 Even from among your own group 51 men 52 will arise, teaching perversions of the truth 53 to draw the disciples away after them. 20:31 Therefore be alert, 54 remembering that night and day for three years I did not stop warning 55 each one of you with tears.
[9:5] 1 tn Heb “for their memory is forgotten.” The pronominal suffix is an objective genitive, “memory of them.”
[9:6] 3 tn Heb “their hatred.”
[9:6] 5 tn Heb “under the sun.”
[14:7] 6 tn The genitive after the construct is one of advantage – it is hope for the tree.
[14:7] 7 sn The figure now changes to a tree for the discussion of the finality of death. At least the tree will sprout again when it is cut down. Why, Job wonders, should what has been granted to the tree not also be granted to humans?
[14:8] 8 tn The Hiphil of זָקַן (zaqan, “to be old”) is here an internal causative, “to grow old.”
[14:8] 9 tn The Hiphil is here classified as an inchoative Hiphil (see GKC 145 §53.e), for the tree only begins to die. In other words, it appears to be dead, but actually is not completely dead.
[14:8] 10 tn The LXX translates “dust” [soil] with “rock,” probably in light of the earlier illustration of the tree growing in the rocks.
[14:9] 11 tn The personification adds to the comparison with people – the tree is credited with the sense of smell to detect the water.
[14:9] 12 tn The sense of “flourish” for this verb is found in Ps 92:12,13[13,14], and Prov 14:11. It makes an appropriate parallel with “bring forth boughs” in the second half.
[14:9] 13 tn Heb “and will make.”
[14:10] 14 tn There are two words for “man” in this verse. The first (גֶּבֶר, gever) can indicate a “strong” or “mature man” or “mighty man,” the hero; and the second (אָדָם, ’adam) simply designates the person as mortal.
[14:10] 15 tn The word חָלַשׁ (khalash) in Aramaic and Syriac means “to be weak” (interestingly, the Syriac OT translated חָלַשׁ [khalash] with “fade away” here). The derived noun “the weak” would be in direct contrast to “the mighty man.” In the transitive sense the verb means “to weaken; to defeat” (Exod 17:13); here it may have the sense of “be lifeless, unconscious, inanimate” (cf. E. Dhorme, Job, 199). Many commentators emend the text to יַחֲלֹף (yakhalof, “passes on; passes away”). A. Guillaume tries to argue that the form is a variant of the other, the letters שׁ (shin) and פ (pe) being interchangeable (“The Use of halas in Exod 17:13, Isa 14:12, and Job 14:10,” JTS 14 [1963]: 91-92). G. R. Driver connected it to Arabic halasa, “carry off suddenly” (“The Resurrection of Marine and Terrestrial Creatures,” JSS 7 [1962]: 12-22). But the basic idea of “be weak, powerless” is satisfactory in the text. H. H. Rowley (Job [NCBC], 105) says, “Where words are so carefully chosen, it is gratuitous to substitute less expressive words as some editors do.”
[14:10] 16 tn This break to a question adds a startling touch to the whole verse. The obvious meaning is that he is gone. The LXX weakens it: “and is no more.”
[14:11] 17 tn The comparative clause may be signaled simply by the context, especially when facts of a moral nature are compared with the physical world (see GKC 499 §161.a).
[14:11] 18 tn The Hebrew word יָם (yam) can mean “sea” or “lake.”
[14:12] 19 tc The Hebrew construction is “until not,” which is unusual if not impossible; it is found in only one other type of context. In its six other occurrences (Num 21:35; Deut 3:3; Josh 8:22; 10:33; 11:8; 2 Kgs 10:11) the context refers to the absence of survivors. Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, Syriac, and Vulgate all have “till the heavens wear out.” Most would emend the text just slightly from עַד־בִּלְתִּי (’ad-bilti, “are no more”) to עַד בְּלוֹת (’ad bÿlot, “until the wearing out of,” see Ps 102:26 [27]; Isa 51:6). Gray rejects emendation here, finding the unusual form of the MT in its favor. Orlinsky (p. 57) finds a cognate Arabic word meaning “will not awake” and translates it “so long as the heavens are not rent asunder” (H. M. Orlinsky, “The Hebrew and Greek Texts of Job 14:12,” JQR 28 [1937/38]: 57-68). He then deletes the last line of the verse as a later gloss.
[14:12] 20 tn The verb is plural because the subject, אִישׁ (’ish), is viewed as a collective: “mankind.” The verb means “to wake up; to awake”; another root, קוּץ (quts, “to split open”) cognate to Arabic qada and Akkadian kasu, was put forward by H. M. Orlinsky (“The Hebrew and Greek Texts of Job 14:12,” JQR 28 [1937-38]: 57-68) and G. R. Driver (“Problems in the Hebrew Text of Job,” VTSup 3 [1955]: 72-93).
[6:5] 21 tn Heb “for there is not in death your remembrance.” The Hebrew noun זֵכֶר (zekher, “remembrance”) here refers to the name of the Lord as invoked in liturgy and praise. Cf. Pss 30:4; 97:12. “Death” here refers to the realm of death where the dead reside. See the reference to Sheol in the next line.
[6:5] 22 tn The rhetorical question anticipates the answer, “no one.”
[88:10] 23 tn Heb “Rephaim,” a term that refers to those who occupy the land of the dead (see Isa 14:9; 26:14, 19).
[88:11] 24 tn Heb “in Abaddon,” a name for Sheol. The noun is derived from a verbal root meaning “to perish,” “to die.”
[88:12] 26 tn Heb “darkness,” here a title for Sheol.
[88:12] 27 tn Heb “forgetfulness.” The noun, which occurs only here in the OT, is derived from a verbal root meaning “to forget.”
[38:18] 28 tn Or “For” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).
[38:18] 29 tn The negative particle is understood by ellipsis in this line. See GKC 483 §152.z.
[9:4] 30 tn Grk “We must work the works.”
[9:4] 31 tn Or “of him who sent me” (God).
[20:25] 33 tn Grk “And now, behold.” Here ἰδού (idou) has not been translated.
[20:25] 34 tn Grk “all of you…will not see.” Greek handles its negation somewhat differently from English, and the translation follows English grammatical conventions.
[20:25] 35 sn Note how Paul’s usage of the expression proclaiming the kingdom is associated with (and intertwined with) his testifying to the good news of God’s grace in v. 24. For Paul the two concepts were interrelated.
[20:25] 36 tn Grk “will see my face” (an idiom for seeing someone in person).
[20:26] 38 tn Grk “clean, pure,” thus “guiltless” (BDAG 489 s.v. καθαρός 3.a).
[20:26] 39 tn That is, “that if any of you should be lost, I am not responsible” (an idiom). According to L&N 33.223, the meaning of the phrase “that I am innocent of the blood of all of you” is “that if any of you should be lost, I am not responsible.” However, due to the length of this phrase and its familiarity to many modern English readers, the translation was kept closer to formal equivalence in this case. The word “you” is not in the Greek text, but is implied; Paul is addressing the Ephesian congregation (in the person of its elders) in both v. 25 and 27.
[20:27] 40 tn Or “did not avoid.” BDAG 1041 s.v. ὑποστέλλω 2.b has “shrink from, avoid implying fear…οὐ γὰρ ὑπεστειλάμην τοῦ μὴ ἀναγγεῖλαι I did not shrink from proclaiming Ac 20:27”; L&N 13.160 has “to hold oneself back from doing something, with the implication of some fearful concern – ‘to hold back from, to shrink from, to avoid’…‘for I have not held back from announcing to you the whole purpose of God’ Ac 20:27.”
[20:27] 41 tn Or “proclaiming,” “declaring.”
[20:28] 43 tn Or “Be on your guard for” (cf. v. 29). Paul completed his responsibility to the Ephesians with this warning.
[20:28] 45 tn Or “guardians.” BDAG 379-80 s.v. ἐπίσκοπος 2 states, “The term was taken over in Christian communities in ref. to one who served as overseer or supervisor, with special interest in guarding the apostolic tradition…Ac 20:28.” This functional term describes the role of the elders (see v. 17). They were to guard and shepherd the congregation.
[20:28] 46 tc The reading “of God” (τοῦ θεοῦ, tou qeou) is found in א B 614 1175 1505 al vg sy; other witnesses have “of the Lord” (τοῦ κυρίου, tou kuriou) here (so Ì74 A C* D E Ψ 33 1739 al co), while the majority of the later minuscule
[20:28] 48 tn Or “with his own blood”; Grk “with the blood of his own.” The genitive construction could be taken in two ways: (1) as an attributive genitive (second attributive position) meaning “his own blood”; or (2) as a possessive genitive, “with the blood of his own.” In this case the referent is the Son, and the referent has been specified in the translation for clarity. See further C. F. DeVine, “The Blood of God,” CBQ 9 (1947): 381-408.
[20:29] 49 tn Grk “after my departure.”
[20:29] 50 tn That is, people like fierce wolves. See BDAG 167-68 s.v. βαρύς 4 on the term translated “fierce.” The battle that will follow would be a savage one.
[20:30] 51 tn Grk “from among yourselves.”
[20:30] 52 tn The Greek term here is ἀνήρ (anhr), which only rarely is used in a generic sense to refer to both males and females. Since Paul is speaking to the Ephesian elders at this point and there is nothing in the context to suggest women were included in that group (“from among your own group”), it is most likely Paul was not predicting that these false teachers would include women.
[20:30] 53 tn Grk “speaking crooked things”; BDAG 237 s.v. διαστρέφω 2 has “λαλεῖν διεστραμμένα teach perversions (of the truth) Ac 20:30.”
